stimulate your mind and challenge your body.
IT IS VITALLY IMPORTANT for students learning Jeet Kune Do to train safely in order to minimize the risk of injury. Depending upon the nature and severity of the injury, a student who gets hurt may have to stop training altogether until he or she adequately recovers. Also, a constant threat of injury can discourage students from continuing their training.
Years ago, martial arts instructors did not concern themselves much with safety or student health. It was not uncommon, for example, for students to train barefoot on hard, wooden floors. Students were expected to work out for long periods of time without water breaks. They often sparred hard without much, if any, equipment. They often came away with bruises and cuts, and sometimes with broken bones. Training was what some might consider brutal, and it only appealed to those who were willing to take risks.
Since then, the martial arts industry has made great strides in terms of safety. Today, the owners and instructors of martial arts schools, including those offering Jeet Kune Do training, are more aware of the need to keep their students healthy and happy. Many schools now have padded floors and mats for their classes. Students are encouraged—indeed, sometimes required—to wear protective gear for more intensive drills or sparring.
More high-quality equipment is available than ever before for Jeet Kune Do training. Furthermore, improvements in design and manufacturing have made equipment more durable and easier to use. The hard, flat, leather focus mitt used in Bruce Lee’s day has given way to scientifically contoured punch mitts with thick padding. While Lee had to practice side kicks on a large shield with a wood backing, nowadays students utilize heavy foam kicking shields shaped to readily absorb kicks. Muay Thai pads have also made it possible for Jeet Kune Do students to execute their kicks with full power without hurting their partners.
For regular sparring, in addition to boxing gloves, students can wear highquality head protectors, padded chest armor, padded groin protectors, and shin protectors. For full-contact, hard combat, thick padded suits and helmets are now available that enable the wearers to take strong punishment without much risk of injury. Indeed, there is almost no excuse for the modern Jeet Kune Do practitioner not to use at least some safety equipment and gear, given the wide variety that is readily available.
However, merely having and using high-quality equipment and gear is not enough. In order to have a safe training experience, you must also follow good safety habits. For example, two-person drills should be done slowly in the beginning, to ensure proper form, body feel, and timing and distance. Students should not be allowed to practice the drill at higher speeds until they are familiar with it and can perform it proficiently.
Training partners should cooperate with each other to ensure that each one is learning and not getting hurt. If one partner is running through a drill too quickly, or employing too much power, the other partner should respectfully ask him or her to slow down to a more comfortable pace. If you believe that your partner is not paying sufficient attention to your safety, then you should stop to consult with the instructor or seek a different partner.
Students need to take responsibility for their own safety, as well as that of other students. Often, you just need to exercise some common sense. For instance, if you think that a particular drill, technique, or exercise would be too dangerous for you, you should refrain from doing it. While Jeet Kune Do training is intended to be challenging, you need to be mindful of your own limitations, given your age, level of fitness, flexibility, conditioning, and so forth. You should make sure that you properly warm up and stretch to ensure that your muscles are prepared for training. Cold muscles are more apt to be injured during a workout.
In sparring the risk of injury is higher. You should not engage in sparring until you have developed your tools and can exercise control. Injuries can occur in sparring when students spar too soon, before they have established good control over their bodies. Often students who are inexperienced will let their egos get in the way, and the sparring match becomes a brawl. In such instances students are no longer mindful of each other’s safety, but simply want to get the better of their partner.
In summary, safety is everyone’s responsibility. Instructors and students must work together to maintain an atmosphere of respect and learning, so that everyone leaves in better condition than when they arrived.
part 3
learning the basics
B EFORE A PERSON CAN RUN, he or she must first learn to stand and to walk. In Jeet Kune Do students cannot effectively execute the more advanced elements, such as the ways of attack, as well as defenses and counterattacks, until they initially learn the basics. Students have to work on the proper way to stand and to move. In addition, they must begin to develop the tools of the trade, namely, the elementary punches, kicks, and other strikes that they will use in fighting.
The fundamentals of Jeet Kune Do will be examined in the next few chapters. We will look at the essential structure of the bai-jong stance, as well as the footwork and mobility that one needs to move in a combat situation. Also, we will closely examine the various upper- and lower-body tools that must be trained so that a student can strike effectively. Finally, some of the basic grappling maneuvers that Bruce Lee researched and incorporated into his fighting method will be discussed.
E ACH COMPONENT in Jeet Kune Do is designed to successfully implement the principles of the art. Fundamentally, a proper stance is needed in order to move and to execute the various techniques with speed, power, and precision. Just as other martial arts systems have stances that support the performance of those systems, Jeet Kune Do has a distinctive stance that works with its own method. Bruce Lee carefully thought about the functional capabilities needed when he came up with what is commonly called the bai-jong, also known as the “on guard” or “ready” stance (see Figure 8-1).
When Lee first arrived in the United States from Hong Kong, he was still steeped in the Wing Chun system, which has a forward-facing stance that allows for use of both arms. Over the years, as Lee researched and incorporated other techniques and methods, he modified this stance in order to allow for farther-reaching kicks and punches, as well as
