Kung Fu & MMA (Kajukenbo)
This is the primary martial art taught at Tactical Kung Fu and MMA. It is based on the Wun Hop Kuen Do style of Kajukenbo with hints of Kempo Jutsu, Xiao Zhang Kung Fu and various Filipino styles. All of that is a fancy way of saying that it consists of like 10 different martial arts. It is a true mixed martial art and is based on Kajukenbo which is America's first mixed martial art. It was a mixed martial art before Bruce Lee and the sport of MMA. The idea was to cover every range of combat and every situation in an effort to make you the best you possible. It covers self-defense, sports, and fitness. The teaching method was developed by Sifu Mike after having spent over 10,800 hours teaching both kids and adults. He also used his Economics degree to analyze, organize, and simplify the art he had in order to make it more efficient thus easier to learn. The ranking system starts with yellow and ends with black. The rank represents ones level of knowledge within the school. The likelihood of another school having the exact same requirements at each rank is very low. The explanations and graphs below are the guidelines and themes for each rank.
Starting with range, as you increase in rank, the range gets smaller. It follows the progression of a street fight. Starting out, you want to do what you can avoid the fight, especially if you've got very little to no martial arts experience. You can't be hit by a punch if you are not there when it's thrown. As you learn more, you can better handle closer situations.
From there, it addresses Simplicity. The basic idea is that each rank is a more complex version of the previous rank. If you start out knowing nothing, then it will be easier to lean something simple rather than something complex. You won't do very well building a table if you are still learning to hammer a nail. It's getting the basics of the basics. From a self-defense standpoint, you want simple techniques that require little thought. This is important if you are just starting out and haven't done certain techniques 10,000 times. Crawl before you walk and walk before you run.
Within that context, techniques are divided up based on there primary use. Specifically, whether they are better for self-defense or sport. One starts out with self-defense and then moves closer into sports. Ideal self-defense techniques would be simple and of longer range. In sports, you want to control the range and close distance. Techniques can be more complex since they are often performed in situations that aren't life or death and last for a significant amount of time. Almost all techniques are useful in the correct context.
The last thing addressed is the overall lethality of the techniques within each rank. This topic is tricky because it can be somewhat subjective. Often the destructive force of a technique is determined by its result. So theoretically, a technique from any rank can be lethal in the right situation or context. Certain techniques can have multiple results. In this case, techniques with a singular, often extreme or lethal, result are grouped together and dividend by rank. Examples of these techniques include stabbing, breaking bones, and cutting off oxygen to the brain. The belief is that you can't accurately defend against something if you don't know what that something is. Following that logic, as you move up in rank, you learn more lethal techniques so that you can better defend against a more lethal attack.
