Influence

[Jiffy]

On a late Monday afternoon while working at my normal office job, I received an email from a local instructor in Adelaide advising me of an up-coming seminar. The seminar was a practical training seminar with Guro Dan Inosanto. (for those unaware, Guro Inosanto was the top student of the late Bruce Lee and the only person ever certified by Bruce to be an instructor).

While reading the email, I noticed that I was immediately excited about the session and more interestingly, it kick started my thoughts about my Martial Arts future in general. Where do I go next, how do I make a full time career from this field, what are my goals for next year, and other such questions.

It wasn't until a few days later that I started to think "why am I so excited by this man that I have met only once before?" I also tried to think back and figure out if I was just as excited about meeting Jeff Speakman for the first time four years earlier. Was it this particular man that inspired me with just the mention of his name, or could this feeling be instilled by any Martial Arts figure head to which I reserved great status? Little did I know that as time passed, rather than have the answers, I would only have more questions.

Saturday 17th December, 2005. I woke up bright and early, the day of the seminar was here. After a healthy serve of Bacon, Eggs and an Inosanto training DVD, I found myself with an eagerness to get started. Not being able to contain my excitement, I picked up the Kali sticks and headed out to the back yard. With nothing but green grass below me, a perfect Australian sunshine above me, and the smooth texture of the bamboo sticks in my hand, I started to swing. I swung those sticks like a child playing with a new toy on Christmas morning, happy and proud. Before I knew it, one of my students (a huge Bruce Lee fan, and therefore, big fan of Guro Inosanto) had arrived and it was time for me to run through a few quick principles with him to help him get through the day. With the crash course completed, a quick glance at my watch told me the wait was over, it was time to go.

We arrived at the venue of the seminar with a little time to spare. Once we had completed the necessary forms and payment, we headed over to a quiet corner to lay down our things and start to warm up. While warming up, a feeling of déjà vu had come over me, probably just due to the fact that I had attended an identical seminar two years before hand. Looking around the room, it was difficult to see anyone but NPIAMA students (the school that was hosting the seminar). Being that there was only the two of us from our school (AACD), we were easily outnumbered. This was not a bad thing however, for the people in NPIAMA generally train in the style and principles that were about to be taught in the seminar and would therefore become a great source of information and assistance.

While warming up in the corner, I of course had to see if I could see him, the man I had paid a fair sum to learn from for just a brief moment in time. Sure enough, stretching in a quiet section of the room, I could see a small man of about 5’5” and a vintage of 69 years. Unlike the image portrayed in movies of Martial Arts experts, that of a large, arrogant person demanding attention and respect, here sat this little, mature, Pilipino man, quietly on his own, preparing himself for the session ahead. It was obvious that despite his humble appearance, there was tremendous respect for him from those in the room, but the thought that puzzled my mind was “It’s obvious that everyone here things greatly of this man, but what does he think of himself?” I wondered what would be going through his head. Would he be nervous about the seminar. While that may sound strange to some, it also sounds strange to our students that we get nervous about hosting a grading for them. Would he regard himself with the same status he was automatically regarded with by others in the Martial Arts world, or would he see himself as just a common, humble, gentle man, like those in the non-Martial Arts world would see him?

Just as I start to become consumed by these thoughts, the seminar begins. Due to a late start, only a short introduction is given and then we are straight into the intensive training. We start of with some shadow boxing and then some stretching before moving into striking drills. It’s interesting to watch the reactions of the student I came with when he sees the fast pace at which the seminar is taught. As the seminar progresses, my student becomes more and more amazed at not only the physical prowess of this 69 year old man, but also of the knowledge that he seems to emanate across the room despite only giving the necessary information. It is at this point that I too remember why I enjoyed the previous session so much. It wasn’t because this man was able to break 12 inches of concrete, or because he could battle a whole army with a single punch, but it was the privilege of listening to a man that was giving us great amounts of wisdom in so few words, while at the same time, unknowingly making it obvious there was so much more available. Both of us sat there listening with the attentiveness of a new mother listening to her baby, while Guro spilled his invaluable knowledge.

A little later in the seminar as we were rolling around on the floor practising grappling, I found one comment from Guro seemed to echo through my head. While talking about his cross training throughout his many years of training he said “Even now, when I’m training, I tend to think a lot about what principles I learned from Bruce and apply them to my training”. It was this comment that seemed to consume my entire thoughts for the small amount of time left in the seminar and also the same comment that sparked the writing of this article.

Fortunately, at the end of the seminar, I had the opportunity to speak briefly with Guro in person. In order to keep the nuisance of my questions to a minimum, I carefully thought out what I wanted to say, and executed it. “Excuse me Guro, you mentioned that even today, what you learned from Bruce is greatly important in your training. I was wondering how long you were actually training with him”. In his gentle voice, he replied “I met Bruce in 1964 and was with him until he died in ‘72”.

I was spell bound by this answer as it lead me to an interesting assumption. Of all the instructors that Guro Inosanto had trained with and all the years of his training, his eight short years of training appear to have had a much greater impact on him than the rest of his training combined. I then started to realise that it was not just me that had been greatly impacted by one particular instructor, but that it is all of us that seem to get influenced more strongly by some people than others. In this particular case, it appeared that the influence from Bruce Lee and his eight years with Guro was a far stronger influence than the years spent with the late Ed Parker, the Gracey and Machado brothers or any other of the great legends he had trained with.

The trip home was filled with normal conversation, but for me, there was much more going through my mind. I kept pondering the questions of influence, wondering what it is that influences me more than other things and why is it that way. As mentioned earlier in this article, I soon ended up with more questions than answers, but I was able to at least partially explain the values of influence.

What I found is that generally, influence is driven by several major factors. These include perceived own status, perceived status/impact of the influence, relevance to the topic of influence and personal experience of the interaction/event. I make particular note to the word “perceived” because the status we hold for someone in our mind is not necessarily the same status that other people hold for them. Similarly, if the source of influence is an event rather than a person, then the impact that has on our lives is not necessarily the same impact it would have on the lives of others. It is these factors through which Guro Inosanto’s seminar seemed to have such an impact on me. This is because due to his perceived status, partially through the media recognition and partially through my experience of training with him, was far greater than the status that I held for myself. To illustrate this point, think of the difference in how much influence difference there would be between a session coached by your idol as opposed to one coached by a student with 2 weeks experience. Simply because a perceived status difference, right from the word go, Guro Inosanto had more chance of influencing me than other people would. There was also the point of relevance. Obviously I was there because I was interested in learning martial arts, and more specifically, the principles in which I thought he would teach. At this point I found it interesting that this must mean we hold a different status for each person in any given field, which then makes the topic even more complex. For example, if I wanted to learn how to cook, I would be more influenced by someone like Jamie Oliver because in the kitchen, the status I hold in my mind is different due to the difference in the subject being taught. Now that I felt I had partially understood what it was that made me excited like a kid in a candy store at the mention of a Dan Inosanto seminar, I began looking for a productive use for the conclusion I had come to. It was obvious to me that the power of influence is used every day for both good and evil. Most of us can think of obvious examples of this. So it was apparent that sometimes people could change the level of influence on us with the use of status and impact change. What I was more interested in though was not influencing others, but controlling influence within myself. With this in mind, I felt that the most productive thing we can get from influence is learning. I looked up “learn” in the dictionary, but to my surprise, it did not mention the impact of learning, only the act of it, eg. the ability to commit something to memory. It was my experience however that in many cases, it was the level of influence in an event that increased the learning experience, not the amount of effort to commit it to memory. If you watch a child who is learning cause and effect, they generally do the same thing a few times to test for the same result, but if they put their hand on a hot stove, they learn immediately. Why? Because the impact of the result was so great that they put more effort into evaluating the event. At this point it seemed to me that increased impact, not increased repetitions was the key to efficient learning. The next obvious step was to conclude that the best way for us to learn something faster was not to do it over and over, but to change how much we let the learning experience influence us. Humans seem to do this naturally without thinking about it. As an example, we tend to not really listen to those we don’t respect and therefore we limit the amount of influence their words have over us. With the three main principles of influence in mind (own status, their status/impact, relevance), it appeared easy to increase our learning ability by simply altering these parameters.

The first thing was to increase the difference in status between myself and the person teaching me. I found that the first step to do this was to lower my status in my own mind, or to put It more bluntly, drop the ego. (a motto of the Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu world is “Leave your ego at the door for this is a place of learning”). While that may sound easy it is actually quite difficult and while I felt that I had achieved it somewhat, I still felt like I had a fair way to go. I then looked at the other two angles which I felt were quite connected. While it’s easy to say “just hold the person teaching you in higher regard”, you can only believe what you believe. As mentioned earlier though, we hold a different status for the same person depending on the relevance of the topic. Imagine you have an able instructor that due to a personal external experience, you have lost some respect for. The normal reaction is to lower the status that you hold for them in your mind as you lose the respect. What if you only look at the relevant topic though? I felt that by altering what we look at in a person, we can alter the status we hold for them and therefore increase the influence we allow them to have over us. It seemed so simple and so much to be just common sense, but rarely did I actually stop to think that if we alter how we perceive ourselves and others, we can alter how much we can learn on a day to day basis. The same applies for events. Often, mistakes we make that are perceived as minor, we seem to do over and over again. If however, we insist in our own mind that the mistake was not minor, it appears that we can increase the learning experience and therefore reduce the chance of making the same mistake again.

While it’s obvious that altering how we learn would take great effort, it seems to me that it could also have a great affect on our lives. Not only can we improve our relationships, but by altering the source and severity of influence, we can increase the value that we get out of any event in life, particularly a learning opportunity. For example, how much did this article influence you? Enough to give it a try?

Edited December 24, 2005 by Jiffy

[niel0092]

Very nicely written!

[shogeri]

That was a nice read!

[Jiffy]

thanx

[Zorba]

Jiffy refers to "his student" that went with him to seminar. that student would be me, so i thought i would give you a different persspective on the day.

a couple of months ago i was talking to sempai (jiffy) about seminars and mentioned how great it would be to go to one held by guro dan inosanto, i said if he ever comes back let me know, i wasnt really expecting him to , and definitely not so soon.

when i got the email asking me to go, i couldnt beleive it, nor could i really afford it but that wasnt going to stop me

i had never been to a training seminar before, so i didnt really no what to expect.

i too woke up early, and pulled out my bruce lee box set that included a dan inosanto self defence feature, and started watching. thought it was funny when i walked in to sempais house and saw the exact same thing on his tv.

when we arrived at the venue, i looked at all the other martial artists there, most of which are jeet kun do students of the npiama as mentioned. a couple were warming up with kali sticks and it was quite impressive to watch.

they had a store set up with an array of inosanto academy merchandise, and i wished i had more funds to buy some stuff. but ah well, i can always get it from the website.

once the seminar started and warm ups were finish, it was time for guro to show us the first technique, and it went some thing like this:

"your opponent is going to attack with a right cross, you parry it, then punch one two three, then kick. the second one is two punches, so deflect, parry punch 1 2 3 and kick, the third one is the same, but parry and kick to the groin, then 1 2 3 and kick any questions?"

i was gobsmacked. someone asked him to repeat it and he did so a bit slower, then we went off to attempt it.

being a TKD black belt, this type of defence was a lot different to what i had done in the past, especially once we got to the throws, locks and grappling. i partnered with sempai and even tho he had done this kind of thing before, he still wasnt sure of some of the techniques.

it was a great experience, and a few times, when neither of us could get the technique right, we would call guro over and ask advice, he would help us out and watched as we tried again, and would give his approval of "thats it!!" when we got it right.

now i dont know about you, but hearing that from bruce lees no 1 student was a big deal for me.

i left the seminar worn out and excited, more in to martial arts than ever before, wanting to do more, learn more practise more, if only there were more than 7 days in a week.

i now plan on attending as many seminars as i can, as even tho i am only able to train 3 nights a week in 2 styles at the moment, at least i will able to get exposure to different styles in the odd seminar that comes our way.

[MasterH]

Nice!

[Sensei Rick]

It’s weird, I just got up from watching an x mas present of Bruce lee's box set. I watched the way of the fist. He killed chuck Norris in the coliseum in Rome. I was thinking the whole time. I thought Bruce was better than this. When he spins the nunchucko he doesn't do a figure 8. He only circles them and strikes. He seemed much faster when I was a little kid.

No one can deny Bruce lee's influence on the arts. He has been dead for 33 years and still is in MA magazines regularly. He is still talked about. In non MA circles he is considered unbeatable, and he was, at the time. He is like Arnold, still in magazines and now even the governor of California. People compare him to today’s champions and say that Arnold could have beat lee Haney in his prime. Bruce was so innovative, and so on and so forth. I'm a little sick of it. And I'll tell ya why.

I was in a band and just played a set at this party. We must have played some ACDC song really well because during the break I found myself in a conversation with a guy about ACDC. He said he loved them and they were so great blah blah blah, and then he said the trigger to my point. He said that Bon Scott, ACDC's then long dead first singer was the best and his favorite. I then asked what his favorite album of there's was and he said Back in black. That album features Brian Johnson, their singer that they have now. It is easily there best selling album and there most successful yet Brian Johnson has to listen to people talk about Bon all the time. Dave Grohll has to hear about Curt kobain. Stevie ray used to be called a Hendricks rip off. I was so annoyed at t he guy going on about Bon Scott and then stating that Back in Black is his favorite album.

I'm glad that you went to the seminar and learned something useful and hopefully you'll take it and develop it and share that at your new school. Bruce lee is dead. I hear all the time how his style died with him and so on. That may or may not be true. But to go see Insanto and pay a lot of money (your words, not mine) makes the point of your article. I have learned from many people, but I learn most from my own students. I learn everyday whether or not I am succeeding or failing.

I hope Danny insanto makes a lot of money with his seminars, just remember, there are plenty of others out there that didn't have Bruce as a teacher, but have great seminars and schools. Please support them as well. Oh and by the way, Brian Johnson can sing, and Dave grohll blows curt kobain away.

Ps. I just reread this and it sounds like I’m bitter and I’m really not. But if you really wanna learn martial arts, then Bruce lee is one star in the sky. Don't forget to look at the rest.

[Zorba]

the whole point that was made at the seminar (which wasnt held by the inosanto academy mind you, and the price is the same when other people come as well) was not that bruce lee was the best martial artist of all time and dan learned everything he knows from him. the point that he kept repeating was that people have to learn what is best for them. what works for one person may not work for another.

it was the philosophy of martial arts that makes bruce the legend that he was, not just his skill. there have been a lot of really great martial artists, but thats all they were.

Bruce lee is one star in the sky. Don't forget to look at the rest.

i beleive that what you said there was exactly what bruce lee was about.

[Jiffy]

Hi There,

Just to comment on a couple of your points Sensei Rick.... Dan Innosanto was a great martial artist in his own right before he even met Bruce, it is simply that for those who don't know him, Bruce is his easiest claim to fame.

Also, I couldn't agree more, there are plenty of stars in the sky. For that reason, I attend many seminars (eg. the one mentioned in the article with Jeff Speakman).

The point of the article is not to praise Guro Innosanto, but to discuss the powers of influence and the source of motivation. This particular experience was simply used as an example to illustrate the point.

[ArmorOfGod]

The seminar was a practical training seminar with Guro Dan Inosanto. (for those unaware, Guro Inosanto was the top student of the late Bruce Lee and the only person ever certified by Bruce to be an instructor).

Very cool article. I enjoyed reading that.

I do however have to correct the above statement.

Bruce Lee certified three people in Jeet Kune Do: James Lee (deceased), Taky Kimura, and Dan Inosanto.

On a side note, Bruce Lee taught three different styles in his lifetime: Wing Chun Gung Fu, Jun Fan Gung Fu, and Jeet Kune Do. He certifed several people in the first two styles as well, but I do not know there names, and I know you were referring to JKD in your article.

ArmorOfGod