Training with Guro Dan Inosanto

I had the privilege this weekend of attending a seminar with Guro Inosanto, hands-down one of the most influential figures in modern martial arts. He was Bruce Lee's closest student and is the recognized authority of Jeet Kune Do, the style Bruce Lee developed. I trained for years in a school in his lineage (www.mkgseattle.com), studying mixed martial arts with an emphasis on the "arts" part instead of competition. So...what's a seminar with Guro like?

Well, for starters, he moves like a 25-year-old even though he'll be 75 this year. Movement and martial arts are not what he DOES, it's what he IS. He demonstrates all the drills himself (which are all done with a partner), usually speaking about and showing techniques for 5 or so minutes. He gives enough information/variations in those 5 minutes to give the most developed martial artist an hour's worth of concentrated effort in figuring them all out...at the seminar, you get two minutes, and it's on to the next thing! He speaks for longer periods about the incredibly complex (and mostly unwritten) history of Filipino martial arts, and encourages his students to know this history - know where the movements you're doing came from, so as to better understand the movements themselves. He talks of his own training history growing up in Stockton, California, and how he was able to train with all the greatest Filipino masters there because of the respect the community held for his father (a carpenter who housed hundreds of families during the Depression). My favorite quote of the day was one he attributed to his father, who gave him advice about training in so many different styles: "Open your mind! And shut your mouth." This could very well be Guro Dan's defining characteristic...you'd be hard-pressed to find a man who knows more about martial arts, and yet would say that he really knows nothing at all. Very inspiring.

I've always gravitated towards people like Guro Dan...those who are so respected in their fields, who have an unquenchable thirst for knowledge and mastery, and who are so humble as a result. In the past, I've wanted to impress those people with my ability...I've grown up enough now, though, that I know a better path for me is to become one of those people myself. I'm going to be 35 this year...I've got time to develop in that direction! :)