Combat Kempo

 

For many years we have “stripped down” techniques to their most basic functional skeleton, and disregarded anything that didn’t address the defense requirements of individual scenarios in the most direct and effective manner. Any time it was assumed by the defender that a certain thing would not be done by an attacker, we immediately introduced that element into the attack scenario.

Whether a stabbing or slashing motion was done with the front or back hand, or whether the attacker punched with the other hand etc, all of these variables were tirelessly explored. Because some attacks are launched at angles that make defending complex, some defenses are more difficult to perform than others, but are still possible if practiced sufficiently. Rather than get bogged down in complicated concepts, the main objectives of our training is to find straight forward, realistic techniques and tactics that will work and are designed to give an average person whether a private citizen or a law enforcement officer the ability to defend themselves, or at the least minimize serious injury during a knife encounter.

Combat Kempo Australia was created in 1994 under the direction of Steve McHugh the late Sensei Tom Slaven’s first graded black belt and chief instructor of his Sydney, Sussex St, Kempo Karate Do training center.

The Combat Kempo style is now represented by its chief instructor Aaron DeSousa. The original intention of forming our system was to focus on the combat practical and effective training tactics that were originally taught and trained in the late sixties and early seventies in Sensei Tom Slaven’s clubs. The training and techniques of the day were more suitable for street fighting and self-preservation in the rougher areas of the urban jungle than dojo or competition style Karate fighting. With most of the sparring being full contact amongst the graded practitioners, teeth and noses were saved from destruction using ad hoc modified protective equipment, mostly from hockey and cannibalized boxing gear simply because nothing else was available.

Nowadays, with all of our combat techniques under constant review, a large part of the focus of our training is to make sure the fighting tactics are up-to-date as well as keeping the system streamlined to ensure that the most useful and street effective moves are congruent in practice with how they should be used in reality.