More on the Kent affair **** or get off the pot. Martial arts are supposed to train a bravery to move in our lives. Combat our own egos and insecurity. To grow. I have seen some “Masters” of martial arts who hide behind a table, or on the side of the training area issuing orders, proclamations, chastising rhetoric and disdain in their suits. Talk about a cage! It is easy to hide behind a table, a suit, physical prowess, or the guise of academia and words. They ceased to be Masters when they hid because insecurity crept in and they became afraid of making any mistake. They could in one moment re-achieve what they appeared to have lost by changing their perspective and action. There are all sorts of people who can’t “do”, but can teach others how to, who in one way or another are training. They are on the “floor” training all of the time, learning to laugh at themselves, leading the way by example, willing to make and acknowledge their mistakes. It takes guts to put yourself out in the open, blaze a trail others can follow, demonstrate that it can be done and encourage you to blaze your own, to find the balance between pointlessly questioning and following blindly. Get out from under, behind, in, the shadows. JKD: is a concept, philosophy, principle. Nebulous is stating that JKD is not a “style”, “method” or “name”, and then calling it JKD. Nebulous is about combating “confinement and restriction,” and then creating an overly obfuscated definition. Nebulous is desiring a respect for the art while disrespecting its practitioners, peers, seniors between the lines. One major irony is that you seem to come from desiring a respect for JKD and, yet, want to confine everyone into your understanding of it. Whatever aspect of JKD you use and whether it is spiritual, physical, etc, it demands that YOU be in it actively. I don’t ever recall seeing anything about creating dissent from within, direct attack by mud-slinging, indirect attack by being petty or draw by wagging the dog: if anyone wants to train in those go study REP/DEM/TEA. Grow. I choose to learn from those that are strong enough to combat their own egos first, who develop themselves and share freely with the community…those who grow. That’s why I learn from Sigung Vunak and his whole lineage.
Contentions and emotion aside Kent specifically targetted PFS in the article. We (royal we) are not so much preaching as giving voice to the strength of feeling PFS has towards this article, especially as the avenue of communication on the actual blog site has been moderated to exclude us. Kent has been made aware of every comment, we have also been posting responses on his facebook and I personally issued an invite for him to come to this forum for the discussion This will be the last post I make inthis thread, as there is little more I can add beyond what has already been said.
I like the irony that pretty much none of us would have any clue that Kent's article was about PFS (or that it even existed) without this handy thread to tell us.
Yeah, and it's also making Chris Kent sound kind of cool.:evil: Seriously though, in the Hapkido community (my art) there are all sorts off people spouting opinions about this or that, and what is or isn't Hapkido...you've heard it all before. I've heard people say that what I doing isn't the right way to do things, and I usually just decide that they're wrong and move on with my life.
Response to Chris Kents article It seems that the argument of what JKD is or is not has become lost on the writer. For a man to claim to have an intricate knowledge of Bruce Lee and his writings he seems to have missed the point! Bruce Lee himself said "Jeet Kune Do - it's just a name, please don't fuss over it". Chris's comments are clearly directed at Paul Vunak and Contemporary Jeet Kune Do and also the pre-fixes of 'filthy' or 'dirty' which are merely descriptive words and non definitive. It would prove hypocritical that he himself promotes Chris Kent's Jeet Kune Do! WTF? With regard to Chris's apparent opposition to Style references, I think he has lost the plot! All things great or small originate from somewhere and history provides us with a useful reference to study, learn and expand upon. We draw from these experiences and grow, learn and build upon. Does this mean that the very origins of which they came are to be discarded with no due respect given? We draw on these life experiences and our understanding of them given their rightful place. JKD takes what is useful from well respected art forms to form a more efficient and effective way for the expression of the individual. To simply discard the origin of useful movement or technique is simply disrespectful. In my opinion, this is a prime example of the writer over philosophizing due to a hidden agenda. It is obvious to me that Chris's intentions are not true by directing criticism towards a noted and well respected (and also my teacher) member of the JKD community. It was not necessary, nor was it appreciated! As has become obvious by some of the responses! Some have argued that the response by PFS members (of which I am one) have been inappropriate. Sometimes in the heat of the moment, when ones family is attacked, we initially respond in anger rightly or wrongly. This is a reactive response when part of the brain initiates fight or flight. Chris Kent however, pre-meditatively planned his article with the intention to cause divide. Paul Vunak is big on respect, love and compassion and this extends to the less fortunate of us - the disabled. He gives freely of his time for these kids with genuine love for them and expects all his instructors to do the same. I am all for discussion in the martial arts, but beware the danger of what lies in the writers heart when put into words! Gino Vallelonga - PFS
I still can't tell - all I've taken from this thread is that I want nothing to do with PFS or JKD as a whole now or in future. One more to strike off the list of possibles.
Man all this over two old guys who want a slap fight? let em do it. I see it at the pub all the time. And what is with all the bruce lee nuthugging at the moment? He was a great actor and in great shape and was probably quite good in martial arts practice, which by definition meant he would be pretty handy in scrap, apparently he had quite a few. This definition appart from the acting part applies to Bas Rutten ( poor bas, he cant act for toffee) but aint noone being honoured to meet people who knew him or learned from him. Its celluloid hero worship. What would bruce say today ...probably: " ok guys im gonna have to ask you to back up, you are seriosly creeping me out"
Erm...argument? Threats of violent reprisals for publicly airing a difference of opinion is a pretty big turn off in my book. "we'll train you to defend yourself and then send some heavies round to your house to make sure you were paying attention"
I've been involved in enough martial arts politics to never want to get into it again. When the little squabble is over and everyone's been put on the naughty step then I'd be willing to get involved, because I'd quite like to learn, but at the moment I can't see any benefits that'd outweigh the potential to get caught up in something like this.
We'll we are only 15 mins for woking, welcome to come and try it sometime. I have spoken to chris and lots of reps of paul's, its sad that this has come out but they both have points. It seems to me that 1) like someone said it before whats JKD? 2) Teaching methods.
Anything to do with either parties in this? I'm looking to take something else up once my longbow's finished.
It's all rant on the Internet and I'll tell you what will come of it. Nothing but a few people ranting on the Internet. I wrote an article back in 1994 that a few people took the wrong way and assumed it was insulting when I was just pointing out my personal opinions. I got the usual threats but nothing happened but a few rants. I did have a couple of underlings visit my school on the premise of training and they did try to beat up my students but they got their **** handed to them on a plate by them and then by me but nothing apart from that really happened and nothing will in this case either because allthey will do if they do visit in the early hours of the morning is they wi get arrested and sully the good reputation of the head instructor. Hence nothing will happen. Best regards Pat
7 pages of "You have dishonored my teacher and must pay for it!" Really? You guys sound like an old samurai flick. Yet people have to the nerve to talk about the ninjutsu forum. Having read a few JKD forums over the years I always knew you guys knew how to mix it up online but this is a bit silly. Whatever beef Mr. Kent and Mr. Vunak have, most of the PFS instructors who have posted on this forum have done less to defend his honor and name, and much more to make PFS seem like Cobra Kai from the Karate Kid. It's nice that he makes all his instructors teach the handicapped, but does that make it alright to threaten another JKD instructor(thought it was all one family) online? Perhaps those posted threats failed to read the MAP TOS or consider that in case of future violence, their words could be used against them in criminal proceedings. What's the big deal anyway? Bruce Lee is gone and if you really want to learn as much about his art as possible, why would you bother learning from Mr. Kent or Mr. Vunak when there are still OBLS(Mr. Glover, Mr. Inosanto, etc.) around that you could go to? Best to cut out the middlemen and organizations like PFS where instructors carry on with a bunch of playground banter over a letter about what JKD means. Anyone without any knowledge of JKD will probably be more interested in finding out what Mr. Kent has to say than signing up at any PFS academy so the aggressive defense of honor that was cited here has kind of backfired. It is pretty obvious that what is really at stake is a piece of the JKD empire, so students and $$$$. If the PFS people new to MAP are really worried about your teacher's reputation, perhaps you could request a well written response from him that you could post on MAP that could help clear up the entire situation before this whole thing blows up in your faces. Even if he(or anyone associated with him) and Mr. Kent were to come to blows and you all won the fight, you would still lose the battle through bad publicity. If you are so upset, channel that positively and show yourselves, your art, and teacher in a more positive light. Really, you should let cooler heads prevail and remember that pride always goeth before the fall.
Your first sentence says it all. Were you referring to this? [ame="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=m61oWTnBvE0"]Anatomy of street fight-part 6‏ - YouTube[/ame]
Not many videos of Mr. Kent found with a cursory search. This seems like his video series. I probably would've chosen to train with Mr. Poe over either of these two gentlemen but that's just me. http://www.56.com/u37/v_NTI0MDE3Mzg.html
Oooh...what if a handicapped person disses PFS? Do the heads of PFS instructors explode with the paradox?
