Rock Solid Kenpo Jiu Jitsu 'The Art of Self Defense'

09/14/2026

Rock Solid Kenpo Jiu Jitsu ‘The Art of Self-Defense’

Are you looking for a practical self-defense system that can actually help you protect yourself in real situations?

That’s the mission of Rock Solid Kenpo Jiu Jitsu.

We don’t just teach techniques.

We teach you to think and act in the moment, to make wise choices that stop someone from hurting you before it turns into something worse.

If you square off with someone, or they get a second chance to strike you, it is no longer just “self-defense.” It has become a fight.

Whether you want to learn how to fight or not, knowing how to fight when you have to fight is a critical part of self-defense. We train that.

You may not want to end up on the ground.

But if you do, and you face someone with wrestling, Jiu-Jitsu, or Judo experience, you need to know how to take care of yourself there.

We teach that too.

We also train practical weapons you can actually have with you in today’s world:
• Tactical pen
• Tactical flashlight
• Walking stick
• Sticks and clubs
• Baseball bat
• Cane
• Pepper spray

This is only a short list.

The goal is simple: give you tools you are more likely to have on you when you need them.

Self-defense is not sport.

It is the art of stopping someone from hurting you or someone else, and being ready when it matters.

Come train with us.

09/14/2026

An inch of movement beats a mile of intention.
— Steve Maraboli

Most people don’t fail from lack of dreams.
They fail from standing still while talking about the dream.
You can intend to train.
Intend to get in shape.
Intend to protect your family.
Intend to become dangerous and disciplined.
Intention feels good. It costs nothing.
Movement costs something. That’s why it works.
One round.
One form.
One early morning.
One honest conversation you keep putting off.
One step onto the mat when you’d rather stay home.
That’s the inch.
Do that inch today. Then do it again tomorrow.
The people who actually change their lives aren’t the ones with the biggest plans. They’re the ones who refused to stay parked.
Show up. Move. Repeat.
Forge your own path.
Rock Solid Martial Arts

09/13/2026

The Strong Lineage Behind Rock Solid Kenpo Jiu Jitsu

This photo isn’t just three men in black gis. It’s a strong lineage.

Ed Parker took Kenpo out of tradition and made it work on American streets. He didn’t just collect techniques, he organized motion, timing, targeting, and logic so a smaller person could survive a bigger, faster, armed attacker. He turned scattered ideas into a system with principles you can actually use when someone is already on you. That is the power: Kenpo stopped being “art for art’s sake” and became a thinking person’s self-defense.

Skip Hancock. After Ed Parker’s passing on December 15, 1990, Skip made it his personal mission to preserve and share Parker’s teachings. Over those 36 years he created his own system, The Path to Excellence, and authored three books on the martial arts and his teachings. Skip has a genuine reverence and thankfulness for the knowledge Ed Parker shared with him. After Mr. Parker’s death, belt rank was no longer important to Skip. In his mind his rank was simply this: I was a student of Ed Parker.

Then me. Shayne Simpson, I was introduced to the martial arts around age five by my uncles, and that created a love for the art that never left. In 1986 I started my official training in Kenpo and belt ranking. Rock Solid Kenpo Jiu Jitsu teaches Ed Parker’s techniques, forms, sets, and freestyle (fighting). We do it through the system Skip Hancock created, using his Kenposcope, the What of the martial arts, and the Cycle of Considerations, the How of the martial arts. Our ultimate aim is to be extemporaneous in self-defense. We do that with a tool Skip created: the Cycle Stories, taking our Kenpo to the next level. Our system also incorporates Jiu-Jitsu, and we have created our own fighting style based on Kenpo principles and concepts applied to arts like MMA and Muay Thai, but for the street, without the rules that belong in the cage or the ring.

Parker built the engine.

Skip Hancock spent 36 years making sure it still runs true.

We keep it useful for the next generation.

That is the strong lineage.

Not titles.

Not patches.

The responsibility to keep the art useful.

Rock Solid Kenpo Jiu Jitsu ‘The Art of Self Defense’

09/13/2026

Remember: there are the Strong and the Weak.

The question is not “which one are you.”

The question is “which one do you choose to be.”

Strength is not a personality type.

It is not talent, genetics, or a good week.

It is a daily decision across four arenas that most people treat as optional.

Spiritual fitness is choosing to stay connected when life gets loud.

Prayer, integrity, gratitude, and refusing to make peace with what you know is wrong.

You do not drift into faith.

You practice it.

Emotional fitness is choosing not to be owned by fear, resentment, or impulse.

Feel it.

Name it.

Then decide what you will do with it. Weakness lets the feeling drive.

Strength puts the feeling in the passenger seat.

Mental fitness is choosing awareness over autopilot.

Perceptual fitness.

Discipline when no one is watching.

The courage to run toward the hard thing instead of negotiating with it.

Your mind will follow whatever you repeatedly feed it.

Physical fitness is choosing to show up in the body God gave you.

Train.

Recover.

Move with purpose.

The mat, the weights, the early morning, these are not separate from the rest of your life.

They prove you keep your word to yourself.

Remember: there are the Strong and the Weak.

The question is not “which one are you.”

The question is “which one do you choose to be.”

Strength is not a personality type
It is not talent, genetics, or a good week.

It is a daily decision across four arenas that most people treat as optional.

Spiritual fitness is choosing to stay connected when life gets loud.

Prayer, integrity, gratitude, and refusing to make peace with what you know is wrong.

You do not drift into faith.

You practice it.

Emotional fitness is choosing not to be owned by fear, resentment, or impulse.

Feel it.

Name it.

Then decide what you will do with it. Weakness lets the feeling drive.

Strength puts the feeling in the passenger seat.

Mental fitness is choosing awareness over autopilot.

Perceptual fitness.

Discipline when no one is watching.

The courage to run toward the hard thing instead of negotiating with it.

Your mind will follow whatever you repeatedly feed it.

Physical fitness is choosing to show up in the body God gave you.

Train.

Recover.

Move with purpose.

The mat, the weights, the early morning, these are not separate from the rest of your life.

They prove you keep your word to yourself

Every day you vote.

You vote with the first thought you entertain.

You vote with whether you get up.

You vote with what you refuse to tolerate in yourself.

You vote with whether you train when it would be easier not to.

The Strong are not people who never feel weak.

The Strong are people who keep choosing anyway.

Which one do you choose to be today?

Forge your own path.

Every day you vote.

You vote with the first thought you entertain.

You vote with whether you get up.

You vote with what you refuse to tolerate in yourself.

You vote with whether you train when it would be easier not to.

The Strong are not people who never feel weak.

The Strong are people who keep choosing anyway.

Which one do you choose to be today?

Forge your own path.

09/12/2026

Hard Truth!

Mind first. Spirit right behind it. Body is where it shows up

09/12/2026

09/11/2026

Skip Hancock is one of my main mentors.

He taught me that attitude is not a mood you hide.

It is the arrangement of your body and your mind toward a situation, a person, or a problem.

It is first.

And other people feel it before you ever speak.

You can tell yourself the anxiety is private.

It isn’t.

A negative attitude, fear that you don’t have the skills to handle what’s in front of you, leaks.

Voice tightens.

Shoulders rise.

Eyes drop or dart.

Words get sharp or disappear.

Posture tells on you.

The other person doesn’t need a confession.

Their nervous system already read yours.

That’s why Skip’s definition matters: anxiety is when you believe you do not have the skills to cope with a challenge.

Confidence is the opposite belief, in yourself, or in someone who has those skills.

Self-confidence is when you believe you have them.
@
Flip the attitude and the response flips with it.

A problem-solver attitude is not fake cheer.

It is engagement. It says: I will find the skill I don’t have yet.

That attitude shows up in posture, in tone, in the way you look at a person instead of through them. Most of communication is nonverbal.

Your body is already talking.

Make sure it’s telling the truth you actually want told.

Emotional fitness is the training that makes this possible.

Skip’s master key to emotional fitness is the ability to represent, to present yourself in a way that empowers you instead of leaking fear.

You don’t wait until you feel brave.

You arrange the body and the mind first.

The feeling follows the work.

Control attitude first.

The response will follow.

Train the skills.

Then let your posture, your voice, and your presence do the talking.

That’s how you succeed when it counts, on the mat, in a hard conversation, and in life.

09/09/2026

Check the first comment for the audio/video of Skip Hancock’s teachings on Attitude — what he calls the first 50% of self-defense and fighting.

09/08/2026

Rock Solid Kenpo Jiu Jitsu ‘The Art of Self Defense’

Bellingham, Washington’s number one self-defense training center

Building Strong, Powerful, and Confident Students

Ed Parker said it straight:
“Knowledge does not grow like a tree where you dig a hole, plant your feet, cover them with dirt, and pour water on them daily. Knowledge grows with time, work, and dedicated effort. It cannot come by any other means.”

Self-defense is not a plant you water once and walk away from.

You don’t become strong, powerful, or confident by showing up when it’s convenient.

You don’t build timing, range, or the will to finish by watching someone else train.

Parker’s point is simple: there is no shortcut that replaces time on the mat, honest work, and the decision to keep going when it would be easier to quit.

That’s the art.

Not collecting techniques.

Not waiting for motivation.

Showing up, drilling, failing, adjusting, and doing it again until the knowledge lives in your body, not just your head.

At Rock Solid Martial Arts , Bellingham, Washington’s number one self-defense training center, we are building strong, powerful, and confident students the only way it actually works: time. Work. Dedicated effort.

If you’re ready to put in the work, the door is open.

Rock Solid Martial Arts
1101 N State St, Suite 107
Bellingham, WA

09/07/2026

Rock Solid Kenpo Jiu-Jitsu ‘The Art of Self Defense’

Attitude is not a mood.

It is Attitude Toward.

It is always aimed at something.

That is why it is first, and that is why it is half the art.

A defensive attitude is not toughness on a T-shirt.

It is how you arrange your body and mind toward the problem before the problem arrives.

It stands on three Attitudes Toward.

1. Attitude toward danger
Danger exists. It can happen to you.
The opposite attitude is the one that gets people hurt: “It exists out there. It can’t happen to me.” That is not confidence. That is denial. Form to function starts with telling the truth about the environment you actually live in.

2. Attitude toward the right to stop harm
You have the right to stop someone from harming you.
Self-defense is not a request for permission. When the story turns violent, hesitation is not humility. Attitude comes first. If the attitude is wrong, you can not effectively defend yourself or someone else.

3. Attitude towards awareness, not a slogan
It is present. It is alert. It is pointed at the three points of view: yours, the opponent’s, and the bystander’s, including the wall, the curb, the second person, and the clock. Unaware people collect techniques. Aware people operate.

Those three attitudes are the front half of the art.

Danger is real.

You may stop it.

You stay switched on.

That is a defensive attitude.

That is The Path to Excellence, as taught by Senior Grandmaster Skip Hancock, personal student of Ed Parker, and the lineage Rock Solid Kenpo Jiu-Jitsu follows.

Train it here.

Bellingham, Washington is the number 1 self-defense center.

Rock Solid Martial Arts builds strong, powerful, and confident students.