Diocletian

Hi all, I've got a general question for some of you forum-goers who are familiar with Jeet Kune Do. While I've never seriously studied it myself, I have picked up a copy of the Tao and have spent some time reading through it while sitting around bored at work. I started taking Wing Chun a few months ago, which was the martial art that Bruce Lee trained in while he was growing up in China. Thus far, the classes seem to place a great deal of emphasis on "trapping," which involves immobilizing an opponent's arms to facilitate striking. Aside from the obvious differences is punching form, trapping is where Wing Chun really differentiates itself from Western boxing--it relies more on parries and trapping techniques for defense and preparation for hitting, whereas Western boxing relies almost entirely on slips, bobs, and weaves to get around punches and counter-attack. Considering his roots, I kind of expected Bruce's Tao to include some more in-depth discussion of trapping techniques; somewhat to my surprise, he instead focuses a great deal on Western boxing (in fact, he probably wrote more about boxing than anything else) and hardly mentions Wing Chun's immobilizations at all. So, with that said, I guess my question is... do your JKD classes touch on trapping techniques? Wing Chun's sensitivity drills are, at least to me, a lot of fun and entirely practicle in a fight. As a sport, boxing doesn't allow competitors to trap or pin an opponent's arms, but in a brawl, it's one of the best ways to disable his/her guard and land some good punches. I'm looking into taking some JKD classes, and I'd like to know as much about what it entails as possible before commiting to the commute (no local trainers, unfortunately). So what do you guys think?

I guess it all depends on the context. During a match or friendly spar, you aren't going to want to hurt your opponent (not too much, at any rate), so you're going to stick with established and fair techniques. If you're actually being attacked, well... anything goes. Fingerjab him in the eyes, bite him, claw him, grab his groin, basically do anything that you think is going to encourage him to retreat back outside your guard. From there, a lot of it depends on your style and what you're comfortable with. You might attempt a strike or take down from the ground, or you may just want to get back on your feet as humanly possible.