JKD Training July Thoughts

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My first vlogs about learning kung fu in China are up. If you haven’t watched them yet I embedded them here so you can check them out. This first month’s videos are about Jeet Kune Do, or JKD, which is the art that Bruce Lee created.

JKD has a lot more in common with Tang Soo Do, the martial art I do back home, than a lot of the older traditional Chinese martial arts. At least more similar to the sparring we do. I guess the forms not so much. I think this made it a good place to start since it meant I wouldn’t have as much trouble picking it up as I did when I tried Wing Chun a couple of years back.

That being said there are still some differences I need to get used to. The stance we fight from doesn’t face as much to the side as a Taekwondo or Karate style fighting stance and maybe faces a little less forward than a boxing stance (my knowledge of boxing is weak at best). I often have to force myself to spar from this stance as I often automatically adopt either a mode sideways or more forward stance. There are also some techniques that have taken some getting used to, including a sort of skipping kick defense that I talk about in the second video. Although my mom said we do a similar skip in a form called Chilsung Samro so my memory clearly isn’t what it used to be. 

The best thing that’s come from the JKD classes so far is a greater emphasis on boxing style sparring than I’m used to. Sparring with just the hands. I’m used to sparring pretty much always having kicks, which I rely on maybe too heavily. My boxing is quite weak. I’m not great at reacting to close punches, dodging and weaving, and head movement. So the work we’ve done on that in JKD class has been great. Beyond that it’s good to get back. I’m pretty bad at being an adult and martial arts classes took a pretty big hit.

Overall it was a great first month of martial arts blogging and I’m looking forward to doing more. I’ve started doing tai chi as well so next month look forward to vlogs about two different martial arts!

Thanks for reading and I'll see you on my next trip. Don't forget to click the links below and follow to stay up to date on what I'm doing and where I am and to see all the pictures and videos from my trips.