Dan Inosanto on Bruce Lee and Jeet Kune Do

In this interview with Dan Inosanto on Bruce Lee and Jeet Kune Do Rick Tucci asks the master various questions in apparent response to discontent in the JKD community. The interview was recorded in 1995. Inosanto himself is a man internationally recognized for his expertise and knowledge of martial arts, and Filipino arts in particular while being most famous as Bruce Lee's top student and the man charged with spreading the art / concept of Jeet Kune Do.

Dan Inosanto on Bruce Lee and Jeet Kune Do

Dan explains that he met Bruce Lee in 1964 at the famous International Karate Championship in Long Beach, California and he began training privately with him immediately after.

In February 1967 the China Town school in LA opened and at this point Dan Inosanto was given Instructor ranking by Lee as Inosanto would be doing the main bulk of the teaching there. Lee himself was more interested in his own training and used the private sessions with Dan Inosanto to pass on his more experimental ideas and techniques. Another contributing factor to Bruce Lee's lesser involvement in the teaching was the tendency among Chinese martial artists of the time to be secretive (to the extent that many of them refused to teach non-Chinese).

The curriculum at the China Town school was constantly evolving to reflect Lee's mindset at any particular time. This is a tradition that Inosanto has maintained as he has also continued to approach martial arts from the point of view of being in a 'permanent revolution'. An example of this sets. Surprisingly Lee originally taught sets (forms or kata) before deciding that wasn't the direction he wanted to go in and so they were discarded.

This constant evolution meant that someone studying in 1967-1968 would have a different - even very different - view of what Jeet Kune Do was compared to someone commencing training just a year or two later. For example, in the early days public classes resembled Wing Chun kung fu while privately Inosanto and Lee were working out in a manner similar to Muay Thai; then this kickboxing approach made its way into mainstream JKD training and so the art evolved over time and would have appeared different to different people training at different times. Bruce Lee was also prone to teaching a student according to his background; boxers used their art as a base while wrestlers started from a grappling base.

Lee was already at this time investigating the essential principles of arts like Muay Thai and Silat. Inosanto for his part was simultaneously training in Filipino Kali and Escrima and exposed Lee to these arts too.

Dan Inosanto begins by responding to the request to describe the difference between the original Jeet Kune Do and Jeet Kune Do Concepts. Inosanto points out simply that there are no differences; but to understand Jeet Kune Do Concepts you have to be trained in the original Jeet Kune Do or Jun Fan gung fu as it was originally referred to. The idea was to use this as a base from which you would pursue a path to your own personal enlightenment. However, to make the situation more confusing, and as noted in the video above, the original Jun Fan gung fu was in a constant state of change from year to year. What was original in 1967 was no longer practiced in 1968.

Dan Inosanto goes on to distinguish between being a Jeet Kune Do student and an instructor of the art / concept. Dan himself is one of only two people to receive the Third Degree Instructor rank in Jeet Kune Do, along with the late James Lee.

Turning to Bruce Lee's teaching method, Inosanto notes that his master was, for the most part, very patient. Sparring was a non-event as Dan Inosanto was completely outclassed. Lee was fast and powerful and comparable to a boxer with his hands.

Following the death of Bruce Lee Dan Inosanto was not teaching Jeet Kune Do for mass consumption. However, so many people around the world were claiming to be teaching the art that Inosanto slowly began to step out of the shadows and bring the true method to the public. Lee's death in many ways was the catalyst for Inosanto to shift his teaching from a small group of people in his backyard to making his ideas and approach more accessible.

Initially most of Dan Inosanto's teaching was on blending different arts in his mainstream classes, while the JKD group was by invitation only. In turn, Inosanto encouraged his students to research different arts for their own interest and development, endorsing Lee's famous quote:

Research your own experience Absorb what is useful Reject what is useless Add what is specifically your own

This research was intended to supplement and complement the core training in Jun Fan gung fu / Jeet Kune Do, but was not in fact necessary to learn the core art.

Turning to Dan Inosanto's personal training, since Lee's death (remember the video was shot in 1995 - a little over 20 years since the loss of Bruce Lee) he had been training in Thai Boxing (Muay Thai), Burmese Bando, in elements of Wing Chun kung fu, Shoot wrestling (an early form of Mixed Martial Arts and still popular today), Pentjak Silat,Brazilian Jiu Jitsu, Small Circle ju jutsu with Wally Jay and different Chinese internal arts.

At the time of the interview Dan Inosanto had already been training in various martial arts for around 45 years. His tips for continued training are to budget your time carefully (something Inosanto admits to being difficult for him when, paradoxically, he had a lot of free time). A busy schedule helps him to avoid complacency, a factor potentially made worse by spending too much time teaching. He recommends finding a balance between teaching and training. That said, Inosanto endorses the idea of teaching (believing it to be the highest form of learning) as you can learn so much about your art this way.

Kali

The three traditional Filipino fighting styles of Kali, Arnis and Escrima are essentially the same approach to combat using lightweight sticks singly, in pairs or in conjunction with daggers of various designs. Although the sticks themselves can cause a great deal of pain and can easily crack a bone if wielded correctly, they themselves can also be understood to represent a bladed weapon that has been substituted to allow for safer training. I will use the term Kali to interchangeably refer to itself, Arnis and Escrima alike. This is the more popular term known today in the West, but Arnis is held to have been the original art from which the other two developed. Like other Southeast Asian fighting methods, this Filipino art has until recently remained true to its original battlefield techniques and philosophies. Popularity towards the end of the twentieth century, primarily through Dan Inosanto and his adoption of Filipino martial arts into the curriculum of techniques he uses to demonstrate Jeet Kune Do concepts, and more international exposure are bringing about changes in approaches to training with the safety of the practitioner being a primary concern. Sport variants are also becoming increasingly popular with world championships held regularly.

Kali Weapons

Historically these arts were intended to be used on the battlefield. As such it must be recognized that the principal study of a student was and is the use of weapons. The principal weapon is a short stick between 60 and 80 centimeters in length, known as a tabak, or, more popularly today, as a rattan stick after the fire hardened wood it is made from. Other weapons include a multitude of designs of different daggers, including the kris, swords and spears. Some styles of Filipino martial arts extend the range of study too to include missile weapons. Weapons are often used in pairs, the most popular combination being the use of twin sticks. Another famous approach however is espada y daga. This style replicates the Portuguese fencer’s use of a rapier and dagger used in conjunction with one another, though the sword is replaced with a long stick. An expert is deadly with this array of weapons, using core principles effectively with different weapon types. The famous Portuguese explorer Ferdinand Magellan fell to these techniques at the hands of Lapu Lapu, a celebrated warrior on the island of Cebu. Later, in the early twentieth century, the U.S. Marines gained the unwelcome sobriquet ‘leathernecks’ while serving in the Philippines. Filipino activists and guerillas were prone to murdering victims with a cut across the throat. The marines responded by tying pieces of heavy leather around their necks as protection.

Empty hand techniques were not emphasized in training in the expectation that such skills would only be used as a last resort. For more information on indigenous empty handed techniques refer to the art of Panantukan.

In combat, the master tends to have superb reflexes, coordination and bravery thanks to his early progressive study of weapons. When fighting unarmed, the Filipino martial artist concentrates on delivering elbow strikes, sweeps, locks and weapon disarms. By closing on a presumed-to-be-armed attacker, much of the advantage a weapon, such as a sword or spear, can give is negated, hence the emphasis on close quarters combat.