Sifu Tim Tackett comes to Florida
By Chris Pupia

The martial arts community of Florida was honored to receive Sifu Tim Tackett for a two day 2003 Jeet Kune Do Seminar

The Seminar, a yearly event organized by Sifu Richie Carrion and Sifu Tackett himself, took place at Gold Gym Academy in West Palm Beach, FL. It is relevant to note that Sifu Richie Carrion is a certified Jeet Kune Do Instructor under Sifu Tackett, currently teaching at the JKD Extreme Academy on Lake Worth, FL and also at Gold Gym on West Palm Beach, FL. Sifu Carrion's engagement in the dissemination of Jeet Kune Do to all of those interested on the martial philosophy developed by Bruce Lee is unparallel. The results were visible on the attendees of the event, which included a variety of people from different cities and countries, with different skill levels and with ages varying from 6 to more than 50 years of age.

With the goal of exposing the attendees to the JKD philosophy and to how those fundamentals can be acquired, trained, improved and applied in different combat situations, Sifu Tackett started by discussing the structure and delivery systems of different martial arts and by analyzing the mechanics of the movement of each of those arts. It is unnecessary to express the respect Sifu Tackett has for other arts and how he is concerned about exploring Jeet Kune Do without talking down any other form of martial expression (On the evening of the first day, the attendance could join Sifus Tackett and Carrion for a dinner accompanied by Brazilian music and Capoeira Demonstration in a Brazilian restaurant in Pompano Beach, FL).

The seminar progressed by exploring the JKD awareness and delivery system, from a normal day to day stance (by moving into a fighting stance you would be giving up too much information to a possible adversary), and by gathering the basic tool set for any combat situation: the Biu Jee (finger jab) and the stop kick. As pointed out by both Sifus, if you are able to master the basic tool set, you will most likely be able to protect your self and evade dangerous situations without much suffering. As Bruce once said: the simple done right has no counter.

Sifu Tackett has also presented the audience with the mechanics of the punches in JKD (Snappy and Power punches), with the mechanics of the kick and the best way to train the delivery of any weapon for a real life situation (with a good opponent in front of you, with emotional intent and complete physical expression in movement). Trapping, Grappling and Chokes were also discussed and explored during the two days event. Sifu Carrion and Sifu Tackett paid special attention to the realistic demonstration of all combat scenarios, drills and to the support of the attendees so they could acquire the knowledge on the issues been presented.

Nevertheless, a description of the seminar would not be complete without mentioning the development of timing during combat, as explored by Sifu Tackett. Timing (together with foot work) will determine your success during combat. As everyone has its own internal clock, that dictates in what rhythm one moves, it is extremely important to any martial artist to be able to master its own timing and consciously change it during combat thus avoiding the opponent adaptation to the rhythm. He/she will turn into a phenomenal combatant if he is able to quickly grasp into the opponents timing and explore the gaps presented every time the opponent moves during the fight (explore and break the rhythm). The results after training this skill were quite impressive. The attendants were suddenly able to move in and out of the opponents range with a surprising economy of motion. It was like we have not been heavily training for two consecutive days at all. We could feel bursts of explosiveness that hold no relation to the energy exhaustion of our bodies. What a big difference simplicity makes.

At the end of the Seminar, Sifu Tackett pointed out how impressed he was with the focus demonstrated by the attendees during the training and with the skill level demonstrated during the seminar, especially from the "tiny" ones. He was pleased to see how far the children have come in learning JKD from Sifu Carrion and how well they were able to apply that knowledge into different combat situations. But most important of all, how much of a positive impact Sifu Carrion's training method for Kids have made into the school performance of the kids and even into their relationships with their parents.

The only problem generated from the Seminar was the attendees' frustration with the fact that they can only count with Sifu Tackett and Sifu Carrion combination once a year. Even with the relief of having Sifu Carrion with us all the time, we could not help but to feel a little sad. We are already working on that.