“To enlighten and evolve through the art of Kenpo” 

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Giving Thanks...

By Bryan Hawkins

The holiday season has traditionally been a time for introspective thought on one’s current position in life’s journey and contemplation on the future concerns for our life and the lives of family and friends. Most importantly though, for myself in particular, the holiday season is to reflect on the previous year’s journey with its many highs and lows and the lessons learned from both. To give thanks that I was fortunate enough to be alive at this time and place in history.

We here at Bryan Hawkins Kenpo Karate and United Kenpo Systems have had a very successful year. We’ve experienced tremendous growth in the physical aspects such as the new location of our Kenpo studio, which with its greater visibility has given us greater exposure to the public, which in turn has brought in many new students to our ranks. We’ve also seen growth on the non-physical or metaphysical side to our art in terms of the continuing evolution of ideas and philosophical aspects of motion as it pertains to aggressive behavior in the physical or non-physical arenas. The gains we have made as a school and as an association could not have been possible without the combined efforts of many friends, students, and students’ families.

I’d like to begin by saying thank you to Steve and Barbara Williams for their assistance at our October Training Camp this year. They were invaluable in the early morning setup and Steve Williams took all the digital pictures of the training sessions that now can be found on our website (www.uks-kenpo.com). The initial build-out of our dojo, one year ago, could not have happened without the knowledge and skill of Mr. George Waite. Mr. Waite acted as the foreman for the project and put in an extraordinary amount of time and effort in the renovation so we could open our doors for business on schedule. The preliminary construction and the work in progress that defines our studio includes an extraordinary list of students putting in their time, including but not limited to: Robert Driscoll, Will Pemberton, Kathy Brown, Mike Barnett, Wayne Gittens, Doug Battersbea, Steve Tapper, Justin Carangi, Gabe and Heather Stern, and Doug Parent.

Our Kenpo studio is indeed unique in a variety of ways when compared to most any other martial arts dojo of any system or style. One of the things that gives us that uniqueness is the number of instructors that we have actively teaching and training on a regular basis. The entire contingent of brown and black belts have helped with instruction this past year, but the following instructors have been given the responsibility of passing on Kenpo through specific classes that they were assigned to, week in and week out: Gurujodha Singh Khalsa, Wes Idol, Steve Gregan, Kathy Brown, Will Pemberton, Doug Parent, Dan Buchanan, Noble Gardner, James West, Paul Burns, Avtar Singh Khalsa, Steve Tapper, and Mike Barnett. To these instructors, I am very grateful for their long hours and hard work.

David and Maria Alden lent assistance in a way that only they could, and I am forever grateful to them.

After going a period of time without heavy bags at BHKK, you’ll notice that they are hanging once again, and we can thank Steve Williams (father of Blake) for that. He not only put them up, but he actually constructed the steel apparatus that the bags hang on. While he was at it, he also made and installed a multipurpose chin-up bar for our more muscle-minded Kenpoists. Our thanks go out to him.

I’d like to say a special thanks to Dian Tanaka for not only being a tremendous help at this year’s All-Kenpo Invitational Tournament, but for giving me counsel on a variety of issues throughout this past year.

The recipient of the special award at our Training Camp this year was Mr. Doug Parent, and rightly so. Mr. Parent has been invaluable as instructor, administrator, and general problem-solver, and I thank him for his dedication.

For the past three years now, Ms. Kathy Brown has been helping more and more with the administrative aspects of BHKK and UKS. This past year she took on a considerably larger amount of responsibilities and thanks to her organizational skills, things are running much more smoothly now than before.

And of course lastly I’d thank to thank my wife Melissa, who as my business partner and confidant has given us success that we, the students of BHKK and the UKS membership, all benefit from.

I’ve always said Kenpo is much more than merely a system of motion, which first and foremost it is, but more importantly, it is a philosophy of motion. Many years ago I, along with the UKS Advisory Board and senior instructors, pledged a strict adherence to the ideal system of motion taught to us by Ed Parker as a learning tool, but at the same time have dedicated ourselves to the continuing evolution of American Kenpo on a philosophical level as it pertains to thought and related action. All these years later, I am proud to say that we have stayed the course.

This past year, as in previous years, I’m pleased to see the evolution of our art, from our senior-most students through some of our brown belts. I have only to watch ten minutes of a class taught by Mr. Liles, Mr. Burks, Mr. Silva, Mr. Sims, or Mr. Ainsley, and I’ve already learned something. It pleases me to see Mr. Khalsa and Mr. Idol continually explore deeper into their particular areas of interest on their individual Kenpo journeys. Mr. Patrick Pace has made a number of discoveries involving the sword with applied Kenpo principles. Mr. Steve Gregan, I believe, has been one of the more interesting instructors to watch develop over the last twelve months. I will continue to watch with great interest all of our students develop on their Kenpo journey, because to a certain degree, their experiences and discoveries guide me on my own journey – Our relationship is a symbiotic one to be sure.

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