Straight Lead. Teri Tom
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Название: Straight Lead
Автор: Teri Tom
Издательство: Ingram
Жанр: Спорт, фитнес
isbn: 9781462907366
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William, I’ve lost faith in the Chinese classical arts—though I still call mine Chinese—because basically all styles are products of land swimming, even the Wing Chun school. So my line of training is more toward efficient street fighting with everything goes, wearing head gear, gloves, chest guard, shin-knee guards, etc. For the past five years now I’ve been training the hardest and for a purpose, not just dissipated hit-miss training.
I’ve named my style Jeet Kune Do—reason for my not sticking to Wing Chun [is] because I sincerely feel that this style has more to offer regarding efficiency.”3
By this time, Bruce had already immersed himself in the study of Western boxing and fencing. In a letter to James Lee dated July 31, 1965, Bruce wrote, “I’m having a Gung Fu system drawn up—this system is a combination of chiefly Wing Chun, fencing and boxing.”4 By 1969, he had for the most part dropped Wing Chun and the classical Chinese arts. Soon afterward, he would begin writing what would eventually be published as The Tao of Jeet Kune Do and Bruce Lee’s Commentaries on the Martial Way.
Because of Bruce’s untimely death, neither volume appears in a form he would have intended to publish, but from these notes, we can see the heavy influence of boxing and fencing. Entire passages are quoted from boxing sources, mainly from Jack Dempsey and Edwin Haislet, and the major arguments for using the straight lead can be found in the writings of Jim Driscoll.1
People have assumed that Bruce Lee turned to fencing because his brother was a fencing champion in Hong Kong, but this was probably not the case. According to Ted Wong, “People always say Bruce Lee looked into fencing because his brother’s a fencer. I doubt it. There had to have been some kind of writing that connected boxing to fencing. Driscoll mentioned that connection, as did Haislet. I doubt that the main interest in fencing came because of his brother.”6 As you’ll see throughout this book, Bruce made direct references to Driscoll and Haislet that clearly explain how straight punching evolved out of fencing. In fact, it seems that at one time it was common knowledge that the British had revived boxing because of fencing.7
The most frequently cited fencing sources in The Tao of Jeet Kune Do come from Roger Crosnier, Julio Martinez Castello, and Hugo and James Castello. But the crucial stance and mechanical nuances come from Aldo Nadi and appear in Bruce Lee’s Commentaries on the Martial Way. The three major influences on the straight lead specifically are Jim Driscoll, Jack Dempsey, and Aldo Nadi.
A N G R Y Y O U N G M E N
If his disillusionment with the status quo is what drove Bruce Lee to develop Jeet Kune Do, it was pugilistic regression that prompted Driscoll and Dempsey to write. Both authored books in an attempt to preserve the dying art of straight punching. And though Nadi’s book was fueled by his intense love of fencing, that feeling was matched by his utter disgust with the fencing practices of his time.
Figure 2: Jim Driscoll.
P E E R L E S S J I M
Early 1900s Welsh featherweight champion Jim Driscoll authored a series of boxing books, in an attempt to rectify the pathetic state of British boxing. Chief among these slim but highly illuminating volumes is The Straight Left and How To Cultivate It —a book that would eventually find its way into Bruce Lee’s hands.
Driscoll lamented the decline of British boxing, which he blamed on “circumstantial evidence” that supported the effectiveness of swinging punches. Remember that primal swinging motions are observed in bears and cats. Driscoll referred to uneducated fighters as “Bear-Cats.” In an unfortunate set of circumstances, a succession of Bear-Cats outweighed and overpowered a series of British boxers.
In particular, Driscoll cited the rise of the wildly swinging Frank Craig, aka The Coffee Cooler, as the reason for the “Decline and Fall of British Boxing.” Because swings are easier to see and appear to have more power behind them, British spectators believed them to be more effective. Driscoll argued that had The Cooler met an educated fighter, he would not have fared well, and also dryly pointed out that just because The Cooler chewed gum while fighting, aspiring fighters adopted gum chewing to improve their fighting abilities.
Flying in the face of thousands of years of fighting science, Bear-Cats such as The Cooler led the public to the weak conclusion that swinging like an animal was more effective than straight hitting. In very little time, British fistic science backslid considerably. Driscoll knew he need look no further than the development of the rapier to argue the merits of straight punching.8
It is most likely that this is where Bruce Lee got many of his ideas for applying the fencing straight thrust to Jeet Kune Do. “It’s Western sword fencing—without the sword,” he used to say.9 The source of that principle was Jim Driscoll, who wrote:
And this is where the straight left comes in. Not, as is usually supposed, mainly as a mode of attack, but rather as a more effective and valuable means of keeping an opponent at a respectful distance. I have remarked elsewhere that the science of modern boxing as instituted by Figg and Broughton was, and has always remained, a material development of the art of fencing. It is practically sword fencing without the sword, and follows in all its movements, or, rather, should follow, the same principles.10
Compare to The Tao of Jeet Kune Do:
Like a fencer’s sword that is always in line, the leading jab is a constant threat to your opponent. Basically, it is Western sword fencing without a sword and the primary target is your opponent’s eyes.11
During Driscoll’s time, American boxing had not yet declined in the way British boxing had, and Driscoll cited straight shooters such as Jack Dempsey as model fighters for their straight hitting, weight transfer, and footwork.12
T H E M A N A S S A M A U L E R
It wouldn’t take long, however, for American boxing to succumb to the evils of commercialization. In 1950, Jack Dempsey published Championship Fighting: Explosive Punching and Aggressive Defence in an attempt to correct a situation that, ironically, he had inadvertently helped create with his hard-hitting style. Dempsey explained how his popularity resulted in a lowest common denominator approach to pugilism:
Unfortunately, my big gates did more to commercialize fighting than anything else in pugilistic history. As a commercial enterprise, the fight-game began attracting people who knew little or nothing about self-defence. Hoping to make quick money, they flocked into boxing from other fields. They came as promoters, managers, trainers, and even instructors. Too often they were able to crowd out old timers because they had money to invest, because they were better businessmen, or merely because they were glib-talking hustlers. They mistaught boys in gymnasiums. Those mistaught youths became would-be fighters for a while; and when they hung up their gloves, they too became instructors.
At this writing lack of worthwhile talent in the heavyweight division is particularly appalling. It’s almost unbelievable that the heavy division should have declined so far since the days when I was fighting my way up in 1917, 1918, and 1919.13
All of this made Dempsey, well, fighting mad. Of Championship Fighting, Dempsey told biographer Roger Kahn, “I wrote it because there is such ignorance about boxing. . . . Most of the boxing I see today is just embarrassing.”14 Among Dempsey’s technical complaints regarding СКАЧАТЬ