We were in San Francisco for the first time but we almost did not make it, here is the story:

On Nov 22^nd, 2010 We caught our first flight from Stockholm,  they were not sure about my French passport and they called someone who told them it was Ok but at the arrival in Switzerland after passing all controls, we were in the line to board the plane, one woman from Swiss Air I think,  came to me and took my passport from my hand and went away with it, then she looked at me with her colleagues and laughed ,  she came back to me and told me ” you´re not flying” turned to Mikael and said” you are flying , she is not ” this extremely rude  woman thought it was very funny  and apparently enjoyed her power very much,  my French passport  was still valid but of an older model which was not accepted for the US anymore, they should have stopped me in Stockholm .

They sent us back to Stockholm same day. I went to work the day after having just given up on that trip. Oh well it was just a first time in the US, in San Francisco where Bruce Lee was born, it was just to meet Ted Wong, Allen Joe, Linda Lee, and some of the actors who played in Bruce´s movies and a number of international JKD practitioner…. well it was just a dream trip that I was losing just like that.

But the day after at work everyone was so shocked that I was there, they told me I could not possibly pass on this trip, they would even help me if I needed but I just had to go. It was so nice of them and I was so sad and disappointed, I talked to Mikael and we decided to try to catch first flight, the hotel was still available so we did, we flew again on Nov 24^th .

I pass on all the details from the room that had disappeared when we arrived, the luggage that did not make it back, my card for Bruce Lee 70th birthday that was not displayed with the others and so on … Minor details !

Here is what´s important,  it was such a joy to meet Allen again, “my favorite French girl” he called me :-),   Bruce Lee´s  birthday  celebration was very nice, we even got a tour in SF with Jeff Chinn,  meeting Linda was a big thing for me, so big I could not talk ! I felt so stupid afterwards because I might never meet her again  but the whole experience was priceless, we were so happy. During dinner we asked for Ted, Allen told us he was not well and that he would get back to us as soon as he had some news.

This is not before we were back to Sweden that we got the news. Ted had passed this day we finally made it on the second flight. It was sudden and unexpected for us who did not know about his condition, we have missed him since then.

I had not met him a lot, first time was in 2005 same day I met Mikael for the first time, that day changed my whole life.

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Rest in Peace Sifu Ted, until we meet again.

My blog is about my training and my personal life experience linked to Jeet Kune Do,  I am not an instructor and I am not responsible for the Jeet Kune do training in Sweden.

I have received questions on MSN that I just discovered, some of them are one year old, unfortunately I did not see them and I could not send them to the instructor.

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As it says on the first page of my blog and as anyone who knows anything about Bruce Lee would know, Ted Wong was one of the 2 most qualified people directly certified by Bruce Lee in the highest rank of Jeet Kune Do.Dan Inosanto is the other one and has followed his own path ( JKD concepts ) while Ted has chosen to keep close to Bruce´s teachings even though he has developped the techniques.

I want to make very clear that we have met Ted in several occasions (Mikael more than me of course) and we have received the authorization by him personnaly tro train and teach JKD in Sweden. After Stefan Nikander passed ( who was certified by Ted )  there is no one in Sweden who is authorized to teach JKD in Sweden under the name of Ted Wong,  let´s be clear about that.

Another point is that we are not training under anyone , our direct Sifu was Ted Wong and even after his passing we are still considering ourselves training under Ted and nobody else.

We share an outmost respect for our Sifu and even if he is not with us anymore physically,  he is all around .

Today is one year ago since Stefan Nikander passed. Still in our thoughts and certainly not forgotten.

Our thoughts go his children especially to his son  Nicholas who also turned eighteen today

At the church yesterday during a beautiful funeral service, the priest said:

“The more impact people who pass away have had on us, the more grief we show”

Considering the high level of emotions showed in the church yesterday, it is pretty clear that Stefan made a huge impact on people.

We were almost all present from his other family, the JKD family. We are so thankful that we were allowed to share this moment.

Our friends Håkon and Oyvind from Norway made a beautiful performance at the church, everyone was very touched by the ceremony.

We gathered afterwards and were able to talk to different people, it was peaceful and filled with great memories.

Stefan received an incredible amount of telegrams that were displayed. Messages from Spain and Poland were read.

Stefan´s mother asked Micke about our JKD training, she wanted to make sure he would go on. There is no question in his mind, JKD is a part of Mikael, quitting is just not an option.

After the gathering, The JKD brothers went to take a picture at Stefan´s favorite place, The JKD Rock. Unfortunately my camera fell on the ground and broke, but that did not stop us, we took pictures with a cell phone and as it was dark, we used the lights of one of our cars.

We went back to the hotel and discussed about various JKD topics, friendship, memories,  future plans, seminars in Sweden Norway and Poland were also discussed.

October 27^th, 2011, a day full of emotions,

Rest in Peace Stefan Nikander,

Until we  meet again.

Tomorow, october 27th, 2011 at 13.00 in Nynäshamn, Sweden.

JKD stockholm, together with our friends from Norway and Nynäshamn, will pay our respects and say our last goodbyes to our friend Stefan Nikander.

We bring messages and thoughts from the Wong Family and the Joe Family and from JKD friends from  the USA, Canada, Polen, England and Spain.

Mikael was contacted by Simon Kölle who wanted to write an article about Stefan. Micke also talked to Krina who sent him a text to add to the article, here is a short english version.

When I decided to write about Stefan Nikander´s sudden passing in October, I received a lot of emails and phone calls. Everybody wanted to share their feelings about him and it was clear to me that he had impacted a lot of people. One of Stefan´s friends and JKD instructor Mikael Egidéus was willing to give me informations even during these difficult times; I thank Mikael for his disponibility.

Mikael says:
“Men with great passion are not that common nowadays, Stefan was a man with great passion for training, especially JKD, he was a really appreciated Karate instructor for children as well, he had groups in Bredäng and Nynäshamn.”

Stefan was diagnosed with a brain tumor in 2003,  got treatment and lost his physical condition but when he got better,  he trained himself back into a  high level shape. His recovery fascinated a lot of people and me not the least. I flirted a bit with JKD in the 90´s and this is when I heard about Stefan and his schools in bredäng and Nynäshamn.

Mikael continues about Stefan:
“ I never met someone who really lives for something, the first time I met him was in the 90´s, I thought I would never get home that day after the training session, he could talk hours about every single detail of the training. The library in his basement is full of all kinds of martial arts books, a couple thousands at least and none of them is not read, they are more “over read”, torn and full of notes, there was nothing Stefan did not know about martial arts. Stefan also made his own training equipment just like Bruce Lee did. The physical training was as important as the books, being a martial artist and not in shape was not an option, the weight lifting was extreme, I remember our Power factor and Static Contraction Training sessions followed by three hours sparring, it felt in any fiber of the body the day after !
This is how I will remember Stefan, training with passion, creativity and laughter, broken ribs, swollen hands, bloody noses, sweaty training rooms, talks about JKD at his place, training at Ted ´s place in L.A, hours long phone calls about training, all this was Stefan…
I will always have in my mind the time when on stage, during an exhibition in Uppsala in 2003, his balance was not right, something was wrong and it was the first meeting with the tumor which became Stefan biggest fight.
RIP Stefan, my old friend… “

One Of Bruce Lee´s students Ted Wong perpetuated Bruce´s legacy to the best until he passed away also quite recently. JKD Sweden evolved a lot thanks to Ted Wong and Stefan. Ted Wong was one of only two people who obtained the highest rank in JKD; Ted was Bruce Lee´s private training partner. A lot of the modifications that Bruce discovered for his martial art were made possible thanks to his close relation with Ted Wong.

Here is what the Ted Wong Family says about Stefan´s passing:
“Stefan had a high moral standard in life and in martial art Jeet Kune Do. He’s honest, humble, and charismatic.
Stefan had studied under Ted Wong for a long time. He’s been certified by Ted Wong in teaching Jeet Kune Do in Sweden. He was one of the few Ted Wong students who takes royalty and commitment in Jeet kune Do very seriously. Ted invited Stefan be one of his student instructors to the Florida Summit in unveiling the TED WONG JEET KUNE DO ceremony.

Most of all, Stefan was a loving family man. We will miss him dearly. May he rest in Peace.

From the TWJKD Family”

Stefan organized a JKD seminar with Ted Wong on May 25th, 1996 in Bredäng, this is an historical date because it was the first time Ted visited Scandinavia, Stefan continued organizing seminars with Ted Wong in Sweden and the last one was in 2009 in Nynäshamn. His great passion also took him all the way to the USA to train and participate in seminars with Ted Wong and other Bruce Lee students.
Stefan even taught during seminars that he organized in Sweden and other countries for many years.
The JKD that Stefan trained was according to Ted Wong´s teachings, what is called today TWJKD. Stefan was also a certified instructor under Ted Wong in Scandinavia.
Jeet Kune Do Stockholm is the Swedish school who trains and teaches JKD as taught by Ted Wong today; it is run by instructor Mikael Egidéus and Gina  ( Mikael´s private student since 2005).

I could write a lot about Stefan. He was loved from a lot of people and inspired even more. Stefan will be buried on Thursday. He will be missed from his family, students and even from people who never even met him.

For more information about JKD and training in Stockholm, contact Mikael Egidéus: mikaeljkd@live.com

I met Stefan in 2004, he was already in battle against this tumor, I remember thinking he was really strong minded, someone who does not give up, ever.

In 2010 it was time for him to take another round against this thing.

I remember we went down to Nynäshamn a couple of times to train with him, each time I told Micke I was so amazed by the energy Stefan had, we could not stop him, he was so full of life.

That made me believe until the end that he would win this, no matter what.

The last time I met Stefan was in August this year, it was difficult but also inspiring because of the light of hope he was spreading, I remember him telling us:

“I am back”!

I thought if someone is determined enough to beat this thing, it is Stefan! I told him we knew he would make it and we were all waiting for him.

There is no way I was prepared for Micke´s phone call yesterday morning.

Micke  took care of informing us and some close friends in The US, Spain, Norway, Polen and Canada. After a while it came out officially on FB as well.

I am writing this now, out of respect for Stefan.

We are deeply hurt by his passing, first Ted then Stefan; it was certainly not their time to go, but I like to believe that Stefan has now met his hero up there and that together with Ted, the three of them are united and at peace, they certainly have a lot to talk about.

It is up to us to go on now. I can for sure say that all of us who have been training JKD in Sweden and in Scandinavia, will go on in memory of a great Man.

Stefan did not lose his battle! Stefan was called up there by Bruce and Ted because they felt it was time. This is anyway what I want to believe.

REST IN PEACE Stefan, you and your accomplishments will never be forgotten.

We were all present today for the training session. I want to thank all my training partners for their dedication,  we had a very good time today.

We started with a short film that I came up with to honour our Sifu. This short film will come up on Facebook when it will be finalised with some music and other arrangements. Nicklas is the man for the job, we will post as soon as ready.

We also took pictures that will come up tonight on the Group page.

After this we all sparred, starting with light sparring. All 6 of us did rounds and changed partners until everyone had met everyone.

I started with Micke and finished with Coshe. I was trying to keep a good form and adapt to every opponent in a different way because no one is fighting the same way. Against Micke is always the hardest of course , but also the most enlightning, because I learn so much. But sparring with the guys is also very good because as I just said they all have their differencies, some hit harder than others, some are faster and some are “flashier”….( Coshe, I will esplain this is a minut ) the good thing is that anytime I sparr I learn something about myself, we learn from each other all the time .

So Coshe  started with some strange footwork, I kept on thinking ” in which movie has he seen this one now ?” then I asked, where does “that” come from anyway ? he said ” Muhammed Ali” ah yes of course, Coske ! Anyway I reached him with several straight leads and he could not take me down one single time AHH,  happy about this!  🙂  but the thing I noticed again today , I am too slow, I need to do something about that quickly because it bothers me a lot .

Then Micke thought we would go a little tougher and with the proper gear on,  do some harder sparring. First with one person doing non classical form and just punching hard while the other one should only respond with straight lead.

Then really hard sparring :  hit and finish the opponent!

That was tough and there will be some good videos on this one I guess.

I got hit in the side of the eye so I did not go with this last part.  Nicklas was injured in the rib, Coshe threw up, Michel injured his hand and Remy was scratched everywhere. Yeah well, even with the proper gear this happens and we take it, why ? because this is martial arts, this is Jeet kune Do, the art of fighting not the art of talking :-)……..

and because today we fought for our sifu, so he ´ll be proud of us, this is our way to honour him as we could not be part of the memorial.

I want to thank everyone in the group for participating today and again thanks to Micke for giving us that opportunity, for teaching us the real TWJKD,  that is all we need and we could not ask for a better trainer.

THIS IS FOR TED, REST IN PEACE…