Forms and Sets > Form 4 > Frequently Asked Questions > Why didn't Mr. Parker create a book like this on Form Four?

The simple answer to this question is that he didn't have the time.

But, like most of American Kenpo, there is a more complex answer to this simple question. First, Mr. Parker was concerned that giving too much information about any specific aspect of the system would potentially anger the instructor community. He felt that they might be slighted by the fact that he had short-circuited their ability to instruct their students, by giving away all the information. And, that this would hamper their ability to make money from instruction of the art. Mr. Parker was very cognizant of this issue and often steered away from it. Even projects such as the Infinite Insight series and his video series were constructed in such a way as to not impose upon the individual instructor's ability to teach the specifics and details of the system.

Second, Mr. Parker did not want to give away all the "keys to the kingdom". He felt (and many of his first generation students felt) that since American Kenpo is a thinking person's art, that the individual should figure a lot of this information out on their own. And, if the individual didn't, then it was something the student needed to work on - not the instructor. While this is a laudable and respectable attitude, it is not very conducive to long-term perpetuation of a system.

Along these lines, it must be mentioned, that Mr. Parker purposely obfuscated major parts of the system in such a way that only a qualified instructor could expose the information properly to the student. Most areas were purposely composed (or re-composed) in such a way that the casual observer or student could not acquire anywhere close to the complete information without qualified instruction. Mr. Parker commonly shrouded even the fact that he did this, and would give completely unrelated explanations to such compositions of the system. Ones that not only didn't discuss what he did, or even expose the fact that he did it.

This practice can be attributed to two major reasons: First, that throughout the years Mr. Parker had students study with him and then leave to start competing ventures. Therefore, hiding information was a way to combat this problem. Second, this was an era in the martial arts were it was common practice to not pass on specific information to "unworthy" students. It was even common to not teach people of specific ethnicity. Or if taught, "water down" the information. For instance, Mr. Parker was initially given a lot of criticism from the Asian community for openly teaching his art to both white and black students.

Next, Mr. Parker was an innovator. And, as such, was always exploring new thoughts and concepts. Because of this, he often didn't spend a lot of time expanding upon his previous works. Again, although this must be respected, it leaves the system with a severe deficiency of reference information for both the curious student and the continuing advancement of the instructor.

And finally, Mr. Parker died at the ripe old age of 59 (in December of 1990). At the time of his death, he had a number of projects left in various degrees of completion. Most of which came to a complete halt after his death. Only a few of the almost complete projects (like the Encyclopedia of Kenpo) were completed and released to American Kenpo practitioners. If Mr. Parker had lived another 10-20 years it really isn't clear whether he would have filled in these reference holes, or whether he would have just continued to expand American Kenpo into other venues of study. One can only speculate. But it is very likely it would have been some of both.

Regardless, the purpose of these books is an effort to preserve, bolster, and clarify the system, by providing quality reference materials that factually convey this information to the many American Kenpo practitioners and instructors throughout the world. Something Mr. Parker was not able to complete in his lifetime.