Customer Reviews

Jeet Kune Do: The Arsenal of Self-Expression

5 star:		(12)
4 star:		(0)
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2 star:		(2)
1 star:		(3)

 

 

This is a book that's hard to rate. From a purely technical standpoint, this text is actually pretty good. Much like "The Straight Lead" it covers few techniques in the tiniest details. This approach means that the reader will not get a lot of variety, but will be exposed to a very in-depth look at some of the basics of JKD.
But whereas the technical section is overall well done, the theoretical part of Tom's work is downright awful. In her hands, Bruce Lee's beautiful philosophy is turned into yet another dogma to be followed religiously. This is the worst betrayal of Lee's philosophy one could imagine. Tom is right that many JKD practitioners misuse the freedom of thought and the creativity that Lee encouraged, but her solution is worse than the disease: eliminate the very freedom of thought and creativity that's at the core of Lee's vision. Like a religious fundamentalist, Tom believes modern practitioners should do nothing but follow blindly what Bruce Lee did--which is antithetical to what Lee actually said when he explicitly stated that JKD was a continuous process of research, and not yet another "style".
Perhaps less important, but nonetheless disturbing, is Tom's argument that Lee fashioned JKD entirely out of Western sources (mainly boxing and fencing). In doing so, she completely dismisses the importance of wing chun (and of many other arts that Lee experimented with) in the genesis of JKD (btw, where do all the JKD kicking techniques come from then? From fencing?!?).
I'd love to support Tom's work in producing a very thorough technical manual, but her arrogant dogmatism is too much for me to bear.

The title of this book really should have been Jun Fan Kickboxing simply because of its narrow focus. In reality, it's a rather watered down version of JKD . While Tom does outline some techniques in detail, the book is incomplete and one would be better off with Chris Kent's JKD Kickboxing. The book is marred by a number of contradictions that leads one to believe that her understanding of JKD is very limited. She makes the case that JKD was solely derived from Boxing and Fencing and devoid of Wing Chun. This is a major contradiction to every original student from Lee's final school in LA. She disputes that other arts influenced Lee in his development as Dan Inosanto claims, but then she has an entire chapter devoted to kicks that obviously come from Thai boxing and Savate and have no relationship to Boxing or Fencing. One is prompted to ask "so where did these kicks come from?" Her assumption that grappling played no part in JKD is also incorrect. According to Bruce Lee's original student Larry Hartsel, a man who also studied privately with Lee, there were 33 distinct grappling moves developed by Lee for JKD and was very interested in ground fighting towards the end of his life. Teri Tom's assumption that if Lee didn't show something to Ted Wong, then it wasn't part of JKD is poor journalism to say the least. If any reader is truly interested in acquiring an honest view of JKD, they should study from as many "original" sources as possible.
The book is also marred by her political attempt to place her own instructor as the highest authority in JKD. She justifies this position with the fact that Ted Wong met Bruce Lee in 1967 and had the most private lessons logged in Lee's Day Timer. Unfortunately she fails to mention that Dan Inosanto began working with Lee three years before Wong. Lee and Inosanto had a relationship that evolved beyond teacher slash student and not every meeting was a "logged" lesson. She also fails to mention that while Wong was given a level 2 certification by Lee, Dan Inosanto was given a level 3. A level 3 was the certification given by Lee that allowed one to teach his art and Bruce had handpicked Inosanto to run his LA "Chinatown" school. Ted Wong was a devoted student of Lee's and Lee was known for focusing on what each student needed individually. Sifu Wong had never studied any kind of martial arts before he met Lee so Lee was working from the ground up and focused on Wong having a basic structure. Many feel that's why Wong developed the idea that JKD was more of a fixed and distinct style. Alas, if Lee had only lived longer and Wong could have studied long enough to have been certified to a level 3. Then perhaps he would have had a greater appreciation of the deeper philosophical aspects of JKD. In the words of Bruce Lee "Therefore, any attempt to define Jeet Kune Do in terms of a distinct style ... is to completely miss its meaning." And that's the sad truth about this book. Ted Wong wrote in the foreward that it was a loss that the original students didn't collaborate after Lee's death and pool their JKD knowledge together. If Wong had discussed more with other original students, perhaps this book would not have been limited to a few basic kicks and strikes, but might have been more inclusive of the totality and beauty of Lee's art.

Let me say first, I'm basing this review off of the pictures and information of boxing and kickboxing techniques show in this book and NOT in any way about the JKD politics. I ordered this book and Anderson Silva's "Boxing for MMA" and received both the same day. I was very excited to read this book because it was the first time I would be able to read a fairly comprehensive JKD book by one of Ted Wong's students. However, I was severely disappointed by the picture demonstrations shown by Miss Tom. In most, if not all the photos, during her boxing combinations, Miss Tom's hand are constantly lowered or flailing by her side as she lands hits on the focus mitts. She rarely, if ever, has her non-punching hand in any way guarding her face in these pictures. Most times when she is punching or kicking her rear hand is dropped close to her hips. As any boxer or kickboxer with ring experience knows, dropping your non-punching hand during a combination or kick is a surefire way to get hit or knocked out. We see it all the time in the UFC or professional Mixed-Martial Arts competitions. A good example of her apparent complete lack of defensive structure is on pages 162-163. I was actually very surprised by this and a little disappointed given that Miss Tom is praised by Ted Wong and also regularly writes a column for Black Belt magazine. Another disappointment with this book is that it's so basic. The other product I received on that day, Anderson Silva's "Boxing for MMA", was much more in depth, Mr. Silva NEVER dropped his hands during combinations, and also noted, many times, how he had knocked many opponents out for making the mistake of leaving their head un-guarded. The "Boxing for MMA" also much better boxing punches, footwork, set-ups, and defensive sections. As someone who has trained martial arts for 10 years and boxed for 14, and trained kickboxing in Jeet Kune Do AND Muay Thai Boxing, I learned a lot more from Anderson Silva's "Boxing For MMA" than Teri Tom's "Jeet Kune Do: The Arsenal of Self Expression" and came away more satisfied with my purchase. Honestly, Miss Tom's fighting philosophy seems stuck to me on that age-old martial arts myth that "one strike" i.e.- The Straight Lead will take your opponent out. I would personally recommend anyone looking to improve their fighting ability to save the money you would use to purchase this book with and instead purchase "Boxing for MMA". Or, if you're still skeptical, go to the bookstore and look at Anderson Silva's "Mixed-Martial Arts:Striking" and Teri Tom's "Jeet Kune Do: The Arsenal of Self-Expression" and sit down for 15-30 minutes and compare both, and make sure you look at pages 162-163, or really any of the pictures where she's demonstrating punching combinations, of Miss Tom's book to see how badly she drops her hands. On a last note, please do not think I am writing this because I dislike Miss Tom, I was honestly excited about this book and pre-ordered it 2 months in advance but was so disappointed when I got it that I had to write this review.

I am being generous giving this book two stars. I should give it only one, but the book is so well done and the pictures so clear and numerous that I think this book's layout and quality should be a standard for future martial arts publications. For those reasons only I gave it two stars. Everything else in this book is either useless or outright terrible, both in technique and diction. Teri Tom's bigotry towards every other martial art, especially the "non-Ted Wong school" of Jeet Kune Do, is at once frustrating, maddening, and embarrassing. She writes about and SELECTIVELY quotes Sigung Bruce Lee as if he were a deity who is not to be questioned, even close to forty years after his untimely death. Tom (and her trainer/marketer Ted Wong) claim to be truly teaching what Bruce Lee was teaching at the end of his life, which may have some semblance of truth, but it is only a piece of the Jeet Kune Do puzzle. The evolution of Jeet Kune Do as a concept and Jun Fan Gung Fu as an art evolved greatly between 1967 and the early 1970's, yet she cannot seem to imagine that it would have evolved from the time of Lee's death to today. In addition, her ignorance of how and what the other, "charlatan" Jeet Kune Do instructors teach leads her to say false, misleading, and slanderous things about them. Unfortunate...

The book itself has very few actual "techniques", and most seem to be focused on the straight lead once again. I have no problem with this, as in depth studies of few techniques can be just as enlightening as a book with myriad techniques. The problem is how these techniques are portrayed. For all the years Tom has trained with Wong, her technique is as sloppy as someone who has just begun: flailing arms while kicking, landing with extremely wide legs, coming in with her chin up, dropping her arms to her hips when throwing an uppercut or straight lead. This can lead to bad habits to those who don't know any different. I regret spending money on this book, honestly. I wish I could have looked through it before I ordered it. I do NOT recommend this book to anyone, Jeet Kune Do practitioner or not, as I feel it fails to deliver what it promises. Her bitter remarks towards others is also pathetic, to say the least, and has no place in this book. It is truly a shame that a book so well made can be such a waste.

Perhaps the next time Tom writes a book, she will take a little time to do more inclusive research and drop her self serving politics. This qualifies as one of the most incomplete and yet arrogant books I have read on JKD!

No, the last word in my review title isn't a misspelling nor is it a typo -- it's a deliberate shot across the bow against the ignorance of those who claim that Teri Tom is blindly following and clinging to the teachings of Bruce Lee that are somehow frozen in time (i.e. techniques that were taught and practiced prior to his death). The very idea that because she went to the source material and roots of Jeet Kune Do that somehow she is going against the philosophy or intentions of the founder of Jeet Kune Do is pure and utter nonsense. I laughed out loud when someone labeled her the "Fundamentalist of Jeet Kune Do" because it once again demonstrates how clueless SOME of those who are descended from or (blindly) follow the teachings of the Inosanto clan are. Now allow me to clarify something here: I like and respect Dan Inosanto a great deal and in fact have attended some of his seminars several times. I think in general he has done a tremendous amount for the martial arts community as a whole, and is probably more responsible than anyone else in this country for bringing the Filipino Martial Arts (FMA) to the forefront of the United States. He is brilliant as both a martial artist and a teacher, but I RESPECTFULLY disagree with him regarding the idea of Jeet Kune Do CONCEPTS, which is HIS idea and NOT Bruce Lee's. Now before all the haters out there start with the comments that "Dan inherited the mantle of JKD, yadda, yadda, yadda..." While it's true that Dan Inosanto was one of three (the other 2 being the late James Yimm Lee and Taky Kimura) to have received instructor certificates from Bruce Lee, that does not negate the fact that Ted Wong was Bruce Lee's longest private student (and this is logged in Bruce's personal journal) and in addition NO ONE could possibly know whether Bruce would have issued Ted a certificate as well (Bruce wasn't expecting to die when he did). Getting to the book Jeet Kune Do: The Arsenal of Self-Expression, I have to say that it is a work of sophisticated simplicity. If one merely picks up the book and leafs through it, one would think that there's not much to it but just a number of kickboxing techniques in a well laid-out format. If one READS through it (and it would almost seem to me that some who reviewed the book here skimmed through rather than actually READ the text and if they did, they didn't "get" it) one would see that there is a thorough and scientific dissection of many of the techniques that make up Jun Fan (Bruce Lee's) Jeet Kune Do (as opposed to Jun Fan/Jeet Kune Do -- a term used often by the "Concepts" clan). Does Teri Tom and Ted Wong make some strong statements in the book? You bet they do. It's funny that people attack Teri Tom and make outlandish claims that what she is espousing is somehow outdated, and yet those same people wouldn't neccessarily say that Muay Thai (a great art that is utilized by many who practice MMA) -- a far older art -- is somehow also outdated. So what is Teri Tom's, Ted Wong's, and even Shannon Lee's (Bruce's daughter) beef? It is this: with the explosion and perpetuation of the Concepts Method, people were teaching and spreading techniques that bore little or no semblance to Bruce's original art. In other words, Bruce Lee's Jeet Kune Do was dying. I know there are those who would at this point say, "No, it wasn't dying, it was evolving" at which point I would say, "rubbish!" I trained in the concepts method and I learned many valuable things (I thought the grappling and FMA classes were especially good), but what was missing was Jeet Kune Do. What was called in the concepts school (yes it was one of those JKD/Kali outfits that also taught some Savate, Silat and Muay Thai -- at the time I was studying Brazilian Jiu Jitsu wasn't all the rage yet)Jun Fan kickboxing seemed to me to have very little semblance to Bruce Lee's Jeet Kune Do -- the vertical fist was de-emphasized, the dominant hand forward was de-emphasized, some footwork techniques were tossed out, in short this was an emasculated version of Jun Fan Jeet Kune Do. I remember the instructor of the concepts class once asked: what was the difference between Jun Fan Kickboxing/Jeet Kune Do Concepts vs. Jeet Kune Do? The answer was: Jun Fan Kickboxing/Jeet Kune Do Concepts can be taught to larger classes and seminars while Jeet Kune Do can't. In Teri Tom's Jeet Kune Do: The Arsenal of Self-Expression, one can see why. While many of the actual kicking and punching techniques would be familiar to most, the footwork is deceptively sophisticated (and incidentally was largely absent in the concepts class with the exception of the most basic steps). One could see why Bruce preferred small classes so he could watch over his students like a trainer would with a stable of fighters. Is Teri Tom fortunate for having studied one on one with Ted Wong? Hell yes! Incidentally I thought the techniques in the book were well executed and disagree with the person who said that Teri Tom is sloppy. In fact, I'm hoping she eventually comes out with a video. I need to make one final point about Teri: she is NOT against studying other martial art forms, and in fact she is studying a form of American (not Brazilian as someone claimed)Jiu Jitsu known as the Freedman method. What she IS against is someone slapping together a disparate collection of martial arts and calling it Jeet Kune Do. Sorry for digressing from the book so much, but I believe the above points were important ones to make. Teri Tom with her latest book (and along with her book on the JKD straight lead)is performing a valuable service: she's bringing Bruce's original art to the world while at the same time explaining the science AND philosophy behind it. She's also helping to preserve Bruce Lee's Jeet Kune Do for the sake of history and I believe she's doing a masterful job. Even for those who don't agree with her viewpoints, if one truly READS the book and studies it, one will see there really is a treasure trove of information within its covers.

Immediately you can tell that this book is written by someone who is very smart. It is evident that Tom is an experience practitioner and teacher of JFJKD, and the content and detail of this book could only come from such a person. Sources and reference are provided lending this book a credibility I have not seen in any other martial art book. It is great to see the roots of JKD.
'The Arsenal of Self-Expression' is the perfect title. The pictures are great. There is nice balance between techniques and explanation. The book is well structured and easy to read.
Tom's book is the 'missing pieces' that no-one seems to be able to satisfactorily provide you in your martial arts.
I look forward to seeing Tom's hook kicks and straight leads.
There are minor typos and I would have described the 'physic 101' a little differently. However, no content is lost and book is deserving of 5 stars.

This book is a tribute to the simplicity of Jeet Kune Do and the teachings of Ted Wong. You will be hard pressed to find a more insightful and nice looking book then this one.

Well I have to admit that I am now definitely a Teri Tom fan after reading this and her other latest book, Martial Arts Nutrition: A Precision Guide to Fueling Your Fighting Edge along with her first book, The Straight Lead: The Core of Bruce Lee's Jun Fan Jeet Kune Do, which by the way is also the very first book that I purchased and read from Tom and one that is simply outstanding in her detailed focus on a singular technique, which in this case is the straight lead. Reminds me of another author and his series of books. (wink)

Tom not only takes a very scientific approach to her book, but she also does it in such a way that, for me anyhow, was easy to follow and understand without getting so bogged down in scientific terminology that the layperson would have a difficult time understanding it. Although Tom doesn't take a singular focus in this book like she did in her previous book, The Straight Lead: The Core of Bruce Lee's Jun Fan Jeet Kune Do, she does do an exceptional job of explaining the correct execution of a wide variety of techniques such as; the rear cross, hook, and uppercut. Along with several kicks such as; the hook kick (Roundhouse Kick for everyone else), front kick, and side kick.

Tom also covers such very important, but often overlooked techniques such as; footwork (both basic and advanced), hand-and-foot combinations, timing, and evasion, among others.

I don't personally study Jeet Kune Do, but I do study and apply a lot of the principles and techniqes in JKD to my arsenal of other techniques that I have learned from Karate, Tae Kwon Do, Judo, Aikido, and have now added to my Krav Maga skills. And although one would be seriously deficient if they were a practitioner of Jeet Kune Do and didn't have this book in their library, it is also a very important book for any and every martial artist regardless of style to have in their own personal library in order to improve upon their existing technique. So in reality this book is not intended for just Jeet Kune Do stylists, it is intended for everyone.

Shawn Kovacich
Creator of numerous books and DVD's.

5 STARS AND 2 THUMBS UP FOR THE"ARSENAL" TERI TOM HAS DONE AN EXCLENT JOB OF EXPLAINING THE HIGHEST LEVEL OF JKD, IT IS THE LAW AND THE PRINCIPLE OF JEET KUNE DO. I HAVE READ THE OTHER REVIEWS AND MUST DISAGREE WITH THOSE WHO DIS-AGREE! JKD HAS ONLY 5 PUNCHES AND 3 KICKS, ALL EXPLAINED TO PERFECTION BY TERI TOM. I HAVE SEEN MANY JKD INSTRUCTORS OVER THE YEARS AND ONLY A HANDFULL CAN PERFORM THE STRIGHT LEAD. WHY? BECAUSE THE MECHANICS OF THIS PUNCH TAKES A LONG TIME TO LEARN. ALL OTHER PUNCHES EVELVE FROM THE STRIGHT LEAD. YOU CAN LEARN THE 4 BASIC PUNCHES OF WESTERN BOXING IN A FEW DAYS, MASTERY TAKES YEARS. SO IT IS WITH THE STRIGHT LEAD....ONLY 1 IN 10,000 CAN HANDLE IT! HAVING KNOWN TED WONG SINCE 1994 I CAN SAY THAT WHAT IS IN TOMS' BOOK IS WHAT SIFU TED WONG HAS TAUGHT ME. THE LAW AND THE PRINCIPLE OF JUN FAN JEET KUNE DO. YES, THIS BOOK IS HELPFULL BUT YOU CAN NOT LEARN JKD FROM A BOOK, ONLY BY ONE TO ONE INSTRUCTION FROM ONE WHO CAN REALLY DO IT. THIS BOOK EXPLAINS JKD FROM A HISTORICAL AND SCIENTIFIC POINT OF VIEW.....IF YOU DOUBT IT, GO THE THE SOURCE HIMSELF, BRUCE LEE AND REDISCOVER WHAT YOU HAVE BEEN MISSING, THE TRUTH OF THE LAW AND THE PRINCIPLE OF JEET KUNE DO. DR. RICK LENGYEL, JKD INSTRUCTOR UNDER BILL MATTUCCI, LICENSED ACUPUNCTURIST/HERBALIST, STUDENT OF TED WONG.