New Post Series Starting Soon

Hello All,
Just a quick note to mention that starting within the next week, I'll start to post WEEKLY a progression of drills that I find useful, so check back soon.

Chi Sao DVD Now Available!

Well Woo Hoo! For some years now, people have asked when my Chi Sao (Sticky/Clinging Hands) VHS would be put into DVD format (with the addition of a navigation menu!), and finally it's here. Click the link to buy!

Knife Information

In previous posts I have mentioned "available equalizers," anything that one could put one's hands on in a moment of need to give you an advantage that you would not otherwise have. A knife is something commonly carried and of course a very powerful equalizer (not trying to euphemistic here). In the future I may go more into the issues of whether to carry or not carry a knife, but for those curious about some base legal issues, Bernard Levine has a site you may want to check out. http://www.knife-expert.com/ is the place to go. I haven't looked thoroughly at the site yet, but it looks interesting.

What If It Doesn't Work?

One of the interesting things that Dan Inosanto spoke about was developing the “educated eye.” That is, he would say, whether you prefer one system or another, you still want to know the strengths and weaknesses of what you might encounter. For example, a grappling oriented person would be a fool to ignore learning enough about good boxing to learn how to get inside its efficient range. Related to this is a question too often ignored in martial training. A technique is presented, and it's a given that it will work if practiced enough. But what if it doesn't work, what position does that leave you in? For example, a large blocking motion could work, but what if the first motion of the opponent was a fake? It's possible that the wide-blocking person could adjust, but there is no question that the larger the defensive motions, the harder it is to flow with and adjust to the unexpected things that happen. So a question/filter we should always be putting our material through is "What if...?"

Daily Weapons

One of the things that Dan Inosanto taught was to classify weapons according to characteristics: long (i.e. staff-like, a broom or pool stick for examples), short, pointed, blunt, edged, flexible (e.g. a belt), throwable (sand, coins, rocks) and so on. Most of us on any given day hold car keys, pens and silverware as common objects that can be very effective "equalizers." Relating back to an earlier post about balancing awareness and paranoia, it's a good idea to remind ourselves as we come into contact with these various implements that they can be multi-purpose tools. I periodically play with smoothly switching a fork (a great nasty weapon) from eating hold to fighting hold, if that doesn't sound too soldier-of-fortune weird. In my often deserted neighborhood, when I walk out the door into the street at night, I may have my most solid car key in an appropriate grip for unlikely just-in-case possibilities. The odds are that if we are not engaged in regular knuckle-head behavior, that we will not need to face serious confrontation, but using a little energy for the insurance that we would be prepared for unwanted situations is a good idea.

New DVD

Hello All,

Just letting you know my "Training Progressions Overview" show, previously available only on VHS is now in DVD with nifty new navigation buttons. Woo and Hoo! You can get it through my e-store. "Modified Chi Sao" will also be available in the near future, again with the very nifty navigation menu, so I will let you know when that is dropping.

Bruce Lee's Favorite Color

Interesting that to this day, martial artists still have no shortage of opinions about Bruce Lee and his methods (Jeet Kune Do). Without going into a critique of the various sides of the debate, an interesting related issue is that people would decide what to train or not train according to what Lee did. It's certainly not a bad starting point, but doesn't take into account individual abilities or preferences. To be more specific, my understanding is that at his furthest stage of development before he died, he had thrown out trapping and most defenses other than close evasion such as slipping, and only wanted to jab or cross or possibly kick his opponent and then be back out. His goal was that the only thing that would be touching between him and his opponent would be Lee's strike or kick. Ok, good for Lee, he had the development to be able to pull that off. Dan Inosanto told me that the last time he saw Bruce, he had become so fast that the only way he knew he was striking at him was because he could feel the wind in front of his face. As for the rest of us, how many of us are anywhere near that level? So for myself, there are many things that Bruce Lee didn't find useful that I find useful. I do know of JKD practitioners that are trying to emulate Bruce's final stage, and I have to wonder if they knew what Bruce Lee's favorite color was, would they now decide that their favorite color was the same?