Black Belt’s 2006 Man of the Year got off to a fast start in 2007. Sifu Ted Wong conducted a Jeet Kune Do (JKD) seminar hosted by the New York Martial Arts Academy, operated by Sifu Dino Orfanos, on February 3-4 in Long Island, New York. There is perhaps no one in the world more qualified to teach JKD than Sifu Wong. Not only was he a student of Bruce Lee’s, Sifu Wong was certified in JKD by Bruce himself, and many considered him to be Bruce’s protégé. His relationship with Bruce extended beyond the classroom (often Lee’s own backyard), as the two men became close friends. This makes a seminar conducted by Sifu Wong a truly unique experience, as he weaves PhD-level instruction in JKD, with numerous anecdotes describing what it was like to train and be friends with Bruce Lee.
The martial arts world owes a tremendous debt to Sifu Wong for his contributions to the art of JKD. As part of his opening remarks, Sifu Wong explained that Bruce was still developing JKD at the time of his death. The death of the creator of any art, especially one as revolutionary in the martial arts world as JKD, leaves the art’s followers with numerous unanswered questions. JKD students are fortunate in that there are many resources available to help them better understand the art, since Bruce left behind volumes of notes, and many people who knew him are still alive to provide insights. But gaps are inevitable. How are Bruce’s writings to be interpreted? What did he mean in regard to movement and footwork? Sifu Wong has played a critical role in answering many of these questions, based on a number of key attributes that make him uniquely qualified to do so.
To begin with, Sifu Wong has studied JKD for 4 decades. A lifelong boxing fan (an art to which he was attracted, like Bruce, for its efficiency), Sifu Wong had not formally studied martial arts before hearing about Bruce by word of mouth and becoming a walk-in student. And Sifu Wong was not just “any” student. He logged more hours of private instruction with Bruce Lee than any other person – a fact verified by Lee’s own day calendars. Sifu Wong recalled that when Bruce came up with the name Jeet Kune Do, he wrote down 3 words: simplicity, directness and non-classical. To Bruce, Sifu Wong stated, every aspect of the art had to be based on science. Interestingly enough, Sifu Wong found that when he first began to try to develop a seminar curriculum it was extremely difficult, explaining, “There’s not that much to teach – to fight (i.e., to kick and, punch) in the most simple, direct way. But the most simple way, is often the hardest thing to do”. Utilizing a scientific approach as Bruce did (Sifu Wong is a chemist by trade), and possessed of a photographic memory, Sifu Wong analyzed his years of instruction with Bruce to fill in many of the blanks Bruce left behind. For example, Sifu Wong drew on his access to Bruce’s personal library, carefully reviewing the detailed notes and annotations Bruce made in his books (267 on boxing alone), and then noting which of these concepts Bruce mentioned or developed in his writings.
The results of Sifu Wong’s meticulous research are on full display in his seminar. He began the seminar with a look at the foundation of JKD: stance and footwork, explaining that JKD is truly an American martial art, and how it draws on many principles from boxing and fencing. He demonstrated how the stance is based on the stability provided by the structure of the triangle, and the essential role played by footwork in JKD to maintain the stance, and thus stability, when moving in a fight. Sifu Wong’s instruction flowed from full-beat to half-beat footwork, and then to broken rhythm. Other segments included punching, punching in combinations and kicking. Each segment addressed principles in physics and anatomy, explaining how to move the body in the most efficient way to deliver the maximum power and speed in striking. Examples of some of the JKD principles covered by Sifu Wong include the following:
On getting power in punching:
On throwing combinations:
Sifu Wong’s instruction was filled with numerous insights and stories about his Sifu, Bruce Lee. For example, though the trapping scenes in “Enter the Dragon” are well-known to most martial artists, interestingly enough Sifu Wong said Bruce was no fan of trapping in a real fight. Sifu Wong said Bruce cautioned him against ever using trapping in a street fight, because he felt it was a pre-arranged technique which lacked directness, and required too many moves to execute. Sifu Wong ended the seminar by answering the question every martial artist has always wanted to know: what was it like to spar with Bruce Lee? Sifu Wong said, “It was different than what you saw in the movies. When he sparred, Bruce did not move too much. A lot of the movement you see in his films was designed just for the movies. When he sparred with you, he would move very little – and then explode!
By Doug Green
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