JKD Grappling – Dan Inosanto interview w/Black Belt Magazine
The excerpt from the magazine will set the context for you on how interesting this article was to read…
“Jeet Kune Do Grappling
Dan Inosanto Talks about Bruce Lee’s Ground Fighting and the Direction He’s Taking the Art”
by. Dr. Mark Cheng
Kicking, punching, trapping and grappling – the four ranges of combat are mentioned in almost every discussion of Bruce Lee’s jeet kune do. But with the exception of dan Inosanto and the late Larry Hartsell, none of Lee’s personal students has focused on the fourth range, which is ironic because grappling is all the rage these days. In this exclusive interview, practiced during Lee’s life and as it’s being practiced now.
A lot of people think that Bruce Lee’s jeet kune do was only about kickboxing an trapping, but that’s no the whole picture, is it?
Absolutely not. while sifu Bruce was alive, he personally researched grappling arts like Chinese chin-na, Wally Jay’s jujutsu and Japanese judo, and he trained with Gene LeBell. Eve in Tao of Jeet Kune Do, he clearly illustrated grappling techniques-throws, locks and submissions. And if you watch the opening scene of Enter the Dragon where he’s fighting Sammo Hung, how does he finish the fight? With a submission.
See pictures on Black Belt’s site:
This is a great article to get educated on JKD and a little window of what it might have been like to be the pupil of Bruce Lee. The article goes through some specific moves. For you MMA fans, there’s attacking from the bottom to armbar transition.
I’m not going post the whole article as that would be stealing. I recommend heading to your local bookstore and check it out – there are pictures with step-by-step techniques. Support the magazine while you’re at it.
From philosophy to application, the article is a of a rare breed. Student of Bruce Lee, practitioner of his integrated system, Jeet Kun Do. It reminds us that mixed martial arts (MMA) has been around a lot longer than the mainstream might realize. Before the reality shows, sold out Vegas events and knuckle heads giving themselves cauliflower ear, integrating various arts into one system is nothing new.
Next week, we’ll take a look at an even older system that developed a mixed art. This was even before Bruce Lee’s time – we’re talking back when it was normal for young men to walk around with canes.
If your combative technology and strategies don’t evolve, you risk extinction.
- Dan Inosanto, Black Belt Magazine, vol. 46 no. 3, March 2008
Would love to see Wally Jay execute no contact strike!