Guro Dan Inosanto Seminar

I know there are a few people on here who train in JKD / Kali, did anybody go to the Guro Dan seminar weekend. How was it, what sort of material was covered this year.

He certainly is an inspiration.

Look forward to any feedback.
Stuart

hi stuart
1st of all Paul Finn sends his regards!
just got back last night from training with guro
mindblowing!
we covered jun fan/JKD kickboxing ,some shoot wrestling and hitting on the floor ,double stick ans single stick and started the knife section on the saturday
and on sunday explored more of the weaponry including some tie ups with the stick and dagger then we went into some hubud drills/trapping and looking at their relation to wing chun,muay thai plumm and then finally standup grappling/pummelling
as always it was great to be in the same room as the great man himself
and catching up with old friends and making some new ones
you going in november to rick youngs?
mick x

Cheers for the round up Mick.
Paul is a good guy and so dedicated to his training.

Sounds like a fun weekend was had, especailly like the sound of the
hubud/trapping, wing chun, Plumm work etc. Really like this range of training.

Going to try and get across to Edinburgh this year, am really reinvestigating my jkd / kali training again these days. How bout yourself, you planning on coming up?

Stuart

hi mate
def coming up!
as you may have gathered myself and Al have started training quite a lot with Guro Terry Barnett and I'm over training with Paul Kelly in halesowen a couple of times a week too. Good to hear you are back looking at JKD/Kali i love it and actually believe in its "real life" merit

managed to hook up with Pat Davies at the w'end if you get the chance pop and see him in aberdeen as his all round game is off the scale
take care
mick x

Excellent, hopefully we can get together.
Had not had the opportunity to train with Terry but i have seen him in action. Very impressive. I did my training under Ralph Jones.

I really love Kali and how vast it is, especially enjoy Panantukan.
Heard only good things about Pat, he also runs regular seminars with some top class people. Will try and get upto see him in the near future.

Cheers
Stuart

I trained at a 2 day seminar with Guro Dan 5 years ago I think.

It was great to meet the man, he's incredible!
Only thing was I had never studied JKD, FMA, Silat, etc and was sooo glad when we finally did a little muay thai!!! I was totally lost through out the 2 days. lol

I got to see Terry Barnet and Rick Young in action together which was cool.

Oh, and I got Guro Dan to sign his book for me!!!!

More recently I've been considering investigating JKD more thoroughly, and when I found this forum was surprised to see that Alan had taken an interest in the FMA and JKD as I look at Geoff's system and to me, that is JKD.....just under a different name.

I'm looking forward to reading Mick and Alan's views on JKD and it's effectiveness in animal days.


Cheers,

Adam.

Hi Adam,

Speaking with Mick the other day, he mentioned something that Rick Young had apparently said regarding Geoff training methods many years ago.

Geoff had said he's never trained JKD, and Rick replied - No - that's exactly what you have trained.
Searching through many arts, piecing together the bits from each art which fit your body, and your requirements - that is all JKD.

Which I guess is why I have started to train in it - on top of the fact that I am training with some of the absolute best - which can never be a bad thing.

As for Animal Days and JKD - well, Animal Days is probably another thread on it's own - but to answer briefly.

If you watch back at any of the Animal Day videos now - you'll see how basic our ground game was back then.
The fights would certainly have looked alot different now - having the added bonus of many years additional training in the ground fighting arts.

We certainly hadn't trained in JKD back then so hard to say how that fits - but the ability to be able to draw on more techniques, the composure, the fluidity and transition between ranges would most certainly all have helped.

Animal Days was alot more about bottle, fear control, determination, and the willingness to be able to get hit, get hurt and carry on regardless. Far more than it was about technique as such.
More heart than ability - if you get what I mean.

And whilst it did help pressure test certain techniques and show where our big physical weaknesses and strengths were - the most important part was the pressure testing of our metaphysical muscles.
The internal fight on the way to the gym was far bigger and offered far more benefits than the physical Animal Day fight when you got there.

I've digressed from the original question but hope I've made a little sense in all this rambling

Cheers mate

AL

That's an interesting reply AL,

I remember reading in an article written by Rick Young that Dan Inosanto had said to him something along the lines of... that he should concentrate on the base arts like, jun fan gung fu, judo, boxing and muay thai/kickboxing and reach a very high standard in these, before studying or spending more time on the other systems taught in JKD concepts.

It's surprising......or not actually, that Guro Dan and Geoff had gravitated towards similar systems and these same systems tend to be used today by a lot on the mma fighters.

One of the other things Rick mentioned in his MAI column was that he never thought the standard of MMA fighters would reach this level so soon!
In a conversation I had with a couple of ex-JKD practioners who now train and fight MMA. Their view was that even though the JKD guys preached 'cross training' way back in the 60's, they never actually pressure tested their stuff like the mma fighters of today do and that's why they never reached in a short time the standards of todays mma guys.
I found this an interesting observation on their part.....not sure if it's true, but certainly interesting.
I'd also be interested in what any of the JKD guys on here think of that statement.

One question though Alan, would be although your grappling is better than back when the Animal Day dvds were filmed, do you think that if they were filmed nowdays the grappling shown may be a little to technical??
Or do you think the advance knowledge would benefit the person watching it?

How long did yourself or the other guys spend studying each range?
Rick Young mentioned something about learning a new art and training in it for 3 years while keeping the other arts on the back boiler.
Did you seperate these into......learning boxing and getting qualified, then grappling and getting your wrestlig and judo instructor qualifications, then the same with muay thai or did you just train in all of these arts at the same time and just take instructor qualifications when you felt your standard was good enough?

Thanks for the feedback, very interesting.

ATB,


Adam.

hi adam,
It's interesting that you mentioned the conversation you remember between guro and rick,One of the 1st things that struck me when i started training with terry was his emphasis on Boxing and Muay Thai...the base is where it's at!
On the subject of some of the guys from the early days and pressure testing....I know that Guro Mark McFann fought as the "karate guy" on a great number of Aaron Banks legendary no holds barred shows,and that the late great Larry Hartsell also fought on Toughman Contests......Today we have similar guys like Phil Norman,Fraser Kyne and the awesome Neil MacCleod who have fought in not only MMA but on some of the early Lee Hasdell Vale Tudo shows! On the subject of Al's grappling level...this is something we talk about quite alot.....the level of instruction in the Uk now means if we had access to such fine teachers then, we would be truly legendary now!! Hahahahaha
on the subject of mma v jkd check out www.integratedarts.co.uk
as Terry has some very insightful views on the subject and if nothing else get a chance to see this great guys site!
mick x

Thanks for the reply Mick.
I have visited Terry's website before. He happens to be based about 90 minute drive from me;o)
Also I'd heard his stand up is phenominal!!!

Quote - "On the subject of Al's grappling level...this is something we talk about quite alot.....the level of instruction in the Uk now means if we had access to such fine teachers then, we would be truly legendary now!! Hahahahaha".

I can see both sides of this statement as the BJJ instructors now in the UK are extremely high, but didn't Al train with Neil Adams? That's top level Judo. Also I thought he like Geoff, gained wrestling qualifications in sambo, freestyle and greco.........I know British wrestling isn't of the highest standard compared to other countries but surely a high standard is needed for instructor qualifications?!?

Thanks for the feedback about Mark McFann I have heard nothing but good things about him. I've met Frasier at Cambridge Free Fighters and have heard of Phil Norman and Neil MacCleod also.

hi adam,
i think i may have boobed slightly regarding my previous answer a little...on the subject of our overall level of grappling i was actually referring to the progressive sparring days that actually preceded animal days!
On the subject of british wrestling have you ever seen the dvd"catch...the hold less taken"?
It's all about britsh wresting and in particular billy reilly's infamous"snake pit"
now that's an eye opener!!!
and re; Guro McFann he's doing a seminar tour later this year in the uk....."pain's a teacher"
sorry for any confusion
mick x

Yeah Mick, I've seen the Catch dvd and heard of the Snakepit. But I thought that Catch was virtually gone from UK shores.

Tony Cecchine was the best source I knew for Catch as well as Rich Dimitri who has trained with his good friend Ian 'Vampiro' Hodgkinson in Catch.
Ian being a professional wrestler.

I had heard Tony was going to be doing a few seminars in the UK with Russell 'Pressure Points' Stutely.
But I haven't heard any more news recently.

No confusion mate, it's all good!

Dave Turton does some Catch but admits it was not to a high standard. I believe Trevor Roberts also did Catch. Don't think either of them teach it seperatley though, they just integrate it into their overall systems.

I too was at Guru Dan's seminar and it was awesome. The man is mind blowing, I can't believe he's nearly 72?!
On the topic of mma fighters progressing faster than JKD guys/gals, I think it may have something to do with the fact, that they are training less than half the arts that we have the option to train in. I don't mean that in a bad way, but as someone who trains JKD, I find it hard to fit everything in every week. But I do try where as with MMA, I could do 5 classes and fit everything in no problems. Just my opinion though folks.

hi adam,
interesting to hear vampiro has trained in catch,i love to find out that some of these so called "showmen" have a proven lineage
i've talked at lenght with GT about the likes of Hackenscmidt,Lou Thesz and Farmer Burns on the fact theat these guys were real life "rippers" and i'm fascinated by how some of these characters made their livelihoods.Erik Paulson has also investigated catch and i hear Josh Barnett is well schooled in catch.Do you have any recomendations on books re; that era or training methods?
mick x

Hi Mick,

To be truthful, I move so often and travel that all my books tend to get packed away after I've read them and I forget what I have read sometimes! lol

My main source is Tony Cecchines dvds.
Also Senshido has a dvd where Ian teach's a Grappling seminar and uses Rich Dimitri as a pretzel....I mean t/p! lol

Ian even states on it how he has trained BJJ but dislikes it and prefers Catch. He also says something along the lines of..... if you think what he does is fake.....come train with him and feel it for yourself! lol.

I know Vampiro trained with Matt Fury at one point.
I think it was after he broke his neck and Fury managed to help him back into doing a full Bridge - Nose to toes. (If I have remembered the story correctly).

It seems that if you have trained in the USA or Japan you have more access to CACC.

I know Erik Paulson's system contains Catch....I think he got his from Gene LeBell and his Shoto instructor.


ATB


Adam.

hi Adam,
sorry for the delay in returning a reply
Erik's CSW has so many influences i have trouble keeping up with what is from where...and as a real trainspotter i like to get an idea where he gets some of this amazing stuff!
I've been reading about Matt Furey for years..i believe he's doing really well as a motivational speaker these days too!
He championed Karl Gotch's system for years and finally got it on DVD is that correct?

mick x

Not to sure about the Karl Gotch thing mate.

I have heard good and bad about Matt F over the years so not to sure what to believe any more. I know I like Tony C catch dvd's though!