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.