The need for high kicks in JKD

 

Years ago, I was intensively training in Taekwon-Do.  The first thing many people associate with TKD are the spectacular high kicks often seen.  In competitions, scoring with such techniques is rewarded with the highest amount of points. 

There's a reason for that. Scoring with a kick above the waist is difficult, it takes more time to execute a kick and as they are also executed from further away, our opponents can often see them coming, i.e. they are pretty telegraphic. 

It's for that reason that kicking in Jeet Kune Do, tends to target lower parts of the body such as the groin, shin, thighs, knees, and are also often employed as a means to stop the opponents advance (stop kick!).  In addition, with it's focus on street defence/fighting, you will likely not be wearing clothing that allows you to kick as high and as easy as I'm doing on the photo here (taken somewhere around 1988-89).  

Still I'm going to state here that being able to kick high (and fast) is beneficial and should be practiced regularly.  

The reason is simple: If you can kick high, you can kick low. In fact, if you can kick high with ease and speed, you can kick low with even more ease and speed! 

If you only train low, you won't be able to kick high!  Having the option available opens up other ways of landing a hit, from further away too due to the reach of your legs.  Obviously using them depends entirely on the circumstances and your proficiency. In most self defence situations, a high kick may not be the best and simplest solution and deciding to do so despite other better options  can very easily go very wrong, very quick! 

Yet, as I said if you're able to do so, you can integrate kicks and have a greater 'range' , using kicking combo's as part of your attacks, just as you would use your hands.  

So start stretching (if you weren't already doing so) and strengthening those leg muscles, and train your kicks! Oh and another benefit is an increase in general mobility/flexibility, which will help you in your advanced years. Wouldn't it be great if you could still tie your own shoelaces aged 80+ ?! 

Walk On!

I want to lose weight! (no you don't!)

 

Weightloss is something everyone has probably tried and dealt with, and many of us fail (or put it back on). In the below article I'll delve into some lessons I've learned (and am still learning!)  that I want to share with you.

We're also focussing on the wrong metrics, we focus on weight, and whilst that is just one indicator, most of us just want to look better, go down a few clothing sizes, have a leaner physique, look and feel healthy! So what we largely want is 'fat loss'. 

I won't get too scientific in the below and will try to avoid some of the extra explanation you may want to know , for that I've put some resource links at the end, so you can do your own further research.

Fasting & calorie control:

Calories in - Calories out = bodyfat. 

But Calories IN < Calories Out = weight loss is not accurate! (What? Are you sure, everyone says so?!) 

Yes that’s right! It’s a myth that has been around for many decades!

It MUST be combined with fasting, it's a natural thing to do, and we've forgotten all about it! 

Why? The reason is hormones. (more specifically, Insulin!) 

If you eat, the hormones in your body give it a signal that it is feeding time (insulin levels are high), and it will take nutrients from the food that comes in from that food.

If food comes in, the body will not touch it’s energy reserves stored in the form of fat. If you eat (and snack) too much, some of the food is converted into more fat and stored (= weight/fat gain).

The more you eat, or the longer the period each day that you feed yourself (including in between snacks etc), the less the body will access fat reserves, and that's because the insulin levels haven't dropped sufficiently yet.  

Even if you decide to eat less, if you don’t take long enough breaks between eating, your insulin levels will not change enough to get the signal to look for alternative energy sources (your body fat), and you will maintain weight. In fact, when decreasing your food / calory intake below your basal metabolic rate, but you keep snacking throughout the day your body will respond by lowering your metabolism, as insulin levels are still high (we're still telling our body that there's food on the way!). This, in turn makes you feel tired, restless, low energy levels, sleep bad.  Your body never reaches the ‘fasting’ stage.

However, if you have a long enough break between meals, your body will switch from feeding to fasting mode and start sourcing food from elsewhere as the hormones/insulin activated by eating (however little that was) will now not be as prevalent/subside. Now you will burn these fat reserves.

So the answer to successful weight loss is to eat healthy (real) foods, during a shorter time window, do not snack during the fasting period (as it will activate hormones that stop the fat burning process) or in between meals, and ensure quantity of food is also calory controlled, do not over eat! Water, black coffee/tea (or even a very small amount of cream/milk) is OK during the fast, until you eat the first meal, which for a reason is called ‘break fast’….

Easiest is intermittent Fasting where you prolong the period of not eating in a 24 period. Very popular is 16-8 (16 hours of not eating between dinner and your first meal the following day, and eat properly between that first and last meal (dinner) in an 8 hour window). Eating properly means you won’t feel hungry as quickly and you’ll be able to resist the urge to snack in between, just do not over eat, but eat enough to feed your life style and in a slight deficit to ensure you burn fat and not pile it back on (more on food later).

Fasting will make me feel hungry!

Ride the hunger waves: Feeling a bit hungry is very normal! Even our ancestors did and was a signal to go out on a hunt or forage for food. But have you ever seen a fat caveman? No, due to the periods without food, they were naturally fasting! Yet they were not feeling tired, lethargic etc. In fact, hunger raises your metabolic rate (by taking energy from storage!) to give you the energy to go on and find food! It’s a simple built in mechanism we are not using (enough) in our modern lifestyles. But even a few generations ago, when we didn’t have as much food available all the time (We didn’t have fridges/freezers etc) we did all the time! (look at an older photo, how many overweight or obese people can you identify?).

But dealing with hunger is easy nowadays. In our case we can easily deal with it by spending at least half of our fast period asleep, and drink water/black coffee etc. and keep ourselves busy before it’s time to eat.

Myth: Fasting or diets will make me burn muscle!

Fasting will not burn muscle! Again, think of Mr Caveman, if he were to burn up his own muscle due to not having food, he would not have the strength and energy to go out on a hunt, it would make no sense! Our bodies are not designed like that.

Muscles mostly shrink if you do not use them! Use them and they maintain themselves, and if you want to grow them, then use them more! (and for that you need food too).

Once you get to a situation where you can’t access foods for longer, you start to starve, now your body will go in decline and start to eat itself to sustain life for as long as possible, fasting is not starving!

Quality Foods:

This, is another incredibly important factor, that deserves a good long hard look!

In our modern lives, we are overwhelmed by choices, and many foods we now eat regularly are promoted to us by decades of very clever marketing, but many of these foods are not real! At least in part they are factory processed. I mentioned fridges/freezers earlier, but before these were common place, we used other methods to preserve our foods (think pickling,curing,fermenting etc.) We then started to see if we could do so differently. The common term is ‘ultra processed’ (UPF). They’ve gone through some kind of factory process.

Look at the ingredients. (example butter: If the ‘butter’ you use contains emulsifiers, Xanthem gum, and lots of other exotic ingredients you wouldn’t normally find in your kitchen cupboards, then it’s likely not ‘real’ food . Take Butter: butter should just consist of diary (or plant based) ingredients, nothing more). Your body won’t know what to do with these ‘artificial’ ingredients. It will partly store it as fat, in many cases it will just pass through, make you feel hungry sooner (so you eat more still, there is no real nutritional factor to it).

Although studies are not complete and many researchers are only just in the last decade or so starting to put two and two together, early indications are that our consumption of Ultra Processed foods, appear to go hand in hand with the obesity crisis, and general public health (cancers, diabetics etc.). Many of these are to do with what we (don’t) do and what we eat.

The reason for these UPF ingredients is mostly: It began with a quest to help preserve the food longer, but the industry and economic factors have started to play a bigger role, it had to be cheap to manufacture, and nowadays in some cases make you feel hungry sooner (lower real nutritional content). With a growing population it also helps manage the available food resources. But in our western world : Cheap manufacturing and the hunger factor (= increased consumption) = PROFIT, for the producers, not you! 

 We are a consumer society now, and the producers know this all too well and adjust their products and marketing campaigns accordingly, even labeling some as healthy, low calorie etc. (I challenge you to look at a supermarket health food (protein fruit bar, how much real fruit is in it? I bet it's less than 10%) and see how much 'real' food is in it? what else is in that bar, do you have any of it in your kitchen/fridge/freezer?  Look at 0% greek yogurt, or any 'low calorie' foods, the list goes on...) 

Where you can afford it, eat as much fresh food as part of your diet. Eat real foods may look more expensive and it may be to an extent (in the UK a tub of ‘UPF’ butter is around 2,- or less, real butter at least double that) eat a bit less. So rather than eat (lots of) 'low calorie foods (which is lacking in food and full of substitutes, either to simulate taste or texture, or both etc.) you can eat smaller portions of real food (and thus eat less calories in that manner) and not feel the need to snack in between so there are savings on that side of the coin.  

Exercise:

To exercise / lead a more active lifestyle is to help you offset the calories you eat so more of it is used to feed your activity and less of it is used to go to ‘storage’. 
Exercise for weightloss should not be your only goal. You also do it to improve your cardiovascular health, endurance, strength and flexibility, all functions that help you to maintain your overall health!

Exercising raises your metabolic rate temporarily helping you burn fat, but be aware: don’t think that exercising and eating a calory controlled diet alone is helping you lose weight. It firstly consumes 'energy' you've taken in from foods, not the stored fats as long as your body is not in a fasting state, so for the most part, it slows down the process of storing additional fats for most people.  But once your body is out of energy sources and not in a fasted state yet, it will slow donw your metabolic rate (it's a built in energy preservation system)

Also keep in mind that as you lose weight, your basal metabolic rate will also drop. (It’s easy to see why, if you weigh less, your muscles don’t have to work as hard to keep you functioning compared to when you carry extra weight!) 

So if you find your plateau and if you want to continue lose weight, you also have to keep adjusting your food intake slightly, but also keep exercising to retain an elevated metabolic rate for longer. 

So as you can see, if you exercise in a fasted state, it may be more effective, but that's not always practical for many people (unless you are able to do so first thing in the morning before breakfast (although prolonged exercise on an empty stomach is'nt great either and you won't produce your best efforts, for that some additional fuel is needed!))   which leads me to the following topic, Life style. 

Life style: 

Your lifestyle is largely dictated by your personal circumstances. Your work and work schedule, family etc.etc.
Therefore Fasting, Exercise, Food types you eat are often influenced by these factors.
Weight loss plans often fail because they are not sustainable, by either of these or combination of factors so be realistic.

You may not be able to choose what and when you eat dinner (together as a family) but often the easiest to control are your breakfast/lunch time. You may be able to skip breakfast on work days (but take a bigger lunch to compensate) and have dinner with your family (usually between 6-7pm). 

 You may not be able to exercise as regularly as you’d like. Exercise when you can (maybe just once per week? It’s more than you may currently be doing so it’s a win!) and make other choices. 

Exercise doesn’t mean you have to join a gym! There are other daily changes that may be available to you. Maybe you can walk or cycle more? Use the stairs instead of the lift? Take the dog out for longer walks etc. There are many things you can do very easily that add up.

If you have a very social life that involves (weekend) meetings for drinks / food etc, then so be it, enjoy yourself on the weekend, but get back on track during the week. Diets fail if you can’t enjoy life, if they don’t fit with your life, if you can't enjoy the process, if you fail to see results! 

But on the flip side, if you don’t like the current state of affairs, you need to look long and hard where you can make some sustainable changes, so some sacrifices may be needed (drink a little less, eat smaller meals (not 3 courses all the time when out) and try to eat well when you do so you resist the urge for snacks longer)). 

So while the fitness industry is partly right when they state that weightloss is a combination of exercise and a good diet (what and how much), they don't (yet) focus on when to eat, and largely focus on calorie in = calorie out (or rather calorie in < calorie out= weightloss (which is not entirely accurate)). 

Weight loss is not the same formula for everyone and you may need to experiment for a while to find the best approach for you, but as long as you can commit to regular fasting periods, eat good foods (and not snack!), limit your alcohol intake and exercise a bit more, then long term you’ll start to see changes. Depending on what you are able/willing to do, the weight loss will vary. From just a few pounds per month, to several per week!

Once you hit your desired weight (better term is 'physique' ) , try and find the correct balance to prevent further weight loss or gain. 

So if you are familiar with the Tao of Jeet Kune Do, then the following sentence will make sense.

'The key to a succesful 'dieter' , is not only knowing What to eat, but understand the why and when'!

I hope this article has helped you to gain an understanding of the processes involved, and at least get you start to think about how you will approach your weight loss.

Note: So as the title suggests, it's not weight, realistically it’s fat loss you’re after, weight may not drop if you also engage in strength training as muscle mass is heavier than the same volume of fat. What most are after is a lean physique, look slim, fit, healthy. Therefore, weight alone is not a good indicator. Whilst inaccurate, smart scales can give you a bit of an indication about your body composition, but the mirror, tape measures (and the sizes of clothes you wear)  and how you feel (energetic/lathargic) are your best indicator!

Further reading on the above topics (particularly on fasting and good foods) I recommend the following books:

The Obesity Code - Jason Fung

Ultra Processed People - Chris van Tulleken

A short explanation about fasting (and mistakes) can be found here: 

Fasting mistakes

Not in control of your foods:

Food Addiction 

Walk On! 

JEET KUNE DO WORKSHOP

 

Returning for the 5th year already, we are again proud to host sifu James ter Beek and George Sirag from the Netherlands. Two of the few authorised 2nd generation instructors in Europe by Bruce Lee's longest serving private sparring partner and student Ted Wong, they bring a wealth of knowledge on the art of Jeet Kune Do!
This 4 hour workshop is always packed with information and action and is a must for any serious martial artist or Jeet Kune Do practitioner.
The price to participate is GBP 50,- per person.
However if you register and pay prior to 1st of May 2024, the cost will be GBP 45,- per person.
Please contact: Junfan.jeetkunedo.devon@gmail.com to register your place and receive more details!
Location: Teign School, Chudleigh Rd, Kingsteignton, Newton Abbot TQ12 3JG , Devon, UK

Walk On!

Sticky Hands or Quicky Feet?

 As you probably know, Bruce Lee's formal martial arts training began with lessons in Ving Tsun. 

He had learned bits from friends and relatives before that, but Ving Tsun was the first art he learned under a proper instructor at a school.   One of the halmarks of Ving Tsun is it's close range proximity, and the 'sensitivity' aspect, of feeling (by means of touch etc.) the opponents energy.  One of the most well known drills to develop that is the so called Chi Sao (translated Sticky Hands). It is this sensitivity that will help you respond when applying Hand Immobilisation Attacks (HIA), in other words trapping.  

Obviously, you need to be able to gain an attachment (make physical contact) with your opponent for this to work.  There are circumstances in a fight where this is possible, for example if your opponent blocks your punch.  But not every opponent does that, and certainly not all the time. Bruce Lee soon found that if he was up against someone not trained in Ving Tsun, applying a trap was more challenging. That said as soon as he was able to, it was basically over for the other party, he was incredibly skilled at it. 

If an opponent is more mobile, then applying a trap is hard, and there are often other things that may be more straight forward than trapping, even if you do gain the attachment. Take the above example, you punch and it gets blocked. Rather than applying a trap (and then follow up with a hit, which granted in some circumstances can also be performed near simultaneously), immediately punch with the other hand, or kick, which may be the simpler solution to the 'problem'.  This was something that wasn't lost on Bruce Lee and in subsequent training, his emphasis became more and more about mobility, striking from distance and moving out. This was largely due to the influence of fencing, from which he borrowed and modified many principles found in his Jeet Kune Do. At one point he called up his instructor Taky Kimura, who was still teaching in Seattle, and told him 'Chi Sao was out'.  

Particularly Ted Wong, one of Bruce Lee's longest (private) students and family friend, spend a lot of time with Bruce Lee when he focussed on this mobility rather than Ving Tsun style trapping.   The Chi Sao was out statement wasn't meant to say to discard it completely however, it was just that it was no longer at the heart of Jeet Kune Do,  instead alive sparring with mobility became the heart.  It is this latter approach that Ted Wong taught (although he could trap and demonstrate that very well, he made sure that you knew that Bruce Lee gave it less importance and that more mobility was key).

(photo by Dr Z.  Ted Wong executing a kick) 

At our school www.junfanjeetkunedo.co.uk  we teach in lineage of Ted Wong.  We do cover immobilisation attacks too of course (it is a part of the 5 attacking strategies Bruce Lee developed), but note that I left of the word Hand... there are more ways to immobilise an oponent than just with the hands, Bruce Lee knew this and there are many notes by him where he put the H in brackets (H)IA....

Emphasis first and foremost is on learning to kick and punch , attack, counter attack, parry etc. using fluid mobility/footwork.  After all, you can't hit what isn't there, and if you want to hit, you'll have to get in range too. Ted Wong emphasised that part of Jeet Kune Do, often referred to as the latter stage JKD... Aliveness in motion. 

Walk On! 

Black Belts in Jeet Kune Do, and other ranks.

 Sometimes, in the weird and wonderful world of Jeet Kune Do, we come accross individuals that claim to hold a blackbelt, or an even higher 'Dan' grade in the art. 

There's a few things I need to say about this.  Whilst, in the early days of running his martial arts schools, Bruce Lee did give out grades (in the form of 'levels', as in level of proficiency) he later completely went away from it.  He felt that grades / levels do not prove someone's ability to fight, but you can clearly see or experience if someone is good at something.  The practitioner themselves will easily 'feel' that their punch/kick etc has improved or not. (and the instructor will tell him so). Throughout the years, the vast majority of his students, those who started to teach his art, kept to the same principle. There are also very few instructors around. The art never got properly organised. There is no official international body currently in existence endorsed by the Lee estate/family.  Largely due to Bruce Lee's statement that he wanted to keep the numbers low and the quality high, and his desire to be teaching people as individuals. A larger organisation invariably needs some form of structure to ensure tuition is to his exacting standards, and is another reason why it never really got organised. There have been attempts to do so, trying to tread a careful line between Bruce's ideas/wishes of individual expression, and preventing it from getting to formulaic, and setting up some kind of core curriculum (and how to test/control it).  Individual views on this matter meant that most of Bruce's orginal students (who also studied at different times and circumstances with him) never could properly agree and went their own ways.  

Then there are instructors that, sometimes due to public pressure do award belts. (and by that I mean the perception of the general public is that awarding belts is like passing exams and shows your proficiency, and that this is how all martial arts do it. ).  

I know genuine JKD instructors that do that for their kids classes.. For adults this is rarely done, particularly in the Western world. For all intent and purposes, JKD is a Western Martial art, developed by an American, but with a good dose of oriental input due to his roots.  

Things change if you move to other parts of the world. In the Middle east/Africa, some asian countries love this kind of thing. Perhaps it's a cultural thing, it awards status etc.  There have been individuals who taught themselves (with varying degrees of success but that's a whole different topic) and have no lineage to any of Bruce Lee's original students (for reasons already mentioned), and awarded themselves a high rank, in the form of a Black belt with a dan grade (most recently I saw someone claiming a 7th dan in JKD)...Some of these even set up organisations with colourful names like 'world jeet kune do council' or 'International JKD Federation' and that sort of thing. Those are not endorsed by the Lee estate. They may hold competitions, they spar, but mostly exists for the benefit of profit of their founders... Also keep in mind that anyone with any serious business in this art, should have a decent level of fitness...some of these 'masters'... appear far from possesing that...

Does that mean they know what they're doing? They 'may' do..some may have attended a seminar/work shop with a genuine instructor at one point (but how many hours/years did they properly train under any??) Does that mean they are bad martial artists? No, it doesn't but it should be clear that if you are ever looking to train in JKD, to do your research. Who are they, is what they teach genuine? Prospective students should always enquire how they were awarded any dan grade, who did they train with (and can they prove it?). If you're going to spend money and time to train, you deserve to know! 

There are many pitfalls. There are fake certificates out there, and with ever improving AI and other tech, I'm sure it's going to get even more complicated...  

Also look out for those with highlevel ranks in many martial arts.  To know one martial art well, and acchieve a high rank in it, means many years of dedicated training, more than most of us have available in our lives, even if martial arts is how you make a living..  Also know that dan grades are usually awarded (in traditional arts, and is commonly accepted) in the following way: The Dan grade (lets say 4th dan), means that it took the individual a minimum of 4 more years since grading for his 3rd degree,  and from his 4th to 5th will take at least another 5 etc.  so if you come accros a 30 - 40 year old individual that holds a degree like 8-9 or 10th degree (and on top of that in multiple arts) do the maths, I'd be a little suspicious... There are now many children with black belts, but back in the 80's there were hardly any. Instructors that had a 4th dan then (a pretty high rank in the 'west' at the time), may be grand masters now, and now in their 60's. I earned my black belt after 4 years of training in Taekwondo, I was 16.  I've still not reached 60 so I am not even at minimum time trained to earn/grade for a 9th dan, had I continued training in it!  So particularly if that art is JKD, which knows no official grading structure.  any higher grade is most likely self awarded..    

There are even some (including a few individuals in Europe and USA) claiming to be 'grand masters'... let me be clear, those are NOT endorsed by any genuine JKD instructor with any form of dignity or respect towards the founder..let alone the Lee estate. If you come accross these individuals, respectfully walk away.. 

There are also those that paid a lot of money, trained for a weekend 'camp' and walked away with instructor rank... sadly that's happened too... They don't only fool themselves, but anyone training with them...

As said, there are those that have opted to test their students and give them colourful belts as a measure of their progress, and that's OK.

In my lineage we do award 'level certificates', but they are 'handed' out after the instructor feels the student deserves it, has the understanding and put in the time. A minimum for '1st Level' (like a yellow belt in traditional money) is 2 years of dedicated training in our case.  This is again because awarding someone a belt or certificate gives them something tangible to understand they're improving in the art on a personal level, a bit of a pat on the back (hence we don't test / run exams, the instructor can observe them during class and knows if someone's worth it). 

However, as a true martial artist, you probably already know, deep inside, that you are improving and getting more proficient as time goes by. It's just a piece of paper, true knowledge lies within. 

We don't wear belts, we don't act according to our 'rank' in class. We are all the same, treat eachother with the same respect as human beings. It just so happen that some of us have trained longer than others... no more no less...

Walk On!

Private classes or not?

 Recently I made the decision to start offering my services as a JKD trainer for private customers. I'm not cheap, but not expensive either. Don't think that private training is similar in cost to class room training. It is about 2.5x more but keep in mind that I spend the same amount of time on just you rather than a group of people and that I potentially have to travel much further to get to your home/training location.

I want the private time I sacrifice (I do have a day job) to be worth my while and take students that are serious about their training, but there are those that simply cannot make it to the regular classes.  Reasons can be their personal circumstances, work schedules, or perhaps they are celebrities that value their privacy and want to keep them selves to them selves. 

Training privately has it's pros and cons. Lessons can be more intense as you'll get my undivided attention for the whole session and progression can be quicker therefore.  On the negative side are that you will need to have training space at home (not a full blown gym per-se, but at least a spacious garage/garden/patio or are able to hire a space somewhere for us) and you do not get the variety of workout partners that can be beneficial to your evolution as a martial artist. 

Alternative is obviously that you do both the classroom AND private sessions. 

So is it for you? Its a question only you can answer. Do you have the space, do you have the commitment?  Drop me a line if your answer is yes to these questions. 

Walk On!

Non Telegraphic motion

 Training in JKD, also involves a lot of time spend on practicing such that our movements are non telegraphic. In other words, they are performed such that our opponent doesn't notice the attack being initiated until it's too late. 

This means that we are trying to eliminate every single prepatory movement, hesitations, readjustments/alignments and so on.  There are many videos on social media platforms of people demonstrating this, often by showing a straight lead (as in the picture), or finger jab etc.  Almost always, there are those that criticise the performance, but they're forgetting a few important things.  They are not on the receiving end of the action!  It is very easy to be able to analyse it from the outside, as a 3rd party, but if you're the one being targetted, you would not have the same calmness, observation angle and so on.  The attack is coming straight at you (in this example) so your depth perception is going to affect it. You are also under pressure, meaning elevated adrenaline/stress levels, which further slow down your ability to see what's about to happen. Often we find that we did actually register 'something' but there's not enough time to defend against it.  A JKD person is primarely a counter fighter, and being a counter fighter we often need to re-act rather than act. Developing a keen sense of the other persons intentions is key to our succes. Knowing that something is about to happen, rather than responding when it has already happened, is a skill that will develop through years of training. 

On the other side is us refining our movements, by repeating the action over and over, working on correct execution of the technique, and there by removing all unneccesary movement, a key element of the JKD fighter being perceived as very fast and being non telegraphic. The founder Bruce Lee was fast, not because he was super human, but because he was a very driven/dedicated person who would train intensely, his training logbook show that he would throw 500 punches of a certain type in a session, just to get it right, or better still, never get it wrong! 

We can never get perfect, but we are able to get as close as possible to it, by training.  So next time you see a video of a non telegraphic punch being performed and you notice a small flaw, try and put yourself in the shoes of the receiver and consider if you would still have spotted the flaw, or that you'd likely get hit because you didn't see it, or you simply couldn't act quick enough...

Walk On!