When Bruce Lee died, Dan Inosanto sought to spread his art of Jeet Kune Do. What Dan had learned through personal instruction and small-group training, he traveled and attempted to teach in seminar form. He took techniques and put them into patterns that could be easily memorized, so students would have something to practice, something to get them started. But JKD is more about collecting techniques, it is a lifestyle.
But Bruce Lee had taught more than techniques. He emphasized the development of attributes: speed, timing, coordination, sensitivity, distance, and the ability to recognize an opening. A technique was only as good as the person performing it. You could memorize a hundred techniques, but if you lacked the timing, speed, or ability to recognize when to use them, they were practically worthless.
These attributes were developed through countless hours of repetition, partner drills, conditioning, and sparring. You learned to recognize the line of attack, control your distance, and respond instinctively instead of stopping to think about which technique to use. The emphasis was not simply on collecting techniques but on developing the attributes that made them work.
This was the time of JKD evangelism soon after the death of Bruce Lee, the founder. Afterwards, many of the students started their own schools. They rented space, laid down mats, and charged tuition. In the 1980s and 1990s, JKD spread rapidly. But many of the schools just taught the patterns and did not develop the attributes.
Students learned trapping drills, combinations, and elaborate sequences of movements. They could perform them beautifully with a cooperative partner. But a partner who knows what you are going to do and allows you to do it is not the same as an opponent trying to knock your head off. The real test came when somebody resisted, changed the distance, or did something unexpected.
They looked good in demonstrations but could not fight. It became a business and not a lifestyle. When students started to leave, they added a belt system to be more like Tae Kwon Do to retain students. Eventually, JKD turned into a hobby and not a fighting art.
When this became obvious, some returned to the garage.
What we found out was this: a few guys working hard in a garage, developing their attributes, testing their techniques, and doing some hard sparring could accomplish more in months than others did in years at the air-conditioned schools doing patterns. These guys who returned to the garage were the foundation for modern MMA, and the UFC was born.
I think churches need to return to the garage.
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