JKD Instructors - background

As I’ve become older I find that I fall into that old trap of complacency. What seems perfectly obvious to me is a mystery to others and, I dare so, the opposite is true. No, I don’t know how to put up a curtain pole, why would I want to? Which brings me to the point of this article. Many students who train at UFS don’t know the heritage or lineage of their club, their instructors or who are the principles in Jeet Kune Do. This will seek to address that.

Let’s begin at the beginning - Bruce Lee. He was the founder of the system of Jeet Kune Do (the way of the intercepting fist). It has been said, many times since Bruce’s death, that JKD is not a system; well here’s the news it was! These days it often goes under the name of JKD Concepts i.e. the methods and ideas of JKD, but the fact is there is a physical component to this martial art and that is the system. This system is more often known as Jun Fan Gung Fu or Jun Fan Jeet Kune Do. Confused? Good, that means you’re learning.

The explanation is this - Bruce’s Chinese name is Lee Jun Fan - therefore, Jun Fan Gung Fu or Jun Fan Jeet Kune Do is Bruce Lee’s martial arts methods. So the crux of it is this; whether Jeet Kune Do, JKD, Jun Fan Gung Fu or Jun Fan Jeet Kune Do it’s all the same thing - apart from the minor technical or philosophical points, that I’m not going to describe here.

To get back to Bruce Lee (1940 - 1973). A martial arts visionary, an actor, a father, brother, husband, dedicated trainer, philosopher, writer - Bruce was all of these. To die at the age of 32 is a tragedy; to have founded a martial art as influential as JKD is impressive, to have transformed a cinema genre is amazing. He did all of these in his short life and the irony is that without his passing we probably wouldn’t be training in his martial arts system now. The reason being that in 1970, when he moved to Hong Kong, he told his assistant instructor, Dan Inosanto, to close down the school and train with a few guys in his backyard. He didn’t say found a dynasty which would continue after his death. Market forces would dictate that.

When Bruce died, JKD almost died with him. Dan Inosanto had been teaching out of his backyard; people like Richard Bustillo, Tim Tackett, Ted Wong, Jerry Poteet and just before Bruce died, Chris Kent were all staples of the training group. With Bruce’s death Dan considered no longer teaching; but encouragement from the students, Steve McQueen and especially, Richard Bustillo ensured a future for JKD. The Filipino Kali Academy opened in Torrance, Los Angeles in 1974 and was an immediate success. For a long time there was a 6 month waiting list just to get into the classes.

To step back a stage or two. Who is Dan Inosanto? Today (2007) he is a 71 year old walking encyclopaedia of martial arts. Originally a Kenpo black belt under Ed Parker, Dan met Bruce prior to the 1964 demonstration that Bruce gave at Parker’s International martial arts tournament. Parker had asked Inosanto to look after Bruce whilst he was in town. The pair became immediate friends and Dan began learning under Bruce as he developed Jun Fan Gung Fu into the art that would become JKD.

When Bruce decided to open a martial arts school in Chinatown, Los Angeles he asked Dan to be his assistant instructor. It was here that Dan was to meet Richard Bustillo who would become one of his closest friends. Dan and Richard shared a Filipino heritage and they decided to study the arts of the Philippines as well as keeping up their JKD studies. This would involve a monthly drive up to Stockton, CA, some 8 hours north of Los Angeles. There they studied under John LaCoste, Max Saramiento, Leo Giron and Angel Cabales, amongst many. This fascination with the Filipino Arts continues to this day.

With Bruce’s passing they showed their allegiance to FMA by naming their martial arts centre the Filipino Kali Academy. This was to dissuade the Bruce Lee film fans and to encourage genuine martial artists. If you wanted to find Bruce Lee’s martial arts then you had to work a little bit just to find the place.

As the years went by, Inosanto and Bustillo added Muay Thai to the JKD curriculum. Inosanto then brought Pentjak Silat into the fold; Shoot-fighting followed and in the 80’s Brazilian Ju-jitsu.
In the late 1970’s people from outside of the USA started inviting Inosanto and Bustillo to their countries to teach. Canada was first and later South America; at these early events the two friends would teach together, but as more offers came in they began to divide the workload. Not so easy as both had full time jobs at the time. The seminar scene that is such a part of 21^st Century martial arts was begun by these guys.

In 1979 Inosanto first visited the UK; Bob Breen hosted the first seminar and many of the subsequent events. It was here that Bob and Ralph Jones first met Inosanto and immediately became students. Rick Young and Terry Barnett were also at these seminars.

Richard Bustillo would have to wait another 11 years before he also came to the UK. Richard is a native of Hawaii, but moved to Los Angeles in his early twenties. He began his martial arts life with Kajukenbo, before starting a life-long love of boxing. An accomplished amateur ( he was twice a Golden Gloves semi-finalist) Richard was offered the chance to turn pro in the early sixties. Instead he chose to continue at college and took a job with Continental Airlines - a company he was to stay with for 20 years, eventually rising to head of personnel.

He first saw Bruce Lee at his International appearance in 1964 and expressed an interest that should Bruce ever start a class in Los Angeles he would love to train with him. In 1967 his chance came with the opening of the Chinatown school. Richard and three of his friends applied; only Richard was accepted. He puts this down to Bruce’s interest in boxing.

As has already been noted Richard’s friendship with Dan Inosanto began at this time and when the chance to open the Filipino Kali Academy came along Dan asked Richard if he’d like to join as a partner. Richard’s role at the Academy was that of the ’tough guy’. If people didn’t pay their fees or messed around in the gym they had to answer to Richard. His no-nonsense approach led to him acquiring the name of the ’Iron man of JKD’. It was a classic good guy-bad guy act and worked very successfully.

In 1984 they opened the IMB Academy - originally Inosanto, Martinez & Bustillo, it became the International Martial Arts & Boxing Academy when Inosanto opened his centre in Marina Del Ray then Chuck Martinez left Los Angeles to build his business empire.

In 1986 Bustillo retired from Continental Airlines to become a full-time martial arts instructor. I first met him in 1990 at a seminar in Nottingham, hosted by my friend Martin Sterling. I became Richard’s representative in 1997 and am currently his only Senior Instructor in the UK. He has a group of Full, Associate and Apprentice Instructors here as well.

In 1987 I was introduced to JKD at a seminar with Larry Hartsell. Larry was also a student at the Chinatown school, but went off for two tours in Vietnam. Because of his size and wrestling knowledge Bruce encouraged him to become the grappling expert within JKD. A close friendship with Gene LeBell also helped. For a long time Larry was based in Charlotte, North Carolina before he relocated to Los Angeles.

Larry become known in the 1980’s for his close protection work. Some of his clients were Larry Flynt of ‘Hustler’ magazine and Mr T. A soft spoken man Larry inspired many of us who began JKD in the 1980’s. He passed away in the summer of 2007.

Ted Wong was one of Bruce Lee’s closest friends. One of the few who had no martial arts experience before training with Bruce, Ted can be called the closest to the ‘Bruce Lee style’. The way he moves and his understanding of the art, as a natural Cantonese speaker, give Ted a unique insight into what JKD is all about.

I trained with him first back in the mid-90’s and didn’t appreciate just how much knowledge he has. I next trained with him in New York in 1999 and was very impressed. The next time I saw him was at the 1^st European Jun Fan JKD Conference hosted, by me, at the Kettering Park Hotel in October 2000. Everyone was impressed with Ted’s agility, speed and laid back manner. I trained with him twice more, once in Amsterdam and the last time at this house in Los Angeles. That was a real privilege for me and Ted is a very, very nice guy.

Having trained with almost all of the original Bruce Lee students, these are the ones that have impressed me most. Both in terms of knowledge, skill and personality.
In addition, there are a number of second generation students that have helped and impressed me.

The first of these is Chris Kent. The first Englishman to learn JKD, Chris began his training in Inosanto’s backyard group in 1972. Although he began when Bruce was alive he never met him; Chris was 17 when he started making him the youngest student at the time.
For a long time he lived in Los Angeles, but now resides in Boise, Idaho. He is responsible for some of the best JKD books, especially ‘Jun Fan/Jeet Kune Do - the Textbook’; published in 1989 and co-written with Tim Tackett. He has also written ‘JKD Kickboxing’, again with Tackett and ‘JKD A to Z’ Volumes 1 and 2. Chris was one of the teaching team at the first JFJKD Conference held at the Kettering Park Hotel in October 2000. The other members being Richard Bustillo, Ted Wong and John Little.

John Little is an important figure in JFJKD history, not because of his training prowess, but because of his writing and researching ability. John was allowed access to all of Bruce Lee’s private and personal papers and manuscripts by Lee’s widow, Linda Lee Cadwell. Through a lot of hard work John published a number of books on Bruce’s writings - JKD - commentaries on the martial way being the most important. This was essentially the second half on the ‘Tao of Jeet Kune Do’ - a book hastily put together in 1975. By using both of these books you can piece together Bruce’s thoughts on martial arts.

In all John produced 10 books on Bruce Lee and Jeet Kune Do and made the movie ‘Bruce Lee - A Warriors Journey’. This featured the missing footage that Bruce shot of ‘Game of Death’. I was fortunate enough to see both a rough cut and the world premiere of this film in 2000 and 2001. Shortly after the making of this film, the Lee family and John has a parting of the ways and JKD lost it’s most eloquent voice.

Cass Magda is originally from Canada, but moved to Los Angeles to study with Dan Inosanto after meeting him on a seminar. He was, for a long time, the seminar partner of Inosanto; he was when I first saw Dan in 1987. A talented, sometimes serious, student of martial arts Cass is the mentor of the UK’s Dave Carnell. These days Cass is a major proponent of Pentjak Silat as well as his Kali and JKD credentials. He has a studio in northern Los Angeles.

The final member of my top second generation instructors is Rick Faye of the Minnesota Kali Group. Rick was Larry Hartsells’ assistant at the first JKD seminar I attended back in 1987. I was impressed with him then and he still impresses me today. Not only a hard trainer, Rick is a thinker. Another person who first saw Dan in a seminar he travelled to Los Angeles to study more, but unlike many decided he could learn more by staying where he was and out of the politics that effects the close circle. By doing this he has thrived. He has a strong following in the UK and gives seminars here at least once a year.