(music plays)
- What is Bruce Lee's Jeet Kune DO?
(music plays)
- I think, this, we could spend two days talking about it
and we might not even have an answer, Sifu, right?
- Right.
- I think....
Well, first of all, the word comes from,
the Chinese word Jeet Kune Do,
means the way of the intercepting fist.
What does that mean?
- It's as simple as it sounds,
to intercept someone's motion in an attempt to attack you,
so you're gonna intercept and nullify that position,
and take advantage of it;
but it encompasses so much more.
It has nothin' to do with, you know....
The phrases you always hear is,
like it's non-classical, it's direct...
- [Dan] It's impulse simplicity.
- It's simple,
I mean, we could use these words all day,
but what does it mean?
What does all of that mean?
- What do they mean, actually?
- Simple, meaning, yeah,
you're not gonna use too many motions...
- Yes.
- ...too many tools;
but when we really look at what the art
is supposed to do for you,
is to bring out the clarity in a confrontation
or not fight, so there's two ways of looking at it.
Either confront attack or avoid the attack.
Look at it as a psychological way of
either fighting or not fighting;
and we can get into more in-depth.
Some of the things that come up in Jeet Kune Do
is the five ways of attack.
- Five ways of attack, yeah.
- OK; some of the things that come up
are the fencing terms and analogies around,
OK, riposte, you know, what do you do with that?
Or what do you do when you avoid an attack
and it hit at the same time.
There's a lot of things that we have to do there,
so what is it?
OK, first of all, it encompasses the five ways,
and the five ways, OK, that's what it is,
but how do you use it?
What do you do with that?
Five ways, OK, it doesn't mean that you're gonna go....
OK, so let's take one for instance,
it's SDA,
or SAA,
OK, a lot of people refer it to single angle attack,
that's actually what it says in the notes;
but SAA, one thing, so does that mean I'm gonna only
use that portion of it to attack one time?
- Mm-hm.
You come at me, I'm gonna single attack you...
- Do it.
...or just one attack, while I'm angling.
- Yeah.
- OK.
It's how you do it.
- Yes.
- How do you use that,
and then why would you do it?
- Yes.
- And then when would you do it?
OK, and to whom would you do it to,
and what kind of fighter is he?
So those things will then help you understand an actual....
- So you have the single angle attack,
and you can go deeper and deeper and deeper and deeper,
right; the when, the what, the who;
and then you can also add attributes to it,
to what power, to what speed, right?
- Yeah.
- It goes deeper and deeper; and different angles.
The one single technique, one single move,
and that's why it's so deep, and I mean,
that's why we could study for,
and how long have you been studying JKD?
(Octavio sighs)
- Two years.
(both laugh)
- Two months.
- Two months, oh well, no,
I earned it out of a workshop, two days.
- Right?
- But, the thing is, when you're drillin' this stuff,
yeah, there's drills, and you see it in your videos,
we're doing drills, and we're takin' it apart,
but at what distance, and why would I do that,
at that distance?
How did I even connect to you?
Why am I doing trapping? You know?
Why am I even on the ground;
or why am I parrying?
You know, you gotta question these things;
and if you're not questioning these things
and you're just doing it,
because somebody's telling you to do it,
what are you learning?
- And that's why it's such a fascinating subject,
that sets you apart decades, definitely, decades,
studying JKD, also me over a decade,
so you know, we're still learning, we're still....
- [Octavio] It's just consistent.
- Yeah, consistently pondering and thinking about it,
and the way that we read the books, Bruce's books,
his work today, compared to 10 years ago,
they're very different, right?
So it's an on-going learning process,
there's no doubt about it;
and there's no definite answer,
because it is a set of principles,
it is a set of philosophy.
I think one recommendation is,
don't focus so much on the technique,
if you focus on the technique,
you'll be so fixated on this way of doing things,
or that way of doing things,
and that's what Bruce Lee was talking about.
Personally, I think, Sifu, is
JKD's such a personal interpretation,
a personal art to Bruce.
That's why there's no other Bruce Lee.
You have a lot of, you know,
thousands and thousands and thousands of JKD students,
but it's their personal thing;
and if you watch interviews with
people who have trained with Bruce,
the same thing you hear again and again,
is number one, the speed, the power,
but also Bruce has this sixth sense of,
he knows what you're gonna do before you do it,
and that's something that most people don't have,
and that's also why I think JKD is so,
it's so difficult to learn and to master.
When you have a set of philosophies,
it was a formless form, and you have a few tools,
and it requires the practitioner to have that sense,
which most don't, right?
Even like, top martial artists mostly don't.
Well then, how you gonna pull that off, right?
It's very, very hard; it's why it's so difficult.
It's much easier to learn, really,
boxing, it's much easier, right?
You've got four punches, that's it, right?
- Yeah, the thing is, you know,
we could talk about it all day,
like you said, two days worth,
but it's actually applying yourself to all of this
that will make you understand,
because if you apply it, and again,
sparring is probably the best way to get your feet wet,
you can kind of feel,
understand where the opponent's goin',
what he's kicking with, what he's punching with,
and so you start to understand and relate to that,
and so now you start getting these things,
"OK, it's clicking; OK, I get it now.
"I see why this works."
But, yeah, you should have something to tie the loop,
but at the same time, you should have something
that will allow you to continue to grow.
- Yes; and if you're gonna study, truly study JKD,
don't just watch a couple videos and say,
"That's what it is."
Do your own research.
If you could, well I read all the books,
I've talked to a lot of JKD practitioners,
I've talked to a lot of Bruce's original students,
and to a point where this is just my perspective,
my own interpretation.
It's not right, it's not wrong,
it's just hey, at this point, at this age,
this is my understanding so far, right;
and also it gives me more insight of Bruce's personality,
at first, he's this like, god to me, right;
and then now, he's actually more human,
he has a hot a temper,
he's just a human being, right?
- Right.
- He has his flaws, as well, that, you know,
people thinking about Bruce,
and as you and me both know,
when he was teaching students,
at first he was teaching them a lot of things,
but then later he holds back a lot.
Lots of people don't know.
So purposely, he would taught them the wrong things
to use against them, right?
- Some of the stories that are coming out,
where he purposely did that or he wasn't showing everything,
so there you go, the people that are saying,
"Oh, Jeet Kune Do died with him."
You don't know half of it.
- Yeah.
So by knowing that then you need to have
the perspective of looking at,
"OK, so just because Bruce showed that on camera,"
keep in mind, very secretive guy,
"doesn't mean,"
he knows the camera is there,
'cause people sometimes might see even the
tape that he had practice in the back yard and all this,
it's just him playing around,
that may or may not be what it is.
"Oh, that's exactly the way that he punch,"
or, "that's exactly the way he kicks!"
He's always experimenting.
- Yeah.
- You talk to Bruce's students.
Bruce would try one thing and next week he would say,
"No, no, that's BS, don't do that no more,
"let's trying something else,"
and that's his personality,
he's a little bit ADD, right?
(Octavio laughs)
He's "Oh, this is the way, no, now no more.
"We don't do that no more."
"What?!"
That's Bruce.
- [Octavio] Right, like a kid; it is.
- But because of that, I like him even more, not less;
because now you learned the overall aspect of that person,
but that takes a lot of time.
So don't just read a couple books,
"Oh, I know Bruce Lee's JKD."
I still don't know Bruce Lee's JKD, right?
- Well you learned really good,
(laughs) if you get the right teacher.
- You get the right teacher, you do.
- And we will....
We can help you, absolutely help you,
I mean, again I have a website, theArtofJKD.com.
Visit that, and you can actually start
to find a way to learn it.
- Yeah, learn....
- Watch the videos too.
- Yeah, watch YouTube video, go learn from Sifu,
learn properly, at least you start the right way, right,
versus the so much confusion.
If you're serious about learning.
If you just want to watch it for entertainment, that's cool;
but should you want to learn the art,
and how it applies to life,
how it applies to all aspects of life,
then finding a good teacher, I think,
is definitely the key.
So what is JKD?
- Open-ended question.
- Open-ended questions.
There you go.
(Octavio laughs)