TRUE SELF DEFENSE AND THE VALUE OF MARTIAL ARTS IN EVERYDAY LIVING

When thinking of self defense, many people limit this concept to physically combating an attacker. The Jeet Kune Do philosophy developed by Bruce Lee has a much broader interpretation of this term. Lee felt life was combative and you were always facing new challenges, financially, health, emotionally. You might get cancer, your boss or fellow co-worker can assault you verbally, lose your job, an entire litany of events can occur in a single day ranging from minor to major assaults to ones self worth. True self defense needs to encompass more than just dealing with someone trying to punch you in the nose! To be successful in dealing with these issues, Lee felt you needed to develop the warrior spirit and that was the deeper aspect of his Jeet Kune Do.   A well developed warrior spirit gives you strength to deal with life's ups and downs. There is an interesting dichotomy in the development of fighting skills, the greater we develop them, the less we feel the need to use them. Despite how cerebral or intellectual we humans pride ourselves, we all function unconsciously on a primitive physical level. An untrained fighter always carries a fear of larger and more aggressive people they come into contact. Part of this is from childhood when adults were so much bigger and more powerful and unfortunately this disabling feeling is carried into adult life.  When an adult becomes secure in their ability to protect themselves, amazing feelings of confidence and empowerment develop.  These feelings of confidence, regardless of how simplistic and "cave man mentality"  they may seem, translate into much higher things in our life. Confidence gives us the ability to ask for a raise from our boss, not shake from fear when someone yells or tries to physically or even mentally intimidate us. After all, we know we can strike out fiercely at a given moment and this physical confidence is more empowering than when simply carrying a gun or knife.  Knowing we can defend ourselves physically appeals to primitive instincts deep within each one of us. It also   gives us the ability to walk away from violence if we have that option, because we don't have to prove anything to our self or others. I remember Jeet Kune Do practitioner Paul Vunak telling me how martial arts helped him control his anger when people would cut him off in traffic or yell from their car window, something that happens in Los Angeles rush hour a lot. He would just laugh to himself, "of all the people this person chose to pick a fight with,a guy that has been practicing plucking eyeballs out of human heads for the last 30 years!"  This realization gave him the ability to not escalate the situation to something worse and yet keep his dignity.     This empowerment is what Bruce Lee discovered and his writings are filled with the higher meaning of martial arts. Bruce Lee, subject to discrimination for being Asian during the 1960's and standing 5'7", weighing 128 lbs was a great example of how one can conquer intimidation and develop empowering confidence through the practice of martial arts.  

The Three Martial Arts aspects of Bruce Lee

Bruce Lee like other creative innovators was complex in nature and to try to classify someone like that in one or more categories is limiting. However, there are three distinct aspects of Sifu Lee that seem to cause confusion among even some devoted followers. I hope that examining each one of those three sides will help clarify what others have found confusing.  The three martial arts aspects of Lee can be classified as his Martial Arts for the movies, Martial Arts for Kickboxing and Martial Arts for street survival.   Lee was clear that what he choreographed for the movies was not always what he would do in a street fight.  For the movies , what looked good on the screen took priority over how efficient or practical a move would be in a real life fight.  For instance, in the movies, he did more kicking and certainly more high kicks than he promoted to his students. One reason was he felt the camera caught the kicks better than his hands, his hands being so fast.  Therefore, we should never confuse what he did for the cinema, for what he taught in his Los Angeles Chinatown school.  

Then there was his exploration into kickboxing. World class kickboxers were coming to Lee for expert training, hoping his tips would give them an edge in the ring. Champions like Joe Lewis, Chuck Norris and Mike Stone were some who sought out Lee for his expert advice. However, sports fighting is a different animal, which involves a lot of strategy, endurance and observation of rules.   Then finally we have what many feel was Bruce’s true passion and that was reality based fighting for the streets.  The term street fighting is a bit misleading because a large number of altercations actually occur indoors, but we use that term as all encompassing for reality based self-defense.  Sifu Lee’s concepts for reality based fighting were revolutionary at the time and focused on efficiently terminating a fight as quickly as possible.  Certain principles are considered a core to efficient fighting and that one has to find the best way to personally adapt them.   Understanding these different explorations of Lee will hopefully help to clear up past misunderstandings and not confuse his movie choreography or sports coaching with his reality based  street fighting known as Jeet Kune Do.

Jeet Kune Do Comes From China ?

Kareem Abdul Jabbar, famed basketball player was an original Jeet Kune Do student of Bruce Lee.  He once stated in an interview that while JKD had its roots in Chinese philosophy, it really was American in nature.  At first, I wasn’t sure what he was meaning, but later I began to see his point.  Jeet Kune Do is not limited in any way and draws from many cultures, which is actually a very American way of doing things. This idea of absorbing the best from around the world and making it specifically your own has been something that has helped America gain abundance.  Sigung Lee felt that blindly following a style could divide people and might possibly promote racism. Unfortunately you still hear people argue “Korean Karate is the best”, “No Brazilian Jujitsu is the only one”,” Japanese Karate rules”   In Lee’s opinion, this would never lead one to the truth and only creates division. Jeet Kune Do isn’t about promoting an ancient culture or a single nationality. It’s all about what really works in combat. 

THE FOUR RANGES OF COMBAT

Bruce Lee identified four ranges of empty hand combat.  The first range was identified as kicking range and is the furthest from your opponent. The next range is called boxing or punching range and is a little closer and is about one step in from kicking range. The closest range in stand up fighting is trapping range. Then finally we have grappling range which can be as close as two opponents can possibly be and often has full body contact top to bottom and is on the ground.

There are a few basic strategies in JKD as to how to use the 4 ranges.  One thought is to identify what range your opponent wants to fight in and you stay outside that range. For instance, you would not fight an expert boxer in punching range, but try to subdue them in kicking or trapping range.  While this is a good theory, in a street fight it’s not practical.  Firstly, you don’t have much time in a real fight to discover what your opponents expertise is and secondly the grappling range is always our last choice. A golden rule is we try to avoid going to the ground in a real fight.  Also, by the time you discover your opponents preferred range, it can be bad news for you.  We want to end a fight as quickly as possible and we are not planning to hang around to see if this person is a better fighter. Maybe he was a better fighter; we just didn’t give him a chance to prove it.

A much better way to think of the 4 ranges of combat is to think of them as a series of descending choices.   Another rule for street fighting is “distance is our friend”.  Speaking of distance, retreat has always been a military strategy and should be an important part of your repertoire.   In my opinion, the best way to think of the ranges of fighting is to try to end a conflict from the furthest range. If I can end a fight with a kick, why not? If the kick didn’t stop the assault then usually you find yourself in punching range and that’s the second choice. If punching range does not work, we flow into trapping range, which would be our third choice. The final range and absolute last choice on our list is grappling or going to the ground. There are so many reasons in a real fight to not go to the ground so that should always be last on our list if possible. Remember we are talking about street survival and not sports fighting.  

The Three Swordsmen

Bruce Lee had a colorful way to explain his philosophy with a favorite story involving three swordsmen.   The following is in the words of Sifu Lee:

Three swordsmen sat down at a table in a crowded Japanese inn and began to make loud comments about their neighbor, hoping to goad him into a duel. The master seemed to take no notice of them, but when their remarks became ruder and more pointed; he raised his chopsticks and, in quick snips, effortlessly caught four flies’ wings. As he slowly laid down the chopsticks, the three swordsmen hurriedly left the room.

The story illustrates a great difference between eastern and western thinking. The average westerner would be intrigued by someone’s ability to catch flies with chopsticks, and would probably say that has nothing to do with how good he is in combat. But the eastern person would realize that a man who has attained such complete mastery of an art reveals his presence of mind in every action. The state of wholeness and imperturbability demonstrated by the master indicated his mastery of self.

And so it is with martial arts. To the westerner the finger jabs, the side kicks, and the back fist, etc, are tools of destruction and violence which is, indeed, one of their functions. But the eastern person believes that the primary function of such tools is revealed when they are self-distracted and destroy greed, fear, anger and folly.

Manipulative skill is not eastern person's goal. He is aiming his kicks and blows at himself and when successful, may even succeed in knocking himself out. After years of training, he hopes to achieve that vital loosening and equability of all powers, which is what the three swordsmen saw in the master.

In every day life the mind is capable of moving from one thought or object to another – “being” mind instead of “having” mind. However, when face to face with an opponent in a deadly contest, the mind tends to stick and loses it mobility. Stick ability or stoppage is a problem that haunts every martial artist.

Kwan – in (avalokitesvara), the goddess of mercy is sometimes represented with one thousand arms, each holding a different instrument. If her mind stops (999) will be of no use whatever, it is only because of her mind not stopping with the use of one arm, but moving from one instrument to another, that all her arms prove useful with the utmost degree of efficiency. Thus the figure is meant to demonstrate that, when the ultimate truth is realized even as many as one thousand arms on one body may each be service able in one way or another.

“Purposelessness”, “empty – mindedness” or “no art” are frequent terms used in the orient to denote the ultimate achievement of a martial artist. According to Zen, the spirit is by nature formless and no “objects” are to be harbored in it. When anything is harbored there, psychic energy is drawn toward it, and when psychic energy loses its balance, its native activity becomes cramped and it no longer flows with the stream, where the energy is tipped, there is too much of it in one direction and a shortage of it in another direction. Where there is too much energy, it overflows and cannot be controlled. In either case, it is unable to cope with ever – changing situations. But when there prevails a state of “purposelessness” (which is also a stage of fluidity or mindlessness) , the spirit harbors nothing in it, nor is it tipped in one direction;  it transcends both subject and object; it responds empty – mindlessly to whatever is happening.

 True mastery transcends any particular art. It stems from mastery of oneself – the ability, developed through self – discipline, to be calm, fully aware, and completely in tune with oneself and the surroundings. Then, and only then, can a person know himself.

---- Bruce Lee

The Great Dan Inosanto

Recently, I had the privilege of spending some private time with the legendary Bruce Lee protege Dan Inosanto. For those who might not be aware, Sifu Inosanto was hand chosen by Bruce Lee to teach Jeet Kune Do in Lee’s Los Angeles “Chinatown” school. In fact, he was the only person ever chosen by Bruce Lee to be an instructor in JKD and Lee had given Sifu Inosanto the highest ranking in JKD to an individual at that time.

To this day, Dan Inosanto remains the highest ranking instructor in JKD and in my opinion if you can spend even just a little time with him, you will quickly see what Bruce Lee saw in him. Not only does Sifu Inosanto have great skill and an encyclopedic level of knowledge in technique, he also possesses a deep philosophical understanding of martial arts. He has a philosophical understanding that transcends beyond mere combat and applies martial arts to day to day living for success and happiness. One example of this was back in the Oct 2009 issue of Black Belt Magazine nine well known JKD instructors where asked a simple question. They were asked what was the single most important thing that Bruce Lee taught.  Every response, with one exception, was about some technique Bruce Lee taught. The Straight lead was mentioned by several, etc... Only one instructor mentioned the deeper philosophical aspect of Jeet Kune Do. That instructor was Dan Inosanto and he alone had the  great insight to say the deepest thing Bruce Lee taught was "self-expression through self-discovery". 

I really don’t understand how some people claim the Inosanto Academy doesn’t teach pure JKD. That might be an interesting article unto itself. Perhaps greedy people trying to make money by claiming they are the only source for JKD? Anyone that questions Dan Inosanto should go to his school and spend time with him. If they did, they would find he does teach JKD in its original form. The Inosanto Academy teaches JKD in its pure form, but by invitation only. He is not teaching JKD mixed with Kali. The Kali class and Muay Thai class, etc… are completely separate. This is because Dan Inosanto is keeping his promise to Bruce Lee, the promise to not exploit JKD for money. The other thing to keep in mind is Dan is the most honorable and decent person in martial arts today. That is a realization that anyone can come to with just a little investigation. Linda Lee, the wife of Bruce Lee, wrote that Dan was offered a lot of money right after the death of Bruce Lee to open a string of JKD schools. Sifu Inosanto turned it down because he chose to honor his promise to Bruce Lee to not exploit JKD. Wow, how many people could walk away from a fortune just to keep their word, keep their word to someone that’s not even alive?

The reality is that for most of us, the ultimate way we can know what Bruce Lee taught is by reading everything Bruce wrote and by talking to those who knew him. That’s it. Dan has proven that being honest is more important than money, so based on his amazing honesty; I feel it’s only logical that we should trust what he says about JKD.               

                      
                     Bruce Lee the ultimate Martial Artist

I remember many years ago when I was studying traditional martial arts.     I was going through the belt system of Taekwondo under a very serious Korean master. He demanded absolute perfect form; every position of the body had to be in the correct place. If a thumb were so much as slightly out of place while holding a stance, he would quickly come over and correct you. In fact, it seemed a lot of his time was spent going around correcting the form of each student.  This kind of drilling makes a lot of sense early on and I can see it having a lot of value when you are teaching a large military group. Actually, this concept of making everyone adhere to the same pattern has made Japan a great country for manufacturing cars. They have the perfect reference and everyone must hold to it and no deviation is allowed.  However, would you call someone in a car factory an artist?

The problem develops when we call ourselves artists.  The term artist has always had the connotation of someone who is creative. Forcing someone to never deviate from the ideal form in Martial Arts is like forcing someone to paint by the numbers.  Bruce Lee was a true martial artist because he was able to be so creative in the development of his personal martial art system.  He was able to honestly express himself and encouraged everyone else to do likewise.  We are all different people with different body types and attributes.  As Bruce once said, trying to force everyone to blindly fit in one form is like trying to force everyone to fit in the same size suit!  A core philosophical idea in JKD is, know the principle, follow the principle, and dissolve the principle. Yes, its important to learn the form at the beginning, but latter you should creatively adapt it to fit you. Then you are a true martial artist.  

                                    Jeet Kune Do Power Strikes

Bruce Lee had the amazing ability to flow from very fast precision striking with a kind of light “flicking” energy from a long distance to tremendous power that could shell shock your body in close quarter combat.  It all came down to what we call in JKD, his body mechanics.  Knowing how to focus your entire body weight and muscle strength into your blows is a key to the JKD striking power.  Once learned, a small person can easily generate enough power to inflict a debilitating blow to an attacker. Bruce Lee was 5”7 and weighed only 128lbs! 

The analogy I like to use is, imagine you have a sack with 10 small rocks in it and you are trying to ward off an attacker. From a far distance it might make sense to pull one rock out at a time from the bag and throw it at the attacker, similar to the JKD strategy of eyes jabs and groin shots. However, from a short or closer distance that method will more than likely be ineffective.  It would make more sense to keep all the rocks in the bag and swing it with all your might to disable your attacker in one or two power blows.

How do we start to train our body mechanics for power? Here is where the practice of Kali helps our JKD.  Paul Vunak with the help of Dan Inosanto isolated six important moves with the stick.  These six moves will force the body to move and twist in such a way as to help develop power in your close quarter combat range.  Power in your blows in close quarter combat is crucial, because if you can’t hit hard, you are just going to make your attacker angrier!  Just remember anyone can learn to hit hard if they are given the know-how.  A 5’ tall person weighing 90lbs can develop a devastating blow if they learn how to impact all 90lbs plus into their strike and in my experience the average street thug can’t recover from that!

                                        Secret Killing Moves!

Most people that come to me to learn self-defense skills often make the mistake as seeing this as nothing more than the acquisition of various techniques.   Secret moves that will make them invincible to any attack.  Unfortunately it’s not that simple. Actually I should say fortunately it’s not that simple, because if it were, then everyone would be walking around with secret deadly moves. 

It has become a common theme in self-defense circles to trash traditional martial arts as a waste of time to learn for practical street self-defense.  Go to any so called reality based self-defense seminar and all you will hear is “this or that” martial arts doesn’t work in a street situation.   My opinion concerning this is statements like that couldn’t be further from the truth!  I am sorry to contradict all those self-defense instructors out there, but I have seen traditional martial arts used successfully in street fights! 

People who understand the spirit of Jeet Kune Do never trash another art by claiming it has no value as practical self-defense.  The reality is all arts can be made to work if you spend enough time and develop enough skill.  Some concepts can be learned and used quickly while others might take years to master. Also, the more difficult the skill, the more perishable that skill becomes.  So the questions to ask yourself in this day and age, how much time are you able to devote to learning practical self-defense?  Most people can’t devote themselves to living in a temple and practice martial arts hours and hours every day like a Shaolin monk.  Most of us need to focus on the most efficient skills that will stay with us for years.

One of my favorite Bruce Lee stories concerns an incident that happened in his school with one of his students.  A new student came to class that had a background in traditional martial arts.  This student was sparring with an older more experienced JKD practitioner.  The new student began doing a very fancy move, I think it was a reverse spinning kick. The Bruce Lee student stopped the new guy and began telling him very authoritatively why that was such a bad move and would never work in “real life”.  Bruce overheard him and walked over to the JKD student and asked him to explain why it wouldn’t work.  Then Lee began doing the very same technique with blazing speed and precision “nailing” his very own student over and over!  Lee’s point was any technique could be made to work and it really comes down to your own attributes and time you desire to perfect it.  “Honestly expressing yourself” ,something often quoted in JKD circles, also means to be honest with yourself!  If you feel a technique doesn’t work, then you should discard it, but before you do, answer honestly as to why it didn’t.