Martial Intellect: The Collected Articles of Michael Miller
A collection of martial arts articles covering the anatomy of speed, the science of street survival, gun and knife defense, the value of private lessons, and why multiple strikes matter.
A full-time Kenpo school in Bradford, Pennsylvania, built on one idea: teach adults a martial art they can actually use, and make the standard honest.
Miller’s Kenpo Karate Dojo teaches American Kenpo as a modern, practical self-defense system rather than a classical performance art. Students learn the basics, forms and self-defense techniques of the system, along with the principles behind them — many of which come straight out of physics and geometry.
The school is led by Michael Miller, owner and chief instructor, who holds a fifth degree black belt in American Kenpo. He trained under Sean Kelley, president of the Chinese Karate Federation, and has three senior mentors who signed his rank certificate: Grandmaster Michael Robert Pick, Grandmaster Dave Hebler, a former bodyguard to Elvis Presley, and Master Rainer Schulte, a former bodyguard to Paul McCartney.
That lineage matters for one practical reason. American Kenpo in this line goes back to Senior Grandmaster Edmund K. Parker, who founded the art, and the material is still taught with the same emphasis on logic, analysis and adaptation that made the system famous.
The Chinese Karate Federation is an American Kenpo organisation dedicated to perpetuating the art of Senior Grandmaster Edmund Parker. It is directed by President Sean Kelley, a seventh degree black belt who trained personally with Mr. Parker after meeting him in 1978, opened his own school in Florida in 1985, and hosted seminars with instructors such as Ed Parker, Bill “Superfoot” Wallace, Joe Lewis, Jeff Speakman and Billy Blanks.
Kelley has also trained under first generation Parker black belts Lee Wedlake and Huk Planas. That is the standard a CKF school is measured against, and it is why the belt sequence here follows the CKF curriculum rather than a commercial ranking programme.
Members of the federation train together at camps and seminars, which is where most adult students first meet the wider Kenpo community. Rank is tested in front of instructors who do not train with you every week — a useful antidote to grade inflation.
Miller’s Dojo is also home to a competition team. Team Miller trains for USSJA-sanctioned sport jujitsu, a continuous-fighting rule set open to any style, and competes at the AKT Combatives Sport Jujitsu Classic in Olean, New York.
Michael Miller has published two books on the system. Both come out of the same material that is taught on the floor.
A collection of martial arts articles covering the anatomy of speed, the science of street survival, gun and knife defense, the value of private lessons, and why multiple strikes matter.
An analysis of the perspectives, interpretations and beliefs of leading American Kenpo instructors about the blueprint of the art, and about where the system diverges.
The school started with six students in a college gym, moved into a garage, survived a flood, spent three years in a room above a hair salon and ended up on Main Street in Bradford — full time since 2006.
Read the full history
Two lessons free at 443 East Main Street, Bradford, PA 16701. Call (814) 368-3725 or send a message.