kempoinfo.com

Combination 87

matt — Tue, 30 Jun 2026 16:04:23 +0000

This combination felt familiar. It’s reminiscent of Professor Kimo Ferreira’s technique ‘Parting Wings’ from Kempo-jutsu. The combination is a bit more elaborate, but was fun. The ending as written was a bit more dramatic, but we felt a punch after a neck break was a bit much. Thanks to Jesse Dwire for the submission.

Combination 98

matt — Sat, 27 Jun 2026 22:36:36 +0000

The 90s were great. Grunge, the early days of the internet, and no cell phones. These 90s? You’ll have to make up your own mind. This combination came courtesy of GM Tim Wakefield, but I paraphrased his document to match the style of the site. So, if there’s an error, that’s definitely where it might have come in, but I don’t think there is. Thanks again to Chris Hatch, without whom this project would have been dead in the water. It’s been great getting together and picking each others’ brains to turn words on a page into movement.

Baby Crescent – Combination 81

matt — Fri, 26 Jun 2026 03:36:48 +0000

I thought I had posted this one already. This combination has a fairly nice flow, and has a nice Kote Gaeshi style takedown. Chris and I have been giving the combinations nicknames to help us remember which is which, and the description included the term ‘baby crescent’ which really stood out to us. Be careful practicing this one at speed – the wrist lock is a takedown, but in practical application against someone without ukemi skills, it’s a wrist break. The lock with the feet combined with the rotation tends to provide a wrist, elbow and shoulder lock.

Right in front of our faces, Combination 97

matt — Thu, 25 Jun 2026 21:11:14 +0000

The same seminar that gave us 96, also gives us 97. Chris and I had reverse engineered it, but why not see it from the man himself. I thought the writeup was not the most likely as it was so much shorter and simpler than usual. In the linked video, you can see GM Fred Villari perform it, and afterwards literally says ‘that’s 97’. The technique appears 21 seconds into the video, and the link should take you right to that point.

Combination 108

matt — Thu, 25 Jun 2026 03:36:21 +0000

Description from  Rob Johnson of Bolton Martial Arts Club

My friend Chris and I have been training diligently to transform the combinations to an understandable format. We came out swinging with combination 108. We had some debates based on whether it was best to have the initial right strike be followed by a second right strike, but decided to run it as written. In some of the future videos we are going to adjust the technique. Some writeups may have had typos, I may have transcribed or paraphrased the technique incorrectly, or for some other reason the technique just didn’t work as written. Let me know I’m doing it wrong by sending me a video of you doing it right. (I know the beginning is a repeat of the teaser trailer, but it seemed to make sense in case someone didn’t bother to see it.)

Not to steal my own thunder, Combination 96

matt — Mon, 22 Jun 2026 02:54:00 +0000

In this Tiger/Crane seminar, Fred Villari appears to be teaching combination 96. In fact, if you watch the whole video, he seems to be workshopping many of the high 90’s.

A new Beginning

matt — Mon, 22 Jun 2026 01:25:20 +0000

It’s been over 20 years for the site. It’s been 20 years of the technique archive. We’ve reached a plateau – over the last few years only a few new combination videos have come in. We’ve taken matters into our own hands. My friend Chris Hatch and I have spent the last many months reverse engineering the higher level combinations from the written descriptions that we have. We’re going to record them and upload them as we feel they are ready to populate the archive. Stay tuned for some new content! By the way, if you want to critique them, feel free to send in a video on how to do it the right way.

Early Kempo History

matt — Wed, 17 Jun 2026 02:38:02 +0000

The Social Gelo podcast does some long form discussions about Kajukenbo, but this one is particularly relevant to Kempo history as it includes Walter Godin, Sonny Gascon and the early days in California.

Stop the Second Punch

matt — Thu, 23 Apr 2026 04:15:08 +0000

Often when I’m teaching techniques, I’ll suggest them as problem solving devices. There usually is a ‘to-do’ list starting with not getting hit. Often technique training is done with a single step-through front punch, which is an unrealistic scenario. I happily stumbled across a video by my friend Marlon Wilson that addresses a problem I was teaching this week – stopping the second punch.

Remembering Professor Kimo

matt — Fri, 21 Nov 2025 02:10:09 +0000

Kimo Ferreira was a force of nature, and a fountain of historical knowledge. It’s been a couple of years, but the void remains. I’ll continue to dig into the history, and to develop the art I was given. I’m still plugging away, hopefully making progress.