It's just a funny name for a martial arts, sounding more like a software like windows or a movie sequel. I know they spar with gloves on and hits on the face are legal and they use grappling as well.
What sort of conditioning and hardcore training do they have?
First, I will try to give you some facts before getting into my own opinion. Kenpo 5.0 is named that in reference to the number of times Ed Parker updated his System before the creation of Kenpo 5.0. When he (Ed Parker) first went to college at BYU in Utah he started teaching Kenpo (1) as he learned it from William Chow in Hawaii. When he moved to California he shared ideas with the various Chinese Martial Arts Experts in the China Towns and started teaching Chinese Kenpo (2), When he moved away from most (not all) of the Asian traditions in favor of a Western Scientific approach he began calling his art Ed Parker's Kenpo Karate (3) and as he standardized the Forms, Sets and other minimum requirements for each Belt Rank in his System and updated many of the techniques, emphasized tailoring and progressive evolution to keep up with the times his Kenpo became known as American Kenpo (4)... So when Jeff Speakman added his additions he called it 5.0 as a way to acknowledge and call attention to the 4 previous evolutions of the art.
Now that said, their is a dispute in my history between Ed Parker Kenpo Karate and American Kenpo with some experts stating that American Kenpo was the dream that Ed Parker was trying to transition to from Chinese Kenpo but he had to abandon it for financial reasons and settled on the Ed Parker's Kenpo Karate which is what everyone is doing now, according to that school of thought American Kenpo would be version 3 and Ed Parker's Kenpo Karate would be 4 but in either case that is the reason behind why Jeff picked the 5.0 name. (also in the hopes that it would be updated again in the future as the times require)
Here is the more textbook definition from the 5.0 perspective:
"American Kenpo version 5.0 is the hybrid of the last generation version of American Kenpo taught directly from Senior Grand Master Ed Parker to Jeff Speakman and ground fighting brought into the equation by Mr. Speakman’s senior student Trever Sherman. Mr. Sherman has brought this type of combat back to Kenpo so he and Mr. Speakman could create Kenpo answers to defending against an opponent with these skills in the street."
That said I am not a Kenpo 5.0 guy back in 1990 I was learning Kenpo that included an education in stand-up and ground grappling so it came as a surprise to me when I ventured into the Kenpo universe to find that many did not spend time on any of that. What I can tell you about their training is limited by my lack of direct experience with 5.0 but I can tell you this. Jeff has always been known to produce hard hitting guys who like to scrap, he has a deep understanding of American Kenpo and for a long time he was trying to get the old Kenpo dogs back together after Ed Parker died in Dec of 1990 but the bickering and arrogance and ego-driven personalities of many of the old Kenpo dogs left him jaded. Rightfully so as many of them went off and promoted themselves and wanted to be kings of their own small ponds. He eventually went his own way and Kenpo 5.0 is his baby. Naturally, they spend more time on grappling and countering grappling and they have even before that always fought with contact and like Jeff they favor a slightly more power based then speed obsessed Kenpo style.
