I’m not a student or affiliate of Mr Balicki so there is no agenda in my opinions.
Mr Balicki is a Full Instructor under Guro Dan Inosanto in Jun Fan Gung Fu, Filipino Kali and Maphilindo Silat. He also has a range of other qualifications including being an Instructor under Erik Paulson in Combat Submission Wrestling. So to answer your question as to whether he is “the real deal”, he certainly is. A very experienced, qualified and respected instructor in the JKD family.
I have his Instructional DVD set, the volume of information and the quality is superb. As an instructor already, I find it an invaluable reference tool for Guro Inosanto’s curriculum. Mr Balicki really covers things in depth.
However, I personally wouldn’t recommend it for someone new to the art. I believe the DVDs are intended for those who would like to be an instructor in Mr Balicki’s program, or those who already are. If you are new to JKD, then I cannot stress enough that you need to find a qualified instructor and get some solid years of training in the art before looking at learning a DVD Instructor program. I appreciate that there are no instructors near you, but to be honest the study of JKD typically involves travel and expense, certainly if you want to train at a high level.
As a final point, without opening up any debates about what JKD should and shouldn’t be, I would just say to you that martial arts has adapted and developed a lot since the era of Bruce Lee.
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