Unlocking Kenpo: The Hands-to-Center Principle and Kenpo Yellow Belt

At its core, Kenpo is a system based on a centerline flinch response

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S.E.F. Blog

6 min readMar 1, 2024

Kenpo Karate is one of the most comprehensive martial arts for non-wrestling-style combat. It is a street fighting system designed for warfare, not entertainment or sport. The art is constructed based on a sophisticated network of techniques encompassing a complete study of multidimensional combat.

The Kenpo system is arranged in a hierarchy of color-coded belts. Each belt furthers the practitioner’s knowledge and skills and outlines self-defense case studies, principles, and concepts[1].

The first level of obtainment in the Kenpo system is the Yellow Belt. It contains only ten self-defense techniques, whereas the other belts contain 24. Its simplicity seems to cause many to perhaps overlook and rush through its ideas. However, the Yellow Belt outlines the first principle of combative motion.

Hands-to-Center

The core of Kenpo Yellow Belt is a comprehensive solution to the hands-to-center principle. What is the hands-to-center principle?

When faced with an attacker, the hands-to-center principle is when you thrust your hands in the centerline to disrupt the attack. It mirrors a flinch response. The centerline is the line that connects two actors in a fight. If your hands are high, you bring them down. If the hands are low, you bring them up. If your hands are right, you bring them left. If your hands are left, bring them right. The centrifuge of the Kenpo Yellow belt builds on this golden principle of fighting.

For example, imagine standing naturally with your arms dangling to your side. You are faced with a frontal attacker. The attacker is attempting to push you with their right arm. If you bring your hands to the center from this reference point, using the hands-to-center principle, several predictable outcomes will occur:

Probable Outcome 1: when your hands come to the center, they end up outside the opponent’s right arm. This configuration is two hands out.
Probable Outcome 2: when your hands come to the center, they end up inside the opponent’s right arm. This configuration is two hands in.
Probable Outcome 3: When your hands come to the center, there is one hand in and one hand out of the opponent’s right arm. This configuration is one in, one out.

Example of Probable Outcome 1: Two Hands Out

Therefore, based on this example, there are three probable outcomes: two hands out, two hands in, and one hand in and one hand out. See a video on the three possible outcomes of hands-to-center.

Based on this notion, reason would dictate that one needs a tailored response to these three probable outcomes.

There is a term in fighting called “hands kill.” The idea is that hands are the primary instrument of death and destruction and can wield weapons. Therefore, since the hand is an anatomical extension of the arm, Kenpo prioritizes defenses against arm attacks. However, it is essential to note the hands-to-center principle is not limited to arm-based attacks; it can also be applied to the leg.

Probable Outcomes and Tailored Responses — Right-Arm Attack

Of the three probable outcomes of the hands-to-center and against a right-arm attack, the Kenpo Yellow belt system has three representative techniques.

Two hands out = Attacking Mace
Two hands in = Checking the Storm
One hand in and one hand out = Delayed Sword

If learned, practiced, functionalized, and maintained, each technique will give a person a tailored response for the three most probable outcomes against a right-arm attack.

Probable Outcome and Tailored Responses — Left-Arm Attack

What about the left-arm attack? The same notion applies here. The equivalent three probable outcomes exist: two hands out, two hands in, and one hand in and one hand out. There are three more techniques stacked in the Yellow Belt to address these.

Two hands in (left) = Sword of Destruction
Two hands out (left) = Alternating Maces
One hand in and one hand out, from the side (left) = Sword and Hammer

There are three techniques for the right arm and three for the left arm. Therefore, we now get 3x2=6.

Note the subtle anomaly in Sword and Hammer. This technique introduces the notion of 360-degree combat awareness. Not every attack is from the front. The side attack twists the hands-to-center principle into multiple directions and more subtle configurations.

Kenpo Multidimensionalism

Kenpo is a multidimensional system. The six probable outcomes described so far are a spectrum of reference points along the width dimension. However, the material realm in which we live is not unidimensional. There is depth, width, and height. How is height represented in the hands-to-center paradigm?

Four more reference points are obtained into the hands-to-center when layering height into the model. Each one of these reference points, like before, has a tailored response attached:

Two hands above — Mace of Aggression (Frontal defense collapsing)
Two hands underneath — Twisted Twig (Rear defense expanding)
Left hand underneath, right hand above — Grasp of Death (Left side defense)
Right hand underneath, left hand above — Deflecting Hammer (Right side defense against kick)

While standing naturally, start with your hands raised high over your head. Slowly begin to lower them until they pass your hips and reach their maximum endpoint. At this point, your hands will be down and slightly behind you. Mace of Aggression is the starting point of this range of motion. Captured Twigs is the end point of this range of motion.

In the case of Deflecting Hammer, this move starts to diversify the practitioner away from just hand defenses and introduces a kick defense.

Note the denotation of front, rear, left, and right responses. Kenpo is a 360-degree combat mechanism. It covers attacks in all dimensions, directions, paths, and angles. Kenpo Yellow Belt folds the 360-combat awareness into the hands-to-center paradigm for the early practitioner.

As with the first six examples, these four reference points are based on the hands-to-center flinch response. Recall, if your hands are up, above center, bring them down. If your hands are down below the center, bring them up. If your hands are left, move them right. If your hands are right, move them left. The destination is always the centerline.

In Closing

While not a total solution for every combination that can be potentially applied in an attack, the Kenpo Yellow belt provides the beginner practitioner with some pragmatic solutions to the hands-to-center flinch response.

Kenpo is an infinite fractal of shapes and patterns that twist, turn, roll, torque, drop, expand, and contract. The more you invest in it, the more you get back; Kenpo rewards with compounding interest, like investing in the stock market over a long period.

Footnote

[1] There are many versions of Kenpo. This belt system referred to in this article is American Kenpo Karate, as defined by Ed Parker.

About the Author

Scott Gehring is a modern-day enlightenment warrior who delights in adventure, free-spiritedness, creativity, tinkering, travel, and an insatiable love for constructive conflict. An acclaimed expert in multiple art styles, Scott, for over 35 years, has passionately pursued understanding, performance, health, discipline, truth, morality, and the purity of combat.