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.

“JKD is highly individualized. It can be taught, but it cannot be standardized.”

                                                                                                - Dan Inosanto

Jeet Kune Do is a unique art in that it’s very individual. Not individual in the sense that a person does whatever the hell they want and however they want to do it, but that they develop their own personal attributes to their fullest capacity and then express those attributes in their actions.

Ted Wong stated that Bruce Lee told him that the highest quality that any martial artist can possess is adaptability, to be able to adapt to any opponent and any situation. In any combative situation, there are numerous variables that you do not get to dictate. Let’s look at the prime variables:

Keith Allan, a Facebook friend of mine and a fellow JKD practitioner and instructor, posted recently that he received an e-mail from another individual involved in JKD asking him why he competes in MMA. Keith said he responded by telling the person that to test your material you need to jump into the water and swim. This begs the question, why shouldn’t a JKD practitioner enter competitive arenas if they want to?