I know that Paul Vunak studied JKD under Dan Inosanto and then trained U.S. Navy Seals in the 1980s in Virginia [for example, the so-called "Seal Blitz" is really the "straight blast" from JKD, renamed]. I just thought I would open a discussion on this. Does anyone have any other information on JKD being used in the military, either in the U.S., or elsewhere ?
Have a look around for Frank Cucci. He's a JKD teacher out of Virginia Beach. Former Navy SEAL. I think he's a bit controversial. But judge for yourself.
Is that what the seals have butchered it to? Paul Vunak teaches his PFS system calling it the straight blast to the best of my knowledge Rick Faye has taught American and British forces so I would guess they JKD concepts or techniques some extent.
Seal Blitz I am not sure who coined the term "Seal Blitz". I don't know that it was Vunak, and I am not saying that either. However, I have heard it used. You are right, as far as I know, Vunak calls it the "straight blast". [BTW, from what I know, the U.S. Navy Seals don't get all that much hand-to-hand training. They evidently get very few hours of it - please correct me if that is not correct]. I know that they now have their own program which is no longer directly based on JKD, though. Seals get many, many hours of shooting practice - $250,000 per man !), but not so much hand-to-hand (which makes sense, as their primary task is not to fight without a weapon !). This is probably similar to the British SAS. However, given the conditioning of those elite groups, and the fact that the weeding-out process means only the best make it in, I would not want to fight any of them (but I do have many more hours of MA training than they do, as most of us on this forum, I would think). I saw photos once of Vunak teaching Seals in Virginia on the beach. Those were some TOUGH looking dudes, and I would not want to fight them !
our training group used to have a navy seal hand to hand combat instructor who would train with us. he had excellent fighting skills and smooth technique. he had previously trained the wing chun straight blast, but not the boxing blast before he began training with us. sparring him was always fun.
tel i know that vunak,inosanto train these groups in america,,also burton richardson teaches a verion of the straight blast,don't know wot it is called tho
Navy Seal I picked up a book last night while cleaning the apartment. Written by a former U.S. Seal. He was also a hand-to-hand instructor for other Seals while in the military. He had studied thai boxing, arnis, and jujitsu. One aspect he mentioned was that they always tried to train "as close to reality as possible": i.e. hard and fast. One thing he said that will stick with me: "defeat the opponent's mind, rather than the body". That is true, and interesting. The reason is, it is easier. You can do a lot of damage to someone's body before he gives up, if he is TRULY motived. But if you take his mental strength away, even the toughest guy can give up, while his body still has the ability to fight. The Seal referred to it as "fighting the source of the fire, rather than all the manifestations of the fire". A good point [I once trained with Bas Rutten, and he had the same philosophy. He said, on the street or in NHB, he would try to break the opponent mentally. One example he used was, he was working the door in Holland and this guy came in with a girl on each arm. Bas didn't want him to enter, and they exchanged words. Suddenly, the guy head butted Bas - thinking that that would end the fight right away ! Bas immediately came back with "TWO head butts" !! The guy was not expecting it, and according to Bas "It just destroyed him, mentally". Bas then said to us, "when you take away the opponent's strongest thing - the thing that he thinks is the k.o. blow, and you come back at him twice as hard as he came at you, it just destroys them". I think this is something for me and maybe others to think about too. We in MA so often talk about defeating the opponent's body, but if you defeat the mind, that is a much more decisive victory (and probably a lot less bloody too). Another one like that I can think of is Sugar Ray Robinson beating that Panamanian boxer back in the 1970s, and the guy saying "no mas !" ["no more !"] in the middle of the fight, because Robinson had just frustrated him so much in the fight.
yep Yes, Sugar Ray Leonard. The guy he beat was Roberto Duran [Duran received death threats in his native Panama for his "un-macho" "surrender"]. Duran is known as one of the 10 best boxers of all time.
Nice quote. Although I see you posted this some months ago, it would be interesting to know the title and author of the book you mentioned.
