Is Tracy's A McDojo?

[Luis SalinasIII]

I checked out Tracy's Karate Kenpo, and it appeared like Claw Karate or whatever, the bad guys, out of Karate kid. The guys who were instructing looked pretty bad some of them, (in a roid head left over from the 80s sort of way) and sort of pathetic (as in fat man who thinks he is half dragon). I did some personal training with a guy for free. Bout a half hour.

He was talking about how he charges 240 a month, and how his moves are SOO powerful, how he has been doing Karate since he was six (never missed) blah blah. He was a nice guy tho.

Then I got another guy who was short and fat with a delicate frame. He was wearing an all black gi. He seemed knowledgable especially about various arts, but his performance in kata was entertaining.

He did alot of testicle rips, eye pokes, etc. On top of it all, he had very small girlish hands when he made his tiger claws.

I asked him to check my punching he gave me some good advice.

Then proceeded to tell me he could throw 10 punches a second.

And that he is reknowned street fighter in the criminal underworld.

I'm just like okay...do you have a card?

He didn't have a card.

I left.

Is Tracy's a McDojo?

[Britt]

The black gi was supposedly first worn by James Mitose and was made widespread by Kajukenbo's founder, Sijo Emperado, who switched his whole system to the black gi. Black gis are shared by all the styles in the Kenpo/Kempo/Kajukenbo lineage, Tracy Kenpo being one.

You'll occassionally hear some vague criticisms that Tracy Kenpo has too many techniques (more than Parker Kenpo, which has a lot), but I've certainly never heard anything terrible about the system as a whole. Sounds like you just came across a school that struck you as odd. Plenty of those in any style.

[Thai Bri]

Have you got a link?

We had someone called Tracy Karate here a few years ago!

[sunfist]

Tracy isn't a McDojo IMO

In the 60's I was involved with kajukenbo. I was getting ready for a trip back to the mainland and Sonny (Emperado) asked me to do him a favor. We were at his house and he had me come over in the corner like this was all hush-hush or something....then he asked me to visit the Tracy's, Al Reyes, Ed Parker and a couple of others. (Castro I think, in the bay area) He wanted me to ask all of them were they going to go on in kempo on their own or would they want to be "in the family", I guess meaning hook up with him as the head guy etc.
I asked him who the Tracy people were etc and he said they were "OK". He said they were sort of doing their own thing etc. I called them and the others and went out to Suisun city to visit Reyes as we were friends.
My take on it was that Sonny (Emperado) was sort of out of touch with the Tracy group and more or less neutral about them going on on their own.
I could see that both Tracy and Parker had ambitions re marketing their art, but in a modified way from what went on in Kajukenbo at Kalihi.
Sunfist