Bill Grossman’s School of Kenpo Karate

I trained here in high school. I was trained by a true Martial Artist in philosophy and in practice. Although I do not train there anymore due to health reasons, the philosophy has stayed with me in my adult years in all that I do from my work Ethic to my every day approach to life. As a former assistant instructor, I would highly recommend this school for children and adults. It’s never too young or old to start. What matters is that you try. In a world where dojos pop up like 7 – 11’s, you want a school that has philosophy involved as well as physical training. You don’t want a school that will pass out a black belt in 3 – 4 years as long as you pay dues. This is a large system with many katas and moves to practice, but you will only need one move to survive. Do your due diligence before you train. I began in 1988 and would still go back here.
It is difficult in an emerging world of MMA fighting to find a school with wisdom and the philosophy to make you strong mentally as well as physically. If a teacher can not tell you the history of their style, walk away and keep looking. If your school rewards you for beating someone within an ounce of their life rather than avoiding one, leave and keep looking. There are many different styles to chose from, but the professional schools all know each other and stick together. Good luck in your search.
–Christos Volikakis
1^st Degree Brown Belt
Owner of Volikos Enterprises
San Bruno, CA

I’ve been studying at this school since the beginning of 2011 and really feel right at home practicing martial arts here. I have a diverse martial arts background having studied several other styles prior to coming here (I hold a first degree black belt in karate, another first degree black belt in tae kwon do, and a purple belt in small circle jujistu) When I moved to California and started looking for a new dojo to study at, this was the only place I visited that just felt right.
The school is owned by Master Professor Bill Grossman and his wife Professor Pati Grossman. The founded their school back in 1978 and have been at the same physical dojo location for 20+ years.
I also find kenpo to be a fascinating style to study and it is by far my favorite style I’ve studied to date. Also one thing that really sold this place to me is that MP is also an iaido instructor, and iaido is what first got me into the martial arts… when he heard that I had a background in it he made sure we had a weekly class for the adults to practice since at the time I joined he didn’t have a current and active iaido class in the schedule, and now they do again. :)
If you like to compete this school is a great place to be as well since they compete in all the local (and sometimes not so local) tournaments so you’ll always have chances to compete with the school if you’re interested. Many of the students regularly bring home first place and grand champion trophies from the tournaments, which is a true testament to just how well they are trained at this school.
UPDATE: 2013-​04-​30 — I’m still a regular student and now regularly assistant teach many classes. Still love it just as much as day one! It only gets better the more time you put into. I’m there almost every day of the week and for multiple hours each day!
UPDATE: 2014-​01-​06 — I realized I never mentioned in my original review that you can study Modern Arnis and receive separate ranking in it in addition to the Kenpo classes, at no additional charge. This is a great offering that they’ve been doing long before I joined the dojo in 2011. Also, this past year they’ve really worked to revive the demo team for regular performances and it’s been a blast working with all the kids on getting them to truly shine for performances.

I spent my entire childhood here. This was a place for knowledge and self discipline. In a way this place shaped the way I am. I’ll never forget the lessons i was taught. I doubt there is any martial arts place with the same caliber of talent. CHAMPS

It was weird going here because there were really no professional, black belt instructors. Instead, other students around Green/​Brown belt were teaching the lower belts. I don’t know if that’s normal for a dojo though.