There are a lot of opinions of whether Kata (or forms) and traditional martial arts are worth practicing… particularly these days with the MMA, Muay Thai, BJJ and other combat sports taking the limelight. Many are in the camp of thinking that traditional martial arts training, and particularly Kata training (Kata = forms or patterns used […]
Feint vs Fake
When I began boxing and later Jeet Kune Do, you’d often hear people talk about “throwing a fake” or “just feint a movement”… and to me the terms seemed to be used interchangeably and to mean the same thing. Only years later, when I began training with my Chinatown Jeet Kune Do instructor, Sifu Tim […]
Thoughts on Awareness
During my Chinese Boxing and Kempo Karate classes we often discuss different topics, and the other day we spoke about awareness. The discussion started as a discussion on the “fighting measure” in Chinese Boxing (more specifically in Jeet Kune Do). The ‘fighting measure’ is the ideal distance you want to maintain between yourself and your opponent. When you […]
Is it KeNpo or KeMpo?
“The Kenpo vs Kempo Debate” While there are many systems using Kempo and the alternate Kenpo spelling, there seems to be some misconceptions in regards to the term Kenpo vs. Kempo as it pertains to systems with a lineage to the Hawaiian Karate / Self-Defense traditions; e.g. Mitose’s Kosho Ryu Kenpo; Chow’s Chinese Kempo, and […]
Training the Straight Lead Punch
“Training the Straight Lead Punch” is an article that was originally published in the August 1998 issue of “Bruce Lee Magazine”, and was written by my teachers Sifu Tim Tackett and the late Sifu Bob Bremer. The straight lead punch is a “bread and butter” technique of Jeet Kune Do (could be argued that it’s the […]