For a long time the SAS has incorporated basic Japanese shotokan into their training and you don’t want to fight a real black belt from the ROK military. As with most things, it’s not the style but the student.
Even in combat based systems like Krav there are fools and morons teaching an imitation version that will probably get you killed every time. There is no “perfect style or system” or no others would still exist. You can take a proven fighting system and all that is needed is a non realistic approach to training and the entire system will be useless to you. On the other end of the spectrum you can take one months worth of common basics and refine them to a lethal level if you understand the nature of real fighting and train accordingly.
The guys who will kill somebody in a fight aren’t taking drunken monkey shinobi style and doing jump spin back flip over your head moves. They are simply finding the most vulnerable points of the human body and hitting them with the most effective weapons.
when I was younger, I think I had told you before I had the Honor and pleasure of meeting and training with Jesse Glover .I took Jeet Kune Do and he came to do a seminar . while I did get to practice trapping and grappling with Mr Glover and one on one time with him was very limited but he went down the line so everyone had the chance ( my god the power and speed that man had and just to think he did the same with Bruce was mind blowing to say the least ) he did cover disarming weapons Knives and firearms fake ones of course .But one would think Bruce would have trained for that. I never thought of him owning a firearm But did read some where He did in fact have a 1911 . what a great thread Love the Pictures also made me think I still have the T shirt i got during the seminar .I had a picture of Mr Glover But ex wife tossed a bunch of my stuff and that was in there what a bitch !!
Not directed at you because I’m sure you already know. There is nothing wrong with training to face a gun or knife unarmed. It’s certainly better than having no plan at all. My earlier criticisms were directed at those martial artists who think they don’t need any weapons because they are so skilled at unarmed fighting and could easily disarm somebody with a gun or knife.
Sadly when the characters for “karate” were changed from “todi” (meaning China or “Tang” Hand), which could also be pronounced “karate” to the characters meaning “empty hand” in the late 1920s a lot of people began to misunderstand the meaning and took it literally to mean “no weapons.”
When first introduced from Okinawa to Japan in the early 1920s it was often called To Te Jutsu (To meaning “Tang” and a direct reference to China, Te meaning “hand”, the common Okinawan name for their indigenous martial arts and “Jutsu” meaning “technique or method” in Japanese and typically associated with their martial traditions). In this way all three influences and origins were acknowledged and respected.
The official version of the change was supposedly to stress the zen aspects of the word “empty” where through the practice of martial arts one defeats one’s own ego, etc. and to some extent to stress the notion of unarmed combat for the individual in contrast to battlefield arts of the Samurai.
Of course the actual reason for the name change was Japan was occupying parts of China and Manchuria and preparing to invade the rest of China and they didn’t want any Chinese connotations connected with their brand new martial art.
And of course when Japanese martial arts were introduced to the US after WWII nobody mentioned the old names at all and the “no weapons” empty hand meaning of karate was stressed and further emphasized by many martial artists. This was a source of much of the conflict that sometimes existed between Japanese and Chinese martial artists in the 60s and 70s.
Are there any good books out there about Bruce Lee? I’ve always found him to be a fascinating individual and would like to learn more about him.
And this is a little of topic but, is there any particular copy or version of Sun Tzu’s The Art of War you would recommend owning ? It has been a long time since I read it and I was surprised at how many versions are out there.
the “Tao of Jeet Kune Do” is a must read published in 1975 By Bruce Lee and many reprints since there is A ton of things he touches base on fighting and Zen and enlightenment .
I never did understand the " i am a deadly weapon cause I know martial Arts"crowd .you know the ones if "I am 25 steps from you i can be on you before you draw your firearm ".You use all tools you can .
I still chuckle from a guy I knew that wanted to spar with me, he took Karate and every time I did something to hurt him he would scream “thats not legal in competition fighting” and he was a 2nd degree Black belt ,and he hated when I would quote Bruce and Say “Belts are good for one thing ,holding your pants up”
But then I would meet and spar with other people that trained in different styles and they Loved the trapping and grappling and would read up On JKD .they had the right Ideal there is no one does it all style you learn and keep learning ,the moment you stop you have failed
Sadly most of the books about Lee are attempts to cash in on his name or raise the authors credibility by suggested association. His wife Linda wrote a book but her limited understanding of martial arts and Chinese culture combined with her many assumptions resulted in a less than accurate work.
His family (mother and brothers) wrote what might be the best book, done to correct many previous misconceptions but at 80 pages it is brief.
Bruce Lee: The Untold Story by Grace Lee, Robert Lee and Agnes Lee
Just make sure you don’t actually buy the Chinese mini series “Legend of Bruce Lee” which is possibly one of the most inaccurate and offensive works about Lee that I have ever seen.
