So...I'm thinking about doing Kenpo karate. My friend does some teaching at a place that isn't that far from me. What do you guys think? Do you think I should look into another form of MA?

What is in your area? I am doing BJJ and Muay Thai and its great.

How often to you get to go?

Currently doing BJJ 1x and MT 2x per week. Im changing jobs so Ill be doing BJJ 2x and MT 1x. If I were single I would be going 5x a week.

I'm gonna do Kenpo. He just finished telling me about it for about an hour. It's twice a week, 45 minutes per. I think I'll really like this. I will start right when July begins. I have an intense 2 week job of 10+ hours starting June 18th, so I can't do it then. But after that my regular summer job starts of 25 hour weeks...so I think this will be great!

I studied Kenpo for a little over a year. Is the place near you part of the Tracy System? It's awesome, but complicated. It takes the average person about 4 years to earn a black belt (at least the Tracy System)where some styles you hear about people earning black belt in a year. I got to blue belt (still had green and 3 levels of brown before black). It was expensive where I went and that's why I quit. I'll go back one day.

I'm not sure, I'll ask my friend about that. He has been doing it for about 6 years and I think he told me he was a 2nd degree black belt. He said from the first belt to the second is about 3 months or so. I think he said for him to get to a blue belt it took him maybe 3 years? I'm not sure if I remember that correctly. I'm probably wrong, but he started in the 4th grade, and is in 10th now.

It might take longer at some places because Tracy's Karate gives you one-on-one private instruction for 30 min a week and as many group classes as you want to come to....of course that's also why its so expensive. I think Al Tracy is the owner of the franchise. I studied under his son, Mark

If possible, try and fine a Goju-Ryu karate dojo. Your belt progression will be slower, but at least your training won't be useless.

It's hard to qualify any art as truly useless. That being said, I really like the art of Kenpo. I don't know if anyone has seen Jeff Speakman in The Perfect Weapon, go see it if you want to see a very good demonstration of Kenpo.

I have studied some American Kenpo off and on and have really enjoyed the classes.

I have studied Kenpo for over 4 years now and it is my main study now. I tried a variety of other styles and I didnt find any as good as Kenpo.
I study under the AKKI which I realy like because it is kind of like an MMA in that we study attacks and defence agains every aspect of fighting like ground and pound or staying on your feet to multiple attackers and so on. I realy like it.