Dear Prospective US Kempo Team Member,         1 Jan 2010

    I am writing on behalf of The United States Kempo Team, and the Board of Directors of the International Kempo Federation (IKF), I am the  Pan-American Director.  The IKF promotes all Kempo/Kenpo styles around the world through Regional, National and International competitions. The United States Kempo Team is the official representative team of the USA.

   I have the privilege of being the 2010Team Leader for the US Kempo Team.  The Team has had successful teams at each of the previous five World Championships, in 2003, 2005, 2007, 2008, and 2009.  I also had the pleasure of organizing the “USA vs. Romania” Full-contact Exhibitions in April of 2006, here in West Virginia and Hagerstown, Maryland. 

     I would like the opportunity to talk to you about being a part of the 2010 US Kempo Team.   I hope you will consider being a part of the 2010 US Kempo Team.  Please consider this letter as a personal invitation from me.

   I am searching for individuals, dojos, small and large Kai and other organizations that may be interested in participating in this 2010 US Kempo Team.  The team is open to any Kempo/Kenpo student or instructor who may practice any form of Kempo/Kenpo.  Japanese, Chinese, Okinawan, Hawaiian, Shorinji, American, Ed Parker Style, Kajukenbo, or any other system that has a Kempo or Kenpo base or derivative is welcome. 

   Those who are from other styles, but are interested in the Sport Kempo Fighting divisions, are eligible for a place on the US Team, provided they can fight under our rules in kickboxing, MMA style full-contact Kempo, and submission fighting, and have the skills necessary to compete against some of the best Kempo Fighters in the world.  Since the IKF promotes all Kempo/Kenpo styles, everyone is welcome.  Our goal is to get a cross-section of all styles of Traditional Kempo players, as well as those interested in the Sport Kempo fighting, so the world can see the high quality of Kempo in the USA.

   As we now prepare for the 2010 WKC Tournament we need to form a high calibre team in preparation for the excellent quality of the European, Russian, Middle Eastern, and Asian competitors.

   There are several categories in which players may compete: Semi-contact Fighting, Full-contact fighting, Forms, Weapon forms, Empty-hand Self-defense, Weapon Self-defense, Weapon fighting. The tournament is a Black Belt only competition; however, anyone can compete as long as they realize there is only one rank division.  There is no separation of rank in the tournament.  However, several of my blue, green, and brown belts won 1^st, 2^nd and 3^rd place medals in the WKC in 2005, 2008, and 2009.  One of my teen white belts won 3 Bronze medals in his fighting categories in 2008.

Full-contact and Semi-contact fighting divsions

There are 5 types of empty hand

Sport Kempo Fighting Divisions and 

   1 type of Weapons Fighting:

(the full set of rules may be obtained by visiting the IKF website:  www.ikfkempo.com

• “K-1 Kempo” Full-contact Kick Boxing, full-contact kickboxing with 8 oz boxing gloves. No grappling, throws, or takedowns allowed. Stand-up fighting only.  Knees strikes to the body are allowed during a clinch, and leg kicks are allowed.

• “Mixed Kempo” Full-contact Kick Boxing, full-contact kick boxing, with 8 oz boxing gloves.  Grappling is allowed, with throws, takedowns, and submissions.  No striking while on ground, submissions only.  Leg kicks are allowed, knees in clinch allowed.

• “Knockdown Kempo” Bare Knuckle Full-contact Kickboxing, this is full contact fighting, without gloves (grappling gloves are sometimes used in various jurisdictions) no striking to the face with the hand, fist, elbow or knee, only round style kicking to the head. Knees and elbows are allowed to the body and legs only in a clinch, throws, takedowns and full grappling allowed as well as ground fighting (punches, knees, and elbows to the body while maintaining 3 points of contact with the floor while your opponent is also on the floor.)

• “Submission Kempo”,grappling only, no striking or kicking.  Submissions, chokes, locks, holds, grappling. Start standing, throws, takedowns, and submissions.

• “Semi-contact Kempo”, Light Touch point, similar to regular tournaments in the US, but perhaps a bit more contact. 

• “Full-contact Weapons Fighting”, full-contact fighting with a variety of padded weapons.  Fighters wear protective helmet and use their choice of padded weapons.

Weight classes are divided every 5 kg. 

The weight classes are critical for keeping fighters matched up as equally as possible.  From about 50 kg to 95 and over kg. 

Age divisions are as follows:

Male and Female fighters are separated.

1. 12 & 13 year olds
2. 14 & 15 year olds
3. 16 and 17 year olds
4. 18 – 19 year olds
5. 20 - 35 year olds
6. 36 and over Masters

We are allowed 2 fighters in each weight, class/age,  class/type of fighting category, occasionally they allow a 3^rd fighter from each country in each division so there are plenty of opportunities for members to participate.  The younger fighters are only allowed to do the semi-contact and grappling.  Full-contact and knockdown are reserved for the older teenagers and the adults. 

 Traditional divisions: 

There are also other divisions: same age divisions as the fighting.

• Traditional Kata – Male and Female, Solo and 3 person synchronized
  

•  Traditional Weapon Kata – Male and Female, Solo and 3 person synchronized
  

• Self-defense Division, (both Empty Hand and Weapon divisions) 

1. Small Team, Small Team is 1 defender against either 1 attacker.
2. Large Team. Large Team is 1 defender against 3 attackers. 
3. The “Team” must perform - 4 - “self-defense” scenarios that are similar in nature to one-steps.  They are looking for stuff that are “street fight” movements and ideas presented in a realistic but formalized manner.  The “Team” presents the scenario in slow motion, then at full-speed.  One routine after the other, first slow, then fast.  Time limit is 3-4 minutes.  It is very exciting and interesting to watch. 

• In the Kata and Weapon Kata are also separated by age male/female. We are allowed 3 players per age/sex category, and 3 Teams in the Synchrinized Kata divisions.

   It looks as though the 2010 WKC tournament will be a very grand affair and is scheduled for Nice, France in late October 2010.  My goal is to field a US Team of 50 or more competitors. The Europeans finished their European Kempo Championship Oct. 2006 in Slovakia, with over 370 competitors from 20 countries.  The 2007 World Kempo Championship was held in Budapest, Hungary in May 2007 and had 483 competitors from 28 countries.  The 2008 WKC in Faro, Portugal had 588 competitors, the 2009 WKC in bucharest, Romania was the largest so far and was a very grand affair.  Consistently, the Romanian and Hungarian teams have 50 to 75 competitors or more each.  In 2003 the Romanian Team was 114 strong, while Hungary had over 50. The 2007 Hungarian Team had almost 100 members and the Romanians were close behind with 75 members. The USA needs to build large, strong teams to compete on the same level as our european counterparts.

   We will also need coaches and trainers to assist the athletes, photographers and videographers to record our work.  So this is a large endeavor that will need a lot of coordination between the various Kempo schools, groups, organizations and associations that will be affiliated. 

   The USA needs to really take charge of the competition in a big wayto put us on the map  We did very well in the last five WKC’s, but our teams were relatively small with 11 competitors in 2003, 7 in 2005, and due to injuries and other complications, only 4 in 2007. 

   Even with 11 members in 2003 the US Team managed to take 3^rd place in overall medals, only Romania (114 members) and Hungary (55 members) beat us out. 

   In 2008, in Faro, Portugal, the US Kempo Team had 6 members and we won the 3^rd Place Overall Team Cup again, against the 1^st place Romanian team, who had 60 members, and the 2^nd place Portuguese team, with 45 members, the US Kempo Team had only 6 members!

   Our 2009 Team had only 8 members and we took the 2nd Place Overall Team Cup and the 3rd Place Overall Traditional Events Team Cup, our best showing to date.  The only team to beat uswere the host Romanian team with over 50 team members.

   We are currently working on sponsorships locally and nationally to help defray the travel costs associated with the WKC 2010.  Airfare, hotel, food, misc. travel, etc, are all being factored into the equation.  Everyone who has been associated with the US Team in the past four World Championships has paid their own way and expenses.  We are hoping to reduce or eliminate that problem. We encourage everyone to work with helping raise sponsorships for him or her individually, and the team as a whole. 

  I hope to hear from you soon.  You may call me at my school anytime between 3:30 pm and 9pm EST Monday through Friday at 304-725-3639, or on my cell phone 304-261-0160, or at home 304-728-7216. 

   Feel free to give my phone numbers out to others who you feel would be interested and to make copies of the rules for who ever needs them.  My email and dojo mailing address are on the "contact page", so please feel free to contact me for any reason. 

   Thank you.

   Sincerely,

   Robert E. Zingg

   Zingg’s Karate Center

   Team Leader of the US Kempo Team

   Pan-American Director of the International Kempo Federation

   The American Kempo-Karate Association – Director of Foreign Relations

 

1. Complete Name

2. Age, DOB,

3. Gender

4. Height, Weight

5. Rank, Experience level

6. Kempo training history

7. Categories in which you would like to compete, see under: Services -  Types of  Competitions.

8. Compelling biography or introduction.

9. Detailed contact info.

10. Please send to:           info@uskempoteam.com

11. Any hard copy or video/dvd of your abilities may be mailed to:

The US Kempo Team

111 W. 2nd Ave, Suite B

Ranson, WV 25438

 ATTN: Robert Zingg                         Team Tryouts 

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Thank you.

Still have questions? Please contact us anytime! We look forward to hearing from you.

uskempoteam@yahoo.com