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!