Here’s how the curriculum is laid out under the “Casey Clayton’s Kenpo” system:

Overview

Please Note: Master Clayton and I have been going back and forth on how things will be laid out in terms of progression/belts, but this is the overall structure of the curriculum (so superficial things may change).

Master Clayton refers to the system as “Kenpo in a Thimble.”

This system is based on what Master Clayton was taught by Mills Crenshaw/Ed Parker Sr. back in the late 50s/early 60s. Master Clayton was awarded his Black Belt by SGM Ed Parker in late ’62 or early ’63.

Since then Master Clayton has applied his medical training to his study of the arts in order to make things much more biomechanically sound and approachable by people who are not physical prodigies.

Ranks

• Yellow
• Orange
• Purple
• Blue
• Green
• Brown
• Black

Requirements

Yellow Belt

The Yellow belt means you’ve become decently proficient at performing the basic striking movements of the system in a bio-mechanically sound way.

The basics being:

• Hook punch (inward strike)
• Backfist (outward strike)
• Uppercut (upward strike)
• Hammer fist (downward strike)
• Forward punch (forward strike)
• Inward elbow
• Outward elbow
• Upward elbow
• Downward elbow
• Reverse elbow

Orange Belt

The Orange belt means you’ve become decently proficient at performing the basic kicking movements of the system and can also fall and roll in a bio-mechanically sound way.

The kicks being:

• Snap kick (covers front, inverted, roundhouse, and variations)
• Heel kick (covers front, side, back, and variations)
• Hook kick (covers side, back, and variations)

Purple, Blue, Green, and Brown

The upper colored belts are where the “standard self-defense techniques” are taught. The curriculum is broken up into types of attacks based on range and possible responses.

The groupings being:

• Incoming
• Grabs
• Holds
• Fall/Recovery

Within the groupings there are:

Incoming

• Hook punch
• Straight punch
• Uppercut (sucker punch)
• Kick to the groin
• Front push

Grabs

• Front (single/double hand)
• Shoulder
• Choke
• Arm grab (come along)
• Arm twist

Holds

• Side strangle
• Rear strangle
• Trunk hold (variations)
• Front tacker (lift and pull at the pelvis)
• Single-leg takedown

Fall and Recovery

• Falling down
• Front pin (the mount)
• Arm/leg grab (avoid the arm/leg lock)
• Leg grab
• Rear body hold (sitting rear trunk hold)

The curriculum will rotate through the groupings, when a student has sufficient skill in a single grouping they will be promoted to Purple belt. When proficient in two groupings, the student will be promoted to Blue, three to Green, and all four to Brown.

Black Belt

The student will be promoted to Shodan when they can demonstrate sufficient proficiency against a resisting attacker open to using all available attacks and variations and chains of attacks (i.e. the attacker’s punch failed so they resort to a trunk hold followed by a takedown ).

Beyond Black Belt

Any requirements beyond Shodan will be based on the student’s individual interests (i.e. dealing with edged weapons). This is where individual research and writing may be required.