14 Life Lessons

Kenpo and JKD Expert

Dan Inosanto Remembers
His Martial Journey

by the Editors
Photography by Rick Hustead
 “In 1961 I started taking kenpo from Ed
Parker at his Pasadena school. At that
time, kenpo reached my expectations
of what I was seeking in karate — I was
looking for a self-defense and also a body-
conditioning sport. I became fascinated by
the martial arts field and how there could
be so many different ways of fighting.”
— D.I.

At 28, Inosanto received his first-degree

black belt in kenpo after three years un-
der Parker. On his master’s suggestion,
he began training in the blade arts of
kali and escrima. His teachers included
John Lacoste and Angel Cabales.

“There has always been a stigma that if

you fight with a sword, it’s a gentleman-
ly duel, but if you pull out a knife, it’s a
dirty fight. Now we are pointing out that
there is an art to this also.”
— D.I.

Inosanto met Bruce Lee in 1964 at the

first International Karate Champion-
ships in Long Beach, California, where
Inosanto was competing. The more he
learned about Lee’s fighting philoso-
phy, the more he longed to study un-
der him. But Lee was a man on the go,
with one foot in the East and one in the
West, so Inosanto spent his time learn-
ing various arts in Southern California.
He quickly discovered that what he was
doing was a far cry from what Lee advo-
cated for self-defense.

“What they were teaching — the forms,

the blocks, the posturing — wasn’t realis-
tic. The means to get good at self-defense

O
n July 24, 1936, Dan Inosanto was born. As a fourth-grader, he received his first became the ultimate end. Their teachings
exposure to the martial arts when his uncle taught him te. In college, he studied didn’t seem to have any direct relation-
judo, then dabbled in the Korean, Okinawan and Japanese striking arts. ship to self-defense, although it probably
taught me to be graceful and helped with
“The exposure to the various schools in the beginning taught me not to be one-sided my coordination, posture and smooth,
because everyone had his own philosophies and each school seemed to have its good correct body movements. [The instruc-
points and bad points. … When I learned from Bruce [Lee], we never classified whether a tors were] attempting to teach how to
technique was from taekwondo or boxing. If it was usable, we used it.” fight without actually fighting.”
— Dan Inosanto — D.I.

While he was stationed at Fort Campbell, Kentucky, Inosanto was impressed by a ken- At the 1965 Salt Lake City Regional
po brown belt he met — specifically, he liked the fluid manner in which the martial Karate Championships, Inosanto, rep-
artist moved. As soon as he was discharged, Inosanto relocated to Southern California. resenting Parker, placed second in the

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 lightweight black-belt division. A year
later, Inosanto finally got to start train-
ing with Lee. Slowly, Dan Inosanto,
lover of all things martial, became Dan
Inosanto, lover of all things practical.

“It wasn’t until I started learning jeet

kune do under Bruce [that] I found a
style that used all three important as-
pects of fighting [speed, power and de-
ceptiveness]. Bruce was able to take all
the pieces of the puzzle and make them
fit together in an integrated system. …
Bruce took something from everybody.
He liked Muhammad Ali’s footwork and
admired his outside fighting. He liked
[Rocky] Marciano’s short punches. He
used to study all the knockout punches
of Joe Louis. It’s not that he embraced
Western boxing completely. He felt there
were many flaws in boxing, too, but he
also felt that out of all the arts in the
hand range, boxing had more truth than,
let’s say, karate. Not that karate was all
flaws — he saw the truth in karate, too.
Boxing, he felt, was over-daring, where-
as he found karate to be overprotective.”
— D.I.

And, more important, Dan Inosanto,

martial arts philosopher, was born.

“A man doesn’t excel because of his style.

It’s only when a man can go outside the
bounds set by his system that he excels.
If a martial artist can practice a style
without being bound and limited to his
particular school, then and only then
can he be liberated to fit in with any type
of opponent.”
— D.I.
THINGS YOU DIDN’T KNOW ABOUT DAN INOSANTO
While studying under Lee at the Los • When Bruce Lee died in 1973, Dan Inosanto — along with Lee’s brother Robert
and close friends James Coburn and Steve McQueen — served as a pallbearer.
Angeles JKD school, the path Inosanto
• In 1975 Inosanto, Richard Bustillo and Jerry Poteet collaborated to create a
walked didn’t get any easier in terms of jeet kune do technique poster. The same year, Inosanto released a Super 8
philosophy. film that covered angles of attack, trapping and use of the short staff.
• Inosanto has acted in many films and done stunts and choreography for
“By that time I had stumbled across many more. As recently as 2008, he played the jiu-jitsu master of one of the
many partial truths, and I had become main characters in David Mamet’s Redbelt.
more aware of workable and unwork- • Inosanto is regarded as one of the United States’ foremost krabi krabong
able techniques. Being a die-hard kenpo experts. He studied under, among others, Col. Nattapong Buayam, a former
Thai special-forces instructor.
man, I found myself confused and frus-
• Inosanto’s interpretation of kali made the list of the top-10 self-defense arts
trated. I began to actually rebel against according to Black Belt contributing editor Dr. Mark Cheng: “The Filipino sys-
jeet kune do. I was bound by loyalty to tem taught by Dan Inosanto is far more than just the sticks and knives that the
my former instructor and his style. Look- casual observer sees. Including every possible weapon and range of combat,
ing back on it, I really didn’t want to Inosanto’s system is one of the most sought-after and imitated arts in the world
see the truth in self-defense. I began to when it comes to practical self-defense.”
mentally criticize the informal and un- • Inosanto is a four-time Black Belt Hall of Fame inductee: 1977, Special Rec-
stylized way JKD moved, kicked, punched ognition Award; 1983, Instructor of the Year; 1988, Weapons Instructor of the
Year; and 1996, Man of the Year. That puts him in the same category as Chuck
and trained. Yet I found myself using
Norris, the only other martial artist who’s been inducted four times.
what I had learned and liking it better
than kenpo, finding it more functional,

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 powerful, faster, freer and, above all, the “JEET KUNE DO — D.I.
easiest style to express.” Inosanto began using the term Jun Fan
— D.I. IS ABOUT BEING gung fu to refer to the art Lee taught him
and the term “jeet kune do” to refer to
His ultimate acceptance of the JKD way MULTIDIMENSIONAL. the path for personal growth. In the 21st
led him to further analyze the fight- century, the kali component remains an
ing arts of the world to see where they IF A PERSON IS NOT important part of his path — mostly be-
might fit into the big picture he was cause of its practicality but also because
developing — always while keeping his MULTIDIMENSIONAL, the art is more than just combat.
mind open.
HE CANNOT REALLY “People don’t [always] want to learn
“Karate is mainly a stylized form of FUNCTION [NOW].” weaponry, but 80 to 95 percent of all
punching and kicking. Judo is a throwing, confrontations on the street involve a
grappling and choking sport. Wrestling weapon, either blunt or bladed. If you
is grappling, and boxing is a punching have no training with a weapon, you
sport. All these arts or sports are highly the fine line between carrying on what won’t even have a clue about how to de-
effective in their range of distance. What his master had taught him and continu- fend yourself.
boxers call the in-fighting range is never ing JKD’s evolution. It was especially “The late grandmaster Floro Villabrille
reached in a karate tournament because true after Lee passed away. said, ‘Kali is you, and you are kali.’ What
the referee usually separates the com- that means is that kali isn’t limited. It gives
batants before they reach this stage of “We use pretty much the same kicks you the ability to do whatever you have the
fighting. But in reality, isn’t this where that Bruce handed down, but I would skill, creativity and intelligence to [do] in
real fighting begins? say kicking has evolved in a subtle way combat. That also means that kali has the
“If a good boxer learns jeet kune do’s that is taking place even now. When I potential to help you grow and evolve in
bridging, he needs only his hands to be was training with Bruce, we used a lot your outlook, understanding and ability as
effective. A proficient wrestler, using jeet of side kicking, low side kicking and an- a fighter and a human being.”
kune do’s techniques, can tie up the ma- gling of the side kick. [Now] we go more — D.I.
jority of the classical martial artists. An with hook kicks and round kicks. We use
experienced fencer, if he learns jeet kune material that’s similar to muay Thai. As always, he keeps an eye on trends
do techniques, can become very skilled You can block with the kicks, and you in the martial arts world — such as the
with his outside range.” can obstruct with the kicks. Muay Thai rise of grappling and then MMA.
— D.I. has added to our understanding, as have
bando and savate. They added more. “Jeet kune do is about being multidimen-
When Lee shuttered his school in Chi- More doesn’t mean better, but more sional. If a person is not multidimen-
natown, he left his students to train gives you an understanding of more sional, he cannot really function [now].
with Inosanto, who was forced to tread types of attacks.” In the 1950s, style went against style,

CHILD-LIKE CURIOSITY
When Dan Inosanto is your father, you’re taught to see the ment, even the Dallas Cowboys during the days of coach Tom
world through a different lens. My world was filled with color, Landry and MVP Randy White — and we all know of his con-
diversity and the pursuit of open-mindedness. What was the tributions to some of Hollywood’s top stuntmen and fight cho-
personality trait that made him open-minded and his skills reographers. His influence is worldwide, and that is why at age
sharp all these years? It’s quite simple: It has been his child- 76 the demand for his instruction is so great that he’s booked
like curiosity. sometimes five years in advance.
My father has always had such an eccentric curiosity. You Yet despite this, my father still looks at himself as the per-
know how there are computer geeks, video-game geeks and petual student — always learning and growing. He is not afraid
comic geeks? Well, my dad is foremost a martial arts geek — to check his ego at the door and put on a white belt to learn a
and I mean that in a good way. new system. I suppose this is why the Machados and some of
My father comes from a family of educators — his parents the Gracie family members have embraced him all these years.
were history and English teachers, primarily. They instilled in But ultimately my father is a humanitarian. As a child, I
my father the pursuit of knowledge and wisdom, encourag- would ask him why he committed so much of his time to the
ing him to understand and study different cultures. His pursuit study of martial arts — and why I had to learn. He looked at
manifested into the world of martial arts. It wasn’t that he just me and said: “Because I hate violence. I hate it so much and
got to hit, kick or choke someone out — not at all! I learned what it can do to innocent people. That’s why I try to learn
from him that every great martial art is intrinsically married to many answers to how to combat it so people have a chance
a culture and a unique history. to survive and live. That is why I want you to learn — be-
My father has long taught martial arts combined with a history cause I know I cannot always be there to protect you, so you
lesson. From his example, I learned that history could explain must learn to protect yourself. All people must learn to protect
why a particular art was formed and evolved the way it did. themselves. This is what drives me to keep learning.”
This child-like curiosity is the current that flows through his We can all take a lesson from my father to stop and humbly
veins, making him the walking encyclopedia of knowledge that listen to that child-like curiosity and let it take us on a journey
he is today. As a researcher and advocate of numerous styles that will broaden our horizons in life.
and systems, he has been able to help the military, law enforce- — Diana Lee Inosanto

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 and everybody punched the same. But
nowadays people strike differently, they
attack differently. Some people are grap-
plers, some are strikers and some are a
combination. The structure that fit so
well in one decade may not be the struc-
ture you would use in the next decade.
“However, you have to start someplace.
A person doesn’t just become adaptable.
He needs a structure, and the structure
Bruce gave it was Jun Fan gung fu.”
— D.I.

As anyone who’s studied the grappling

sketches in Tao of Jeet Kune Do will attest,
ground fighting is not unheard of in JKD.
Inosanto just increased the emphasis.

“Bruce had already incorporated grap-

pling techniques from Japanese jujitsu
— including locks on the ground and
throws — into his repertoire. The only
thing that wasn’t the same as what
we do today is that we would just sort
of punch and kick and take each other
down, but once we were down and had
put the lock on, we didn’t try to escape.
“[Bruce] was researching different
wrestling moves he thought would work
with JKD. These techniques weren’t
taught in the Chinatown school, but in
our own personal training, we did a lot
of one-on-one techniques and he did have
locks. At the time, he believed — rightly
so — that a lot of things like kicking and
punching could be done strictly from the
stand-up position. But he did throw peo-
ple to the ground — he was a very good
thrower and an excellent takedown prac-
titioner — and he did a lot of locking.”
— D.I.

Because of Inosanto’s foresight, mod- “Sifu Bruce had many ‘no fail’ techniques like size, speed or even age will determine
ern JKD students hone their ground and principles, and they changed on a what you can use. You may learn four
skills, as well as their stand-up arsenal. regular basis, [but] the one that never or five ways to counter a hook, but you
failed was his quest for self-expression may still get hit with the hook. It doesn’t
“The people that are in jeet kune do have through self-discovery. That’s because mean the technique is inferior; it’s just
adapted to learning how to survive on self-expression and self-discovery lead to that you’ve got to work on your own at-
the ground. Most of them have at least self-perfection physically, mentally and tributes, your own timing, your own posi-
trained in shootwrestling, Brazilian jiu- emotionally. tioning. I always liked a saying my mother
jitsu, [and] Greco-Roman or some kind “The never-ending process of self- gave me: A failure is the fire that tempers
of freestyle wrestling to balance them- expression and the belief in oneself [de- the steel, thus producing a fine product.
selves. I like to have all my students ex- termine whether] what students choose You need the setbacks. Setbacks make you
posed to shootwrestling because it is a to execute at any give time will work. I want to learn. Bruce was correct when he
very good art and will make them more could list an encyclopedia of techniques said, ‘It’s from the old that you have secu-
well-rounded.” that Bruce used and favored from month rity, but it’s from the new that you grow
— D.I. to month and year to year, but that and learn to adapt.’”
wouldn’t benefit anyone as much as the — D.I.
Technique, however, is not the most im- true lesson and meaning of his art.
portant lesson of JKD or the other mar- “What worked for Bruce may not work
tial arts Inosanto practices and teaches. for everybody else. Different attributes For more information on kenpo, JKD and
martial arts, visit [Link].

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 BOOKS AND VIDEOS TO
HELP YOU “LEARN AND ADAPT”

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