Inspirations of an Instructor

My inspirations come from my instructors. Learning Jeet Kune Do is training with first generation, learning first hand the proper alignment of footwork and building structure in movement. The main yin and yang of fighting is mind and body. Through our drill work our mind focuses on the proper footwork and how to move. The essence of fighting is being in good positioning, while maneuvering yourself in your realm,

1) being able to absorb any incoming to your realm,
2) to move outside your realm and to know the timing to do both.

Philosophy plays a key role, the mind hears: He who hits first hits twice, and the body reacts, so the mind tells the body hand first, body second. Then the explosion happens. This is one principle out of many. To know Jeet Kune Do is to know your philosophy and principles.

I was intrigued with the way Sifu Tommy Gong expressed himself on a given subject. Not in wit, but in whole honesty, his explanations helped you look into a situation in depth. His instructor became my first introduction into the proper foot work in the way Bruce Lee intended it to be. To train with 1st generation is to train with the best. To be a good Sifu is to be able to teach it exactly the way it was taught by the Sijo. My instructor, Sifu Ted Wong, does this extremely well. He breaks down each proper alignment from each of the three on guard positioning or ready stance, (bijong) and how to attack off of each one of these. It takes extreme patience and hard training to persevere in knowing the foot work in JKD. The many, many, hours that I've spent training with Sifu Ted Wong, he was diligently patient in teaching me the proper alignment of foot work. Honesty is in fact integrity and the most honest and humble man I have ever met in my training in Jeet Kune Do is my Sifu, Ted Wong. He has been my inspiration. I feel honored and privileged to call him my Sifu.

Bruce Lee said "Patience is not passive, on the contrary it is a concentrated strength."

While training at the University in Virginia, one of my instructors was 9th degree Master, Shion Bill Wallace. Of the many years I attended the University, one year Shion Wallace's name was on the roster to instruct the first Jeet Kune Do class on the first day. Why? He didn't do Jeet Kune Do. Were they short staffed and needed someone to teach that class? Of course not. Then why was professor Wallace teaching JKD. Because of a very important principle: Power side forward. Being able to move without moving. Don't telegraph your movements. Learn to move in short distances. Sifu Wallace taught us the proper footwork to burst in from second to third range, being able to kick. Keep in mind we have four weapons, two short weapons and two long weapons. The longer weapons will obviously televise more. He taught to master your kicks with power side forward and to fill the gap between the other practitioner takes dedication.

"The essence of fighting is the art of moving" Bruce Lee

Some people forget why Bill Wallace was named "superfoot", remember it's not just because he's good with his kicks, but because he throws three head kicks in one second.

A person who is well known; an extremely famous or notorious person-are the definitions of a legend. Joe Lewis has met these definitions in the last century, which makes him an authentic living legend in the Martial Arts. He was titled his first black belt in four months and became the first kickboxing champion of the world. His achievements have done more than inspire two generations they became the foundation of His being one of the greatest instructors of all times.

Bruce Lee said "Self education makes great men"

I've met many people over the years who wanted to train with Joe Lewis because he had trained in Bruce Lee's backyard. They wanted to know what he learned from Bruce Lee. Joe Lewis gives part of the credit to Bruce Lee for His winning the first world kickboxing championship. So if Bruce Lee never existed or was just a comic book hero, would Joe Lewis still have won all those titles and fights? Most definitely! Would he still have been the world kickboxing champion? Absolutely! Would he have knocked out his opponents by the second round? You can bet on it! So what did he get from Bruce Lee. They shared techniques and principles which in Lewis's own words said had helped him achieve victory in his first full contact match ever. Joe Lewis understood that the system of Jeet Kune Do was of a common sense.

I've spent many hours of training with Joe Lewis. He taught me how to bridge the gap, counter fighting, angular attacks using the on guard positioning out of the Oakland phase known as the 60/40 bijong. He also taught that speed is always power. I have extensively studied these techniques and know they work and have incorporated them in my teachings of Jeet Kune Do.

"To be a good instructor you must be able to go out and teach what you have learned"
Joe Lewis

The first time I met the man from Alabama was at the University. On the second day of the camp Sifu Ted Wong and Tommy Gong were teaching a class on sensitivity energy drills and trapping. After the second class we broke for lunch, we would often pair off and work with partners before class would resume and I noticed a group of three people working. One of these three did his techniques very well and I wound up working with him for about an hour after class. I was impressed by his speed and structure. His name was Lamar M. Davis II. I didn't realize at the time that he was one of the number one trappers in the United States and a world renowned practitioner in Jeet Kune Do. After the University I contacted Sifu Davis in Birmingham and made several trips to Alabama and Panama City to work with him and some of his students. After two years of training under Sifu Davis I received my apprenticeship with him. His love for Bruce Lee is authentic. He cares about how well his students learn and wants to be explicitly precise on the way he teaches. Sifu Davis has trained with over 24 of the original Bruce Lee students and is certified as a full instructor by five of them, in all three phases. He has also been inducted into the Martial Arts Hall of fame for instructor of the year and again for the Master Instructor Award. He has been published numerous times in various magazines nationally and internationally, such as Inside Kung Fu, Black Belt and the Jun Fan Journal just to name a few. One of the important aspects of Jeet Kune Do is to know the five ways of attack and one of the most difficult to learn is HIA (hand immobilization). The best instructor you could ever work under in HIA is Lamar M. Davis II.

"Simplicity is the last step of art and the beginning of nature, be soft yet not yielding, be firm yet not hard"
Bruce Lee

Through my education I had the opportunity to work with one of the first students of the LA China town phase. That was Sifu Steve Golden. He had been a student at Bruce Lee's school for over 8 months and learned such things as footwork, trapping, non-telegraphic attacks, kicking and awareness training. He also had rare opportunities to work in Bruce Lee's backyard where it was an "anything goes" atmosphere. Sifu Golden impacted my training. One of my instructors, Lamar M. Davis II highly recommended training with Steve Golden to heighten my trapping skills. Sifu Golden has a curriculum consisting of 13 different series in Jeet Kune Do. Although we touched on other points of his series, my certification is in attack by trapping. I have diligently used many of my students in practicing these matching and un-matching lead drills. Any time I have the opportunity to train with Sifu Steve Golden I will.

"Do you love life then don't waist time, time is what life is made up of"
Bruce Lee

Dr. Jerry Beasley is one of the most renowned educators in the martial arts today. He has written several books and has been published over 100 times in various martial arts magazines. In the early 1980's Dr. Beasley paved the way for martial artists from many backgrounds to have the opportunity to meet at a summer camp every year, at the Radford University in Virginia. Dr. Beasley has studied many arts including Jeet Kune Do in which he has also written several books. In 1993 Dr. Beasley incorporated Jeet Kune Do at the summer camp. One of the seminars I had attended that Dr. Beasley taught was on a new approach called trap boxing. Having my school gave me the opportunity to come home and teach what I had learned. I tried this approach on different types of students and found it worked very well. After many years attending the University, Dr. Beasley called me in 1999 and gave me an opportunity to teach JKD trapping for the 2000 school year. I had several years of training in trapping skills at that time. I have been inspired by Dr. Beasley and am grateful to have had the chance to attend and teach at the University. Because of the variety of Martial Arts offered at the camp, I suggest anyone who is serious about enhancing their martial arts skills attend this training camp.

"It's not just knowing and having the willingness, it's applying and doing that truely matters."
Bruce Lee