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Frequenty asked Questions about Bucks Kempo |
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Practicing responses to a knife
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What is Aiki-Kempo Jiu-Jitsu?
Kempo
for short, it is a modern mix of a number of ancient arts. Whilst essentially Jiu
Jitsu, it also contains elements of Karate, Kung
Fu, Tai Chi and Shiatsu, including self-defence, internal balance and healing
skills. Kempo is regarded as a “soft” martial art
– which means that is doesn’t require lots of physical strength or involve
regular abrupt physical movements. Is this a self defence class? Yes and no.
What you’ll learn is no substitute for keeping yourself out of harms
way but will teach you practical self defence skills. How fit do I need to be? And will it help make me fit? Normal everday fitness
is enough (i.e. if you can make it from the car park, up the stairs, and into
the dojo or training hall), and yes, Kempo it will help you improve your
personal fitness and health – most people also find that it does a lot to
reduce stress and improve their self-awareness. If you have any ongoing illness or injury,
this shouldn’t be a problem, but please tell your instructor at the beginning
of your first session or if this recurs. Who is the instructor? The instructor (Sensei) is What should I wear? If you have any kind of martial arts suit or “Gi” that’s great – please wear it, but with a white belt
please unless you’ve graded at another Normal footwear in the training room is bare
feet. If there’s a good reason why you
can’t go without footwear, then clean martial arts “mat shoes” or plimsoles are fine – but not shoes that have been worn
outdoors. Finally – ABSOLUTELY NO JEWELLERY. This is for everybody’s protection, Kempo involves movement and
contact and any jewellery can cause injury, most likely to the wearer. Does age matter?
Not really, although for safety and insurance
reasons the minimum age is currently
14. We do occasionally have younger
students, so long as they are big and mature enough to cope with an adult
class. In practice, most students are
aged 30-50 and we are run as an adult club. Is this a class or a club? It is a club, we all pay
the same, and it is here because we all enjoy Kempo. That said, the format, as with almost any
martial arts club, is of a class with a single instructor in charge for each
session. Will I get hurt? We do everything
reasonably possible to avoid anybody getting hurt or injured at Bucks
Kempo. But, being honest the
occasional bruise is probably inevitable. What
does it cost? The first session is free; after that the Are there any extra costs? If you are serious, you’ll
need to buy a gi (Jiu Jitsu suit). These
cost around £15 for junior gis or lightweight
senior gis, and around £30 for heavyweight senior gis, depending upon size.
You’re welcome to buy these anywhere, but we can usually get them for
you cheaper than shop prices. The club has all the
training equipment you should need, although obviously there’s nothing to
stop you buying your own training weapons and so on. We don’t use “live” or sharp weapons in the
dojo. Occasionally we go to
courses or seminars outside the local area; these are never compulsory
(although good fun), and usually inexpensive – rarely more than about £30 for
a weekend, or half that for a day.
Often the traditional Chinese meal afterwards is more expensive! Gradings (the chance to be
promoted to a higher belt) happen about twice per year and cost £10 – if you
pass. Do you mind me training in another martial art as
well? On the contrary, it can
only help – and if you learn anything good, please bring it back and show us. But my instructor says that I shouldn’t learn
another martial art as well as his? Ask yourself, why is he worried
about this? I run another local martial arts club We’d love to hear
from you – let’s see what we can do to help each other out. I am disabled, does this matter? The short answer is that we don’t know. Clearly some disabilities are likely to
preclude this sort of martial arts training – but please phone Guy on
01494-771246 or come and have a chat.
If it’s reasonably possible, then yes we’d love to have you in the
club. Do you have links with Shorinji
Kempo, Kempo Karate, Dillman
Karate…? No, what they do is
probably great, but we have no formal links with them. If a club or instructor isn’t a member of
the British Kempo Society, we have no formal relationship with them. This is just down to the enormous
complexity of the worldwide martial arts community. What weapons work do you do? Weapons work is not the
main part of our Kempo, but we do practice attacks and defences with knives,
single and double sticks, and some use of improvised weapons. Whilst we’re primarily a defensive martial
art, we do teach some offensive techniques, particularly with knives, so that
we under Where and when do you train? The Liberal Club, Do you offer a childrens
class At present, no we
don’t. However, it’s our plan to start
a children’s class, hopefully on Monday from The syllabus does show a
junior syllabus, which was prepared in advance of us getting the juniors class
up and running. The delays are mostly
because we need to ensure that we always have at-least two instructors for a
children’s class – less critical for an adult class. |
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