JohnP: Why do the high kicks, when you can buckle your opponents knees and kick him when he's down at a more reachable level....
LOL
Our sensei, when teaching self defense insist on the 'keep it simple' thing, too. They also stress that one shouldn't bother forcing the attacker to let go when a kick to the groin will loosen him up and make it 10x easier to do whatever throw/lock/get the hell out and away move you need to do.
JohnP: they used to make fun of the TaeKwonDo types, good natured ribbing
Most places I've been do that to some extent, mostly because 90% of TKD is pure sport vs anything that will actually help in a real fight (most of that has been lost or isn't emphasized). Also the traditions have not been forced as much and a lot of the lower belts trying to do the fancy kicks end up making themselves look stupid and thus give TKD a bad rep (seen a guy do so myself... we all tried our hardest not to laugh but yeah...). Oh, and in TKD what to do once your opponent gets inside isn't emphasized, which is how i got everyone I spared with while I did it ^_^.
JohnP: ...although TaeKwonDo looks a lot cooler
If done right, yeah... if done wrong you either look stupid or seriously hurt yourself (even axe kicks and stuff that doesn't look too fancy carry a greater rist)
JohnP: just wondered about what the differences where between Kenpo and the art you are speaking of.
kenpo/kempo is a Japanese term to collectively name chinese martial arts. To someone from china (found this one out first hand) the word draws a blank. The individual arts that fall under kenpo differ so I can't say what you did.
There is kempo karate wich is an american bastardization of karate and kung fu. I took that when I was a kid until we moved (got orange) and it was basically a full-blown mix of the two. We bowed in the chinese way (hand over fist bow vs the hands at your side karate bow), also had fewer traditions than legit karate dojo (I assume that is because you're taking two sets of moves and traditions and boiling them down into one art, but it could have also been just THAT dojo) and what I recall of watching the higher belts (this was over a decade ago) it had more flow than pure karate.
Shaolin kung fu is a style, I assume if yours said shaolin kenpo it actually refered to shaolin kung fu. Kung fu can be classified as circular style, as a lot of the moves concentrate on flowing from one into the next. It tends to focus (from what I understand) on using the momentum created from one move to facilitate the next. It also tends to look more showy than Karate, as this leads to movement exaggeration to enhance the user's force.
Karate, which is what I practice, is hard and direct. Each move is distinct and usually uses a solid foundation as the source of extra power. A punch, for example, is driven straight and (this is kinda hard to explain) is pushed from the ground. By this I mean that you lock your leg and twist your hip so your punch basically originates where your foot pushes against the ground and your fist transfers the force into your opponent (it probably still sounds weird but if sensei explained and showed you, it WOULD make sense even to a physicist...). Karate also focuses on one punch, one kill (knock out/win/point in sport), which basically translates to make one move and do it well vs a ton of little shitty hits (boxing does lots of rapid punches to wear at the opponent).
TKD is korean, though it has been americanized to the point where only the slimmest traditions survived. The moves are usually said in english (not that some of the more traditional styles don't have dojos that also use the eng terms... but on the whole, TKD almost always does) and it's 80% kicks 20% punches. The kicks are way overstated (tons of fancy ones using twists and leg switching) to theoretically enhance their power... practically to make it look better and the punches are often forgotten in sparring. The style originated as a mid range style (karate is a mostly short-range style) where you kept your opponents too far away for punches to have effect.
Ju Jitsu is japanese, and concentrates mostly on take downs and throws, joint locks and that like. I don't know much more than that, sorry. Aikido (JPN as well) also does a lot of throws but from what I can tell also incorporates more karate-type moves than ju jitsu. Both try to basically use your opponent's momentum to knock them down and/or hurt them. Karate does too to a smaller extent.
Kendo is a JPN sport version of kenjitsu, which itself is somewhere between kendo and iaido. In iaido, you basically practice the art of drawing the sword (katana) and doing elaborate slashes that teach you how to handle the blade. It and kenjitsu use a bokken, which is a solid sword-shaped peice of wood. Kenjitsu adds contact (pretend contact to light contact, as bokken HURT) to iaido, focusing beyond drawing the blade and at kata sparring (where you memorize the forms you'll do) and from what my friends tell me some additional fun stuff iaido doesn't do. Kendo (called kumdo in korea) is a full-contact with armor sport version, using a shinai (4 peices of bamboo tied together to make for a dampened impact) and heavy, expensive armor. head, stomach, wrists and (mostly for advanced ppl) the throat are targets... it is considered the asian form of fencing as we know it today.
There's also kyudo (JPN archery) but that's so boring I won't say much except it has too much tradition for even me (at least where I tried it) and uses a log bow.
There's also capoera, which is the slave dancing thing, where moves are hidden in what look like dance moves with a lot more ground combat (after you fall you still have things you can do to fight back) than most other arts and practiced with drum beats and memorizing kata-like routines.
Theres a lot more, too, but those are the ones I know most about (as you can tell I mostly stick to JPN... partly because I like the emphasis on tradition and being used to the commands, partly because the kung fu i wanted to try sux at my uni and I've not had time for capoera, etc).
Hope that helps a bit ^_^
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