 Hi everyone, I received a few questions from our Patreon viewers that asked me my perspective on a couple of topics and I figured that since they are kind of semi-related I'm going to group them together today in a compilation. And that being said, I just want to disclaimer here that this is just an opinion and just my first impressions of some topics and I of course always open up the forum to you guys. I welcome any comments, any feedback, anything you want to share, any corrections, please by all means, share it below. You never know what kind of rabbit holes we can discover together. So our first question today comes from Jim Sasser and he wants to know, what's your opinion of Jeet Kune Do? Now I have not done any deep dives in the Jeet Kune Do yet so I only know it at a surface level as a casual observer but I will just answer it as according to my own personal first impressions of the art. Now initially I'm intrigued. This is our I really don't know much about and there's no doubt and there's no question that Bruce Lee is a major American media icon. I mean he inspired a lot of people to join the martial arts. He is you know a household name and even though myself personally growing up I really wasn't a Bruce Lee fan as in I really didn't watch his movies. There were other movies I grew up watching and Lash Antoon said he was a little bit before my time but I can certainly appreciate the impact he's had and I really respect the work that he did exploring and experimenting and trying to institute his own brand new philosophies into the martial arts. He established Jeet Kune Do as a way to break away from standardized fighting, standardized systems you know kind of leave the katas and pre-orchestrated motions behind and he wanted more of a free flowing, free style experimental art and he was all about combat and sparring so the whole concept was you learn all the tools that you can learn you know the kicks, the punches, the strikes, the movements and you discard what doesn't work and in what does work you keep and you formulate your own your own version of freestyle fighting that is efficient and fast and works for you. Now did he accomplish that? I'm not so sure. Like I said I don't have any first-hand experience with Jeet Kune Do but part of me wonders what he would think about the system if he were still here today. Now he was once quoted with saying, I have not invented a new style, composite, modified or otherwise that is set within distinct form as a part from this method or that method. On the contrary, I hope to free my followers from clinging to styles, patterns or molds. Remember that Jeet Kune Do is merely a name used, a mirror in which to see ourselves. Jeet Kune Do is not an organized institution that one can be a member of, either you understand or you don't and that is that. Now the thing though is today there are organizations and schools that you can join and become a member of and although he didn't want it to become its own style, when you really take a step back in the martial arts and you see all the lists of different arts it kind of follows that Jeet Kune Do is its own style within the list to some degree. So sometimes I wonder what he would think of the art as it stood today and to be totally fair I don't think the art got enough of him. You know Bruce Lee died in 1973, he formally established Jeet Kune Do in 1967 so that's only six years after he founded the art. That's not a lot of time and I think that Jeet Kune Do might have missed out on some serious influence that he could have given it. I mean he spent his entire life studying various of martial arts, different concepts, different styles and put together and he experiments a lot but even then at the age of 32 that's still fairly young. I mean my personal opinion a little young to be establishing your own art but I do like where he was coming from, I do like what he was trying to do, I just don't think the system got enough of him to accomplish that fully. Again, first impression only. I really like a lot of his concepts though especially some of the some of the concepts he used such as point of origin and economy of motion that aligns up with my training in the compo as well. So I like the idea of learning a whole bunch of tools and then testing them and then hand picking and crafting what works for you, your own personal toolbox. He also really believed in the realism of fighting and he advocated for realistic sparring, hard sparring, pressure tested sparring because he was on a mission to not only better himself but to better anyone who followed his example. So my initial impression of Jeet Kune Do is I'm very intrigued, I like where it's going, I like a lot of the things that are implemented in it but I do wonder where could it be today if he was still around? If we had a few more decades with him, what would Jeet Kune Do look like today? And again, I am not an expert, I don't have any first hand knowledge or experience with Jeet Kune Do and I welcome any feedback any of you guys out there might have. The next question comes from Emmett Doyle and he asks, what are your views on Q-Show? I know a lot of martial arts include pressure points in their systems but do you think that there is a place for Q-Show study in the modern martial arts? Now I did the abbreviate the question a little bit. He did elaborate on the fact that the observation that in modern times a lot of martial arts systems have left the energy flow system of pressure points and more focused on pressure points utilizing nerves, blood vessels, body tissue, so structural versus energy. Now pressure points are a highly debated topic and I think we need to begin with the shift from energy to physical structure pressure points. Now I'm going to be brutally honest, I try to be objective in most of my videos but there are some topics that I'm going to reveal my position on and this is one of them. As far as energy flows I really don't hold stock and I'm very, very skeptical of any system that teaches how to reverse the flow of energy or how to knock an opponent out without touching them or making them flip across the room. Honestly I feel that belongs in theatrics and it really doesn't have a place in modern combat and I wouldn't believe how many times I have to actually stand that ground because I do on occasion get people trying to convince me to have an open mind to understand energy and understand the energy and I'm sorry but when it comes to throwing your energy across the room or harming somebody without touching them I don't hold a lot of stock in that. If that's something you personally believe that's fine but me personally I don't put any water in that barrel. Now as far as pressure points that utilize nerves, blood vessels and body tissue I think it holds a lot more potential and a lot more realistic application if it were to apply. Now if you want to talk about pressure points that use nerves and blood vessels and body tissue the structural points I will give that a little bit more merit because I do think there's some more potential there and I've been to seminars where I've stood there and I've had pressure points applied to me and that stuff hurts. I mean I saw the blinding flashing lights when pressure points on my face were pushed I felt the actual signal shoot down my arm so I can vouch for the fact that there are points in the body that when pushed or pressed or pinched really do hurt and they can be incapacitating. However there's a huge difference between applying a pressure point on somebody who's standing calmly and letting you do it to them versus somebody in a blind rage actively trying to harm you. Now I was at a Kempo seminar this year that actually taught pressure points and the instructor was teaching us different places on the body and on the like on the jawline and the back and head certain points on the face and even the little tricks like how to shift their attention to kind of maybe make them lose concentration on one part of their body just to kind of distract and let you manipulate them a little bit. But he did say that even though with all that in mind he said good luck actually applying it because when the person's moving around he goes you're not going to be able to just reach over and grab them easily there's going to be a struggle. However if you happen to get your hands on their face during that struggle then you might have some potential to do a little bit of harm and pain infliction. But it's also worth noting that there's different levels of aggression to there's a huge difference between a bully trying to start a little tussle with you or somebody on you know a drug induced rage or somebody trying to kill you. Adrenaline can be incredibly neutralizing and you can't always rely on a pressure point to work if somebody is really pumping high and there are instances that I've seen in videos and accounts of people who were stabbed and shot during the fight and didn't even realize it or were affected by it or feel anything from that until after the fight was over and the adrenaline subsided. So adrenaline can be a very very powerful thing. You can't always count on being able to reach over and push a button on somebody and shut them down. It may work it may not it all comes down to each individual and in that moment. But again as I said if you're in the course of a fight and you happen to get your hands in the right place then go for I mean you might be able to inflict some sort of pain maybe enough to stop the fight. So in my personal opinion yes I do feel that pressure points have a place in training. However I feel that you should be more of a subset or a sub-study to a main system because they're all well and good and they're great in theory but try applying a pressure point to somebody who is wildly swinging at you. You're pretty much gonna have to grapple or incapacitate them somehow or strain them first before you can get your hands in the right position most likely. So that being said I do feel that pressure points are a great supplement to a system but they shouldn't be the foundation of one. Now speaking of things that should or should not be included in the martial arts systems Michelle Poirier asks what are your thoughts on tricking in the martial arts? Does it belong there? Is there something we can learn there or is it a big distraction? Should we all learn some tricking? Now if you aren't familiar with tricking it's the art of performing impressive and highly acrobatic aerial maneuvers. Think of it like break dancing in the air. You see lots of combinations with jumping, spinning and often kicking. Now tricking has been around for quite some time but it really wasn't until the advent of YouTube and and visual social media that allowed the community to upload and share their performances. But does tricking have a serious place in martial arts training? This is an interesting question because first I'm going to say that I find tricking incredibly impressive. I mean come on I look at somebody pulling off these moves and I've got jealousy in my eyes. I mean I wish I could move like that and even when I was younger in the beginning parts of my training I had infinity for the jump spinning kicks. I love the twirling stuff. I love a little bit of aerial work and even at one point I was able to perform a semi pseudo version of the 540 degree kick. And when I say a semi version of it, technically I got the motion down. I launched and I landed and I did the kick but it was really really sloppy. I would, nothing I really wanted to demonstrate to show anybody and I'm really glad there's no footage of it. However, I did rock a pretty mean kip up so I've got that going for me which is nice. And yes, believe it or not there was a once upon a time where I was able to lift off and get some air. But on a practical level I don't think it's a great idea to try to use it in a real street fight. Even when I was experimenting with that spinning kick, I never once tried inspiring because I knew better because, you know, there's just too much vulnerability there. Whatever you're gaining in dazzle, you're sacrificing in stability. All it takes is one mistake or get hit once while you're in the air and you're in for a world of trouble. But with all that being said, I do feel that tricking comes with some valuable lessons primarily in body control, spatial awareness, acrobatics, it makes you quick. You have to be on point. You have to be pretty precise in your movements and who can argue that won't help you in your everyday training just for reflexes. So yes, I do believe that tricking has some value but in terms of a real life fight, I mean, okay, I mean, again, if you've got a bully who might be trying to start a fight with you, maybe if you jumped in the air and did a double, triple back flipping, 1,080 degree tornado kick and landed in the finance stance, maybe that might be enough to deter him and make him think twice. But hopefully you've got, you know, some good pressure-tested training under your belt, no pun intended, and that you're ready to take him on just in case it doesn't deter him. Gotta have a plan B ready. So that's a great question. And I think that competition, Wushu is along the same lines, some beautiful acrobatics. I mean, you're talking about some seriously hard work, lifelong dedication to get that good. And I think it's very impressive, but you do have to balance with what is practical to pull off in a real fight and what is not. Common sense, like my personal opinion, I think the aerial stuff should be left out of it just because I feel the risk is just too high. But let me know what you guys think. I mean, anyone out there have any videos to share? Are you experiencing tricking? What are your thoughts? And today's final question comes from Basu Oro Sceptred from Sceptred's Palace. And he asks, what do you consider a martial mindset? He also asked my opinion about two quotes. Injury is more easily forgotten in insult and a person in love and a person in hate both are willing to believe almost anything to accomplish their cause. And he asked how these quotes can apply to the concept of martial mindset. Now this has a lot of philosophical roots to it, but I'm going to do my best to kind of briefly sum up my perspective on the topic. I believe that a martial mindset is exactly what the name suggests it is. It is a framework for your mind to develop your own set of ethics and guidelines that you want to follow and implement into your everyday training. And not just your everyday training, but something that you make a part of you, a habit that carries over to your real life, daily habits as well. Now this concept can be intense for a lot of people because we always circle back to why people train. You know, everyone's got a different reason for the martial arts. Some want self-defense, some want exercise, some want rehab, culture, some just do it as a hobby. And you can better believe that each person involved has a different mindset for why they train. And when I started training, the very first thing I was taught was how to address the instructor or senior student. You know, you answer them, yes sir, no sir, yes ma'am, no ma'am. And when I learned that, I carried it over to my everyday life. I addressed teachers and seniors and people above me and the higher rankers and just out of respect, you know, I addressed them as sir or ma'am. That's just something I chose to implement because I found I like that level of respect. I try to show the same respect to people in my daily life as I would if they were instructor on the mat. That's just one of the things I put in my own framework. Also, I try to do a lot of focus and conflict resolution. I fully believe that the best self-defense technique is the one that you can use peacefully before it gets to violence. Again, that's my own philosophy. I know other people are different, but that's something that I decided to myself to take on is my mindset, my martial mindset for my life and my training. And I think it really comes down to a lot of that. You have to choose your guidelines that you want to follow. Now, as for the quote, insult is more easily forgotten than injury. This one's interesting because I do believe this is part of the mindset because you have to take into account that there's physical wounds and there's emotional wounds. If you cut yourself or you break a bone or you have a physical injury, your body takes care of that for you. For the most time, your body can heal itself. If the injury is emotional or psychological, it's not gonna just heal itself. That takes an active role on your part to make the conscious effort to heal it. So it's definitely part of the mindset, absolutely. You gotta go back to your roots, your own philosophies, your own guidelines, and try to get yourself through it. So I think that that phrase, that quote holds a lot of truth to it, injury can be more forgotten than insult because injury will heal on its own, insult and emotional damage won't. That is an active role on your part. Now the quote, a person in love and a person in hate both are willing to believe in almost anything to accomplish their cause. I think there's definitely a mindset in play with this one because a lot of people assume that love and hate are opposite concepts and they're not. They're actually very, very close emotions. There's only a subtle difference between them. The opposite to both love and hate is apathy. So when you take that into account, when you are working from a place of emotion, that can overtake a mental aspect of things. Your emotions can affect your psychology and whether you're acting out of emotion, whether it be positive or negative, you have to keep that in check and you have to use a mindset, a proper mindset to keep some clarity because if you don't, both love and hate can blind you and can lead you down some rough roads. So what a great question. It's a deep question and I wish I could spend more time on it but it gives us something to think about that I do believe that both those concepts definitely play a part of your martial arts concept, your martial mindset. And by using that mindset, you have to develop your own guidelines, your own frame of reference and your own set of ethics that you're going to embed in your everyday life and implementing that in our martial arts training I think only solidifies that further. So I think that's the common thread of this whole thing is that it's all about the right mindset, whether you're trying to decide to implement kicks into your own training or whether I should focus on pressure points or even up to the point of, you know, I want to create my own system, let me break the mold so I can create my own free form way of philosophy and thinking. You know, it comes down to you adopting tools to accomplish your missions in life. It always comes down to being a better you. So thank you guys so much for watching today. These were fantastic questions and I look forward to hearing from all of you. Thank you so much and we will see you next week.