JKD - True JKD is - "Like White On Rice!"

Thought I'd address your remark about "be like water' being "drivel." Not that I blame you - it's not a principle many understand, even in JKD circles.

One of it's origins, as incorporated by Lee, can be found on youtube, in a clip from an old TV show called 'Longstreet.' Here is that exchange, along with my two cents. In it, Lee is helping a student explore himself through JKD. Lee basically guides him in how to find his 'warrior within,' if you will, a crucial aspect of fighting. I'll let you judge which is Lee and which is the student:

"Open “it” up let “it” flow, kick with “it” – Yes! Now how did “it” feel to you?

Like I didn’t kick; like “it” kicked all by “itself”…

Once more…

Now wait a minute; I’ve got to think about it…

If you have to think you still cannot understand… put combinations together without even thinking… move… endure without even thinking…

So many things to remember…

If you try to remember you will lose… Empty your mind… Be formless, shapeless… Like water… Now you put water into a cup, it becomes the cup…"


My Two Cents:

Those who saw Lee in an actual street fight and those who had the "misfortune" of having sparred with him have described an opponent who was not only completely unpredictable but “all over you,” such that he’d completely shut one down, and take him out.

In other words Lee was able to do exactly what he advises above – to empty his mind, to be formless, shapeless, like water...

Lee was describing the highest state of mind desirable in combat. A state which allows one’s technique to express itself - without ones having to think about it. Imagine the speed and power of such a technique!

That’s the state of mind one should desire as one enters an encounter. Try this: As you face your opponent, let your frame of mind be “before you even so much as think of moving, I’m all over you – like white on rice!”

You’re not thinking of technique, but of being all over that guy, of completely shutting that adversary down, and taking him out!

The very best of today’s top MMA fights exhibit this quality. In those short fights where, in a flash, one fighter is all over the other, completely shutting him down and just as rapidly pounding him into a pulp, or locking him beyond escape such that the match is "over before it ever started!"

The JKD aspect of this is when it’s all over rapidly. For that was JKD’s founder’s goal – rapid, rather than a long drawn out battle.

In fact, Lee began developing what later became known as JKD when a battle he was in and which he felt should have been over in a mater of seconds lasted a bit longer.

Towards this end - towards JKD’s “over before it started” objective - Lee began to develop a specific set of principles, techniques, strategies, and training methods – all of them rigorously tested in accordance with science and then mastered to a point of automaticity.

This objective by the way, of, “over before it started,” is not really a part of MMA competition - wherein “it was over before it started” does not go over to well with paying fans expecting flashy, long, drawn out entertainment.

And while “over before it started” does take place in MMA sport, it is intentionally not the norm, thus (and especially due to) the "must" rules and weight classes – to ensure longer matches due to fighters generally being “evenly matched.”

In my own (now past) street encounters, I never encountered "must system rules," “weight class,” “rounds,” let alone, “a one minute break in between.”

Rather, they were all "hit hard, hit first, hit every vulnerable spot possible -keep hitting!"

In the same way, the true Jeet Kune Do-ist is one who, without a moment's hesitation is all over you, 'like water, like white on rice.'

 

he is talking about the feel, body feel, to move like water, in other words to let your body tell you what to do, which is weight distrubuition, that way you dont have to think, you let your body do it

 

water can crash and flow. I believe this also means to know when to fight hard and with force, but also develop sensitivity and know when to be soft.

 

yes you are rght you see it means many things, lee never defined this, rather he left it as a riddle for the artist, moreover wing chun, has yielding principles based on relaxation soft and hard ,yin and yang, so to speak and jkd is a variation of wing chun

 

I use this philosophy in all the martial arts i take and when i roll as well. You have to know when to use your opponent/partners energy and when to use force.

 

yes, you are a true artist then, same as soft and hard ging, different gings together are the secret

 

and it can be as hard as ice

 

it can be a lot of things. i think the important thing is that you develop all of the different attributes so that you can be just as versatile

 

You know, as heretical as this is going to sound, I think I kinda agree with the drivel thing. Not because I disagree with the concept. But because I lament the sort of quasi-philosophical stuff it lends itself to. Already in this thread, I've seen descriptions of Lee's basic point that I think do a better job of conveying the idea than does a lot of dwelling on the analogy Lee uses.

Not that I have a problem with Lee using that analogy. But we now bandy it around as if it were some big realization. And it's really pretty straightforward. Even more so if you don't couch it in tired metaphor.

The metaphor was old when Lee used it. Decrepit now.


Stuart

 

Attack at all times showing a superior fighting spirit and dominare the spirit of the opponent.
Japanese sword principle before Mr lee was born.

Strike through the opponent's intention to attack and any number of such sayings preceed the "white on rice"

There is NOTHING mystical or secret in martial arts.

regards koyo

 

Hey this is a great thread I never completly understood this but I think you hit the nail on the head. Only for martial artists its hard to get yourself in this mindset (it is for me) i'm pretty sure its something that cant be taught only told. I dont think many people would even think about this in a fight (Im focused on other things). So it somthing that has to be trained over an over so that it becomes natural then you wont need to think about it. Any tips from anyone ? Does anyone think BL didnt just mean this for martial arts but also everyday life?

 

enten jizai is the principle that attack and defence are one and the same. meaning do not block THEN attack.
The movement that takes you off the line of attack SIMULTANEOUSLY carries you in with your own attack.

When you train often enough in this principle you can "discard the thought" of defence (since it is there in your attack) and concentrte on developing an "attacking" mind.

Or if you like an intercepting or pre-empting fist.

regards koyo
In answer to your quote at the bottom of your post.
An unlimited responce and get your responce in first


regards koyo

 

I disagree ap Oweyn.

I haven't seen anyone in this thread understand what Lee was talking about.

That's the problem with analogies. People relate them to their own understanding of something.

 

We can only go by books an teachings so please enlighten us ? lol

 

Attachment.

 

mad monk you sound like a novice, your mind is closed therefore you are, wet behind the ears

 

OK, bro. I'm a novice. Perhaps you can wash behind my ears.

Come back to me when you've read Krishnamirti or have read the Buddhist or Daoist texts where Bruce drew most of his aphorisms from.

 

I won't lie, I didn't bother reading the OP. It's too long winded to have any impact on me. True Jeet Kune Do is a training philosophy - the idea that we want to learn Martial Arts in the best and most intelligent way possible. The idea that we want to become as effective and efficient as possible with the least amount of effort and time.

"Be like water" and all that is well and good, but it's really about training hard and training right, taking the effective principles that exist in ALL arts and applying them to your practice. There is nothing new under the sun.

 

He's all about simplifying it. I'm all about simplifying it. I'm dumb so I can't be bothered with complex philosophy and analogy.

 

Hmmm

wow, didnt know Mr Miyagi was still teaching