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frankenbeans · 09-01-2004, 02:39 PM

I will admit that Beasley has quite a background in karate and TKD much more than JKD, but it certainly helps that he has had that initial background. A lot of times, Bruce Lee took in more advanced students to train because they already had backgrounds in something else and Lee was too impatient to teach beginners. I think Beasley stated somewhere that he trained with Inosanto from 1983-88, which means that he was probably very active in the JKD circles for that time period and picked up a lot of new information. At least he spent enough time as a Lewis student to earn his 6th, 7th, and 8th degrees under him. And since Lewis was a Bruce Lee student from 1966-69, he did learn enough I'm sure to pick up a number of things from Lee. Anyway, Lee taught different things to different students, so Lewis only used what he might see as beneficial for his own fighting style. That is why there are several interpretations of JKD that exist today. Beasley is only one of the schools of thought out there on the subject. Inosanto represents another, so does Poteet, maybe Vunak, Wong, and some others. I think you're right about Dan being a nice guy because one of my instructors has met him at a seminar and says he's pretty laid-back. Beasley even admits this in the Bax forum that Dan is kind and gives Dan a lot of respect himself. I think Dan just wants to do his best to show what he feels is his interpretation of JKD to the world. It's hard to get everbody in the same room because everybody thinks a little differently about the subject, just like the WTF-ITF controversy about TKD. This is probably nothing new. I've heard amazing things about Dan's students, people like Francis Fong, for instance, who my instructor has told me is an incredible martial artist to witness in person performing.

09-01-2004, 02:39 PM	#9 (permalink)
frankenbeans Registered User Join Date: Jul 2004 Location: Marietta, GA USA Posts: 20 Groans: 0 Groaned at 0 Times in 0 Posts	how one art transitions to another I will admit that Beasley has quite a background in karate and TKD much more than JKD, but it certainly helps that he has had that initial background. A lot of times, Bruce Lee took in more advanced students to train because they already had backgrounds in something else and Lee was too impatient to teach beginners. I think Beasley stated somewhere that he trained with Inosanto from 1983-88, which means that he was probably very active in the JKD circles for that time period and picked up a lot of new information. At least he spent enough time as a Lewis student to earn his 6th, 7th, and 8th degrees under him. And since Lewis was a Bruce Lee student from 1966-69, he did learn enough I'm sure to pick up a number of things from Lee. Anyway, Lee taught different things to different students, so Lewis only used what he might see as beneficial for his own fighting style. That is why there are several interpretations of JKD that exist today. Beasley is only one of the schools of thought out there on the subject. Inosanto represents another, so does Poteet, maybe Vunak, Wong, and some others. I think you're right about Dan being a nice guy because one of my instructors has met him at a seminar and says he's pretty laid-back. Beasley even admits this in the Bax forum that Dan is kind and gives Dan a lot of respect himself. I think Dan just wants to do his best to show what he feels is his interpretation of JKD to the world. It's hard to get everbody in the same room because everybody thinks a little differently about the subject, just like the WTF-ITF controversy about TKD. This is probably nothing new. I've heard amazing things about Dan's students, people like Francis Fong, for instance, who my instructor has told me is an incredible martial artist to witness in person performing.