Kickbox

From what I have heard the Korean styles go up to 9th dan. Three is a special number for the Koreans and 3x3 is even more special. The Japanese styles all go up to 10th dan.

I had the opurtunity to go to the Joe Lewis conference in VA Beach VA in Nov. Mr. Lewis is teaching mixed martial arts in addition to kickboxing. He is 60 years old and out classed all the fighters that showed up. Anyone else train with Joe Lewis?

I have trained with Bill for years at the Karate College in VA. Most people don't know that Bill is a super wrestler and started karate only after breaking his knee in judo competition. Bill is a super boxer and the best round/hook/side kicker ever. He will be 60 years old this summer and like his buddy Joe Lewis can still kick but! Back in the day if there had been Thai boxing or MMA/NHB competitions Wallace and Lewis would have still been the world champions. They have what it takes to win.

Try joining a boxing gym. The boxers have been applying their craft longer than the kickboxers and Muay Thai in the US. And if you are real tuff go to the African American section of town and join a boxing club. I tried that in Willimington NC and found out that no less that the great champion Joe Lewis had been a member there for years! You'll gain respect for just showing up. Enduring is up to you.

Try being "explosive" as you perform your push ups and bench press. But only do this with lighter weights. Endurance may be better than power in most bouts. Remember Ali versus Formen. Better still hit the heavy bag. You can get a progressive resistance effect from the heavy bag. The problem with weights and even the bag is that you can get a sense of being effective in a static position. Better to hit and move with speed than to have lot's of power and stay stationary. That's why I left karate. We were taught to concentrate on power but no one ever taught us to move. You have to hit and move, reposition, be where your opponent is not effective.

I did a search of the 26 arts of JKD articles. It was written by Paul Vunak in the 1980's for Inside Kung Fu. This article is confusing and proabably not true. I met Ted Wong at a seminar in VA and he said Bruce made up JKD from boxing, wing chun, fencing and tai chi. Bruce took lessons from Wally Jay and Jhoon Rhee and he worked out with the great champions Joe Lewis and Chuck Norris. Jerry Poteet teaches the exact jeet kune do that was taught to him by Bruce Lee. He doesn't teach the 26 arts, that's make beleive. That stuff is to make you think that JKD is some kind of impossible to learn style. If you can box and do wing chun and you can apply the 5 ways of attack that came from fencing you have the foundation of JKD. Now all you have to do is work out about 8 hours a day like Bruce Lee did, study Kristumurti philosophy and in a few years you'll have it. Go to https://www.joelewiskarate.com for info. Mr. Lewis was the best fighter ever trained by Bruce Lee. He says JKD is simple to understand. The problem is you have to work out, meaning fight, a few thousand rounds in order to learn what works and what doesn't work. That's the only way to find out what to absorb and what to reject.