Philosophy :: Curriculum :: Articles :: Street vs. Sport :: Aliveness :: Video

SBGi Curriculum:

The Straight Blast Gym was created as a non political location where freedom to use, and discover what actually works in what "is" hand to hand combat could be expressed. It was meant as a place where athletes could gather and actually spar against uncooperative partners in all ranges, without worry of "style" or making what "is" combat into what we think it should be. The training we are speaking of is not an exchange of techniques as such, but actual physical training, sweating, moving, "ALIVE", training. Hence the term Gym, not academy, institute, or school, but Gym.

As the training progressed it began to evolve. All athletes that practice in an "alive" manner, that is against uncooperative training partners and not in kata, forms, patterns, or drills, will eventually reach a natural state of evolution. What you do will evolve to work in the environment that is combat. As such, what began as a semi typical JKD Concepts curriculum, evolved to what is now the current Straight Blast Gym curriculum.

The stand up kickboxing game evolved and changed as the advent of takedowns and ground fighting was allowed in all sparring sessions. Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu played a major and ever growing role in the daily training, and the "trapping" techniques taught by most JKD, and Jun Fan people were replaced with more effective methods of clinching and striking derived from Greco Roman wrestling and Muay Thai. Most of the "flow drills" which are typically referred to as "Kali" or "Escrima" drills, were replaced with simpler Alive drills which actually reflected and enhanced the movements which were used in real contact stick fighting. Today the Straight Blast Gym no longer claims to teach Filipino Martial Arts as such. Instead we simply refer to what we do as stick and knife fighting. The majority of our training now revolves around boxing, wrestling, and Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu, all of which has been adapted to work together, and in the street.

The simple truth is that what "is" the reality of combat knows no national or cultural boundaries. If you place any two Kung Fu, Karate, Jun Fan, Silat, Kali, Hapkido, etc... practitioners into a cage and tell them that can only strike at each other then what you would see would resemble bad kickboxing. If you told them they could do anything they wanted then it would resemble a bad vale tudo or NHB match. A punch is a punch, a kick a kick, an elbow an elbow, a knee a knee, a choke a choke, a throw a throw, an armlock an armlock. It doesn't matter what part of the world it comes from. If you don't spar, if your training is not "alive" but instead a series of dead patterns, and "flow drills", then what you do will not translate in what is actual fighting.

At the Straight Blast Gym we don't train to fight the way we think it should be. Instead we train for what it "is". Free yourselves from the conformity of style, terminology, and ritual, spar against real opponents, and always train "alive", and so can you. In the end that's really what JKD is supposed to be.

Read Matt's article on the definition of Functional "JKD!"

Copyright © SBGi. All rights reserved.