We know that breakfast is considered one of, if not the most important meals of the day. It helps you get a new day started after a night’s rest. In the same way that what you put into your body is important, what you feed or put into your mind at the start of each day is equally important. Beginning your day by feeding your mind positive, ideas, etc. can go a long way in helping you deal with the challenges and stress you may find yourself coming up against during the day. It doesn’t matter where the food comes from, positive thinking books, spiritual writings, books of quotes, etc.; the container is not what’s important, but rather the medicine within it.

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.

Have you ever been with someone who, when they see a particular martial art technique, action, etc. immediately makes a comment like, “Oh, that’s no good” or “That won’t work,” but if you ask them to explain to you the reasons behind their comment, they’re unable to tell you, or all they can offer is some vague, nebulous answer. Whereas another individual can articulate exactly why they believe a technique or action to be ineffective and why they don’t think it will work. They can give you legitimate, clear reasons. The reason is that the second individual has cultivated what we refer to in Jeet Kune Do as the “educated” eye and “discerning” mind. What do these terms mean? The “educated” eye relates to the ability to look with eyes that can see what is functional from the perspective of structure and technique. The “discerning” mind relates to the capacity to filter out unrealistic concepts and theories, and ineffective techniques in one’s training. Both relate to having good judgment, understanding, and insight.

In baseball, the player whose job it is to deal with outfield fly balls or the man whose job is to deal with ground balls whizzing between second and third base may only receive one or two of them in a single game, or perhaps even none at all for several games. If they rely solely on actual games in order to develop their skills they will not get much practice. Likewise, in sparring, a particular action may only occur once or twice in a session, or perhaps not at all. Therefore, if you rely solely on sparring to practice your offensive, counter-offensive, or defensive actions you won’t get much practice.

In the book I co-authored with Tim Tackett “Jun Fan/Jeet Kune Do -- The Textbook” which was originally published in 1988, and then re-published in 2008 and re-titled, Jeet Kune Do -- The Textbook,” we wrote that in JKD one should have the ability to flow from one martial art to another, and then listed several photographic sequences as examples, such as flowing from a JKD hook kick to a Thai elbow to a Silat sweep. Personally (and I cannot and would not speak for Tim), I now believe this to be incorrect and that it can lead to misperceptions regarding what JKD is all about. My intention was to ask for it to be removed from the re-printed version of the book, but it did not happen.