Hello and welcome to my website. I’m a kung fu teacher offering JKD private lessons in Swanage, Dorset.
Why do I offer Jeet Kune Do lessons?
I offer private lessons in Jeet Kune Do mainly because I want to provide an alternative for people who aren’t so happy with the JKD teachers they’ve found elsewhere. What they know, what they can do, what they choose to teach, and their choice of teaching methods – I see and do things a bit differently. More options for you.
That’s the main reason I teach JKD today – to provide another option to those who really want to learn Bruce’s Kung Fu techniques & philosophies but want something different to what they’ve found so far.
Each teacher has his own unique perspective, and a unique set of strengths & weaknesses, myself included, so the serious JKD student today can explore a wide range of perspectives and try to piece it all together in order to carve out their own unique path that has minimal gaping holes.
How am I different to Bruce Lee, as a martial artist?
How am I different to Bruce? Well, I’m older, fatter, less stamina, less flexibility, less of an athlete or performer, the list goes on (mainly physical attributes). Around the age of 20, people sometimes called me Bruce Lee, because I picked up Wing Chun quickly and owned it stubbornly. Now nearly 40, people are more likely to call me Santa. I have diabetes and a bit of arthritis. Don’t expect Bruce Lee reincarnated.
In attitude, I’m less assertive than Bruce was. For example, I’d call myself an ambassador of the thumbless grip – a hallmark of non-committed pacifist kung fu. But I also appreciate the value of assertiveness in certain contexts, and it’s for these pressurised contexts that JKD is really needed within the arsenal of a complete martial artist today – especially one with a base in Wing Chun fundamentals.
What do I have in common with Bruce? I feel like our hand speed, power and technical acumen are on a similar level. I need to take it easy these days though.
I also feel like I’ve had a similar journey through the martial arts, and came to similar conclusions at similar stages in training. For example, I began training in something not so practical from a young age, then I discovered Wing Chun and loved it, then I began to dislike certain aspects of how it was typically done, so I kept Wing Chun fundamentals (from Chi Sau) as the core of my martial art, without spending too much time on Biu Jee or weapons, and started exploring other things. I started focusing on my own instincts & preferences, developing my own interpretation of Wing Chun, while extending my skills radically by training in other arts without being overrun by aspects of them that I’m less interested in. I did many private lessons with the best teachers I could find in a range of very different styles, kind of like Bruce Lee did.
But I didn’t do Dojo Storms. I don’t pick fights with fraudulent teachers, like Bruce is said to have done (although this is disputed). But as he were (mostly) Chinese, and Kung Fu was scarcely known in America those days, and he even fought to the death with the Chinese government’s best man for the right to teach Kung Fu overseas, he probably felt more of a duty to deal with the cowboys that were giving Kung Fu a bad name. I respect that. I feel a duty to represent the misunderstood & forgotten aspects of my ancestors’ culture too.
What can you learn from JKD lessons with me?
- Tai Chi and Wing Chun fundamentals, similar to what Bruce learnt. We can take this as far as you like, as I also teach these arts separately from JKD.
- Adaptations Bruce made to Wing Chun – what he did differently and why.
- Drills and training methods preferred by Bruce’s best known students and their main descendants & successors today.
- What we can learn from Bruce’s movies, TV shows, training footage, written books, posted letters, diary entries and training notes. I believe Bruce fully appreciated the significance of his movies as a platform for demonstrating his genuine martial art, and utilised them increasingly for this purpose towards the end of his life.
