DAMN good post Chapman...let's have some more!!!
Thank you everyone for your praise. Just to address JKD007's question, the best teachers are the ones that lead by example. I currently train with and receive instruction from 2 people, Thomas Cruse and Mark Pavelich. Anyone that knows Tom will know of what an unbelievable teacher and figher he is. Mark Pavelich is the owner of the Maximum Training Center where I currently train and teach, he single-handedly sparked my enthusiasm to train again and got me to where I am at today. Together we are perpetuating our truth in Jeet Kune Do, with Next Generation Jeet Kune Do.
I can't give praise or put down those that I haven't trained with since assumptions are the mother of all screw ups.
All I can suggest for you JKD007, is that you search out as many people as you can to train with. Its just like going to school, there will always be good teachers and bad teachers but these are usually a matter of opinion. The more people you train with, the more background you will have as to choosing who is right for you. Listen to what other people have to say, see if it works for you, then you can draw your own conclusions.
Happy New Year Everyone, Luck & Good Fortune be with you!
Great post Chapman.
It was actually your response to JKD007 that I found REALLY heartening to hear, especially the last paragraph. I'd been thinking about good instructors vs bad instructors lately because I've gotten a whole bunch of new tapes recently so I was finally able to pass my own judgement on such famed instructors as Furey, Bayless, Sonnon, Cecchine, V. Fields, etc. In reading posts where others have given theirs thoughts and opinions on the worthiness of an instructor's material, I found a wide range of different views. Some were very harsh in their opinions and others were full of praise.
As an example, you may be aware of the recent post's regarding Sonnon where there are some who say his material is garbage, etc. I was shocked to hear this as I found his tapes to be absolutely mind-blowing. I couldn't imagine how anyone could possibly think it wasn't any good. I resisted the urge (with great difficulty) to debate this with the detractors as I knew it was hopeless.
Then I found a thread where people had negative comments about Cecchine's tapes. I couldn't believe it! I thought his tapes were a gift from the gods! I puzzled over this for a while till it dawned on me that the material presented didn't impress some people not because it wasn't good, but rather because it wasn't for them. Were all different, with different thoughts, opinions, preferences. It's impossible to make everyone happy because we are too diverse. It is for this reason that, as Bruce said, "My jkd is not your jkd. Your jkd is not my jkd." When you truly absorb the wisdom of those words you can at last transcend the notion of "styles" and become the best that YOU can be in what ever manner fits you best.
It really makes me happy to hear you giving such sound advice Chapman and putting the onus on the individual to go forth and experience for themself what THEY think about so and so, without trying to make up their mind for them. If only there were more people like you...
Lautaro
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Im going to have to move over to this forum. Should I call myself a JKD concepts guy? Ive been accused of practicing watered down JKD. I of course took that as a complement :)
Gene
Chapman great post. In your opinon who do you think are the best teachers of JKD in the U.S or in Canada or what guy's in Canada are up and comers in the JKD scene.
AMEN!
Mr Chapman A+. Very, Very well said. J.M.
well said Chapman.
good one Chapman
your post reminded me of one of my favorite quotes from my favorite book "Dune"
"Above all else, the mentat must be ageneralist, not a specialist. It is wise to have decisions of great moment monitored by generalists. Experts and specialists lead you quickly into chaos. They are a source of useless nit-picking, the ferocious quibble over a comma. The mentat-generalist, on the other hand, should bring to decision-making a healthy common sense. He must not cut himself off from the broad sweep of what is happening in this universe. He must remain capable of saying: "There`s no real mystery about this at the moment. This is what we want now. It may prove wrong later, but we`ll correct that when we come to it." The mentat-generalist must understand that anything which we can identify as our universe is merely part of larger phenomena.But the expert looks backward; he looks into the narrow standards of his own specialty. The generalist looks outward; he looks for living principles, knowing full well that such principles change, that they develop. It is to the characteristics of change itself that the mentat-generalist must look. There can be no permanent catalogue of such change, no handbook or manual. You must look at it with as few preconceptions as possible, asking yourself: "Now what is this thing doing?"
I love that post on so many levels.
As a JKD practioner one of the biggest critisms about Jeet Kune Do is that "Trapping Doesn't Work" or that we are a "Jack of all trades and a master of none". A new one that I've heard of is "PFS guys are all getting married to the RAT".
Doing something is the best way of explaining something. Instead of arguing about it, steal it and use it. Isn't this why we kept Jeet Kune Do as concepts? So that we could continuouslly evolve and refine ourselves as fighters? Rapid Assault Tactics is very effective but it is not the end all of fighting. PFS guys that have been around before the term "Rapid Assult Tactics" came around know this. Props to the SBG guys who are showing the world that JKD practioners can kick ass without thumbing a person in the eyes or kicking them in the balls. Props to the PFS guys who have been incorporationg firearm training into their game. Props to all the JKD guys that incorporate high levels of conditioning to their training methods. Props to everyone else that has been putting their own signature specialities to their teachings and continued revelations as a fighter and teacher.
There will always be critics and cynical people in this world. Naive people that think being passive all the time will solve the world's problems. The first thing I learned in JKD was to "give space until you had to take space". What works for one person may not work for others and we must all learn to respect these differences or simply learn to live with them.
We are JKD concepts practioners, not Jun Fan JKD so if we do not fulfill and use every requirement it doesn't mean we "aren't doing JKD". If trapping doesn't work for you then don't do it. Bruce Lee used to do those high spinning heel kicks and he could land them, how many people in the world can do that today? If the SPEAR or CFA has things in there that seem worthwhile then take them in and use them. Don't ever be afraid to learn something because you are afraid of "picking up bad habits", when you are a JKD concepts fighter nothing will ever change that. Its like a mathematician taking psychology and sociology courses. He is learning how to view the world in a different way but that doesn't mean his original analytical views will be changed. These new perspectives might uncover blindspots that were originally overlooked.
The SBG has taken their training out of this realm of mystism by applying it to NHB training. That old saying "What I do is too deadly for the ring" is nothing but a front to cover up the fact that their stand-up and grappling skills are not developed. Matt Thornton found that his clinch skills were lacking so he went and got some help to make them world class. I don't agree with all of the SBG's ideas about street fighting but these minor dissagreements are nothing when compared with the what you can learn from training with these guys.
The Contemporary Fighting Arts developed by Sammy Franco is another organization that a JKD concepts guy might look into and say "Hey we do this stuff too", just don't tell a CFA guy that. They have gun training and many training methods that are very worth the time to research. The CFA has the purest no-nonsense idea as to the dangers on the street that I have seen. I really like how de-escalation is taught here as well.
Blauer's system does a lot of psychology before and after the fight information and reflex training. There has been some definate research into the system's concepts and methods.
Jun Fan Jeet Kune Do revolves around Bruce Lee's revolutionary concepts, ideas and training methods.
These systems of fighting are the ones that seem to have the biggest clashes with Jeet Kune Do Concepts practioners with the "I'm better than you because of this and that blah blah blah" or "your one training method or technique doesn't work so your whole system sucks blah blah blah". I laugh sometimes inspite of myself because during my first year of training I probably would have jumped into the arguement defending JKD concepts.
I haven't really posted anything for a while because I wanted to make sure I knew how to explain exactly what has been on my mind for a while. Today is the day we welcome the comming of a new year, so this is suiting for my long post.
When I first started training in JKD I absolutely enveloped everything there was to know about it. For the first month of training, I was an expert, I knew the names of techiniques, who all the big time players were in the game and every trivial question there was to know about Jeet Kune Do.
After that first year of training in JKD, my whole JKD world collapsed and everything that I thought I knew was substanceless. It was at that point that I realized how little I did know about Jeet Kune Do and fighting.
My training revolves around one central concept "Absorb what is useful, reject what is useless and take what is specifically yours".
I've done some snooping into other systems and instructors like Tony Blauer, Sammy Franco, Jun Fan Jeet Kune Do. I have also trained with many JKD concepts instructors some of whom I still train with. My biggest revelation was that the few who do actually train and evolve are the ones who will always be on top of the game.
There are a lot of arguments about how the SPEAR(Blauer) system or the CFA(Franco) stole their stuff from JKD and how they are actually superieor to JKD or blah blah blah. I've always wondered why some people feel that their revolutionary ideas couldn't be realized by someone else.
We keep JKD concepts within the realm of mystism, formless, featurless and totally deadly. For this some scrutiny and cynism should be expected. I think this is where Jun Fan JKD has the edge over us, they practice only Bruce Lee's JKD and they have set standards as well as a set ciriculum. This is the same for the SPEAR and CFA. This edge is only in politics though, because when you have something that doesn't adhear to set rules you are allowed to think outside of the box.
i try and train with anyone i can,and stay away from any politics.
i watch videos ,got to seminars,but leave before the gossip starts. and the truth is i try and avoid posts like this.it fuels the fire in the end.id rather talk trash and have fun,and then go train as i will,whcih ends up being with other guys who know whats up but are still renegades in the jkd world,as bruce was.
my datu,mr. worden is under fire for the whole presas successor deal on martialtalk.com,and i also find it sad. people have need to put their art in a box and label it to understand it better,and show others how good they are.
funny,i dont need a label,or a belt for myself,when i use it,its because im doing it for someone else.
Thank's Chapman for your response. I also believe that there are alot of JKD Instructors out there that are awesome.Mr.Paul Vunak, Tom Cruse, Matt Thorton,Burton Richardson, I also here great things about Mark Pavelich he's new but I hear he trains real hard. I also know that they all teach very different from the next. That's the beauty of it all.We as students take what we want and get rid of what we don't want. It all comes down to training hard and what your training works out in the real world.