Tracy Kenpo

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Tracy Kenpo is an American Kenpo martial arts style with historical roots back to William Chow and James Mitose. Kenpo was an unarmed fighting style that came to Japan from China around the twelfth century. Kenpo continued to evolve separately in both countries over the centuries. The Kenpo style explained here derives from the Japanese branch, brought to America by James Mitose^[1]. After the attack on Pearl Harbor, Mitose began to teach Kenpo Jiu Jitsu, as he termed it, more openly and to students outside the Japanese community. A student, William Chow, opened a studio and taught his own style, termed Kenpo Karate, which is the school that Ed Parker and his students, the Tracy brothers, hail from.

Tracy Kenpo was founded by the Tracy Brothers, Al and Jim. The Tracys began their martial arts training in fencing, boxing, and wrestling. They embarked on their study of Kenpo with Ed Parker and his first black belt student, James Ibrao, in 1957, while attending college as pre-law students.^{[citation needed]} Over time they developed a close relationship with Parker, and soon afterwards, Parker turned the teaching of all beginner and intermediate classes over to the Tracys.^{[citation needed]} They would develop an order in which the techniques would be taught and the advanced classes were run by Ibrao, the Tracys would also run Parker’s studio when he would periodically return to Hawaii.

There has been controversy as to whether or not Al and Jim Tracy received their Black Belts (Shodan) from Ed Parker, in the Family Tree listed in the original "Infinite Insights", by Ed Parker, Al and Jim Tracy are listed as Black Belts under Ed Parker, first generation.^{[citation needed]} They also have the largest number of Black Belts listed under their tree.^{[citation needed]} Al Tracy was the fifth person promoted to ^[2] January 2,1962. Certificate dated January 7, 1962. Jim Tracy was the sixth person promoted to Black Belt (Shodan) January 2,1962. Certificate dated January 7, 1962. Will Tracy received his Black Belt (Shodan) in 1961, under both William K.S. Chow and Fusae Oshita (James Mitose’s sister).^{[citation needed]}

[edit] Opening Their Studios and Systematizing Their Style

In the spring of 1962, the Tracy brothers opened their first studio in San Francisco, named Kenpo Karate Studio. The northern branch of Ed Parker’s organization, it was there that the Tracy brothers created the three new Kyu ranks and the Kenpo "colored belt system"^[3]. They sorted the techniques into groups of 40s and divided the white belt into four levels instead of two. There would be two katas per belt. The color system for belts was due in part to the availability of belts from Japanese distributors.

As humorously recalled on their website, "But what would we use as the 4th color? Our suppliers from Japan contacted us with a offer for 'orange' belts that had came about as a mistake in the dying process. Originally we would never have considered an "Orange" belt.- Back then we were all pretty 'macho' - and what adult male would wear an Orange Belt? As fate would have it, they offered us such low price on over 1000 orange belts we could not turn it down."^[4]

Ultimately, the colored belt system became:Orange Belt - Shichikyu; Purple Belt - Rokkyu; Blue Belt - Gokyu; Green Belt - Yonkyu. Later, the Tracys added a Yellow Belt - Hachikyu - as a Youth Belt, with 10 self defense techniques as opposed to 40 for other belts. Ed Parker rejected the colored belts until finally converting to the Tracy color belt system in 1966. The Tracy brothers also created belt manuals (which contained 40 techniques per belt at that time) and gave the techniques names, like Attacking Circle, Raising the Staff, etc.

The Tracy brothers opened a second school, in Sacramento in 1962, and a third, in San Jose, California, in 1963. They later changed the name of the schools to Tracy’s Kenpo Karate. Ed Parker turned the Kenpo Karate Association of America (KKAA) over to the Tracy brothers and then formed the International Kenpo Karate Association (IKKA). The Tracy brothers agreed to join the IKKA, on the condition that they could keep the teaching standards of the KKAA for their own students.

Ed Parker promoted Al Tracy to 3rd Degree Black Belt on December 4, 1964.^[5] The certificate is from the IKKA and is signed by Ed Parker, Mills Crenshaw, Stan Hall, and Charles Sullivan, and witnessed by Charlotte Connor, the wife of Tom Connor.

The Tracy brothers later opened more schools throughout California and other states, forming the Tracy’s International Studios of Self-Defense. By 1982, Ed Parker had changed what he called American Kenpo, so much so as to make it in Parker’s own words, "no more than 10% Kenpo." It was around this time that the Tracys completely broke from Ed Parker.^{[citation needed]}

Tracy's Kenpo Karate today teaches "Original/Traditional" Kenpo, as taught to Al and Jim Tracy by Ed Parker, and is considered one of the most realistic combat scenario based systems of self-defense available. Al Tracy and Ted Sumner, a senior black belt in the organization, have spent many years and considerable resources researching the history of the kenpo system, tracing its roots from the Yoshida family of Japan to its present western incarnations. Tracy’s International Studios of Self Defense[1] is a worldwide organization of over 1,000 schools, based out of Lexington, Kentucky. It is the largest system of affiliated schools and the longest-running self-defense chain in the world.^{[citation needed]}

In February 1999, Al Tracy organized the “Gathering of Eagles”, the largest gathering of Kenpoists in the world, which took place in Las Vegas, Nevada. The Gathering brought together over seventy masters, representing Kenpo, American Kenpo, Shaolin Kenpo, Wun Hop Kuen Do, Lima Lama, Kajukenbo and included some of the biggest names in Westernized Kenpo. James Ibrao, Thomas Mitose, the son of the late James Mitose, Roger Greene[2] , Ted Sumner, Ray Arquilla, Al Dacascos, Ralph and Rob Castro, William Chun, Jr., Sonny Gascon, Bart Vale, Larry Tatum, Adriano Emperado, Richard Lee, Sig Kufferath, Tino Tuiolosega, John McSweeney all attended. Between 1100-1200 people attended the event, coming from all over the globe, with a choice of five seminars at any one time and eighty overall.

The second Gathering took place in 2001 and was attended by approximately 1500-1600 people. The event also included the son of Choki Motobu, Chosei Motobu, Koshiro Tanaka, Ron Sanchez, Steve Labounty, and Bob White.^{[citation needed]} In June 2007, Tracy's International Studios of Self Defense hosted the 3rd Gathering of Eagles and the inaugural induction ceremony for the International Kenpo Hall of Fame.

In 2006, Al Tracy was featured on the cover of "Art of the Warrior Magazine," under the heading, "Grandmaster Al Tracy, Founder of the world's largest system of kenpo, renowned kenpo historian, business scholar." Black Belt Magazine named Tracy's Kenpo 8th Degree Black Belt and founder of the International Shootfighting Association Bart Vale it's 2006 Full Contact Fighter of the Year. In 2007, Tracy's Kenpo 3rd Degree Black Belt, co-founder of Ki Fighting Concepts, author of several martial arts DVDs, and student of Joseph Simonet, was named Inside Kung Fu Magazine's Woman of the Year.