But You Knew That Already

I'm out in frozy Iowa, and the environment poses interesting challenges relative to fighting: patches of ice, hard uneven snow, and big bulky clothes. A Filipino strategy here might be "De Fondo," which if I'm remembering correctly is essentially holding your ground (since you are not going to be able to move around easily). Of course the JKD tactic of stop-hitting would be good if you see it coming early enough. Sure, a grappling scenario is relvant, but those with that perspective would probably still want to play in the environment with the bulky coats, hats and gloves on to problem solve the unfamiliarity. In the meantime, I'm glad the great odds are in my favor of just having a good time! So if there are idiosycratic environments that are part of your regular travels, it's a good idea to figure out how you would fight in it with your particular skill sets.

JKD Theory and Weapons

While it is true that weapons were not a central part of Bruce Lee's curriculum, the principles that are central to JKD apply broadly and are very useful for weapon methods. I have no doubt that many in the Filipino martial arts ("FMA") crowd will immediately talk of these principles as being old news because of the long history of the FMA and its being battle-tested over time and so on: that means essentially nothing in this discussion because, for one thing, a system's training can change in a single generation, and for another thing, much of what is being passed down now I doubt has been battle-tested.

Let me be specific about several essential issues...

Distance: while many FMA practitioners may talk about long, medium and close range, they rarely define the fighting measure in any kind of ready (non-striking) position. That is, long range is defined as being able to strike or cut each others extended arm, but not whether you are in reach of a strike (INCLUDING THE WEAPON-HOLDING HAND) without the opponent taking a step in when you are in a non-striking or ready position. In JKD, we would consider this too close, because if the opponent strikes non-telegraphically, then we are unlikely to have time to respond well. I have certainly found this to be consistently true with knife and stick as well. It would be humorous how close many knifers stand in their training were it not so misguided. And yes, I understand and acknowledge that surprise attacks happen and we can't always be at "ideal" range, but in training we have to start somewhere and most people's view of basic fighting distance is lacking.

Economy of Motion: it's curious that many contemporary FMA folk also practice some kind of kickboxing-based empty hand art where it's understood that telegraphing (some kind of visually readable preparation) of strikes is a no-no to be guarded against, but somehow this is overlooked when they pick up their weapon. To prove my point, take any ten DVD/videos or Youtube clips on stick or knife, both where an instructor is showing the striking/cutting angles as well as drilling/sparring, and I doubt if you will find even one where the telegraphing is not obvious! Even built into the system! Any movement of a strike that does not involve the business end of the knife or stick going towards the target is a telegraph. Some will say that you need the prep for a fully powerful stroke, but you don't always need a maximally powerful strike to smash a hand, and smaller strikes can be developed to a nicely functional degree. (In a future post I will define the four features of a proper strike.) Also included in the principle of "economy of motion" would be the "passive/active" analysis: that is, how much motion is defensive ("passive") and how much is attacking ("active")? Again, I do acknowledge that we are not always together enough to catch our favored responses, but if a weapon system focuses on a defensive maneuver such as a roof or sweep blocks rather than striking right off the bat (the basic tactic of "largo" systems), then they are lacking in economy of motion.

There is never a point at which we shouldn't ask ourselves whether something we are practicing couldn't be done in a more efficient way, and this is something that is part of the best "traditions."

Drill Post #18: JKD as a Filter

From time to time, I get a call or e-mail from someone that's an experienced martial artist or instructor and has just discovered or become involved in JKD, and is now questioning whether they should simply toss out their previous system or not. What I advise is that they not throw out their system, but to feel comfortably disloyal to the system. What I mean is that they should go ahead and dump the material that they know is simply an artifact from tradition and not really useful, and modify or add what they know in their honest experience is a better thing to do.

Also, a system may just have missing links. For example, a student of mine experienced in traditional Jiu Jitsu always wondered when the teachers were going to show how they might actually get to the joint lock rather than just starting from the already connected position, so we worked on entries using a kickboxing with either time-hitting or trapping as a means to possibly get to a joint lock, and then it made sense to him. We also did kali lock flow freelance (which includes defense against strikes while trying to joint lock) so that it became more alive.

JKD is not just about efficient technique, but looking for the relationship between the pieces of the combative puzzle, and methods to make it real for you, an on-going process.

Drill Post #17: Taking Notes

An important part of martial art education for many people is taking notes. Arguably the most famous notes are those that comprise Bruce Lee's "The Tao of Jeet Kune Do," although he did not write them for public consumption or arrange the very problematic form they ended up published in. But more about that another time. The point is that people in most creative endeavors write notes as a way of remembering important points or sources of information as well as working through problem solving.

Note taking at the Inosanto Academy was particularly important because so much information was covered during any given session. Ironically, there was a senior student that used to conduct some classes back in the '80s, and when he saw students taking notes, he would snidely ask "Are you going to bring your notes to a fight?" Well, no, but neither are you going to warm up, stretch out or wear boxing gloves, dimwit, we thought. It was also an ironic stance on his part because the two biggest note takers I know of are Bruce Lee and Dan Inosanto.

Bruce Lee warned his students to avoid being either "physically bound" (i.e. able to fight hard and endure, but without being able to analyze what you do so you can progress past just being tough) or "intellectually bound" (i.e. being able to understand the theories but not getting your feet wet with training to see what you can actually do).

Notes are one of the ways to keep from being "physically bound."

Yes, in the moment of need, you just have to deal with it without mentally long-winded analysis, but to get to the point where you can be functionally spontaneous you have to do a lot of conscious non-spontaneous thinking, if you really want to be an efficient well-rounded fighter.

Here is the way I organized my notes. The date of an entry can be interesting just to look back at when you encountered certain kinds of training, but past that, I always noted whether something was either a technique (e.g. a jab), a drill (e.g. a random flow of strikes at a defender), or a principle. If it was a principle, I noted whether it was a technical principle (e.g. turn your waist into the strike, hand moves before the foot), a drilling principle (e.g. when delivering a flow of training strikes to the trainee, make sure that the flow is smooth and non-stop unless deliberately breaking rhythm), or a fighting principle (e.g. if the opponent steps inside your fighting measure as he chambers, then stop-hit).

As I have written before, I do feel that 90% of the training should be neither completely pre-set or anything goes, but rather where choices and responses have to made and with controlled or no contact.

Run your knowledge through the suggested organization above and see if that's helpful. You may also want to emphasize what techniques, principles or drills are most important to you.

Drill Post #16: One More Destruction

Previously we've talked about a stop-kick/low side kick as a counter to kicks, punches and general advances, and in the last post we talked about two do-able destructions (injuring the attacker's incoming strike). Although the average street fight does not involve kicking very commonly, even with all the MMA popularity, it would not be shocking to encounter someone kicking. The low round kick ("hook" in JKD terminology) is often defended against by either evasion or "shielding," a block using either the shin or outside of the calf. The shin shield, however, takes a lot of conditioning, and while it will be painful to the kicker's shin, it doesn't feel great on the receiving end either. The calf shield doesn't feel as painful to use but it doesn't really hurt the kicker either. The kali knee shield is a good alternative. The proper execution involves getting the thick bone just below your kneecap to the instep of the incoming kick (which really can't be conditioned worth a darn). Done correctly, your leg will feel fine and their foot may be broken or be so painful as to be hard to stand on. It would be understandable for someone to point out that it takes much more accuracy to do than the standard shields, but it takes much less time to develop the accuracy required than the conditioning of a shin shield which makes this a great solution in a number of ways. An important point in the execution is to draw back rather than advance as you shield, because that way you are replacing the intended target, your thigh, with your knee. If you advance in any way, you will end up crashing shins. By using a slight retreat (possibly just pulling you weight onto the rear foot to be able to point the knee inward or outward at the incoming instep) you also move back out of hand range should the kick be a fake to be followed by a hand attack. If you have good shin/instep pads, then the trainer can put them on, move around freely and firing light round kicks to the inside or outside of the trainee's lead thigh, which he defends against with a "point shield," that is, one that drives into the kicker's instep as we have described. This can be a real show stopper.

Drill Post #15: Two Easy Destructions

Dan Inosanto refers to the Filipino Kali tactic of attacking of an opponent's strike or kick as "destructions." Some require finer timing than others. Two of the simplest destructions to time are the forward elbow against a jab or cross and the downward elbow against kicks coming straight in at the mid-section. Several issues regarding the jab/cross destruction to be aware of. First, the distancing should most often be using a small retreat as though you were going to use a "catch." This has two important functions; first, it gives you the room to fit the pointed-forward elbow between your face and the opponent's fist, and second, should you not have the proper accuracy, the opponent's strike should not be able to reach your face. An additional bonus is that if your accuracy/timing is off, it is highly unlikely that anyone is going to become gun-shy, thinking "Holy smoke! That guy just tried to break my fingers!" It is more likely that he will just think you were covering. It is important when training this, that the trainer/attacker (wearing good hand protection, duh, or using lighter strikes with his palm) actually aims honestly for the defender's face, and doesn't "help" him by aiming for his elbow.

As for a dropped elbow on a front or side kick, still maintain proper distance, retreating just enough to be out of the range of the kick but close enough to come back in quickly with hands or feet afterwards if you want to. As you drop the point of your elbow sharply on his ankle/instep (if it's a front kick) or low outside of his leg (if it's a side kick), still keep your eyes forward so you can see possible hand attacks coming.

Note that in both cases, it's a one-step defense and counter, and really, the finesse needed is not extreme, certainly not a lot more that just a simple boxer's catch in the first case and definitely easier and safer than a scoop parry versus kicks.

Finally, a quasi-political note. There are JKD "traditionalists" that would avoid developing these tactics because they were not part of the JKD/JF curriculum. But since they "fit in" with the structure and principles of directness and efficiency, there is no reason not to use them other than a misguided closed-mindedness, the antithesis of what JKD is all about.

Good for now!

Drill Post #14: Low Maintenance Kicks

In a weird psycho-social way, I understand why certain kicks are not emphasized in most martial arts. Take the foot-stomp. Most people, particularly of the youth species, have an image of martial arts being exotic and physically dramatic (high flying kicks and so on), so if those people went to a school and saw the teacher showing people how to stomp on someone's foot or knee them in the thigh, instead of being impressed with the straight-forward practicality, they would be disappointed, thinking "Well, anyone could do that!" Of course they would be missing several points, among them that they wouldn't think to do that if they weren't turned on to it, and that one still needs the training to catch the opportunity amidst the flow of things. Which is why sometimes I call some of what I do "Old Fart" method; that is, I want to emphasize things that I could do as an old fart. As part of that ethos, we would want the lowest maintenance tools in our repertory. Two of those tools are the foot stomp and the knee to the thigh. One way to train these, beside the obvious use as a follow-up to hand or foot combinations, is in the midst of hand defense. So now, going back to drill post #7, when the trainer goes into a flow of strikes that the trainee is defending against, the trainee/defender should also look for opportunities to knee the attacker's thigh or to foot stomp. A few details here: The foot stomp may be toe point out or toe pointing out according to how your body is positioned as you are defending. Also, regarding the knee, some might ask why we don't just knee the groin. While kneeing the groin is a good tactic, it is more instinctive to defend, and there are many times when the opponent's groin is not an available target, but the inside, outside and front of the opponent's thigh is usually available when at hand range, and as an added bonus, no average dude thinks of defending their thigh. Needless to say, the execution of the foot stomp and knee needs to be completely controlled in training unless good protective equipment is used. Have fun!