Page 26 - Beyond Basics_Neat

BEYOND BASICS

“When one has reached maturity in the art, one will have a
formless form. It is like ice dissolving in water. When one has no
form, one can be all forms; when one has no style, he can fit in with
any style.”
One cannot reach maturity without putting in the time! If Bruce
hadn’t spent so much time studying Wing Chun and learning its
basics and structure and as legend has it, actual fights, would he
have been able to develop his philosophy of Jeet Kune Do! The
concept of the Intercepting Fist has its basis in Wing Chun.

"Stage Fright" happens when
performing at a high level and then the
adrenaline kicks in

Bruce was talking about the evolution of a martial artist! A mature
martial artist will "fit" the style to themselves and in essence will
transcend the style into something different, instead of adhering
to a style's strict confines.

That evolution is the practice of forms to develop an understanding
of a style's basics and structure. When one truly understands as
Bruce has stated, "A punch is just a punch", only then can they
begin to fit in with any style!

I for one enjoyed the practice of forms and benefited from the
ability to quickly learn and retain forms. Solo forms practice helped
to create and discover many of the concepts in this book and
competition was the proving ground for those concepts.

In 1967 I caught the competition bug as a White Belt at my first
Karate Tournament. I won my very first match and lost the next
one… and never won another match again until Red Belt. Traveling
to those events with my classmates we’d boast about what we

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