You know it took several years after Bruce passed. To have several people around. To offer JKD to be learned. At first JKD just about was impossible to have a chance to explore. Now ther are several differnt groups and a good close chance of finding a instructor. But Then you have people learning from books, from mixing. And some order a video. Then they call what they do JKD. It has come to the point that JKD on the computer is argued more then I have ever seen any M/A .Be argued over. To me that will not help but hurt the future of JKD. Now sure some countries have few to any JKD instructors. BUT like I said there is JKD groups now That can offer Somekind of chance to learn. That would be a good choice If no instruction is close or near. I would suggest one If really interseted in learning . Research and contact A JKD group or certified instructor. That way you can at least learn The JKD training offered . Lamar has hardcore JKD Dill has JKD association Hargrave has world JKD federation And several Instructors have a web page. To me this would be the path to Choose to learn and understand. I know I will be rebuted. But The oppurtunity is there It how much do you want it. Rather then fight over JKD how about we just learn it Or improve in it. If not the same goes on any ART There out there do you want it or not. We I and you are the future of JKD Where we study is not set BUt if we study learn from A certified instructor at least. Any one of the three groups I mentioned would be glad to assisit you in finding or helping you learn. You can also type in JKD instructors and find some one to contact to get going on the right track.
Yeah, I was lucky to find a JFJKD instructor. If I didn't see that flyer at the Gung-Fu shop, I could have easily been confused with the Concept and PFS groups. I was at the right place at the right time. "When the student is ready, the teacher will appear". When I went to my very first seminar with Ted Wong, I didn't even know who Ted Wong was and I was asking my instructor for help with my techniques at the seminar, he was like, "Ted Wong was Bruce Lee's student, you won't get too many opportunities to train with Ted, ask him for help on your technique". Now that I think back, I was a total newbie and I can't believe I trained with Ted Wong, and then cracked crab with the guy at a Chinese restaurant, while he told stories about his relationship with Bruce.
Anywho, I'm glad there are guys like Sifu Lamar, he sticks to the original Jeet Kune Do, and is confident in the techniques. Keep it up the good work Sifu!
I really can't identify with you, but I can offer you some advise. Bruce Lee's art of Jeet Kune Do was a way to reveal the ability of YOURSELF. I don't have a teacher. I am a Free-form martial artist, and I have just began training. From what I can see, Teachers are there to guide you, to point the way and set you off to discover. Do not lose mind of yourself.
By the way: If there is a teacher that is near you, ask him some questions before you partake in ANY of his classes, some teachers might not suit you.
It is interesting you call yourself a free form martial artist as this is what I have sometimes defined myself as, although one can not really define it. I was wondering how you train in order to become this? cause really I do not believe I am yet a free form martial artist or a freestylist, as this is what I aspire to be. It is something I train towards.
i prefer not to call myself a freeform martial artist.
i am a human being who punches a puncchbag, and lifts a certain amount of weight in different positions, when the feeling takes me.
i only describe a punch as a punch so people can identify with it's general meaning, my body moves in different ways. and when you get down to it, you can only percieve and experience it, you cannot interpret it into words.
the more or bigger something emcompasses something else, i.e. a city, a country, a planet, the more we are disconnected from the universe and from ourselves. imagine if there were no barriers, and people were seen not as black or white but as a selection of atoms with a spiritual controler, or a creature, a lifeform, or as something that words cannot describe.
that's how i see everybody, and that's how i see myself.
and if you feel like this, and talk to someone, you will be amazed at how many prejudices a single person has, or preconceptions, and you will be amazed at what truth you feel, and how the other person's prejudices seem not ridiculous, but pointless. because they detract from life, they stylise life- and people do this so that they can gain a point of reference, but this is bad, because no point of reference exists, the point of reference that people seek, is the point of reference gained when the realisation that there is no point of reference exists. it's the journey toward something, not the destination, that counts, it's the working out of a maths problem that counts, not the answer, because answers are meaningless. and in that, anything can happen. that is our life!
i went off on one there, and flowed into many philosophies, but hey, that's me, believe what i say, or use it hopwever you will, it really doesn't matter, it's all good!
i feel better after that.
bye!
Jowan
You make some nice points there Jowan. I find you "reference point" concept interesting, however I would beg to differ as you has reference points whether you like it or not. Your concept although sounds quite nice is inpractical in general and only works to an extent at best.
You have natural reference points e.g. circadian rythm, hunger, thirst, sex drive etc. Your reference points are made up from your memories and unless you have no memory of anything in the past you have a reference point.
Your point about the maths problem makes no sense, I know that in school that you get marks for you working but when you try to apply maths in the real world the answer does matter. It could mean the difference between the bridge holding weight and callapsing causing fatalities.
Now I can appreciate the idea of having an open mind and taking things and people as they come, however our memories will naturally provide us with a reference point for us to use to deal with the situation that comes to us.
So my question to you would be, how can we not have reference points to make judgments in our lives? It is true that the journey is important but if we only go round in a circle all our lives, have we really made the best use of our time?
I'd love to have an instructor. There are none that I know of where I live. Its tempting just to move so I can be somewhere that has a JKD dojo and a kenjutsu or iaido dojo nearby. But there is no way that is going to happen.
So until that happens. I learn from books (although not kenjutsu, I actually travel a fair distance to learn kenjutsu).
I learn from books that are headed with "Jeet Kune Do" and contain things about JKD. But I'd never say I learn JKD, because I dont have an instructor who is teaching me JKD. When people ask me what I learn, general response is "a mixed martial art" or "how to fight". If they ask deeper, I say what is typed above.
