I was just going through some old notes I made about 10-15 years ago. I was doing an interview with Bobby Baker about the Oakland JKD. During the conversation I mentioned that I had read that Bruce had ordered all his commercial clubs to be closed. Bob laughed at this and said to me, "Do you know how many 'commercial clubs' existed then?" I answered, "Three, I suppose". Bob shook his head and said, "No, just one - L.A.". When I pushed him further he told me that, "Jimmy wasn't teaching a commercial school at that time he was simply teaching in the garage and Taky never taught commercially anyways. So Bruce's statement wasn't meant for Taky or Jimmy and had absolutely no impact on them."
Occasionally I would ask Bob about something I had learned before or read in an article; he had a way of making you feel a little daft for asking the question with just a look. One thing was for sure, he did not have a lot of time for what was being promoted as being JKD at that time, Its too conscious, its too complicated he would say. Bruce would cry if he saw what people were calling JKD these days, in fact if Bruce and Jimmy were around, people wouldnt be calling that stuff JKD. He said that Bruce had come up from LA one time with Ted Wong and they had all been talking. Bruce had said that there were a couple of really good fighters in LA which he (Bob) identified as being Dan Lee and Bob Bremer while Oakland was full of them. He remembered vividly the smile on Jimmys face at that.
His views on JKD were though very single minded. He wasnt the kind of guy who would be diplomatic without cause. One day we sat talking and he was browsing through the latest edition of Inside Kung Fu. There was an article by a well known JKD personality who was illustrating the 5 forms of attack. What a load of shit Bob said. I asked what he was meaning. This 5 ways of attack, he continued, Bruce never meant it to be trained. It wasnt something he wanted to use in any way except as a research tool. I asked him to continue and he explained that Bruce would look at a confrontation and say that the attack was this or that. However it went against all the principles of what was taught in Oakland to have to drill this into a student. You dont think about attacking, you just do it he would say. You dont think shall I do a PIA or maybe a ABD? You just hit the guy. If you have to think then youre too slow. I asked then what the purpose of these 5 ways? To which he replied they were simply ways of categorizing an attack. It was for research, for understanding, for analysis.
One afternoon Bob and one of his friends/students (a guy called Bryant (Norris I think) were working out at Bryants house. Bobby took me through there for one of his 'couple of hours' sessions (started at 11am and we were still with Bryant at midnight). Bob showed me an intercept (Juk Tek) followed by qwai choi. He paid particular emphasis to how you dropped your body ON TARGET rather than back where you started from. Anyway, Bryant and I practised it using something Bob called 'firing blanks' which was making contact but not snapping the body or power into the punch or kick. I asked Bob about a variation and he pushed me out of the way eagerly and said 'watch this' he then did a very smooth, precise and for want of a better description, clinical set of techniques. They were sharp and would cause a lot of damage. 'Thats how Bruce would do that' Bob said. Then he took up stance again and this time blasted through Bryant in blaze. Bryant ended up on his backside with his arm stuck in a pushbike with Bobby standing over him. 'Thats how Jimmy would have done it'. I then told him my understanding was that Bruce favoured finishing a fight with a straight blast to which Bob replied that when he blasted it was like being pursued by a guided machine gun! Bruces punches would rain down on you like ....errr...rain! He went on to say that if things looked dangerous or Bruce believed there to be a threat then he would blast but if he was sparring or there was an audience, then he would favour something more stylish...he added 'but Jimmy...hell, he'd just punch you 'til you fell down'. Bob held Jimmy in incredible regard. As does every Oakland student I've met. My greatest sadness is I never got the chance to meet James Lee. Must have been quite a guy!
from an interview with DOC re Baker :-
How much trapping did he use? Do you know his thoughts on this?
Bobby could trap and trap very effectively. When he trapped he hurt you and you were off balance almost immediately. The traps were short and sharp and not the complex ones you often see these days. As for did he like trapping. He considered trapping was something to be done IF you found something stopping your hit. You didn't go out to trap, you went out to hit. If the guy blocked you and covered your attack line then you lap-ed, pak-ed or gum-ed and struck. You never trap for trapping sake. Trapping was a last resort not a first one. But, when you did trap you did it intenesly, consisely and aggressively.
Bobby was a really nice guy. Very straightforward and his knowledge of what was taught at Oakland in my experience was greater than anyone else's other than Jimmy himself. For a big guy he could move with incredible speed and awesome power and what's more he could communicate things in a way that anyone could understand.
I still have the scar above my eye that came from him showing me a particularly fast entry technique.
Bob spent quite a bit of time with Bruce on a one-on-one basis. He once told me of a TV show that he appeared on with Bruce and Brandon in Hong Kong and he got Brandon to side kick and break a board. Bob reckoned that Bruce was so incredibly proud of his boy that there was a tear in his eye. When Bob ribbed Bruce about this Bruce told him 'if you tell anyone I'll kick your ass'.
Off screen in Hong Kong Bruce and Bob went around together a lot and Bruce used to tell everyone that Bobby was his bodyguard. In reality he was more of a companion and friend.
