Tag: Bruce Lee

A Pause in the Flow

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On Pause, But Not Forgotten

I have been training Jeet Kune Do with ups and downs since 2004. Over the years, it has become more than just a way to move , it has shaped how I think, how I push myself and how I face challenges.

Lately though, my journey has been on hold. A string of injuries has forced me to step back and the truth is, I am still not back on the mats. It is frustrating, it makes you feel like you are losing your rhythm, your momentum, even a part of yourself.

Still, I have been learning that breaks, even unwanted ones, are part of the journey. They force you to slow down, to reflect and to focus on what really matters, not just the techniques, but the mindset behind the art. I have started revisiting the basics in my head, planning small drills for when I can physically train again and reminding myself why I started in the first place.

Motivation does not just snap back after a long break. Right now, I am working on rebuilding it mentally, even if my body is not ready. Every day I remind myself that progress is not only measured on the mat. Patience, reflection and careful recovery are all part of the process.

I don’t know exactly when I will be fully back, but I do know this: the love for the art has not faded and when the time comes to train again, I want to be back stronger, wiser and more focused than ever. Until then, I am practicing in every way I can in body, mind and spirit.

Bruce Lee once said “walk on” and right now that’s exactly what I am trying to do, even if it doesn’t look like much from the outside. My body is not ready to train yet, in fact, I can’t even walk properly right now because of a foot injury but I am learning that “walking on” is not just about movement on the mats. It is about staying committed, keeping the mindset alive and slowly rebuilding strength, patience and focus. Every small step in recovery, every bit of reflection, is part of walking on, continuing the journey, even when it is paused.

One more in heaven

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I wanted to talk about my cousin Christophe, who was 51 and just took his own life.

There is no reason why I should go into the details of this tragedy , what I want to talk about is the impact he had on my life and how to deal with depression.

First let´s go back some years, I was already born when my aunt Michele who  was my mother´s best friend,  introduced her brother, and this is how my family was formed.

The first cousin I knew on that side of the family was my cousin Christophe and later his sister Natasha.  

Christophe trained karate and was very good at it, the particularity of his personality was that he was a big fan of Bruce Lee, I remember it was always a subject to talk about or refer to .

The years passed and we lost contact but I have always been thinking about him one day or another because of that connection with Bruce . A few years ago we reconnected on Facebook and I remember he was very happy that I had reached out.

I knew about his personal struggles, and it had been going on for a while but when I got the call a few days ago I could not handle it.

What made me not ask him how he was doing in time, and would this have changed anything? Probably not , but how do I know that now that it is too late?

I do not know how to deal with this, I am really having a hard time.

I have been reading our interactions on Facebook again and what he had posted under the years on his page, it is pretty clear that he did not feel good for a very long time, I just wish I had said something. I never would have thought it could end like this.

How are we supposed to know that it could go so far? I know of other people that are always negative and post dark stuff from time to time but in his case it was all the time and I did not recognize the difference.

He had his family around and adored his sister so I know that if they could not do anything , nobody could.

So how do we deal with this? As I said the connection with Bruce is why I have been thinking about this particular cousin my whole life, he was so serious and funny about it. Not so long ago he commented a post of mine about Bruce and Brandon, and he wrote : “these two men are exceptional,  I have the deepest respect for them. ”

So, I will finish this post with a wish:

Dear cousin,  I wish with all my heart that you cross their path up there and finally find some peace in your heart ❤

Jkd for stress control

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There are a lot of things you can do to manage your stress level, for me going outside and breathe the fresh air especially around water, is the thing I like to do the most. Right now in Sweden the weather is really not funny, it’s grey cold and very dark and I still work from home after one and a half year. I am having a very stressful time at work and I think the weather and the time of the year are playing a big part in my stress level right now.

So what do you do if you don’t feel like going out taking a break and try to slow down ? Well the answer to the question is the heavy bag, this is for me an instant stress reliever! I am not concentrating on punching or kicking hard because I don’t want to mess my shoulder up again but I actually can punch again and that feels very good. I have also noticed that when I train on the bag now, I’m thinking a little less than I used to. During a training session I was thinking so much about the technique that it didn’t feel very natural and it didn’t flow so good. Now after a long time of not being able to train, I realize that I am more relaxed in my technique which is good because I feel it flows better, but to be honest I really need to work on it!

My body is very stiff I lost a lot of flexibility, strength and muscle mass, so the way back is going to be tough but I still have the muscle memory and I still have the technique memory, so overall I’m very happy with the more relaxed style that I got.

Back on track and back to JKD training, this is my winter plan.

Thank you for reading 😊

Birthday !

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Bruce Lee would have turned 79 today .

There are always some discussions about who knows better or more about him but I think that no matter what,  Bruce Lee is a name you cannot forget, so let be those who only know the actor and still adore him for that.

 

The most important is that he is not forgotten, remember that we are  46 years after his death!

He left a mark on different kind of people , those who know the most about his art or the man that he was in life and those who know most about his movies and his appearances on screen.

I am part of the JKD world and very happy for it, but I started as a Bruce Lee- the actor fan and most of my family and friends from France only know him for that.

 

Bruce Lee was more than one man, he was also an actor and he worked very hard to get there and be recognized for it.

I do not judge people not knowing about JKD, I am always happy when someone asks me what kind of martial art I do and when  I answer JKD, most don´t know what it is but as soon as I say “ the art of Bruce Lee” all people, and I mean ALL people , younger or older respond : ” OH wow !”. That does not only make me proud of what I do, that makes me happy that people still know and still are impressed by Bruce 🙂

 

I really hope there will be an event next year for the 80th birthday in San Francisco, we were there 9 years ago for the 70th,  I would love to go back  🙂 I miss SF and this time I hope at least one word comes out of my mouth if I get the chance to meet Linda again 🙂

ladda ned

Better than Myself

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Courtesy of Lamar Davis who posted this on his Facebook:

“Fitness is not about being better than someone  else

It is about being better than you used to be”

 

That made me react on a few things

The other day someone asked me why I had makeup on, and if it was  because I wanted to look better than  other women.

I never even thought about this in that way , and NO , while putting makeup on in the morning , I don´t think about other women, all I think about is to do something about my face so I don´t scare myself in the mirror, it is about me and nobody else.

 

I can relate this to what actually  happened  to JKD Sweden and this is the reason why we don´t post anything anymore on social medias.

 

First,  a quite huge argument began some years ago with some of our JKD fellows in the States, Instructors argued among themselves basically on who was better than the other one,  then we were attacked by  their students who verbally trashed our training and thought they were entitled to criticize us and our videos , instructors also  attacked our students verbally and last,  Mikael was stabbed in the back ( figure of speech) by a so called friend instructor.

I am not reviving any old feelings here, I am just saying that comparing ourselves to other people will lead to this behavior,  people want to be better than others instead of focusing on their training and on what we can bring to each other.

 

There will not be any more videos or posts on how we train, JKD Sweden will not show what we do, we are  training all by ourselves and we don´t need to prove anything to anyone.

 

What is important to me is my progression, my journey and my experiences , meeting people who do their thing, better or not it does not matter, when I look at other groups training I am happy they are keeping JKD alive,  I have no opinion on what they do right or wrong.

 

JKD made me better than I used to be a a person and as a student,  I don´t put myself on a piedestal and pretend I earned any status, I certainly don´t but I am happy about my progression and there is a long way ahead, , I accept it.

 

Now I know I will probably get my ass kicked the day I meet the grandmaster in heaven! but I still have some time to improve 🙂

 

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Bruce and Jackie Chan (right) on the set of Enter the Dragon.

TED WONG

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I remember the first time I met Ted Wong was in 2004 during a seminar that Stefan Nikander arranged in Nynäshamn, Sweden.

2 days of the hardest training I had done so far in my life, after the first day I thought I would not be able to get out of the bed !

I remember being very impressed and blown away by the fact that I was meeting him and by the man that he was.

He was incredibly kind , strong and in control of himself, I was telling myself all the time, “I can´t believe I am here ! “

Not only was that day a turning point in my life,  it was one of the best days ever. I felt very honoured and blessed .

Sifu Ted Wong, Gina

                                                                                     With Ted Wong Nynäshamn 2004

I have written before about that day so I won´t do it again, but that is when I met Mikael for the first time. After that I became Mikael´s private student and  we created JKD SWEDEN

A lot of things happenned after that, more seminars, meeting Allen Joe, (<3 )  and later we started  traveling to San francisco.

We´ve met amazing people during seminars and our travels, Jeff and Julie Chinn took us everywhere in SF, Allen and Annie welcomed us in their home, I had the incredible honour of meeting Linda Lee Cadwell at Bruce Lee´s 70th birthday on SF in 2010

And so on…

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                                                                             With Linda Lee Cadwell, San francisco 2010

These are some of the incredible things that happenned to me following the day I met Ted Wong,  and on top of it JKD changed me as a person to a better one.

I wish I could have told Ted about the impact he had but I assume he knew,  because I am far from being the only one he did that to !

Ted left us in 2010,  when we arrived in SF for Bruce´s 70th Birthday party we could not find Ted and we talked to Allen who told us he was in the hospital .

Stefan joined him in 2011, then Allen in 2018 and Annie in 2019 .

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                                                                                   Seminar in Nynäshamn 2009

Heaven took them all but I am sure they are reunited with Bruce now

May they all rest in peace .

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The Hong Kong Bruce Lee house is gone.

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Bruce Lee called the mansion The Crane’s Nest.

 

I read about this in a FB post from FB friend John Little. I realized I knew very little about this story so I thought I would write about it here.

Bruce and his family lived in this house on 41 Cumberland Road from 72 to 73 while working on “The Way of the Dragon,” “The Game of Death” and “Enter the Dragon.”

Bruce died in Hong Kong on July 20, 1973.

Yu Pang-lin a Chinese businessman,  bought the house in 1974, after that the house was modified to be more private as it was  used as a “ bordel”,  I did not know that.

What the new owner did with the house has not much to do  with Bruce I would I say, but the thing is, this is Bruce Lee we are talking about,  he spent his last years in this house with his family , it should mean something.

I think that this house could have been used for something far more dignified and if not as a tribute or museum as it was planned in 2008 , it should have been something better that this degrading place for dirty men ( excuse my French ! )

Anyways, Yu had planned to sell it in 2008, but thanks to fans protesting , he did not do it at the time.

In 2018 his grandson announced he  was  planning on renovations to make the house a Chinese Study center but experts found the state of the house “extremely bad” and that it would be dangerous for students.

Because of the extensive damages the cost of the renovation would exceed  building a whole new one,  this is why the decision was taken.

Bottom line and my opinion, had it been preserved the right way from the beginning, this would not have happenned, too bad the house was sold to someone who obviously did not care at all.

 

This is before the demolition:

This is after:

Happy Chinese New Year

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zodiac-pig

We are now in the year of the Pig, for those who wonder, you are a Pig if you are born the following years:

1935, 1947, 1959, 1971, 1983, 1995, 2007, 2019

I am not a firm  believer of the horoscope “science”   but I like to read the chinese horoscope  because some of the things  I read are actually happening … so that makes me want to read it every year 🙂

The Pig is the twelfth animal in the Chinese zodiac after the Dog, and before the Rat.

Mikael is a Pig and I am a Rat 🙂

Let´s see what this new year brings us and Happy New year to everyone .

 

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Annie

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I was just informed about the passing of Annie Joe , I was not aware she was sick and I definetely did not expect this to happen this year.

I wrote not a long time ago how energetic and full of life she was, but  I understand that losing your life partner especially at that age is a factor.

I am deeply saddenned I had hoped to meet her again , this comes as a sad news and a sad beginning of the year .

Annie,

you brought joy in every people who ever met you and I will miss you very much

Rest in peace together with your love , we will always have you both in our hearts

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WARRIOR

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I just heard about this upcoming series that is based on Bruce Lee own writings , it is called Warrior  and will be aired in the United States beginning of 2019.

Here is the description:

“Set at the times of the Tong Wars in the late 1800s in San Francisco, the series follows a martial arts prodigy originating in China who moves to San Francisco and ends up becoming a hatchet man for the most powerful tong in Chinatown”.

This is a whole new series, not to be confused with “Kung Fu ” who was played by David Carradine .

But according to  Linda Lee Cadwell,  Bruce Lee created the concept for the Kung Fu series , which was then stolen by Warner Bros.  In an interview in Dec. 8th 1971, Bruce Lee said that he had developed a concept for a television series called  The Warrior, the series were meant to star himself,  the story is about a martial artist in the American Old West,  but Warner Brothers and Paramount were sceptical about it and did not go on with the project.

Instead a new serie named Kung Fu,  using the same idea, was aired one year later, starring David Carradine.

I  agree with Linda when she says they stole Bruce Lee´s idea. Not only they stole his idea but they also used another actor. Even though Kung Fu was a huge success and one of my favourite series at the time,  I always have in mind that it was  Bruce Lee´s idea and it should have been Bruce Lee in the role .

Now  we will get the chance to see Warrior , I am a bit surprised it is only coming to the television now after so many years but I will for sure watch it if the series get the chance to be aired in Sweden.