Progressive Kenpo Systems

I have been going to Europe since the 80's, when Ed Parker asked me if I'd like to accompany him on a seminar visit to the Channel Islands, off the coast of France but which are a part of the United Kingdom.

It was there I met Graham Lelliott, Rainer Schulte, Roy MacDonald, Eddie Downey, Lorcan Carey, Gary Ellis, and many others who are still practicing and teaching. I had actually met Rainer and Gary back in 1982 at the Pasadena school at Internationals time but it was just in passing.

I've seen the European scene change, with associations being born and others dying, and tournaments and camps springing up. But Kenpo is a pretty strong system in Europe, although divided in terms of who belongs to what group. Regardless, they stay connected with the U.S. and there even developed a trend of bringing European instructors to the States for seminars.That's an example of opposite and reverse! And I say, good!

I struck me that one European instructor said to me "You are the only American to come over here and not try to tell us how it's done". And it was at one of the Swedish camps that a group of us gathered in the backyard of Ingmar Johansson's home to discuss techniques and nobody tried to tell the other guy he was wrong although almost everyone did the techniques differently. It was great.

As time went by and some of these same people fell out of whatever association they were in, it was decided to group ourselves by lineage instead of association. Graham Lelliott, Gary Ellis, Ingmar Johansson, and myself aligned ourselves as the PKS. "Progressive" because we all do things differently and have valuable components to add to the training to keep ourselves and the system from becoming stagnant. "Kenpo" because we have not altered the original concepts and principles and still teach the Parker "System". We added the "s" to system because it's plural, and it indicates the variety of ways we do the same system, which would be a "style", according to Mr. Parker.

It is not an association you can send money to and join. You cannot be designated as a state, region, or national representative. You must be in our lineage, and you must be training. You cannot receive a PKS diploma, because they don't exist. Your certification come from your teacher, not from an association. Your teacher's certificate may have a PKS logo on it but it is not issued by the PKS, it is issued by the person who taught you, the one you gave your loyalty and trust to.

My website, http://www.leewedlake.com/, has a list of PKS schools and clubs in the US. I will expand it to include overseas clubs as well. I am the senior advisor to the PKS. All the other instructors in the PKS are downline from me.

See Gary Ellis's website, http://www.progressivekenposystems.com/ as well. And a thank you to England's Phil Buck for designing the PKS "corporate" logo, the one with the Universal Pattern.