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.
