3 Stages of JKD

There Are Three Stages Or Cultivations Of Learning In Jeet Kune Do

Stage 1

Stage 2

Stage 3

STAGE 1: PARTIALITY, SHARPENING THE TOOL - STICKING TO THE NUCLEUS:

The student must learn the basics; this is where the practitioner gets introduced to Siu Leem Tau (little idea) Wing Chun form. Now you're thinking to yourself, I am doing a form where Jeet Kune Do is supposed to be formless? I trained in many forms like Siu Leem Tau, Chum-q ,biu-jee and the wooden dummy forms and in over 25 karate katas. However, what I did not do is make them the center of my training and was never bound by them as some other classical martial artist might be. Because in real life situations, you are not fighting in a pattern and rehearsed routines don't work in a real fight. Your opponent is not standing still, nor is he a robot. What the forms and katas will give you is a good foundation. It toughens the student's legs by having him or her stand still for a long time or stepping forward or backwards with leaning stands or keeping low to the ground. It is also a very good exercise. What it also teaches you is to fight multiple opponents in different directions and helps develop power. Forms/kata have you in stances, moving, stepping, shuffling, turning, twisting, blocking, striking, grabbing, leaping, throwing, hacking, locking, breaking, choking, snapping, and torqueing. Should one face an adversary one should be better equipped to deal with the uncertainty of physical combat due to the diligent training. From the performance of forms/katas, Diligence in training means understanding that might be useful if you choose to train in forms and katas, which I highly recommend. What you shouldn't do is put all your emphasis, heart and soul into form or katas. As I said before, you are not fighting in a pattern. You should apply these techniques in the forms and katas as you learn them into real life situations; otherwise it is useless for you to train in them unless you fully understand what lies behind them. Beside if Bruce trained in siu leem tau, why not follow in his footsteps? I feel that you have to have a form to hack away from, and you must have a form to be formless. Because it is very easy to take someone and say, here are a few punches and kicks, raise the heel, that's a By-Jon, and here are a few hand traps, add some footwork to it and there you have it, JKD. That's fine if the practitioner had previous training and he or she knows how to punch, kick, and add power to movement. But if you don't, to me, that's just chop suey. Let me assure you, it's much deeper than that. First, you must have a good, solid foundation, even though that you need to practice few forms and katas to help you develop a stronger base. Second you must have commitment, and a lot of hard work and an open mind, and then you might achieve your goal. The student must learn how to place their hand correctly and execute the punch and blocks from any position not necessary from a fighting stands, that is why for another reason, I felt that this form should be shown. A practitioner must also learn how to use their weapon to its maximum, in real situations if you ever need to. Then you might be able to call it JKD. I know Bruce said "its only a name, don't fuss over it," but to me, its more than just a name. I am very proud of saying that I train in JKD, so when I demonstrate or talk about JKD I give it my very best to represent it the best way that I know how. Another major reason is because of my many years of research and finding out what works and what doesn't. I came to realize that the economy of Siu Leem Tau is very important and many of the techniques that are extremely effective and have been used and practiced in JKD, were found and generated from this form. These include the JKD vertical punch, hammer principle, corkscrew; shovel hook, and the straight blast. They all rely heavily on the immovable elbow moving line. It doesn't mean that the elbow doesn't move. What it means is that your arm moves forward and backward in a straight line when it's extended from the body without exposing the elbow. This will help you develop much more powerful blocks and strikes. By practicing this form, it will help you develop the immovable elbow moving line. I strongly believe in building a very strong foundation in a practitioner by taking from any style, even if I have to practice forms, to develop it, and hopefully you will "find the cores of your ignorance" like I did.

STAGE 2 FLUIDITY, UTILIZING THE TOOL: LIBERATING FROM THE NUCLEUS:

This is where the practitioner begins by putting the technique together. The techniques are generated into applications like blocking, striking and counter attacks, in order to start generating actual applications in street situations. Now the journey to Jeet kune do begins, and it's a long journey. You will be introduced to JKD fighting stance (By-Jon) the only fighting stance you need to master; that's why JKD is so simple. No cat stances, no leaning stances, no horse stance, and no unnecessary fancy stances after you master your fighting stance and understand the pyramid structure and why its so effective. You will move on to footwork, which is the back bone and the foundation of JKD. After you apply different strikes, blocks and kicks, you will get introduced to JKD terminology. I feel that if a practitioner is learning JKD he or she must learn every basic block, kick, palm strikes, knee, elbow, and yin and yang block in Cantonese. After you start understanding what lies behind the blocks and strikes, you will start applying some of the blocks to toughen up your hands and forearms by practicing five star blocking, which will prepare you for much more advanced drills, like JKD 10 blocks with a partner that will help you develop faster reaction in blocking against any attack. Iron palm, will help you develop and build stronger and tougher hands so that your block becomes a strike. Every part of your hands will be developed, inside, outside the edge and the knuckles after developing hand blocks and strikes now you will move on to basic kicking, and adding foot work to your kicks by practicing five corner kicking and kicking drill. Now the student is ready to start combining the punching and kick together into actual combinations by being introduced to western boxing and kickboxing. You will have unlimited number of combination that you can apply and generate from and use in different broken rhythm applications (i.e. not repeating the same technique twice in the same attack.) After feeling very confident about what you have learned, and starting to generate power from your blocks and strikes, you are ready to move on to much more advanced drills, you will be introduced to energy drills. Their purpose is to have a much faster reaction time when blocking and striking. After these drills are mastered you will move on to sensitivity drill, which will help you develop feeling and reaction - as soon as you get touched by an opponent your reaction will be instant. At this stage of training you are ready to develop your hand trapping (gates) range and in fighting. This is the most devastating range of fighting known in JKD and it helps the practitioner to trap your opponent's hand blocks and strikes and converting them into useless weapons. Before the student starts applying the techniques that you've grasp from all the drills and hand traps you must first apply them on the wooden dummy, which will help you in your trapping, blocking and striking simultaneously and toughen up your hands and feet. Scientific street combat is then ready to be applied in actual street situations. You will take everything that you have learned and apply them into street self-defense, hand to hand combat, club, knife and gun defense and you will not be limited into any type of block or strike - everything starts coming together as one. Ground fighting is the end of your journey because you're not a complete fighter unless you possess ground range and are able to take care of yourself if the fight ever went to the ground. .

STAGE 3 - EMPTINESS, DISSOLVING THE TOOL: RETURNING TO THE ORIGINAL FREEDOM

This is the highest level of training where the practitioner responds to any attack without even thinking of the move or how to attack. This is where "it" responds with a technique from any style at the time of attack. Your mind and body become one, and you are no longer thinking of what to do in threatening situations. This is a level that is very hard to achieve and it takes years of practice. You hit, block, kick without even thinking. You must train and practice heavily, so "when you need it, it is there." This is where you return to the original freedom, you start hacking away everything that is unessential and make it very simple. You absorb what works and are not afraid to reject what doesn't work. At this level of training, you go back and take every movement, every technique, every punch and kick, and ask yourself, how can I make it much more effective, and extremely useful for me as a person? Because some techniques are applied against a tall person, some against a short person. Every person is built differently, so how can I use my skills to their highest level, but keep it very simple and effective against any attacker.