Bruce Lee- The Philosophy of Jeet Kune Do

[Ryu (JKD?)]

"Its very true though, the honesty part, if your honest with yourself it makes it harder becuse then you have to be honest with everyone else. i find it the harder part is the realty of facing what happens when you are fully open and honest with others.

mostly beacause honesty tends to push the bottons of people that are in deep denial, and to be honest i dont want to push others bottons or bring them to face there issues, but it happens and its just part of who i am. "


I Know exactly what you mean. A lot of people dislike those who are honest with themselves and their emotions. When you don't wear masks, certain people tend to be both annoyed and intimidated by it.
I say that we should all strive to be honest with ourselves and each other (with politeness in mind too of course haha). It takes a lot of strength to stand up against the limits that society and culture place on you.
But when you do, the rewards are pretty enlightening.

So find out what makes you tick. And express that honestly, with integrity and decency, and with conviction.


Take care,
Ryu

[Demi Barbito]

No dissrespect intended to anyone (what a way to begin huh?)...

I think all the focus on philosophy is very romantic and all but I can't stand it. I enjoy being part of all things JKD but I really cannot appreciate that in the year 2003 we are still talking about

"physical doors"
"spiritual doors"

(I'm ready to run for the door)

"""morality, etc. can be complex at any given moment"""

So if someone is being raped we are not sure if it's ok or not??? Morality is static. Good is always good and bad is always bad, and that's why we train.

"""Bruce Lee"""

What's that guy got to do with anything? It's the year 2003.

I assert that JKD is in a sad state of affairs and quagmired in a status quo.

OJKD??? - Lot's of philisophical nonsense

JKDC??? - Just enough philisophical nonsense to make you think you're smart

FUNCTIONAL JKD??? - Less talk and more action

SELF PRESERVATION??? - no nonsense 101

Where should one be if you're training to keep yourself in one piece?

And people wonder why it takes them so long to develop a good jab...

No offense, just my (overstated) opinion.

If a JKD disscussion is to keep my attention it should not be philisophical:

http://w3.blackbeltmag.com/featurecontent/view.asp?article=423

Demi (the anti hero) Barbito

[Tom Yum]

Nice article.

[Ryu (JKD?)]

Originally posted by Demi Barbito
No dissrespect intended to anyone (what a way to begin huh?)...

I think all the focus on philosophy is very romantic and all but I can't stand it. I enjoy being part of all things JKD but I really cannot appreciate that in the year 2003 we are still talking about

"physical doors"
"spiritual doors"

(I'm ready to run for the door)

"""morality, etc. can be complex at any given moment"""

So if someone is being raped we are not sure if it's ok or not??? Morality is static. Good is always good and bad is always bad, and that's why we train.

"""Bruce Lee"""

What's that guy got to do with anything? It's the year 2003.

I assert that JKD is in a sad state of affairs and quagmired in a status quo.

OJKD??? - Lot's of philisophical nonsense

JKDC??? - Just enough philisophical nonsense to make you think you're smart

FUNCTIONAL JKD??? - Less talk and more action

SELF PRESERVATION??? - no nonsense 101

Where should one be if you're training to keep yourself in one piece?

And people wonder why it takes them so long to develop a good jab...

No offense, just my (overstated) opinion.

If a JKD disscussion is to keep my attention it should not be philisophical:

http://w3.blackbeltmag.com/featurecontent/view.asp?article=423

Demi (the anti hero) Barbito

Hey Demi,
Philo in JKD is only as good as its practicality. Philo in life is only as good at its practicality. Dude, you got no idea how much I agree with you on a lot of what you're saying here. Especially...

"So if someone is being raped we are not sure if it's ok or not??? Morality is static. Good is always good and bad is always bad, and that's why we train."

I'm in no way advocating moral relativism. I hate it. Inside me I very much think morality static. The only problem is that in order for me to sometimes logically "prove" that good is always good and bad is always bad, I gotta get a bit philosophical haha.
But philo's just another aspect of the martial art....

Sometimes someone needs advice, thoughts, other than just that of the physical fight. When that happens, and someone wants to discuss a philosophical idea, or maybe needs someone to help them through a emotional problem, etc. It's good to be educated in philosophy, counseling, etc.

In JKD, I'm very much like you. I think all the politics, "bubbly philo", etc. is hampering and makes JKD take a back seat to reality sometimes.
SO, my training is just that.....real training. Glove up, grab a stick, grab anything, and fight... Full contact. Get in there, punch, kick, blast, clinch, headbutt, take em down, roll, choke, ground and pound, pull a "knife" on the ground, have a friend come, bite, etc.

Cuz this kind of training always keeps you real....
and it's this kind of training that's kept me away from all that "well your truth is not my truth, so I can do whatever I want" garbage. You do what works in reality. And that ain't always relative. Period.

So, just wanted to say that even though I have a degree in philosophy, and have worked with a bit of counseling, etc. before it doesn't mean that's the aspect in Reality Based Self Defense you want to focus on. You focus on Reality.

Anyway, just wanted to make that clear. The person who started the thread wanted to talk about philosophy.....so I gave it to em.
Not a problem.....just gotta keep philo grounded in reality like everything else.

Well take care,
and by the way.......anyone who's passionate about good being good and bad being bad, ain't an "anti hero"
So I don't think anyone should consider you that.

I say keep up the good work.

Ryu

[Thai Bri]

I'm with Demi.

Can I at least say that without being censored?

[Ms. J]

RYU wrote: my training is just that..... Real training. Glove up, grab a stick, grab anything, and fight... Full contact. Get in there, punch, kick, blast, clinch, headbutt, take em down, roll, choke, ground and pound, pull a "knife" on the ground, have a friend come, bite, etc.******

Ok quick note: half of me envy’s the above statement because my body is not capable of doing that kind of thing anymore.

The other half of me is asking myself if i really had fun when i ended up having to fight that way wile growing up. or as an adalt to save my life or others. In addition, you know something flat out because I am a girl it’s different. It has never been about testing my skills because i wanted to go full contact for fun. It has always been about keeping my butt alive because i have always faced physical confrontations from childhood. The violence deal was very real for me from a very young age. It was never fun and I never remember it being so. War zones suck but they teach you a hell of a lot.

Again, i think it has a lot to do with the gender differences, but i understand the process it’s just a different path to the same end goal. male human agression needs foucusing and many use training to do this. i remember a really good artical that Tuhan bill wrote on human agression i will see if i can find it. i think he had it in one of the magazines a number of years ago as well.

I learned huge things from the survival end of my life, the sparing end the past few years has just forced me to face the limitations... and that i am old...

Ms. J bows deeply and runs to the dance.

[Demi Barbito]

"""half of me envy’s the above statement because my body is not capable of doing that kind of thing anymore."""

It's not really about training "hard" as much as it's about training "right".

[Ms. J]

Training Hard

Demi,

I dont know for some i believe it is about training hard. I have seen and taught enough lads with anger management issues, to know that sometimes the hard training is what is needed, futhermore that its the right thing for them. There have been young men, and men that have come into my class full of anger and full of energy that seriously needed the full contact training as a safer outlet for the aggression.

When this is the case I just toss gear on them give them a stick or a knife and a partner and just let them go at it until it is out of their system.

On a serious level, I have had men come into my class so wound up and so full of their work frustrations that my classes have turned into male human aggression nights. Actually I use to joke about how I was teaching a male human aggression class on Tuesday nights because most of the time the frist 30 minutes of the class was spent just letting the dudes in my class fight it out and get it out of there system so I could actually teach them something productive.

However this was partly due to the type of professions that many of my students on the east coast had, they seriously needed this kind of full contact more then others. To the point that we started having an extra Saturday morning class on the beach that were just about them getting together and tossing each other in the sand or chasing each other around with weapons.

Most of the time, Saturday’s classes were done without much gear on and only what the students wanted or did not want to put on. Saturdays were about them and whatever they wanted to do in the sand. It was always a learning process and always I let the class’s sort of just take off and go on an eclectic bases.

But most of these men needed this kind of training for stress management on a serious level, they were Cops, Swat team members, Air Marshall rangers, security team forces, men that had very high stress related jobs, or anger management clients and younger men filled with aggression.

I understand the realty’s of the need for men to train this way mostly because of how I grew up, how I spent my adult life and because of the lifetime evolution of my training.

I have also spent years researching data and study’s drawn by our medical and physiological community’s on the long term benefits of martial arts training compared to other physical activities in relationship to reducing stress, anger and controlling negative violent tendency’s.

To back this I have years of education and practical experience dealing with special needs children and working for the military dealing with family service issues overseas during war time. Its one of the main reasons its part of what is suggested to my clients after they have learned there core SDA Skills. Long term training in appropriate areas of the martial arts based on what your overall goal is has huge positive benefits for people in general. Especially for people that deal with or have dealt or work with seriously violent lifestyles.

With young adult men, i.e. (16 to 25) when you have lads that are full of male human aggression, testosterone, and hormones, and when there is no place for them to focus it they tend to get into trouble. Training hard can be an appropriate outlet for their anger and for the aggression. In addition, I have seen what happens without it if they really need to do it for what ever reason. If there is no place to focus it before it comes out on its own when it does come out its harder for them to control and process.

Letting it out in a somewhat controlled training environment can help young men process the aggression and feelings without going and taking it out on society at large in a fit of rage. Full contact training is one of the things that can keep a troubled young man on the straight and narrow instead of processing the anger out in the streets and continuing the process of violence, they are dealing with to begin with.

Many people miss interpret what I believe and what I teach because I am a woman. They think that I send people to go and get counseling or I counsel them and let them talk out there aggressions and frustrations. I believe there is a balance and it is about doing both.

In society today we tend to tell everyone that they have to suppress anger, aggression, and emotions. The body is not meant to suppress emotions and anger its meant to express it on a physical level. If the body has the outlet to express it in a semi-controlled fashion then it is doing what it needs to for processing the emotion or the real chemical change in the body thats caused by having the emotion. If the body has these emotions and checmical reactions to them suppressed long enough and its not faced in some way, it will come out anyway latter and in an uncontrolled fashion.

This can happen because the body becomes overwelmed and overloaded with emotions and checmical imbalances from suprssion of them. However, regardless of what we tell our bodys, its going to express itself in some way and many times the long term supression of anger, pain and agression leads to long term heath issues.

When you need to processes physical emotions and chemical reactions in the body then it needs to be done on a physical level. All the counseling and talking in the world alone does very little to help actually process the aggression. Mostly because the chemical changes in the body are not processed until the body is allowed to express itself in a physical manor.

For me, it is not about training hard and full contact like that, but that is only because i cant anymore and why i state i envy not having the capabilities to do so.

On the other hand, because of the gender differences, i have never wanted to train just for the fight. As far as proving anything to myself, because i had the chance to prove most of my techniques based on real survival and real confrontations to know what works for me and what doesn’t my evolution has been somewhat different. In addition, anything new I push, and I work now just has to be done differantly and in a very careful way.

Mostly this means that my training partners take much more abuse from me on a physical level then i do from them. It takes a very understanding partner to allow me to train or spar at semi full contact. I do it and i do it as often as i can still. However, it is not about proving techniques or proving to my self, it works now. It is more about keeping up my skills and being able to teach others the concepts, i need to.

Right now, part of my personal training focus is being geared to compete this year and next year. Because of this most of my training will be geared towards training for stick compation (full contact and forms), and then knife compatitions. However, in competition it is always with full contact gear on, based on rules. One of the main reasons I am doing this kind of training right now is so that I can understand all the aspects of what I am learning, also to use as a long term training tool to have for helping my clients and students on how to learn control.

It is not hard to teach someone to fight full contact; the harder part is after they get the part about full contact they get to learn about control.

Part of fighting is the control that you need to read an opponent, and to stay detached and calm during the confrontation so your body can do what it does the best and react instinctively. Sparing and competing helps to learn control. With control, you have a huge edge when fighting someone. Regardless of the circumstances.

Its also part of the process of learning NON-Intent. To be out of body and to let your body react instinctively, in other words like Bruce Lee tried to get others to understand, its not me telling my hand to punch you in the face, its my hand punching you. Its doing it by natural refexitive action and at the time of the action your body should not need your mind to tell it what to do. If it does then you are losing time saving your self. Each second lost in a real survival confrontation will cut down your chances of surviving the instance of violence your facing on a real level.

Because of the gear we have now and because of the gear we ware when competing in tournaments, the realty’s of what i can and cannot do based on the gear changes the dynamics some.

Believe it or not training full contact safely was an important issue for Sigung Bruce, its why he had Guro Dan making, collecting and testing safety gear, pads and so forth, throughout the develpment stages and building of the core concepts of JKD.

Based on everything i have learned, read and then been told to me by Guro Dan (mostly in lecture) Guro Dan and Sigung Bruce went though this incredible process of trying to find things that would protect the body from the worst of the damage so techniques could be pushed and still keep our partners alive and ourselves alive on the floor.

A lot of the full contact gear and training gear we have today including kicking pads, focus mitts and so forth were the brainchild of Sigung Bruce and Guro Dan. Because of this evolution, today full contact means something different then it did 40 years ago.

Ms. J bows deeply…