The long awaited San Gabriel Valley Jeet Kune Do logo is now complete thanks to design student Nelson Wah.  Anyone interested in hiring Nelson may reach him through this blog.

Check it out!

-
Nhan-Esteban Khuong, L.Ac.
Jeet Kune Do Los Angeles

Trapping is a much debated topic in the Jeet Kune Do / Jun Fan Gung Fu / Wing Chun community.

Here is a very nice video, featuring Sifu Tim Tackett and myself, that should answer many questions regarding the effectiveness.

As always, the ultimate goal is not a “crystalization” of techniques and methods, but rather reflexive adaptability.

So does trapping work?  Absolutely.

Does it look as pretty and clean as it does in drills?  Usually not.

Enjoy!

Trapping against resistance (part 1) from Michael Blesch on Vimeo.

–
Nhan-Esteban Khuong, L.Ac.
www.SGVJeetKuneDo.com

The first time sparring for anyone is a rather special event in the sense that it tends to leave a lasting impression, heavily influencing the way sparring is approached from that point forward.

Assuming the sparring session was done in a safe environment with a safety conscious partner, the most common feeling one is left with immediately following a session is an intense drain of energy and lack of air.

Naturally, the question that usually follows is, “How can I improve my endurance?”

Increasing endurance for sparring is a simple concept, but like most things in Jeet Kune Do, simple is not necessarily easy!

There are two major categories of elements that highly influence how one feels before, during, and after sparring:

1. Emotional
2. Physical

The emotional aspect is one that is often overlooked, but the fact of the matter is that the activity between your ears plays a major factor determining whether you float like a butterfly . . . or not.

Just to mention briefly some of the cascading emotion driven factors, excitation (Epinephrine driven) will give a short boost of energy (among other things) then quickly follow by a system crash that manifests itself as extreme tiredness and symptoms of shock.  The unfocused mind tends to go into a supercharged ramble of nonsense while a hyperactive state of alertness and reactivity not only tax the processing load on the brain, but also send a jumble of conflicting, energy consuming messages to the muscles.

This is where the mental/emotional/spiritual training in martial arts becomes critical.  Rather than being controlled by our emotions, we can harness that force to increase power, awareness, endurance, reflexes, precision, etc., culminating in an overall boost in effectiveness.

Two factors that I have found extremely useful in harnessing “emotional content” are experience and being in the moment.  Experience helps to tone down the overreaction that comes with engaging the unknown.  Being in the moment is an exercise that lightens the mental and psychological load by tightening the focus to what is relevant and present rather than spending energy on the past, future, or simply that which is inconsequential.

The progressive reactive drills we practice in class are excellent for developing this focus by beginning with a single controlled element and slowly expanding to more, all while developing a combat specific physical intelligence.

The key to this form of training is letting go and allowing yourself to truly feel, and consequently express . . . which is precisely why it is so challenging.

To be free from one’s own self imposed doubts, fears, restrictions, etc., is our greatest challenge.  As Bruce Lee said “To express oneself honestly . . . not lying to oneself . . . is very difficult to do — and you have to train.  You have to keep your reflexes so that when you want it — it’s there!  When you want to move, you are moving, and when you move, you are determined to move. . . to become one with it.”

Look for part 2 of this post soon, where I will discuss the physical elements of increasing endurance and stamina for sparring.

In Health,

–
Nhan-Esteban Khuong, L.Ac.
www.SGVJeetKuneDo.com

We are now in the thick of the flu season and so many people are getting sick.

Flu vaccinations have become a pretty standard practice among Americans.  But do they really work?

Like many things in today’s modern world, greed and saavy marketing can often distort simple facts.

Here is an interesting recorded phone conversation made to a flu vaccine manufacturer.

Better to stay healthy, through positive lifestyle habits.

In Health,

–
Nhan-Esteban Khuong, L.Ac.
www.SGVJeetKuneDo.com

This post is dedicated to my students who have not yet invested in groin protection.

Enjoy!

–
Nhan-Esteban Khuong, L.Ac.
www.SGVJeetKuneDo.com

In the process of cleaning up some old stuff I had in storage, I ran across a few things that really took me on a trip down memory lane.

Myself and Sifu Dr. Zee Lo right outside the clinic.  Yes, I had short hair once.

I began my Jeet Kune Do training in 2001 with Sifu Zee Lo during my last year as an undergraduate at UCLA.  Training was roughly three times weekly in the parking lot (we had a single fluorescent light that turned everything a dreary greenish yellow for visibility) behind Sifu Zee Lo’s small private Acupuncture clinic.  I started out as a dummy for Sifu Lo’s private students.  Although I came armed with a hefty 15+ years of previous martial arts experience, I noticed an obvious deficiency in the practicality of my approach.  Soon after graduating college, I enrolled in Sifu Zee Lo’s medical/martial arts apprenticeship program.  Thus beginning my “hardcore” Jeet Kune Do training.

My day would generally look something like:

7am -9:30am : study and personal life
10am - 1pm : TCM (tradition Chinese Medicine) lecture and clinic hours
1pm - 2pm : private JKD training
3pm - 7pm: lecture and clinic hours
7pm - 8:30pm: JKD semi-private training
8:30pm - 9pm: cleanup and closeup
9pm - 11pm: study and personal life

I would squeeze in meals and short breaks whenever possible.  On days that we did not have class, I would either have some extra time for study or meeting with training partners.

This is the back of the training room and the few students who                                 stayed with us during the last year of operation.

About two years into my training we moved out of the parking lot and into a small storage room.  Although the space was considerably smaller, we were at least out of the elements.  This room was about 9 feet wide, 14 feet long, and had bare concrete floors, brick walls, and long flickering fluorescent ceiling lights.  Training was old school and hardcore.  Although injuries were common, we were able to treat them in-house to speed up recovery.  Suffice it to say, we didn’t have many students

This is the front of the training room.  The mirror in the background is the only one in the room which I broke with the back of my head the first night we put it in.  Notice the clear packing tape holding it together.

Sparring with minimal gear.  BTW those  are 12oz gloves                                          . . . and they hurt.

We laid out some folding martial arts mats about a year after moving in and also installed a wooden rail for stretching.

I was living in the clinic for about one year before moving next door to the training space for another year.  I was literally living and breathing medicine and Jeet Kune Do for roughly two years.

During the last 18 months of my training Sifu Lo was in the process of relocating to San Francisco in pursuit of his movie making dreams.  I kept up the West Los Angeles JKD classes in his absence while traveling up to San Francisco once monthly to supplement my training.

This is me sparring with Zee Lo’s students in San Francisco.

After Zee Lo completed his relocation, I attempted to keep the Jeet Kune Do school open, however a lack of marketing and business skills combined with our archaic training methods and environment discouraged most would-be students early on.

In the three years following the closure of the West Los Angeles Jeet Kune Do school, I began building a personal training business and establishing my own acupuncture practice while maintaining some form of combative arts training usually consisting of backyard style boxing, kickboxing, submission wrestling, self defense, etc.

About one year after marrying the woman of my dreams, San Gabriel Valley Jeet Kune Do was born.

Victoria (the love of my life) and I

My previous “hardcore” Jeet Kune Do training has proven invaluable, however I
have found that focusing on people and individuals yields more powerful results than focusing on the hardcore experience.

Now I am in the process of melding fitness, medicine, health, martial arts and business into the ultimate people/results oriented consumer empowerment resource, all while nurturing an amazing family life.

As for my current Jeet Kune Do training, I still continue my own development with Tim Tackett, Jeremy Lynch, and the Wednesday Night Group twice weekly.

See you in class!

–
Nhan-Esteban Khuong, L.Ac.
www.SGVJeetKuneDo.com

Check out the updated and improved Jeet Kune Do Los Angeles Demo!

Enjoy!

–
Nhan-Esteban Khuong, L.Ac.
www.SGVJeetKuneDo.com

It seems that there is a huge interest in improving health but there is also a lot of confusion.

The response I have been receiving regarding the healthy water issue has been ongoing, so in an effort to close this subject and move on here are a few final words addressing potential health issues and their solutions.

The effects of chlorine and its byproducts on the human body are not only diverse, but not well understood yet.

There is a lot of money involved in chlorine products and chlorine dependent processes, so powerful companies and influential people benefiting from these chemicals do their best to muddy the waters, so to speak.

I prefer not to focus on politics and conspiracy theories for this blog, so I’ll be brief regarding the harmful health effects of chlorine.

Perhaps the most prominent potential side effect of chlorine and its byproducts is cancer.  This, by itself, should be enough to encourage the use of filters.

Other effects include damage to the nervous system, skin, hair, and respiratory system.

After installing our home shower filters, one of the more obvious changes I noticed was a decrease in skin dryness, less hair in the drain, and of course no swimming pool smell.

Asthma and allergy sufferers would also benefit tremendously from shower filters.  Although there are no clear studies that document this, it is conceivable that chlorinated water adds to overall inflammation in the body, taxes the immune system, decreases energy, accelerates aging.

Truly, there are more dangers to chlorinated water than we know.

Best to use filters for the entire house.

The next obvious question is: What kind of filter should I use?

Carbon based filters will generally do a good job of removing chlorine and harmful organic substances.  Reverse osmosis sytems also filter well using a multistage process that also involves activated carbon.  The only draw back with reverse osmosis is the amount of waste water that is produced per unit of sanitized water.

Ceramic and disk filters removes organisms and small particles but do not remove chlorine, heavy metals, and small organic molecules, unless combined with another filter medium.

I recommend the Berkey black filters in combination with their fluoride filters.  They do a good job of removing chlorine, flouride, heavy metals, organisms, and volatile organic compounds among other things, while preserving the natural minerals in the water.  Just keep in mind not to use plastic containers that leech BPA.

I also recommend plain ascorbic acid (vitamin C) for the shower.  Although not technically a filter, vitamin C water treatment will neutralize chlorine and chloramines.

This is a good start and an amazingly easy and economical way to remove a major source of personal toxicity.

In Health

–
Nhan-Esteban Khuong, L.Ac.
www.SGVJeetKuneDo.com