Introduction Principles , KDYH KDG D OLIH ORQJ LQWHUHVW LQ XQGHUVWDQGLQJ ÀJKWLQJ DQG PDUWLDO DUWV DQG IURP DQ HDUO\ DJH KDG ZDQWHG WR learn the principles that underlie combat, both physical and mental. In my forty years of martial arts training LW KDV EHHQ -HHW .XQH 'R WKH ÀJKWLQJ V\VWHP GHYHORSHG E\ WKH ODWH %UXFH /HH ZKLFK KDV VWRRG RXW DPRQJVW all the martial arts that I’ve studied. Jeet Kune Do is a principles-based system that has enabled me to see all my other, more traditional, training in context and to have a deeper and clearer comprehension of it. It has shortened the time I’ve needed to become functional in whichever type of combat I’ve chosen. The crossWUDLQLQJ DSSURDFK RI -.' DQG LWV HPSKDVLV RQ à RZ DQG DGDSWDELOLW\ PHDQV WKDW LQ D VWUHHW VHOI GHIHQFH VLWXDWLRQ it’s easy to come up with instant responses to immediate dangers. In this book I’ve used a principles-based DSSURDFK XVLQJ FRQFHSWV IDPLOLDU WR DOO PDUWLDO DUWV EHFDXVH IURP RQH SULQFLSOH D WKRXVDQG WHFKQLTXHV à RZ
The aim of this book
around the world has shown me people’s training needs, and thus where the focus of this book should
I have written this book to give beginners and
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intermediate students a guide to learning and
in a modern and functional fashion. It hasn’t been
training martial arts that isn’t limited to the
my intention to cover the techniques developed by
techniques being taught; it also gives an idea of how
Bruce Lee and his friend and training partner Dan
the whole thing works. When I sat down to write it, I
Inosanto during the Sixties and Seventies. A book
set out to help students along the way by providing
showing this could, to an extent, be tethered to the
an understanding of how principles and other tenets
past and that wasn’t what I wanted. Like Lee, I have
could inform and improve the learning and training
used a conceptual approach and I have taken
process. I wanted to show not only what techniques
many of Lee’s thoughts on the nature of combat to
to use but, more importantly, why, when and how
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to use them. This was the book that I needed when
very little esoteric terminology in the book. The aim
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is to make it clear and simple and help you on your
write a book that the advanced student could dip
way to being an effective martial artist. Lee’s focus
into occasionally.
was on the functionality of the technique or training
At the early stage of my martial arts study I bought books by Oyama and Nakayama on Karate. These ZHUH JUHDW ERRNV EXW GLGQ¡W TXLWH ÀW WKH VW\OH RI ÀJKWLQJ , ZDV GRLQJ RU DQVZHU WKH VRUWV RI TXHVWLRQV that I had. However, the completeness of these books has never left me and I have sought to
method and that is my focus within this book. It is a VWXG\ RI ÀJKWLQJ RQO\ ÀJKWLQJ ,W XVHV VRPH RI /HH¡V techniques as a base and adds what is functional and desirable from modern methods and my own experience to show a way that is relevant to modern martial artists.
emulate that here, as well as to provide a sourcebook to satisfy students’ questions. It would have been easy to write a book that impressed my peers or that showed lots of fancy WHFKQLTXHV WKDW GLGQ¡W ÀW WRJHWKHU LQ D ORJLFDO RUGHU Teaching on a nightly basis and doing seminars
8
Scope of the book
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n this book I cover primarily empty hands (as RSSRVHG WR ZHDSRQ EDVHG ÀJKWLQJ DQG VWDQG up rather than JUDSSOLQJ ÀJKWLQJ 6SDUULQJ