Carter Hargrave is, as he states himself, a full-time martial artist, his contribution to the field of martial arts and his great achievements can’t be denied. He is a martial arts teacher and, more than that, he also enabled people to benefit from long distance training due to training DVDs. Besides this, he is also president of some international companies founded in order to help him achieve his goal of making martial arts accessible to masses. He is president or head of:
- World Jeet Kune Do Federation
- World Kempo Association
- Hargrave Arts
- Hargrave Media
- Hargrave Martial Arts
The first one promotes the original teachings of Bruce Lee and the second one is designed to promote the American Combat Kempo, a style Hargrave himself founded. The other companies help him release martial arts related materials, like books (among which one is an international bestseller) or videos. He also has his private school in Tulsa Oklahoma, Hargrave Martial Arts, where he teaches both American Combat Kempo and Jeet Kune Do. In order to be able to fully understand Carter Hargrave’s contribution to the field of martial arts you first have to look at his achievements. There are too many to be mentioned here, but if we were to just list the most important ones, these would be:
- Certified Jeet Kune Do Instructor
- Instructor of the Year
- Certified Black Belt Tae Kwon Do
- Certified Black Belt Bushido Kempo
- Certified Black belt Aiki Jitsu
- Executive Director World Jeet Kune Do Federation
- Certified Black belt Second Dan Kempo
- Certified Black Belt Third Dan Kempo
- Certified Black Belt Third Dan Jujitsu
- Executive Director American Combat Kempo Association
- Certified Third Dan Black Belt Goshin Jutsu
- Certified Professor Seventh Dan Combat Kempo Karate
- World Soke Council Member
One of the most important things that
Carter Hargrave accomplished in his career was to found a new martial arts style, today known as American Combat Kempo. This style is now recognized by many international organizations and its techniques are used by the United States Marine. American Combat Kempo was born because Hargrave felt that a combat self defense art is needed in order to meet people’s requirements in what concerns real world situations. It is a style that can be practiced at any age and even by people physically limited. Hargrave combined different styles to come up with this one that doesn’t resemble anything else in Kempo or Kenpo. Hargrave describes in a simple way the process that he followed in order to create this style. He takes a move and then removes all the unnecessary steps in order to convert it into something that can’t be anticipated or prevented and that delivers a high amount of energy. He started with modifying some moves from Standard Kempo and Okinawan Karate and combined them with Kung Fu strikes. Then he also included the best of Ju Jitsu and, in order for his art to be complete, he incorporated traditional okinawan weapons and modern weapons. The final purpose was to make the procedures effective for real world fighting scenarios. Hargrave thinks of the American Combat Kempo to be an art that meets real needs that real people have and not an ultimate fighting art.
