OUR STORY
Martial training for those of us who are serious, is about self- evolution. It is a way of studying ourselves and others physically, emotionally and psychologically and learning how to adapt to what happens in our lives. It's also most of all about learning how to develop ourselves in order to increase our awareness and intuitive abilities for quickly creating the most positive outcomes in all situations. We use fear as our testing ground. The fear that emerges in a combat situation. This is an intense experience that helps us learn how to intuitively decide the best course of action and free ourselves, both in a literal way and as a metaphor for facing all life situations. An ancient Chinese Philosophy, Taoism, exemplifies this way of living. The guiding principle is referred to as wu-wei, or "not forcing". The principle is what is meant by rolling with a punch, going with the grain, swimming or floating with the current. Basically using non-resistance to be in the strongest position possible, with the least amount of effort.
A good example is seen in the Japanese Arts of Jiu Jitsu, Judo and Aikido, and in the Russian Martial Art, Systema, whereby opponents are defeated by the redirection of the force of their own attack. Practicing this wu-wei principle then, in combat, becomes not just training for fighting, but a way to train for applying this principle literally and metaphorically to meet all challenges. It becomes a life style. It is a way of developing a form of intuitive intelligence that fine tunes ones whole organism and awakens all the wisdom of ones intuition, nervous system and inner and outer senses, so as to know in
an instant, what to do with minimal thought. This then heightens ones ability to be in tune with and flow with all of life, developing a joy of inner-knowing that
makes life itself, a living, breathing art
JKD refers to the training philosophy and methods developed by the late Bruce Lee and the lineage of the East St. Louis Illinois-St. Louis Missouri branch of Combat JKD developed and taught by Carl James and Mike Sanlin from Bruce Lee to Dan Inosanto to Carl and Mike, to Stan Brooks and myself and Norman Travis (Norm was not an instructor, but should be noted because he goes back to the 70's , trained with my group during the past few years and was the main guy way back then, chosen by Carl & Mike, as the guy they wanted to train to fight pro with JKD in the 70's and 80's and then to Christophe Clugston in the 80's. (Update: Norm is now beginning to teach as of 2018.)
What we learned and trained in Combat JKD, was dramatically different in many ways from the many seminar-only, trained guys around now. Dan Inosanto himself acknowledged this publicly and encouraged Mike in front of Scott Dobson, Christophe Clugston, Phil Rivera, Cass Magda and a few others at the California Martial Arts Academy Summer Camp in 1985 to write a book on this unique branch in the lineage of JKD. Mike was brilliant in Combat Psychology and Tactical thinking and to this day one of the very highest level martial artists I've ever seen.
Carl was the senior student of Mike in Mike’s own version of Street Fighting Gung Fu. Mike was already a very experienced fighter and an early student of Gung Fu in Boston long before he sent Carl to California to connect and train with Dan Inosanto to learn, practice and incorporate JKD . Carl became an accomplished practitioner and very skilled fighter and teacher as well. The JKD way embraces problem solving and a method of analysis whereby each student is led to create or themselves and figure out what works best for them, their bodies, their strengths and weaknesses.
Stan Brooks began in 1970 with Mike and Carl. We met in 1973 at SIU Edwardsville where we were both students. As a matter of practicality and as I look back , I’m sure, as a way for Mike to get Stan to gain teaching experience, Stan worked with me, drilling me and training with me 1 on 1 mostly in the beginning. Then I would go see Mike and he would check me out and give me various challenges. After several years I was allowed to start training a few guys too. I continued on from there, also delving into other arts along the way such as Aikido, Filipino Martial Arts, Muay Thai, Brazilian Jiu Jitsu, Russian Systema and exposure and some training in a variety of others along the way. Yet, I was consciously applying the JKD methodology and creating my own way.
Christophe Clugston came to St. Louis in the mid 80’s to train with Mike Sanlin and did a considerable amount of high intensity training with Mike privately. Mike considered Stan, Myself, Christophe and 1 other, named Ron, as the ones who made it and could teach as well. The three of us never met Ron and he is deceased. To distinguish my way as my personal expression and application of the JKD way, I used various namesover time and have finally settled on O’Neill JKD as I feel this expresses most clearly the common binding and integrating thread through all that I have done.