New here - Former Kenpo student taking up JKD

[JKDJEH86]

Hello everyone,

My name is Josh and Im 21. I live in Texas and I am a former Kenpo Karate student. I had to stop studying in the local Kenpo studio due to money issues but a friend of mine gave me some books as gifts. Theyr books by Bruce Lee. "Chinese Gung Fu" and "Bruce Lee's Fighting Method". I have begun to study them after several years of being out of the martial arts. So far it is going well.

I hope to get some welcomes!

Joshua

[aseepish]

Welcome!

You're exactly where I was ten years ago - fresh out of Kenpo, and looking to study JKD. I was fortunate to find some great instructors in my area - my advice echos Mike Brewer's: look for some instructors and training partners near you!

I found the transition from Kenpo to JKD quite smooth. There were some bad habits that I had to unlearn (mostly due to the fact that the sparring I had done in Kenpo had been of the "point-break-salute-restart" variety).

To whet your appetite a bit, check out some of the links here

http://stickgrappler.tripod.com/jkd/jkd.html

One final thing - something my instructor advised me to do from day one: Keep a training journal! Write down what you do in every training session (whether it's simple fitness stuff like how far you ran in what time, or how much you lifted for how many reps, or the techniques you drilled, observations you made, advice people gave you, weak areas that you want to improve (as well as some ideas of how to improve them)).

Good luck and happy training!

[JKDJEH86]

That sounds like a good idea. Keeping a journal would enable me to keep up with things.

[heyyou316us]

What part of texas? I studied Tracy's kenpo for a year, I picked up the tao and figured out that kata's and fixed positions was a waste of time and doesn't work well in the real world. I found a jkd instructor and have been studing for the past year... best thing i could have done.

[JKDJEH86]

Is Jeet Kune Do pronounced like this (geet-koon-do) as in "you do this" or like the word "dough"?

[JKDJEH86]

Originally Posted by heyyou316us

What part of texas? I studied Tracy's kenpo for a year, I picked up the tao and figured out that kata's and fixed positions was a waste of time and doesn't work well in the real world. I found a jkd instructor and have been studing for the past year... best thing i could have done.

I studied when I was younger at Gary Swan's studio. (He's the head of the National Chinese Kenpo Karate Association) I usually had his wife as my instructor, with the occasional studying with Gary himself. And of course he would pop in during my belt test for the "Kiss of the Dragon" at the end. (he did it). I studied from age 9-14, and then at 15 I had to exit because my family had grown from 5 to 7 people and funds we're low. I was about to go Blue belt when that happened. I practiced on my own for awhile then stopped. Im 21 now, just now getting back into Martial Arts, but finding that I haven't lost what Ive learned in Kenpo and its really helping with JKD.

[aseepish]

..........

"dough".

[nathan rd]

Originally Posted by JKDJEH86

Is Jeet Kune Do pronounced like this (geet-koon-do) as in "you do this" or like the word "dough"?

From Bruce Lee himself:

YouTube - Bruce Lee- Longstreet (1971)

Keep in mind that we're dealing with the Cantonese pronunciation here. The written Chinese for the martial art is 截拳道, which will be pronounced somewhat differently in Mandarin (not sure exactly what the sound is), and in many other Chinese accents. In Korean, the characters are pronounced jeol-kweon-do, as in taekweondo.

[fenwick99]

I think kempo/kenpo is a great art in and of itself, and also a
good art to transition to JKD. Dan Inosanto, Jerry Poteet,
and Larry Hartsell, were Ed Parker kenpo students before hooking up with Bruce Lee.

[aseepish]

Originally Posted by nathan rd

The written Chinese for the martial art is 截拳道, which will be pronounced somewhat differently in Mandarin (not sure exactly what the sound is),

Jie quan (chuen) dao in Mandarin.

Nathan rd... are you in Hong Kong?

[nathan rd]

Originally Posted by aseepish

Jie quan (chuen) dao in Mandarin.

Nathan rd... are you in Hong Kong?

Thanks for the Mandarin transliteration. It's so difficult to romanize Chinese sounds; there is no substitute for audio. But that gives me some idea.

Congratulations on being the first to recognize my screen name. I was wondering if anyone here would notice. Actually, I'm not in Hong Kong; it has been a vacation spot a few times for me. The last time I was there was a few months before they unveiled the Bruce Lee statue, so I just missed it. I recently learned that Lee's childhood home was on Nathan Road, so if I am ever in Hong Kong again, I will definitely have to check to see if anything is there. And of course, I'll have to check out the statue.

[aseepish]

I haven't been to HK since it ceased to be a Crown Colony. But the last time I was there I stayed at the Chungking Mansions - right on Nathan. That's why your screen name rang a bell.

Next time I'm in the city I hope I'll be staying somewhere a little more upscale.

[nathan rd]

Originally Posted by aseepish

Jie quan (chuen) dao in Mandarin.

Is the dao (道) in Mandarin pronounced like the hao in ni hao?