On August 11, I landed in John Wayne Airport in Orange County California with my son Jon-Paul and my training partner and Alfred Magnan who is also a martial arts instructor. We came to Southern California to to attend the Bruce Lee Bash on the Beach, Aug 12-14 in Dana Point Beach hosted by my Jeet Kune Do (JKD) instructor Paul Vunak. Vunak trained directly under Bruce Lee’s portage and training partner Dan Inosantos. Over 150 Contemporary JKD instructors gathered for this retreat honoring Bruce Lee.
Jeet Kune Do is the style that Bruce Lee developed mixing the best martial arts that would work in a street fight, or as he would say “Adapt what is useful, discard what is useless and make it uniquely your own.” The retreat was for martial artist like Disney World is for kids. We had numerous workshops on the different aspects of JKD such as Wing Chung Kung Fu, Thai Boxing, Stick fighting, knife fighting, Brazilian Jiu Jitsu, Grappling, Savate, physical conditioning and Kino Mutai.
Teaching the workshops were Head instructor Paul Vunak who has taught Navy SEAL Team 6 and numerous other military and law enforcement agencies, Harinder Singh and Tom Cruse Senior Contemporary JKD instructors, Erik Paulson former Shoot Fighting World Champion, MMA fighter, UFC champion Brock Lesner’s coach and Team Lesner Coach in the last Ultimate Fighter reality TV show, James Wilkes Ultimate Fighter winner and Marcel Louzano 3X gi and no gi Brazilian Jiu Jitsu World Champion.
At the retreat we learned of the metamorphosis Bruce Lee’s martial arts from 1959 when he arrived in the USA from Hong Kung to 1973 when he passed away. We had an incredible looking demonstration by senior instructor Singh on how Bruce Lee’s fighting methods changed from the original Wing Chung in 1959 to the development of JKD. Watching Singh move was like seeing Bruce Lee.
Day 1 started with knife sparring and traditional Wing Chung. We finished the day by watching Bruce Lee’s “Enter the Dragon” at the beach. It brought memories of watching “Enter the Dragon” as a teenager at the Circle Theatre in Miami Springs in 1973. After all these years my favorite martial arts movie is still “Enter the Dragon.”
On day 2 we had an early morning physical conditioning “Action Strength” workout by Harinder Singh. Singh developed “Action Strength” by the way Bruce Lee worked out and how he would have trained today. That morning we started doing functional martial arts training and Kali (Filipino stick fighting.) That night we had the honor to train with Erik Paulson and James Wilkes.
On the 3rd day we started with another awesome morning “Action Strength” workout. After that we worked on Contemporary JKD. After lunch we trained in Brazilian Jiu Jitsu with 3 time world champion Marcelo Louzado. We finished this incredible retreat with more JKD and Contemporary JKD Filthy MMA. What an awesome weekend!
By the last day we were training in Contemporary JKD putting it all together. Vunak’s Contemporary JKD is the evolution of the fighting system that Lee spoke of and dreamed about.
For more information on our JKD classes log on to www.FloridaJeetKuneDo.com, www.AntaKungFu.com or call us at 305 599-3649
