There was an article by Jerry Poteet a while back in "Black Belt" magazine. In it, Poteet said that the most important thing about JKD is the "interception" part. You intercept your attacker. You hit him before he hits you. If you see him about to strike, you don't wait. You strike first. Bruce even told Jerry in a class, "I intercept not just your move, but your attitude" ! You intercept the attacker at the level of his attitude !!!! I think he meant, you can psyche someone out into not attacking by looking at him the right way. A guy wrote in this month from JKD and underscored that: the best thing about JKD - and the thing where it stands out from almost all other martial arts - is the "I won't wait, I will strike first" mentality. Anyone who has been in a real fight knows how critical the first hit is, and the guy who gets the first shot in, on target and hard, wins about 90 % of the time. To me, that is one huge difference between JKD and other martial arts, and why it is so good.
Definitely, the first hit matters. Straight blast to start off every fight... I use it because I hate getting hit and that first hit always leads to a second, third, fourth... Etc.
I beleive that is the aspect of JKD that draws my cousin in. He is fond of the martial art very much, but hasn't ever trained in it. But what he trys to teach himself, from just watching Bruce Lee's films/training, he gains some pretty good knowledge. i cant call it skill because he hasnt trained it. but you know what im saying. when we spar he tends to get some good hits on me... But it's funny when he tries to act just like Lee, unsuccessfully. The kid needs some ma basics. im gonna refer him here sometime soon.
I am totally new to JKD, just took my third lesson, I find it a very strange art in the way that every one says something different or contradictory about it, I do not beleive it to be the be all end all martial art, I find it very odd to always be in right stance, I understand the principle of having your strong side forward but I personally in over 18 years of training and four different styles of martial arts I have always gone to left stance and my equivelant to the straight blast would be my left hook which I can deliver very fast and accurately from my lead hand, I understand the principle of the straight blast, attacking the centre line, I am just not sure if JKD is better for somebody who has no martial arts experience to start with and is not set in their ways, I am not slating the style dont get me wrong, I love all fighting arts and I will give it another month to see what develops. I was originally put off JKD because in my opinion I thought that it was too commercialised and a lot of people were jumping on the JKD bandwagon. I still think that Thai Boxing takes a lot of beating. Just my thoughts and my confusion.
yea are you refering to a lead straight punch? because a straight blast is a chain of punches toward centerline, not a hook. even then, i dont think you can really call a straight blast your hook because of the body mechanics behind it. the reason you fight strongside forward is because you need that straight punch (in essence, a jab) because it should be doing ppprox. 80% percent of the striking. (theoretically) there is no way your hook is quicker and more accurate than you jab. besides, if you lead with a hook, you are initially leaving yourself open from the very start of the fight. possible? sure. would i open with a hook? not a chance in hell besides, taking JKD will make your hook even quicker and more economical in terms of delivery
I realise a straight blast is a chain of punches, but one fast hard punch no matter if its a jab, hook uppercut, elbow etc will have the same effect. Strong side forward to me would be my left, I am right handed but I am used to a left a stance, I have asked the question before why do you have to be in a right stance, I am told because it is your strong side forward, my point is my left is my strong side forward. With respect I disagree, every fighter is different and uses or develops what is good for them, I can lead vert effectively from my left and my fastest and most powerful kick is from my back leg. Very true, its all in the delivery, your stance and the way that you hold your guard. You may meet a fighter who does not fight by the book or how the masters say, but if it works for the individual......excellent, well done that man for being different. I have always had an open mind on all martial arts and like I say I intend to stick around and see if it is for me, incidentally the Kali that I have been learning at the same club is absolutely fantastic, amazing in fact. Just a foot note, If I give the impression that I am a know it all or argumentive please forgive me, I am just a little confused with JKD.
yup if you are right handed, then your strong side (theoritcally) should be your right. in your case i would assume you are more coordinated with your left because of your prior martial arts experience. like i said before, the reason they teach strong side is because naturally your handeness is the quickest, strongest and most accurate hand. i have had no prior martial arts training before JKD, so it was easy for me to adjust. I recently took a boxing class with all right handers, so naturally they boxed orthodox (left hand stance). so when i would spar with them, id fight right side forward, and none of them were used to fighting an unorthodox fighter. please note this was a beginners class. but still i can see the effectiveness of my strong side forward. Most people wouldnt think much of a jab, because typically it is a feeler punch, relying more on speed. well because my right hand is developed that way, my jabs are one of my most powerful punches. so what would happen is i would jab and it would jar the crap out of them because they were expecting a dinky little jab. My JKD instructor trains us to use both stances, so Im starting to develop the same attributes in my left that i have in my right, making me that much more of an effective fighter. lets say for instance, oldtimer you get into a fight, and someone takes out your left hand. now what do you do ?? now you wish you would trained your right hand as well as your left because your left hand is now useless. not only does JKD teach you both hands, it gives you alternative methods of training and development. i will agree with you on each fighter is different, and develops what is best for them. however, im sure you can lead very effectively from your left, and that your most powerful kick is from your rear foot. but with someone that is trained properly, their jab or cross will have a better chance of hitting you before you get to execute your hook. same goes for your rear foot- it may be the most powerful, but it also will take the longest to reach the targert compared to your front. In JKD we use our closest weapon to our nearest target. by the time your rear foot is half way executed, somebody could have either taken your front foot out or already intercepted the rear leg. principles in JKD will teach you how not matter what the guard or stance, there are ways to crash the guard. lets say you lead with that hook. assuming its effective and quick, you probably throw it close to your body to use it as a guard. (hard to explain) it wont matter how you close your guard, you'll learn how to crash it in JKD. im all for being different, but if you could throw a powerful jab, or a nice kick with the front leg, why use a hook to lead? the simplest technique is always the best one, and i know a hook is a simple technique but a jab is even simpler. just be careful when you fight someone properly trained against that, because a missed hooked sets someone up real good for a damaging blow.(duh):-D you didnt give off the impression, but i feel you are jumping to conclusions. you do need to open your mind a bit more, because you need to see the effectiveness of being able to lead in both stances. confusion is a good thing. It means that you will learn something. im still confused with JKD. thats what the process is about.
Some valid points there jaymdubbs and I appreciate you taken the time to point them out, now things are starting to fall in to place hows and whys. Regarding effectiveness of fighting, my fighting art is a mixture of traditional kung fu and karate, semi and full contact kickboxing as well as thai boxing so I am used to fighting a lot of very different people in left or right stances. What has happened to me is that with my experience I am able to use the best bits from different styles that I have trained in possibly like a JKD type of thought of adapting what is useful, practical or effective discard what is useless, with ring fighting you tend to stick to probably 10-15 techniques that you can execute efficiently for maximum effect and if your lead arm is stopped blocked or trapped you have another arm / elbow / 2 knees / shins & feet available, the science of the eight limbs should not be understimated. My understanding of JKD is you are given the very basic tools then you adapt, adopt & modify as well as adding other things to it to suit you as an individual, am I right ?
you are correct in that you adapt, adopt and modify to suit yourself as an individual. however be wary of labeling them JKD because as you progress you will find out what is JKD and what isnt JKD. and I hate saying it like that because it sounds like a style but there simply isnt a better way to put it. there is a lot more to jkd then "taking elements from all arts." there is so much more to it than that. if you take JKD long enough you'll begin to understand. in my honest opinion, you shouldnt have any trouble with JKD. you take muay thai, kickboxing, and some of those others styles. JKD will help you develop the skills you have learned to make you an even more effective fighter. it takes longer than a few classes for it to click. i have been in JKD for 9 months and I am still waiting for it to click. but it doesnt take a rocket scientist to discover the effectiveness of its principles.
however, You can definitely benefit from various MA, but beware! In the real FIGHT your brain will react the way it learned, which means you may get confused how to approach the opponent. Although JKD is giving you a freedom, it still has backbone principles, stance, etc. So be careful to train your brain to react how you want it to react. If you do 10 different MA at the time, are you always going to approach in JKD manner? I hope this makes any sense at all...
Very true, sometimes I cant think or decide which technique to use as my brain knows so many and you can lose precious seconds, I always seem to come back to left stance and boxing punches with added knees, elbows and shin kicks because it works for me even though I trained in Karate for 6 1/2 years I do not use Karate techniques as they are too slow, stiff and impractical, I would describe my fighting style as a kind of Freestyle fighting system incorporating practical self defence and restraining techniques with its core being kick boxing. I am now starting to see something in JKD (particular the straight blast from my left stance) but I think my way of thinking and previous training need some serious reworking !
yea i mean this in a good way, but maybe now you are beginning to open your mind up. its a possibility that because youve been doing those arts for so long that you close yourself to other imp factors and not even know it. like i said, youll understand after you have more experience in JKD.
old timer, maybe you should tell your instructor (who are you training under? [just curious]). I know about the whole strong side thing. It's something that ate at me personally because my right hand has a better grip but my left side is definitely, the more coordinated side. Since then I've used a left side forward stance because it is definitely my stronger side
originally junfan gung fu did rely on the strongest side forward,purely because that was the way bruce trained. if you train in JKD which incorporates the junfan material you will find that both stances are used. in my jkd class both sides are used and this is required for gradings
One should feel comfortable in both leads, however as you know the majority of MA styles faviour the left lead so that that they can drop the power kick/punch to the opponent. The right lead (in most cases for a JKD fighter) is a good lead because most of the time they will come up against a left stance fighter. A right stance fighter is far more uncomfortable for the left lead fighter to fight because they have got used to the matched leads. As for the straight blast, it is best used as a follow up from the lead straight and as you know the JKD lead straight is firstly very fast, very hard and the most important aspect is that it is very deseptive! The lead hand sits on it runnerway and is generally half way to the target without the opponent knowing. When it then fires it is fire from just under the eyeline of the oppenent. and Bang Bang Bang Bang goes the striaght blast. Generally speaking a surprise straight blast will do the job and get you in!
That is exactly what I figured. Do you train at Impact if so how long have you trained there. I have very recently started training at Impact, firstly with the Kali class on a Thursday and now giving the JKD a try.
I'm sorry, but this is not unique or new to any martial art worth it's metal, as a matter of fact 99.9% of real MA systems use the pre-emptive strike as a form of defence. As do most ancient and modern armies. I think you need to look more deeply into other MA systems before making a statement such as this. No disrespect meant, but this comes from a former senior JKD practitioner. Best regards Pat O'Malley
Tkd Well, I studied jujitsu and Tae Kwon Do to green belt level. I don't ever recall the instructor telling us to strike first when we first detect the attack coming. The mentality was "strike comes", block, now counter. JKD is the only art I know where you, for example, "cut into the tool" - i.e., you parry and strike at the same time. I may be wrong, but to me JKD was new in that regard.
Definitely, JKD seems new in that regard, but it's really just good sense. Why would you wait for an attack to dodge it and counter when you could save a lot of time and energy just hitting them first. Of course, you could always misread their intentions, which never turns out well.
