On Health, Fitness & Jeet Kune Do

The discussion continues  on the JKD Talk Forum.

I like the sheep-sheep dog-wolf analogy.

I agree with the belief that everyone is born with the survival
instinct but that not everyone is born with the  warrior mindset.  In
fact, I don’t believe anyone is really born with the “warrior”
mindset.  The warrior is forged from a certain kind of socialization,
experiences, and character development.  In my earlier comment I had
briefly alluded to the concept of self as potentially encompassing
something beyond our physical body.  In the case of the warrior, the
sense of self tends to encompass a much larger picture such as family,
honor, country, faith, etc.  When that sense of self is threatened, the
same survival instinct kicks in except that it may not be driven by a
need for food or shelter, but rather a need to preserve the larger
concept.

Take for instance, the example of the Todd “Let’s Roll” Beamer, that
was originally referred to.  Mr. Beamer obviously took the role of the
“sheep dog” and was most likely driven by a basic survival instinct,
however his sense of self at that moment may also have encompassed the
his fellow man or “sheep”.  On a darker note the terrorists that took
control of the plane, may not have seen themselves as “wolves” either.
Their sense of self was probably closely tied to faith and culture,
which in turn, warps their survival instinct into something rather
horrific to those that do not share their values.  It is conceivable
that they too see themselves as sheep dogs.

The concept of self and survival should be a simple matter, but people make it complex.

As for the getting the warrior mindset, I do believe it is something
that can be developed.  Some of us may have an easier time of it than
others due to our individual socialization, and the strength and
flexibility of our psyche/spirit.  At times certain things seem like an
impossibility, but I feel the concept of impossible is just an excuse.

Anyway, that’s just what I think.

In Health,

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

The two most common, or at least the most obvious, reasons people take martial arts classes are fitness and self defense.

The most important, most powerful, yet least understood reason, however, is the development of spirit.

So how does this happen, and how can martial art practice lead spiritual growth?

In order to answer this question, we have to first define spirit and spiritual growth.

Spirit by its very nature is not an easy concept to describe.  The simplified short explanation most relevant to this subject as I see it is essentially this:  Spirit is that ethereal element that makes the whole greater than the sum of the parts.  Similarly, spiritual growth is the strengthening and further development of this ethereal element which naturally expresses itself as a whole that is even greater than previously.

In terms of people, spirit is what makes us more than simply bags of bones and flesh.  Yet, our bodies are the ONLY means by which we can achieve spiritual development.

I’m sure this concept might ruffle some feathers but how else can one achieve greater consciousness, awareness, enlightenment, etc., if not by some process that involves utilizing our bodies (yes, the body includes the brain).

With this in mind, martial arts provide an ideal laboratory for spiritual development.  One engages the entire body and all the senses through practice.  It develops a greater attunement of self and surroundings.  It develops our physical capacity (strength, flexibility, speed, reflexes, etc.) along with our mental (scientific reasoning, concrete problem solving, philosophy, abstract thought, analysis) and emotional capacity (passion, will, control, freedom, tranquility, determination, love, ferocity, etc.)

Spiritual development through martial art is cultivated through experience and deep reflection.  Of course fitness and self defense are amazing side effects of training but it is ultimately the ethereal chemistry, so to speak, that occurs as a result of practice that is most valuable.

In Health,

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

When is the last time you took a moment to objectively listen to and evaluate that ever-present voice in your head?

We all have it. For some of us, it is louder and more obnoxious than for others. Sometimes the voice helps us make difficult decisions, but in general, it tends to be rather negative, cynical, and often cruelly chastising.

It’s called self talk, and for some reason the great majority of people tend to beat themselves up with it, and it is perhaps a student’s greatest challenge to advancement.

I see students punishing themselves far too often for making mistakes.  There are no mistakes!  There is always a better way of doing things, and we can always strive to be better.  Reminding and encouraging ourselves to excel is far more productive that convincing ourselves of how poorly we performed.

Martial arts, or any holistically engaging activity, can be used as a powerful tool to quiet and/or control self talk, but like most skills, turning the mental chatterbox into a trained and supportive ally takes time and diligence.

Focusing on a union of mind and body creates a certain synergy leading to ease of movement and physical expression. Bruce Lee saw the power of developing spiritual and mental strength, especially after that fateful day in 1970 when he injured his back, told he would never kick again, and subsequently bedridden for six months. Lee turned to books about philosophy, psychology, spirituality and personal growth. He also reinforced his mental/spiritual/emotional training via copious writing.

Reading and watching videos or listening to audios are also powerful ways to control mental chatter and retrain our self talk, just be certain that the material is engaging and positive. Follow up by practicing what you have learned, writing about it, and using positive language during self talk.

One thing that all martial artists and aspiring martial artists should remember is that the non-physical aspect of training is far more powerful than the physical. As Bruce Lee said, “JKD, ultimately is not a matter of petty techniques but of highly developed spirituality and physique.”

In Health,

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

1. Jeet Kune Do is a concept that does not have tangible techniques.

This is a very prevalent myth that is largely kept alive by “JKD Concepts” and the misinterpretation of “Using no way as way.” Bruce Lee’s JKD does, in fact, utilize specific concepts and value sets in the art of combat. The approach emphasizes liberation from the confines of “style”, however one must keep in mind that it was Bruce Lee’s martial art and therefore, the specific techniques he was practicing and developing provide the tangible foundation of his fighting method.

The idea of creating a hodgepodge of techniques from various martial arts and deciding that “this is what works for me”, then calling it JKD is absolutely preposterous. It is true that my Jeet Kune Do will look different from your Jeet Kune Do, but this is not necessarily due to any difference in technique, but rather to a difference in the way that those techniques are utilized. For example, someone with a longer reach may prefer to stay at a distance using long range weapons and elusive footwork whereas a person with a stockier build may prefer to close the gap and blast away at short range.

Giving credit to the founder’s efforts, there is a certain universality of human biomechanics and combative psychology that keep the JKD techniques and strategies from requiring much further, if any, modification.

2. Jeet Kune Do is a form of modified Wing Chun.

Much like the first myth, this misunderstanding of JKD is largely based on Bruce Lee’s early Jun Fan Gung Fu days when his fighting methodology was primarily based on his Wing Chun background. As his understanding and experience increased, Bruce Lee continued to shave away at the Wing Chung base of his approach, evolving his martial art into something entirely different keeping only very simplified vestiges of the Wing Chun influence.

An additional point of confusion here can be seen in the corroborated reports of his private students, in that the material being taught to his “backyard” class was quite different from the heavily Wing Chun based training at his schools. Although we may never know why he did this, I presume it is because he was using his private students as part of his Jeet Kune Do laboratory and therefore chose not to publicly teach his prototypical stuff that was still in development.

3. Jeet Kune Do is a blend of Western Boxing, Fencing, Wing Chun and other martial arts.

This myth stems from the fact that Bruce Lee was researching and analyzing different martial arts in order to broaden his own understanding. The Tao of Jeet Kune Do along with his other posthumously published works make numerous references to various fighting systems. Bruce Lee was very methodical and to say that JKD is an early mixed martial art is like saying that humans are a blend of various apes. Sure, humans may share a large amount of genetic material and a prehistoric ancestry with apes, but we evolved separately much like JKD shares certain elements with other fighting arts, but evolved separately.–
Nhan-Esteban Khuong, L.Ac.
www.SGVJeetKuneDo.com

When Bruce Lee injured his back in 1970, he was bedridden for months and told by his doctors that he would never be able to kick again.

This could have been the end of the Little Dragon and of Jeet Kune Do, but it was during this time of trial that Bruce Lee created what is now arguably his biggest martial arts legacy — the Tao of Jeet Kune Do and the additional volumes of notes he hand wrote on the martial way. It is also during this time that he ceased physical training and immersed himself if inner work or rather spiritual training and personal growth. Bruce Lee studied and quoted the works of the Buddha, Alan Watts, Carl Rogers, Lao Tzu, Fritz Perls, Daicet Suziki, Jiddu Krishnamurti, Helen Keller, and many more.

It is important to remember the power of the mind, our perceptions, beliefs, and spirit. The world really is what we make of it.

We, as individuals, have a greater potential for greatness if we live as though everything that happens in our lives is a direct result of our thoughts and actions.

On this thought, here is a tremendous blog post from Ross Enamait at RossTraining.com on the power of positive thinking.

http://rosstraining.com/blog/2008/05/15/life-is-tough-deal-with-it

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

Dan Inosanto holds the highest of the two Jeet Kune Do certifications that were ever awarded by Bruce Lee.

Why then, does it appear that most of Sifu Inosanto’s certified instructors do not teach Jeet Kune Do as Bruce Lee taught it . . . the “original” stuff? This is extraordinarily perplexing.

Is Sifu Inosanto teaching the actual “Jun Fan” Jeet Kune Do in all its simplicity and biomechanically efficient glory?

From what I have seen in his videos and the videos of some his top students like Paul Vunak and Ron Balicki, they just seem to be teaching a mixture of wing chun, kickboxing, grappling, stick fighting, and knife fighting without emphasizing the core principles of simplicity, directness, and efficiency.

I don’t know about you, but this phenomenon was very confusing for me in my early training days. It was not easy to separate the supposed “concepts” material from the concrete historical stuff. I was being taught one way in class, while the material that was publicly available from the JKD Concepts clan was showing something else.

Applying the JKD concepts to other martial arts is fantastic, and I would like to see more of that (especially in sport fighting) but I am not seeing this in much of the “Concepts” material that I come across.

Also, I understand that it was Bruce Lee’s wish that commercial jeet kune do schools not exist and that jkd training only be conducted privately and in a low numbers but high quality format. Could it be that sifu Inosanto is still honoring that request after all these years?

If this is the case, I can certainly understand. Yet I feel that most the Concepts people are doing Jeet Kune Do a terrible disservice by watering down the crown jewel of modern self defense.

Other martial arts are great, I have studied and continue to respect all martial systems, but to teach something other than JKD yet claim it as authentic Jeet Kune Do is a shame.

If anyone has some information regarding this matter, let me know!

In Health,

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

UPDATE:

OK, so it turns out that there are JKD instructors certified by Sifu Dan Inosanto who are teaching Jun Fan Jeet Kune Do and doing their part to preserve the original material as taught by founder Bruce Lee. Tim Tackett and Yori Nakamura just to name a couple do teach the original stuff. Both of these men also have videos and books verify this. Of course, like all of us involved in JKD, they have continued to develop and add their own flavors and adaptations to their system, but the essence remains.

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

There has been a good amount of discussion about the effectiveness of Jeet Kune Do and why we don’t see much of it in the UFC and other Mixed Martial Arts competitions.

For those of you who have not yet seen UFC 81 in February of this year, check out the Tim Boetsch vs David Heath fight. You’ll see that Tim Boetsch does, in fact, opt for a very “JKDesque” approach including the on-guard position, a few interceptions, and his boxing like upper body elusiveness.

I would have liked to see more use of lead weapons (especially the straight lead and side kick) and less overhand swings. I don’t know if he is left handed, but hopefully he is also using his strong side forward.

Overall a great fight and an excellent example of JKD principles used in sport fighting.

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

I’m sure you’ve all heard the statistic that 95% of all fights go to the ground, right?

This has been an ongoing hot topic of debate since the ground game became popularized by the UFC, or specifically the Gracie Brazilian Jujitsu family. So where did this statistic come from and does it hold water?

Here is an article from the January 2007 issue of the Journal of Non-lethal Combatives by Chris Leblanc that answers this question quite well:
http://ejmas.com/jnc/jncframe.htm

In short, the “95% of fights go to the ground” statistic is a misinterpreted police survey statistic of physical altercations between civilians and law enforcement officers. According to Leblanc, ” it is better put that the LAPD data says when officers physically fought with suspects (versus simply encountering minor resistance or non-compliance which required a minor use of force, but did not escalate into an altercation), 95% of the time those fights took one of five patterns, and 62% of those five types of altercations ended up with the officer and subject on the ground with the officer locking and handcuffing the suspect.”

This data certainly sheds some light on the 95% statistic, but it does not adequately address the issue of whether street fights between civilians end up on the ground given that law enforcement officers generally act with the intention of subduing, controlling, and arresting (as opposed to knocking the opponent unconscious).

I took this question to an experienced street fighter (now 58 years old and living peacefully as a personal trainer and drug counselor) who grew up on the streets of Pittsburgh.

The answer?

Essentially two untrained fighters will swing wildly, struggle with stand-up grappling, fall, then continue on the ground. Two experienced/trained fighters will stay on their feet unless one or both combatants prefers grappling, in which case the fight could move in either direction.

Not having much personal experience observing live street fights myself, the above assessment sounds solid and also holds true for sport MMA fights.

With this in mind, I would also add, that staying on your feet keeps your options open and allows for greater awareness and utilization of your environment.

The take home lesson?

For self defense situations, work on your diplomatic skills and your stand-up skills but be prepared to defend against and deal with a take down/ground fighting situation. For sport fighting . . . well, it’s entertainment, so do whatever suits your fancy.

In Health,

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

As Bruce Lee said, “The art of Jeet Kune Do is simply to simplify.”

Seriously, what is so difficult to understand about this concept?

I haven’t been very up-to-date on Jeet Kune Do politics until recently, but now that I have begun spreading the word about JKD on a larger level (namely the internet) I’m seeing a JKD community that could really use a timeout and reassessment.

I have a healthy respect for all martial art forms and I am happy to see that the rise of the NHB (no-holds-barred) type of organizations like the Ultimate Fighting Championship and Mixed Martial Arts has truly opened the world up to the exploration and experimentation of other fighting systems. With this in mind, there is also a trend of so-called Jeet Kune Do practitioners transforming what they call JKD into an ever growing and complicating hybrid system.

So what’s my point? I’ll be blunt. Jeet Kune Do is not MMA and it is not an amalgamation of endless martial arts systems.

Jeet Kune Do is a scientific bare bones approach to the art of self defense. In essence, it is martial arts filtered through a medium of efficiency, directness, and simplicity in the laboratory of human biomechanics. Less is more.

Sure, you can apply some Jeet Kune Do principles to other fighting systems to make them more efficient and effective, but this does not make that system JKD. I already see the counter argument that is so often used in this situation. It would be claimed that this rigid blind-faith standpoint of protecting the “Original” JKD is exactly what Bruce Lee was trying to avoid. As good intentioned as this argument is, the key element that is being missed is the fact that, as Bruce Lee stated, “unless human beings have 3 arms and 3 legs, then we will have a different way of fighting.”

The human body can only apply force in so many ways, developing new techniques and variations only serves to entertain those with the impatience to perfect the fundamentals.

Happy Training,

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

Everybody wants a piece of the Bruce Lee legacy.

The man was amazing on so many levels and it is only natural that a following would develop as a result of his achievements. In that following, it is the martial science of Jeet Kune Do that has developed the most debate and controversy. There seem to be endless mutations and interpretations of JKD including modified Wing Chun, grappling, stick fighting, knife fighting, MMA, and so on. All of these different variations may or may not be effective, and they probably do contain JKD elements in varying amounts, but they are subject to the interpretation/modification/development of someone other than Bruce Lee. Discovering authenticity can be a challenge with all the different so-called JKD experts, so here are a few references you can use as a comparison when looking for a solid source of authentic Jeet Kune Do training.

Tao of Jeet Kune Do
Although this is not the end phase of JKD, it is the best written representation available of Bruce Lee’s original martial ideas. The text can be a confusing read as it is a compilation of notes that were not originally written with the intention of publication. However, just by browsing through Bruce Lee’s own hand drawn sketches, and insights, you should get a good sense of what JKD looks like.

Bruce Lee’s Fighting Method Series
This series of books was published posthumously without final approval from Bruce Lee. Keep in mind that these books are actually an early representation of Bruce Lee’s ideas as they were compiled in 1966 but not published until 1978. The actual text is not written by Bruce Lee, but again, the pictures of the founder in action will give you a good idea of what his fighting approach looks like.

Return of the Dragon
This movie has the best visual demonstration of the later stages of Jeet Kune Do performed by the founder himself. More specifically, the fight sequence between Bruce Lee and Chuck Norris in the coliseum after Bree Lee is knocked down for the third time. As Jeet Kune Do rich as this scene is, just keep in mind that it is also mixed with movie theatrics.

Learning Jeet Kune Do from Bruce Lee’s books and movies is simply not practical as none of it was intended to teach it. So in your search for expanded JKD material, whether an instructor a video or book, do your research and compare to authentic sources.

Happy Training!

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