These views are the opinions of the host and nothing more. Most are questions from people have seen the web site or the DVD.

What do you think about Mixed Martial Arts?

I drive two cars, my car and my wife's car. Actually my wife drives a foreign made SUV and I drive an American classic. I frequently find myself accidentally turning on the windshield wipers instead of the headlights or just reaching for some control in the wrong place. Actually I am right about where I am reaching and what I am doing, I am just sometimes in the wrong car to have my reflex make what I want to happen actually take place. Under pressure I am very likely to reach for the wrong knob when trying to doing whatever it is I am trying to do.

What about Jeet Kune Do?

First of all, what is it these days? Modified wing chun? Filipino martial arts mixed with a bunch of other stuff? Thai kickboxing, wing chun, and Filipino martial arts all mixed in together? Bruce Lee died and the art he was working on went in all sorts of directions. It was not a finished product. The concepts may be good, not all new and it is hard to define an art by concepts. The concepts aren't very different when boiled down to concepts and many arts have the concepts.

Different people teach different stuff so I don't know which version of Jeet Kune Do you mean. Concepts? Yeah, anything based on concepts means we can do whatever and mix whatever. It is too conceptual to take form and me know what it is. My main objection is it is too mixed...many of the teachers don't know well some of the techniques of the arts they are trying to blend. It is hard to blend when you don't know what you are blending. The other thing I object to mentally, at least the way people take it is the saying, "Accept what is useful, reject what is useless." Some people have twisted this to mean, "If I can't make it work within 2 hours of trying learn it, it is useless."

What do you think about most Martial Arts today?

They are not about survival nor conquest. They are mostly for sport or discipline or some sort of self improvement or even fun. The old ways are dying or dead. (and the old ways worked very well and took many lives to perfect.) I am 100% sure that if old masters of the sword from Europe saw a modern olympic fencing match that they would say it has very little to do with how they taught people to fight for their lives with swords. It is now a game of tag and whoever touches the other one first is the winner. The old masters would either laugh or cry.

Would you accept a challenge to fight by another martial artist?

What's in it for me if win? What could I lose if I don't win? What do I win or lose if I don't accept the challenge? These are the questions we should all ask ourselves before fighting. Usually the question of what's in it for me shows the stupidity of it all.

This sometimes is about "I'm better than you" or "My art is better than your art."

If someone wants to prove they are better than you are, tougher, whatever, then there is probably not a lot in it for you if you win. It is their fragile ego, prideful mind or insulted conscious that needs satisfaction and you probably gain nothing by fighting even if you do win. Not worth it.

One, the only way to tell if your art is best is to clone someone and train them in different arts and then have them fight. Two, it would have different outcomes depending on how you made the rules or scenarios of the fight. Different martial arts would prove to be superior in certain situations.

It also usually proves little as regards to which art is best or who is best. If we take some guy who learned boxing at the recreation center for 3 months who is weak and has no timing and put him against Bruce Lee representing Wing Chun, would that prove that Wing Chun was better? If we put Bruce Lee at what 135 pounds maybe up against Mike Tyson or Muhammed Ali at what around 200 plus in a boxing ring with boxing rules, would that prove anything?

This brings us to..

Which Martial Art is the best?

Variables that change which art is the best art:

1. Environment- are you on ice, a moving boat, a beach, concrete with broken glass around, mud or a rocky environment? Are you on a flat, open plain or a dense jungle? Are you in a car?

2. What you want to do to the Opponent- do you want to kill them? Control them? Knock them out? Hit them more than they hit you?

3. How many opponents are there?

4. Are they armed? Are you armed? With what?

5. Rules- Is there only one opponent, a soft mat and rules saying you can't bite, grab his nads or poke his eye out? Is a teenager with a gun trying to rob you of your wallet? Have you been challenged

6. What is the range? 

Other factors:

Missing parts

Is your teacher teaching most of the art but with a few missing elements? It may be mostly useless without some of the missing elements.

Training Methods

Super important is training methods. It may be a great art with super functional techniques, but your training methods may not give you what you need to make it work. Think of some of the robotic type training methods that are the opposite of fluid motion for example. Could you run that way?

Applications

How many times have they told you that you are doing the form wrong? How can you even do it right when you don't even know WHAT you are doing. What am I doing and how the heck do I apply this and in what situation? If you know the movements but not the application, you can't apply it and therefore it will be useless.

What is the secret to the Martial Arts?

I'm not telling and it might be different for different people. One secret is that there are no secrets. The other secret is most arts have been changed, modified and not what they once were. Many are missing critical elements that render them useless. There are more secrets but I benefit from having secrets. That is a secret as well.. you should have at least one secret. You never know who it is who may come after you.

What Martial Art is best for me?

First you have to know what problem you are trying to solve with a martial art; only then are you halfway to figuring out which martial art is best for you.

Second you have to know what a martial art was originally created to do and also figure out what purpose it evolved towards before it came to you. Maybe what it was created to do has been changed by those who learned it before you or your teacher.

What about Thai Kickboxing, it seems hardcore and Tony Jaa I think could beat up just about anybody?

One,  I wouldn't pick a martial art based on a person, especially in the movies. One it is make believe and two, Tony Jaa is probably so athletic that whatever martial art he did he would make look awesome and could use to win lots of fights. Bruce Lee made Wing Chun famous. If you have a super athletic and charismatic person that does a particular art, he makes that art look more attractive. P.S., I am very impressed with Tony Jaa and his movies.. that doesn't mean I think Muay Thai or the slightly different art he was actually trained in (if we want argue over the details) is as impressive as he is.

Two, Thai Kickboxing or Muay Thai is a sport and really isn't that hardcore if you know what hardcore is. I am not saying it is bad, I am saying that like boxing it is a sport.