Comparison and Contrast

Jeet Kune Do, the form of kung fu created by Bruce Lee, is not something new.  MMA is not something new either.  Jeet Kune Do is an attempt to modernize Wing Chun, and MMA is a modern version of an ancient combat sport called Pankration.

Jeet Kune Do at it's heart is sparring, trapping, and weapons.  Hitting with the hands, the clinch, and weapons tactics.  That is reality self defense.  Bruce Lee saw boxing as superior to eastern martial arts like karate and judo and wanted to create a more realistic system that cuts through the crap.

MMA is all-in-wrestling.  It is not a combination of Muay Thai and Brazilian Jiu-jitsu.  It is wrestling with strikes and submissions.  Freestyle wrestling is the most dominant background in MMA.  Not Karate, boxing, judo, or jujutsu.  Modern MMA is more about striking in every range and with every weapon, so it truly is about Jeet Kune Do principles.

Bruce Lee was not just an actor, and the moves he used in the movies was crap.  That's show business.  He knew the difference between what sells movie tickets and what works in a real streetfight.  Every Chinese man does something different in his personal life and his public life, and every Chinese man has a secret yet deep admiration for the pugilist.

You have a right to defend yourself, you don't have a right to start with anyone.  Self defense is a certain inalienable right, combat (meaning stealth and weapons) is garbage for criminals.  If someone physically confronts you, you can knock them out, knock them down, or just walk away.  Verbal Judo is the best self defense there is.  Israelis can protest themselves with their sense of humor.

So boxing is a great sport and a great beginning.  It teaches you how to use the jab to establish range, to stay on your feet at all costs, to break out of clinches or get into clinches, and to use footwork to create distance.  It is fight science.  Boxing is better than wrestling or judo.  But all combat sports have some validity to it, it is a fair contest to see who is better.  Kids want to prove who is better, grown men want to rob you and steal your stuff.

The riddle is, life is not fair and there is no justice.  Boxing is ultra competitive, ultra violent, and ultra physical.  Wing Chun is a great martial art of Chinese origin that teaches you to punch, block, trap, and counter punch.  Aikido is weapons grappling.  It is soft power, a martial art that requires no speed or power, only timing and reflexes.  A crippled or slow man can do Aikido and defend himself.  So Aikido is the ultimate moral teaching, the soft overcome the hard.

Aikido is a moral lesson, a method of self defense, a physical exercise, and even part of Japan's irreverent yet spiritual culture.  You have a right to defend yourself, but don't be an asshole.

So there is more to self defense than just punching people in the face, and MMA is just a TV show for angry young men.  I've learned reality and now I am here to tell you about it.  The real lesson of martial arts training is not self defense but morality.  You have to be the better man to win a fair contest.  Through stealth and guile, a loser can beat a wrestling champion.  There is no justice in this world.  Life is not fair.

So through comparison and contrast, I have learned the meaning of life and the meaning of the martial arts.  It's rigged.  Society is not fair, life is not fair.  Only in martial arts can weak, good people beat strong, rugged, aggressive criminals.  Martial arts is part of Tikkun, of fixing the world.  There is morality in the martial arts, its not just about jumping right in with the right cross in all your anger.

So I have used my martial arts experience to become a better, wiser, more moral person.  That means I am the champion and have learned all there is to learn.  No matter what I do, we are all going to die.  So the devil rules the world.  But at least to die with contentment is victory.