My JKD big brother, Bob Bremer, likes to tell the story about how he was watching Bruce Lee train like a lunatic one day and asked him, “Geez, Bruce, aren’t you afraid you’re gonna be over-trained?” Lee’s response was, “I’d rather be over-trained than under-trained.” An excellent point provided you keep it in the proper context. Bruce was working on technical skill training at the time. (When it comes to technical skill, especially in combat, I think it would always be better to be over-trained than under-trained). In addition, Lee had already spent years developing his physical fitness to an extremely high level which allowed him to put forth the energy and effort he did.

I am pleased to announce that I have just released a new series of small e-books, entitled "Jeet Kune Do Essentials."

“Jeet Kune Do Essentials” are a series of handy, easy-to-use reference guides for training with various types of “mobile” and “fixed” equipment such as focus gloves, kicking shields, heavy bags, etc. Wherever you may be, whether it’s working out at home, training at a martial art school, or simply reading while sitting in a park or traveling on a plane, the “Jeet Kune Do Essentials” series offers you invaluable information on how to use training equipment correctly and effectively to develop or enhance your martial art performance. Each book in the series details different ways in which you can use the equipment and provides you with countless training drills to help you infuse variety in your workouts and stave off motivational boredom, and can serve as a catalyst for thought and ideas to help you develop your own training drills.

Each “Jeet Kune Do Essentials” e-book is available for Kindle now through Amazon.com for only $3.99

It is amazing to me how some people expect extraordinary results in their martial art training but are not willing to put forth the time and energy necessary to achieve even ordinary results. They approach their training in a random, hit-or-miss fashion.

The following is the second part of a telephone interview I conducted with John Little on topics related to the martial arts and JKD. (Read Part 1 here)

The following transcripts are from a telephone interview I conducted with John Little. During our marathon three-hour conversation we covered numerous topics including the state of the fitness industry today, fitness and exercise as it relates to martial arts, and Jeet Kune Do. The excerpts included here relate to the martial arts and JKD.

Confrontations between the mind and body are an inevitable and integral part of training in Jeet Kune Do. As each of us move along our personal martial art path we will find ourselves dealing with barriers that, if we allow them to, will impede our performance and prevent us from achieving personal growth.

If you want to achieve optimum levels of performance as a martial artist, you need to be physically, mentally and emotionally ready. No intelligent martial artist would consider engaging in a strenuous sparring or training session without spending at least a few minutes preparing beforehand. That’s because they recognize the necessity and value of warming-up, knowing that it reduces the risk of injury and leads to better performance.

As a martial artist, your body is the “instrument” you use to communicate with in combative form. And the more finely tuned your instrument, the higher degree of efficiency and effectiveness it can express, and the greater your ability to move your body and adapt instantly and harmoniously to whatever type of opponent happens to be in front of you will be. While your entire body is the martial instrument, the various elements used in striking such as your hands, feet, elbows, knees, and even head, make up what are often referred to as the combative “tools of the trade.”  Each of these various combative tools needs to be developed, maintained and/or sharpened on a daily basis in order to be kept in perfect working order and be most efficient and effective. A proficient martial artist must possess the ability to relate their various strikes to an opponent as part of an intuitive arsenal, and develop the ability to strike from any distance, at every angle and with either arm or leg to take advantage of the moment. To help facilitate this, the continual development and refinement of the various striking tools should make up a significant portion of your training regimen.

Let me ask you something. What would you do if:

 a) There were no training partners available for you to work out with?

 b) You didn’t have access to any type of training equipment to use?

 c) Your training time was limited to only 10 minutes per day?

It’s a well-known fact that Bruce Lee's forearms were incredibly developed. Bob Wall, who worked with Bruce in two movies stated, "Bruce had the biggest forearms proportionate to anybody's body that I've ever seen. His forearms were huge. He had incredibly powerful wrists and fingers." Taky Kimura, Bruce's first assistant instructor and oldest friend noted, "If you grabbed hold of Bruce's forearm, it was like grabbing hold of a baseball bat." My teacher Dan Inosanto told me, "Bruce had such a powerful grip that he could take you to the ground simply by grabbing one of your wrists and squeezing. The pain was so intense that even if you wanted to hit with your free hand or kick you couldn't. He would also use his forearm like a club to smash into your arms and knock them aside. "