In order to know when to hit an opponent, a JKD stylist needs to identify what kind of adversary he is facing. There are generally five categories of attackers:
• The blocker stands his ground in a fight by blocking, hoping to eventually find an opening for a counterattack. Like a boxer, he covers himself and waits for a time lag so he can counter.
• The runner is an opponent who retreats. He hopes that by giving up ground, he’ll figure out his adversary’s strategy and counter when his adversary is off-balance.
• The banger is an unsophisticated opponent who charges blindly into a fight, hoping to knock his adversary out with a flurry of kicks and punches. His straightforward style makes him dangerous because a JKD practitioner won’t have time to do any type of complicated defense.
• The shooter is a grappler who is a skilled ground fighter. Like a football player, he tries to tackle his adversary to the ground. Once there, he repeatedly pounds his opponent into submission.
• The interceptor waits for his adversary to make the fi rst move and then launches a stophit, stop-kick or counterstrike. An interceptor fi ghts somewhat like a JKD practitioner.
To telegraph is to unintentionally alert your opponent to your next offensive move. It refers to unintended preparatory movements which act as signals or tells, lowering the chance of your attack being successful. Common examples would include drawing the hand back before throwing a punch, trying to shoot a takedown from too far away, taking an unnecessary step before kicking or even shifting the gaze of the eyes to the area of the opponents body to be attacked.
Non-telegraphic movement is offensive movement which is technically sound and implemented with good distance. It is technically sound in that unnecessary preparatory movements have been eliminated. The move is initiated at the right distance to avoid your opponent from having the time to recognize your offense and easily counter.
"Don’t waste motion. Have a purpose in every action of deception, defense or attack.
Don’t telegraph any punches."
Though there are various definitions for what is referred to as timing in the martial arts, generally it refers to the ability to know the right moment to execute a technique. This means that you have the capacity to recognize openings in your opponents defense and to capitalize upon those opportunities. In regards to timing, it means understanding when to bridge the gap.
What is the right time? It's the time at which the move can be the most effective.
Distance - refers to the space between you and your opponent. In terms of self defense, greater distance gives you more time to react. More distance equals more time. Less distance equals less time.
Range - The artificial categorization of the varying possible distances between you and your opponent(s).
Ranges of Unarmed Fighting
1. Standup Striking Range
a. Long Range - the distance which puts a fighter just out of range of his opponents attack. See fighting measure.
b. Medium Range - the distance at which your opponent can strike without moving forward. Offensively, striking is predominantly utilized at this range. See Brim of fire.
2. Clinch/Close Range - the range at which both combatants are standing but able to grapple with each other and use close range striking.
3. Ground Range -at least one combatant is on the ground
This model combines the concepts of distance and range to provide a simple method of categorizing training. To some degree it also includes positional relationships between a fighter and his opponent. For instance, you may be the same distance from your opponent at clinch range as you are at ground range but the benefit in mentally separating the two is obvious to most.
II.
III. Reference
A. Jeet Kune Do Distances
There are three primary distinctions that can be made in regards to the distance between you and your opponent: Fighting Measure, Brim of Fire and the Critical Distance Line.
Fighting measure Is the distance between a fighter and his opponent which puts him just out of range of his opponents attack. It is easier to defend against an opponents attack at this range as he or she must first take a step forward to reach you, thus providing you more time to respond.
Brim of fire Is the distance at which your opponent can strike without moving forward because the critical distance line has been crossed.
Critical distance line
The imaginary line between the fighting measure and the brim of fire line.
Bridging the gap Occurs when one opponent close the space between the fighting measure. The gap is bridged when either one or the other opponent moves past the fighting measure into striking distance.
See:
Chinatown Jeet Kune Do
B. Jeet Kune Do Four Ranges
1. Kicking Range
2. Punching Range
3. Trapping Range
4. Grappling Range
"These divisions often confuse students because many attacks work at all these ranges. For instance, the trapping range places a JKD martial artist close enough to grab his opponent’s arms, but he can still perform a scoop kick to the groin at this distance. Furthermore, although the kicking range is supposedly outside of the hand-striking range, the martial artist can still perform a push-step finger jab to the opponent’s eyes from this distance.
See:
Chinatown Jeet Kune Do
C. Jeet Kune Do Three Ranges
1. Long Range - Distance at which neither you nor your opponent can touch each other. Both just beyond reach of your longest weapon.
2. Medium Range - Can reach each other with longest kick or punch.
3. Close Range - Can trap or grapple with opponent.
1. Attack on Intention - Attacking before the opponent even makes any sort of preparatory move. This is very similar to the pre-emptive attack in self-defense circles.
2. Attack on Preparation - Anytime before the opponent's attacking motion. Examples might be the opponent pulls his arm back or steps forward.
During
3. Attack on Delivery - The period in the middle of an opponent's attacking motion, just after it starts but before it hits its target.
After
4. Attack on Completion - When opponent's attack reaches full extension.
5. Attack on Recovery - is just before the opponent recovers his original fighting stance (the retraction of the arm or leg).
Aliveness
As far as I know, aliveness is a term first used by Bruce Lee and later greatly expanded upon and promoted by Matt Thornton back in the late 1990's and early 2000's. Thornton defines aliveness as training with resistance using energy, timing and motion.1 "Movement means real footwork, not contrived, not in a pattern... on the ground it means exactly that also... movement... if the person is just laying there, not moving as you apply your lock or move....that is not Alive. In the clinch its the same... pushing, pulling, moving. Timing is of course just that... if its in a predictable rhythm, a pattern, a repeatable series of sets, then you are not acquiring or developing timing, just motion speed.
And of course energy... swing the stick like someone would really swing it... don't stop at centerline. Punch with the energy of someone who wants to hit you. Not locking your arm out so your partner can look good doing the destruction, or trap, or silat sweep, etc."2
Aliveness is essentially the training principle which focuses on including the non-compliance/resistance element of real fighting while still trying to preserve an acceptable level of safety.
Why Aliveness is Important Feedback
There are a number of reasons aliveness is important. First, this type of training provides a method of testing the efficacy of your techniques by providing feedback. Someone who only practices their techniques in the air or by hitting a bag will not know if what they are doing will truly work because they have nothing to judge its effectiveness against. The same holds true when training with a partner that only reacts in a cooperative manner. Resisting opponents provide us with opportunities to run little experiments. If our technique works, then we give it more credence. If it doesn't, then we analyse it to figure out what went wrong or decide whether it should be discarded. The point here is that without these little experiments we are only left with our imagination and beliefs to judge our abilities.
Additionally, many of the aspects of what truly makes our individual techniques work can only be learned through resistance training. For instance, to really get a feel of what the correct distance should be between you and your opponent (referred to as the fighting measure in Jeet Kune Do) requires lots of sparring with lots of different body types. When students are first introduced to sparring they typically stand too close to their opponent (often because they are only used to hitting focus mitts or a heavy bag) or too far away (because they don't want to get hit). Because of the feedback received through training which is alive (stand too close means getting hit, too far away means you can't hit your opponent), the student is able to make adjustments which eventually lead to better fighting performance.
Toughness
Another reason aliveness is important is that it trains us to become more comfortable with roughness, aggression and chaos. Many students, when they first start sparring, experience a degree of panic and disorientation because up to that point they've had little exposure to being physically struck or manhandled. In addition, most people who have lived a life largely free from violence may themselves have an aversion to striking someone else. Over time, as the trainee puts in the hours sparring, they better learn to cope with being hit and physically roughed up and become less squeamish about striking their opponent.
Progressive Resistance & The Three Stages of Learning
Does this mean we should only spar and give up all other training methods? Of course not. In actuality, there needs to be a learning process which begins with no resistance. Resistance is then incrementally increased as development progresses. This process fits nicely with Fitts and Posner's Three Stages of Learning model which I'll use to help explain the value of progressive resistance.
When first learning a technique, students need to be able to work through the mechanics of the move unencumbered. This phase of the learning process is referred to as the Cognitive stage due to the great amount of cognitive activity required to discover and develop the component parts of the technique. The student will typically make many gross errors and perform techniques in an inconsistent manner as they try to learn the fundamental movement patterns. Resistance at this point will only slow development and frustrate the trainee.
Once a basic level of proficiency is achieved, the student moves into the Associative stage and resistance is added. The student displays fewer errors and has to devote less attention in the performance of techniques. While the cognitive stage is fairly short, the associative stage can be quite long and some students may never move beyond it. They are now focused on refining techniques and possess the ability to detect some of their own errors when analyzing the feedback provided from training which incorporates resistance. Adding resistance to training can be done through drills and sparring which are designed to isolate the technique or techniques being developed. Resistance should be kept to a minimum at first, then added as the student becomes more proficient. Martial arts instructor Burton Richardson uses a weightlifting analogy to explain the principle.
Imagine that you decide to sign up at a gym. (Martial arts sounded too dangerous!) You have a personal trainer to teach you how to lift correctly and get you going in the right direction. You tell the trainer that you want to work on your leg strength. She says okay, and teaches you how to do a squat. She puts a broomstick across your shoulders, feet shoulder width apart, has you keep your back straight while bending at the knees. She points out that you should sit back, almost like sitting in a chair, to avoid having your knees move out in front of your toes. Better for your knees and better for balance. After a few minutes you can duplicate the squat correctly. Now what did you actually just learn? You learned a technique. That would be like going to our JKD Unlimited/MMA for the street class and learning how to throw a solid punch. It has taken you about three minutes to learn the proper form for the technique called the squat. Now what happens? Do you just practice that technique with the broomstick for the next three years? No. Your trainer takes you to the squat rack. Why? Because you have to add resistance if you want to get stronger. Doing the technique with resistance is going to trigger the Adaptive Response. If you don’t add resistance you are not going to get stronger. If you don’t add resistance in your fight training you won’t develop fighting skill. Let’s now say that your wonderful trainer takes you to the squat rack and proceeds to load the bar with 300 pounds! What is going to happen if you try to squat that much your first day? You are going to break something. Why? TOO MUCH RESISTANCE! You have to start with just enough resistance to make the effort slightly difficult. This causes your body to adapt. You go in the following week and you can add a little more resistance. Over time, depending on your goals, you may be able to squat with 300 pounds. The exact same theory of Progressive Resistance holds true for our fight training. Too much resistance is counterproductive. You will actually be worse off by adding too much resistance than not training at all. Instead, the trick is to add enough resistance so that it is slightly difficult to apply your technique. As you improve, you add more resistance. The amount you end up training with depends upon your goals.4
After a great deal of practice and experience, the trainee moves into the final stage of learning referred to as the Autonomous Stage. At this point, the trainee can perform most of their techniques without thinking about them consistently and with very few errors. Resistance remains an important component of training as it provides the feedback necessary for the trainee to fine tune movements and work on higher level tactics and strategies. At this level it is important to have a wide variety of skilled training partners.
