martial art and success
In the beginning, I had no intention whatsoever that what I was practicing, and what I’m still practicing now, would lead to this. But martial art has a very, very deep meaning as far as my life is concerned because, as an actor, as a martial artist, as a human being, all these I have learned from martial art.
Use karate, judo, aikido, or any style to build your counter-offensive. It will be interesting!
On sparring
Every Monday, Wednesday, and Friday, I work on my legs. Every Thursday and Saturday I work on my punch. On Wednesdays and Sundays, I have sparring sessions.
The best way to learn how to swim is to actually get into the water and swim; the best way to learn jeet kune do is to spar. Only in free sparring can a practitioner begin to learn broken rhythm and the exact timing and correct judgment of distance.
In sparring the mind must be quiet and calm; the attention concentrated, and the energy lowered. Besides, straightening the head and body, hollowing the chest, raising the back, lowering the shoulders and elbows, loosening the waist, setting right the sacrum, and keeping the waist, legs, hands, and other parts of the body in perfect harmony are all important. The postures must be natural, capable of stretching and drawing as intended without any awkward strength, and responding immediately after sensing.
Pointers on sparring
• Requires individuality rather than imitative repetition
• Efficiency is anything that scores (in primary freedom one utilizes all ways and is bound by none, and likewise any technique or means which serves its end).
• Simplicity of expression rather than complexity of form
• Turn your sparring into play—but play seriously.
• Don’t take your sparring too seriously.
• Totality rather than partiality
• Dissolves like a thawing ice (it has form) into water (formless and capable to fit in with anything—nothingness cannot be confined . . .)
• When you have no form, you can be all form. When you have no style, you can fit in with any style
• In sparring there is no answer; truth has no future, it must be understood from moment to moment. You see, to that which is static, fixed, dead, there can be a way, a definite path but not to that which is moving and living. There is no conviction or method, but perception, a pliable and choiceless awareness.
• To have a choiceless awareness, one should have the totality, or emptiness—all lines, all angles.
• If one is isolated, he is frozen and paralyzed. To be alive is to be related. Action is our relationship with our opponent.
• Action is not a matter of right and wrong. It is only when action is partial, not total, that there is right and wrong.
Economy of motion
In kicking and striking, especially when launched from the ready position, eliminate all unnecessary motions and muscle contractions which slow and fatigue you without accomplishing any useful purpose. Much energy is wasted by the unrelaxed opposing muscles in resisting the movement—learn and feel proper contraction and recovery (otherwise your physiological engine is racing, but the brakes are on).
Acquire the kinesthetic perception in tension-creating situations— distinguish between the relaxed and the tense states. Practice controlling the body responses voluntarily and at will. Use only those muscles required to perform the act, using them as economically as possible, and not using the other muscles to perform movements which do not contribute to the act or which interfere with it. Expend constructively both the mental and physical energy (economical, neuromuscular, perceptive movement). In coordinated, graceful, and efficient movement, the opposing muscles must be relaxed and lengthen readily and easily.
It takes perception, practice, and willingness to train the mind into new habits of thinking and the body into new habits of action. A champ is one who makes every motion count, and he accomplishes maximum results with a minimum expenditure of energy.
You and your opponent are one. There is a coexisting relationship between you. You coexist with your opponent and become his complement, absorbing his attack and using his force to overcome him.
Forms and katas are not the answer
I think simply to practice gung fu forms and karate katas is not a good way. Moreover, it wastes time and does not match the actual (fighting) situation. Some people are tall, some are short, some are stout, some are slim. There are various kinds of people. If all of them learn the same boxing (i.e. martial art) form, then who does it fit?
The highest state is no form
I think the highest state of martial art, in application, must have no absolute form. And, to tackle pattern A with pattern B may not be absolutely correct. I feel that martial art should not be limited in a circle. That will produce in the students a wrong idea, thinking that a certain pattern will achieve the same result in fighting as in practice.
On what is the “best” martial art
There is no such thing as an effective segment of a totality. By that I mean that I personally do not believe in the word style. Why? Because, unless there are human beings with three arms and four legs, unless we have another group of beings on earth that are structurally different from us, there can be no different style of fighting. Why is that? Because we have two hands and two legs. Now the unfortunate thing is that there’s boxing, which uses hands, and judo, which uses throwing. I’m not putting them down, mind you—but because of styles, people are separated. They are not united together because styles become law. The original founder of the style started out with hypothesis. But now it has become the gospel truth, and people who go into that become the product of it. It doesn’t matter how you are, who you are, how you are structured, how you are built, or how you are made . . . it doesn’t seem to matter. You just go in there and become that product. And that, to me, is not right.
Nationalities don’t mean anything
Many people will come to an instructor but, most of them, they say, “Hey man, like what is the truth? You know, would you hand it over to me?” So, therefore, one guy would say now, “I’ll give you the Japanese way of doing it.” And another guy would say “I’ll give you the Chinese way of doing it.” But to me that’s all baloney because unless there are men with three hands or there are men with four legs, then there [cannot be] a different way of doing it. But since we only have two hands and two legs, nationalities don’t mean anything.
A constant process of relating
When I see a Japanese martial artist, for example, I can see the advantage and I can see the disadvantage. In that sense, I am relating to him. Man is living in a relationship, and in relationships we grow.
Because martial
