https://www.ridgefieldkempo.com/whatiskempo

There is no, one Martial Art system that is superior to another. However, each has its own attributes that are significant to their representation. In comparison to other Martial Arts systems that rely primarily on techniques such as striking, or grappling, Kempo uses a combination of these techniques to its advantage. Most systems require overpowering and over-forcing your opponent with your energy and strength; which isn’t always a fair advantage for everyone. Kempo is interesting in it’s way, that it uses the most skillful techniques from the arts of Karate and Kung Fu to manipulate the opponent. Usually, systems will teach you to create distance from your opponent so they cannot have an advantage. While this indeed is effective, Kempo teaches closing the distance between you and your opponent, as this is the last thing your opponent would expect. The reason we believe this is most effective for self-defense is that not all opponents are equal to one another. One of Kempo's strongest traits is using the “soft tissue” technique, which means instead of focusing on striking with force and strength, focusing on striking at specific angles and points of the body that will effectively weaken and cripple the opponent. Kempo is also different from other systems because it incorporates the mastering of morals such as discipline, self-control, patience, compassion, humility and more. Like some other systems, Kempo is a journey of developing character and building a healthy lifestyle.

At Westport Kempo, we begin teaching lessons to children as young as 2 1/2! At that age our lessons are more focused on building their gross motor skills and learning how to follow instructions at the studio and at home. This is a great age to start developing performance physically, and hand-eye cordination.

Yes! We only want our students to experience a fun, welcoming and comfortable vibe here. We feel this is the best way to retain education and dedicate oneself to this commitment. In every class, we provide fun drills, share about our days and get in a good laugh, so long as we've also learned our material, and put in the effort and hard-work for the day, in order to receive that reward. We believe anything you do, you should enjoy! Don't expect to come just for karate class, we welcome you to our Kempo family!


Our students know there is never a time to use their material unless in a life threatening situation. During our verbal lectures in class, our students learn to efficiently perform their material while developing patience, balance, self control, understanding the energy of the body, breathing correctly, clearing the mind, observation, and making wise, educated decisions based on these skills. If there is ever a time one of our students displays outside use of Kempo in self defense, we carefully congratulate them as we want our students to feel confident in standing up for themselves. Martial arts is never about starting or pursuing a fight, but to instead diffuse and avoid a fight safely while using ones lessons to develop self character. If one of our students wrongfully uses Kempo, this is against our principle on self discpiline and self control and so they are penalized accordingly. In these cases, we usually see the student might have an emotional issue that needs recognition in order to be nurtured and overcome in their personal life. Unacceptable behavior won’t be tolerated here, but we understand no one is perfect, especially growing, developing children, and we take these opportunities to compassionately discipline, and teach our students right from wrong.

No. Martial Arts systems are admired because they are built on traditional morals such as respect, humility, discipline, honor, and loyalty. Based on these traits, the “student” is on a path to shaping and perfecting their character. What Martial Arts aims to teach students is learning to develop skills like self-control, patience, listening, and perseverance. Martial arts is said to actually help those with anger as it can help with filtering and relieving anger, anxiety or stress. While it may be hard to believe, Martial Arts are very beneficial on the contrary to overcoming anger issues. At Westport Kempo, we primarily focus on the state of mind the art influences. We don’t believe in any art that only educates on the physical traits. We make sure that each of our students receives the physical training their rank requires, but mostly the attitude, and the spirit behind that. We encourage those who suffer from anger issues to join our program so that they can learn how to diffuse their anger/aggression, channel it in a healthy way, and more importantly learn that there is no need for anger, as it hinders our personal growth, affects our energy in an unhealthy way, and can hurt those around us.

Absolutely. Learning how to use your body's performance to properly execute techniques can help you in any self defense scenario. In our world today, there are many cases where self defense saves lives, and we especially make sure our students learn how to use their material to succeed in situations like this. We also provide a sparring class in which our students have the chance to experience sparring against others to develop a practical state of mind in real life encounters. We encourage all of our students to participate in the sparring classes. Learning your material is one thing, but performing it with an opponent to protect yourself trains you to effectively understand your material and allows the ability for your mind and body to unify in performance.

There is no price that represents the benefits Martial Arts can provide. However, the cost of the standards targeted physically, mentally and spiritually are extremely valuable because your education here is infinite. What makes Martial Arts programs worth it, is that they are a lifestyle. Kempo goes beyond kicks and combinations by incorporating the appropriate balance of morals such as discipline, patience, open-mindedness, self-control, stress-management, compassion and more. Our programs ensure that you have the possibility to reach your highest potential as an individual. The combined effort provided by us and submitted by you makes our program 100% worth it. We’d like our students and members to view our service here as a crucial investment for building character and a healthy lifestyle. We promise that your commitment to us will improve and impact all areas of your life.

Culturally this is not a valued way to honor the ranking systems in Martial Arts. However we understand that your need to switch from one facility to another is based on your desire to receive more informative instruction and education; and willing spirits, we cannot deny, as that is the exact attitude we encourage here at Westport Kempo. Please come in and we can discuss your continuing Martial Arts journey with us.

You can come as often as you'd like! We understand everyone has other activities going on, so everyday of the week we offer all age classes throughout the schedule time-line, so you can have the chance to flexibly come when you please.

One thing we are passionate about here at Westport Kempo is being able to help everyone, especially those in need. Also part of our criteria here is teaching our students this as well. We believe everyone deserves a chance to experience activities that involve self growth and physical improvement. We make sure that we accomodate those with health issues, beause physical activity is incredibly beneficial despite health conditions. It also creates a healthy state of mind as Martial Arts greatly impacts one mentally and emotionally. We want to be able to provide the most comfortable and versitale atmosphere for anyone and are more than willing to work with those who have health issues or disabilities. Please come in, let us know your concerns and we can set up a special plan for your path here as a student.

We have many students who come to us with special needs. Learning to quiet the mind, control your breathing, use your physical performance efficiently, helps those develop hand-eye coordination, motor skills and strengthen all these abilities. We have seen great improvment in our special needs students. We feel it is our duty to provide the guidance to those in need, because if it can improve their state, there should be action taken to do so, and we want to be a part in helping in every way that we can.

Good for you for being open-minded and trying! We understand that not everyone might enjoy Martial Arts, however we do encourage that it is for everyone to enjoy! So come in and try it out, meet our team and other students. We do have short term commitments, for you to experience a trial here at Westport Kempo. If you complete a short term commitment and don't feel passionate about it, then you are not obligated to continue, and we hope to see you in the future. Please call us for more details regarding.

This is a great question. We joke a lot with our parents here at the dojo who feel it's silly at their age, or that they are not qualified to participate. Yes you are qualified, no it is not silly! We encourage all ages, health issues or not, injuries or not. We make sure we leave the door to possiblity wide open, to touch the lives of those around us. The more, the better! Take a family class, learn something about yourself, develop better breathing, or build your strength. This is always a great opportunity for you to use Martial Arts to positively affect other areas of your life!


If anyone ever needed to be in shape for any activity, no one would have the chance to begin. We encourage those to use our committed program to advance physically, and stay in shape. Martial Arts will improve your balance, breathing, flexibility, strength, coordination and over all physical performance. It is a great for those who have interest in advancing their physique. The only way to develop is to start!