Moreover, when he decides to fight, he must be sincere and fight wholeheartedly to the end. Only in such a way can he develop good character and total truth and sincerity.
Understand.
Dueling ultimately is simply a test in individual “essence.”
Not being stuck mentally and not abiding oneself is the root of life.
Strategy of distracting attention
Focus on movement, greater speed—in other words, subjectively in time for the signal, don’t focus full attention on signal, though necessary. This way one can time the rhythm of the signal, or the starter’s pattern, so that he can start with the signal, not react to the signal.
Auditory signals and reaction time
Experiments indicate that if the cue to act can be made auditory instead of visual, the athlete’s response is more rapid. Make use of it together with visual if possible.
Strategy of distracting attention
Repeat—for most rapid perception, attention must be at the maximum focus on the thing to be perceived.
Vision awareness factors that all martial artists should consider
1. Awareness in attack 2. Awareness in counter 3. Awareness in combination
You see, the kicks and punches are weapons not necessarily aimed toward invading opponents. These tools can be aimed at our fears, frustrations, and all that. Martial art can help in your process toward growth.
Truth is the daughter of inspiration; intellectual analysis and partialized debate keep the people away from truth. It is like a finger pointing a way to the moon. Don’t concentrate on the finger or you will miss all that heavenly glory.
You can be a slave in the form of a holy mind to live. We do not live for, we simply live.
The head is a united part of the human body.
If one prepares to the front, his rear will be weak. If he prepares to the left, his right will be vulnerable. And when he prepares everywhere he will be weak everywhere.
Quick temper will make a fool of you soon enough.
A coward will easily be captured. Also a reckless one can be killed.
The true power of our skill is as self-knowledge—the liberation of the self—not as a weapon.
External pride is not the thing, it’s internal self-sufficiency.
Your instinctive skill should be well-tempered with self-inquiries and judgments.
I thought we had discovered that tournaments are places where human beings are playing a protecting game of pride.
Let’s cut out the verbal threatening. To be a true martial artist is not to try to avoid what is your lot.
Psyching-out dialogue (based on Sun Tzu’s Art of War)
1. Pretend inferiority after an evasive move to encourage an opponent’s arrogance for your advantage.
2. Your brain is the general of your head and if the general is angered his authority can easily be upset.
In combat we understand, we converse by using normal power to engage, and use the extraordinary to win.
On challenges
When I first learned martial art, I too have challenged many established instructors and, of course, some others have challenged me also. But I have learned that if challenging means one thing to you, it is “What is your reaction to it? Where does it get you?” Now if you are secure within yourself, you treat it very lightly because you ask yourself: “Am I really afraid of that man? Do I have any doubts that that man is going to get me?” And if I do not have such doubts and such fears, then I would certainly treat it very lightly, just as today the rain is coming down very strong but tomorrow, baby, the sun is going to come out again. I mean it’s like that type of a thing.
Well, let’s face it, in Hong Kong today, can you have a fight?—I mean a no-holds-barred fight? Is it a legal thing? It isn’t, is it? And for me, a lot of things, like “challenging” and all that, I am the last to know! I am always the last to know, man. I always find out from newspapers, from reporters, before I personally know what the hell is happening.
On my fighting ability
All the time, people come up and say “Bruce—are you really that good?” I say, “Well, if I tell you I’m good, probably you will say that I’m boasting. But if I tell you I’m not good, you’ll know I’m lying.”
I have no fear of an opponent in front of me. I’m very self-sufficient, and they do not bother me. And, should I fight, should I do anything, I have made up my mind that, baby, you had better kill me before I get you.
To tell the truth, I could beat anybody in the world.
Someone once asked me, what I am going to do when I am fifty or sixty. I replied “Man, there ain’t going to be no fifty or sixty-year-old that can push me around.”
On why Hollywood’s elite want to learn martial art
The way that I teach it, all types of knowledge ultimately mean self-knowledge. So therefore, these people are coming in and asking me to teach them, not so much how to “defend themselves” or how to do somebody in. Rather, they want to learn to express themselves through some movement, be it anger, be it determination, or whatever. So, in other words, they’re paying me to show them, in combative form, the art of expressing the human body.
Don’t look for secret moves. Don’t look for secret movements. If you’re always hunting for secret techniques you’re going to miss it. It’s you. It’s your body that’s the key.
Complete determination—the mark of the real fighter
You must be fierce, but have patience at the same time. Most important of all, you must have complete determination. The worst opponent you can come across is one whose aim has become an obsession. For instance, if a man has decided that he is going to bite off your nose no matter what happens to him in the process, the chances are he will succeed in doing it. He may be severely beaten up too, but that will not stop him from carrying out his objective. That is the real fighter.
A lesson in attitude
Suppose you come home and find some guys have battered a friend. First, you’re going to think about what you should do. Then you’re going to try and figure out how. But suppose, instead of a friend, you come home and find your mother battered. Wham! You’re ready—that’s pure attitude.
On
