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C H A P T E R T H R E E

T H E S T A N C E

B fore we can even throw the straight lead, we must have a place from which to throw it, and in Jeet Kune Do everything begins and ends with the on-guard position, the JKD stance. Going back to our roots, remember that the physical ingredients are:

On-guard positioning

Footwork and movement

Postures in relaying force

And always keep in mind that these physical ingredients are determined by the underlying ingredients:

Balance

Economy of form

Efficient mechanics¹

In the rush to whale away on an opponent, people may think that the small details are trivial matters, and that simply coupling approximated gross movements with brute force is enough. But precision in executing the roots of JKD is everything. As Bruce himself argued, nothing is more fundamental than good form: “Good form is the most efficient manner to accomplish the purpose of a performance with a minimum of lost motion and wasted energy. Always train in good form.”²

Given Bruce’s emphasis on form, it’s surprising to see so many people fighting with such shoddily constructed stances. Eager to hit things, they gloss over the basics of the stance and later wonder why their technique falls short. Watch a good fighter, and note the differences. Efficient fighters waste nothing. Every motion is streamlined, and that makes them fast. Better fighters are more mobile and more effective at transferring weight into their punches. Chances are that the stance of a good fighter looks a lot different from those of lesser fighters.

Proper form in executing the physical components of JKD makes the underlying elements—balance, economy of form, and efficient mechanics—possible. The rewards of good form, as you’ll soon see, are increased force production, leverage, mobility, speed, elusiveness, and longevity—to name a few. Everything stems from good form.

C O N S T R U C T I N G T H E S T A N C E

S T R O N G S I D E F O R W A R D

There’s been some dispute over which hand leads, but you only have to go to the source— Bruce Lee’s writings—to find that the right hand is always referenced as the lead hand, because “in this stance, you will attack mostly with the right hand and right foot just as a boxer in his left stance uses mainly his left jab, hook, etc.”³ Of course, you only need to watch Bruce’s films and sparring footage to see that the right hand is the main weapon.

M I R R O R, M I R R O R, O N T H E W A L L. . .

Before we get started with constructing the stance, I recommend that you find yourself a reflective surface to practice in front of. As you are learning the basics of the stance, the mirror will give you invaluable feedback. In the beginning, you’ll need it to check your alignment, because your body doesn’t yet know how to achieve the proper form. With the visual feedback, though, you’ll progress much faster. As you train your body, you’ll be able to wean yourself away from the mirror, and you’ll be able to feel when you’re doing things properly.

Which brings us to the second advantage of visual feedback. As you become more technically proficient, you’ll use the cues acquired from mirror training to visualize technique. You’ve probably heard about the way elite athletes use mental imagery to prepare for competitive events. Our greatest athletes sometimes talk of almost stepping outside themselves and seeing themselves perform. If you train in front of a mirror correctly, your mental imagery becomes that much more vivid. Mirror training, then, is not just for beginners but for fighters of any level.⁴ See Figure 5.

Figure 5: Until you have proper body feel, checking your technique in front of a mirror is the only way to know your form is correct.

T H E F E E T

As I’ve already mentioned, everything begins and ends with the on-guard position. The stance was designed so that the most effective punch—the straight lead—could be initiated from this position with the least motion. To construct the stance, let’s start from the bottom, the feet.

In the beginning, you’ll want to find a surface like a basketball or squash court that has marked lines. Or you might want to use some chalk or tape to make your own lines. It may sound like splitting hairs, but by the end of this chapter, you’ll see why we’re such sticklers for precision.

Stand with your feet slightly wider than shoulders’ width apart. Line your right toe up along the line so that your right foot makes about a thirty-degree angle with the line. See Figure 6.

Figure 6: The front foot should form a thirty-degree angle with the line that points toward your target.

Now position your left foot so that the line runs directly under the arch. Raise your left heel, à la Nadi, and turn your left toe in slightly. You should feel all the weight of your left side concentrated on the ball of your left foot. See Figure 7.

Figure 7: All of your power originates from the raised left heel.

Be careful not to raise your left heel so high that you have no more room from which to spring into action. An excessively raised heel will also cause you to be top-heavy, placing your center of gravity in an unfavorable position. Nadi recommended that the left heel be raised approximately half an inch.⁵ See Figure 8.

You’ll find Nadi’s influence on JKD in Bruce’s notes:

Unlike the traditional flat-footed practice, the left heel is raised and cocked, ever-ready to pull the trigger and go into action.

The left heel is the spark plug, or better still, the piston of the whole fighting machine.⁶

Compare these observations with their source, Nadi’s On Fencing:

The left leg is not just a prop. It is the spark plug, or better still the piston of the whole fencing machine. . . raising the heel ever so little, you cock the leg ready to pull the trigger and go into action.⁷

Figure 8: Raise the left heel just enough, but not so high that leverage is compromised.

What both Nadi and Bruce were trying to convey is that much of the potential energy that is unleashed by a fencing lunge or straight lead, respectively, is stored in that left foot. To properly release that energy, though, the heel must be raised, giving spring to the arch of the foot and providing a push-off point in the ball of the foot.

T H E L O W E R B O D Y

Moving up, we now need to properly align the legs. Again, they will be a little wider than shoulders’ width apart, knees slightly bent. We’ve just discussed potential energy in relation to foot position. The same applies to the legs, for it is the left leg that will exert pressure on the ball of the foot, causing the spring so necessary to the straight lead.

Because you will want to propel all your body weight forward, you do not want to waste any extra energy overcoming unnecessary inertia. This is why you want to feel all your weight, all your potential energy, concentrated on the inside, or medial sides, of your legs. If your feet are positioned correctly, you should already be feeling this. See Figure 9.

Figure 9: Left knee correctly turned slightly inward. You should feel all of your weight on the medial sides of your legs.

If you feel some of your weight rolling toward the outside of your foot, you will be slower to initiate the push-off. Again, we want to waste as little energy and time as possible, so not having your weight concentrated in the optimal position prior to throwing a punch is counterproductive, a bit like running uphill. This is why the left toe should be slightly turned inward. Doing this means that we’ll have less inertia to overcome when trying to spring forward. See Figure 10.

Also important to the storing of potential energy is what Bruce referred to as the “small phasic bent-knee stance,”⁸ The bend in the knees gives you greater flexibility and mobility, allowing you to spring into action at will. Obviously, if you start from a straight-leg position, you have nowhere left to spring from, and, therefore, no way of generating power. From a defensive perspective, bent knees allow you to give a little when receiving punches, taking some of the force out of a blow. And perhaps the most important advantage of a bent-knee stance is that it places your center of gravity in the optimal position—in other words, it enables you to achieve balance.

Figure 10: Left knee incorrectly turned outward.

Your weight will roll outward, slowing your punch.

B A L A N C E

“Center of gravity” is simply defined as the point around which an object’s weight is equally distributed. Suppose you were to throw a baseball bat. You would notice the bat wobbling around the fat end, where the majority of its mass is located. The wobbling occurs about its center of gravity. If, on the other hand, you were to throw a baseball, which is a symmetrical object, it would not wobble, because its center of gravity is located at its center. The way the human body is structured determines that our center of gravity is, for lack of a better word, the tush.

Position of the center of gravity is crucial to maintaining balance, and balance is something repeatedly emphasized throughout Bruce Lee’s notes. To achieve balance, imagine a line dropping straight down from any object’s center of gravity. If that line falls within the base of the object, it is balanced. See Figure 11.

It also follows, then, that the wider an object’s base, the more balanced, or stable, it will be. Think of a pyramid, one of the most stable structures—wide base, low center of gravity. Raising an object’s center of gravity decreases the amount of force required to tip it off-balance, or to move the center of gravity outside its base of support. In Figure 12, the model has a very wide stance, a wide base of support. If we were to draw an imaginary line from his center of gravity to the floor, it would fall within the base determined by his feet. Notice that when you have a very wide stance, you feel as if no one can knock you over. You feel stable. See Figure 12.

Figure 11: When in position, your front and back feet form two points of a triangular base. An imaginary line from your center of gravity to the floor should fall within the base of the triangle. This is the definition of “balance.”

Figure 12: This stance is too wide. While extremely stable because of the lower center of gravity, mobility is greatly compromised.

If your feet are less than shoulders’ width apart, you narrow your base of support, decreasing stability. Your center of gravity is raised. Notice how much less stable you feel. It would take less force to knock you over. Likewise, if you close the stance too much by lining your front toe up with the left toe, instead of the arch, you also decrease the base area and lose stability. See Figure 13 and Figure 43.

Figure 13: A stance that is too narrow does not provide enough stability because of a raised center of gravity.

The proper JKD stance, however, is designed to keep your center of gravity within the base determined by the placement of your feet. Your lead foot, rear foot, and trunk form the triangular base. Your foot position offsets the weight of your trunk. If we were to draw a line from your trunk to the ground, that point on the ground would be the third point of the base. I’ll talk later about upper-body positioning, but at this time, just know that the slight crouch keeps your center of gravity within the base of support. The weight all around your center of gravity is equally distributed. If we were to draw a line from your center of gravity to the floor, it would fall in the center of the triangle. See Figure 14.

Keep in mind that this is the general JKD stance, in which your weight is distributed about fifty-fifty between the front and rear leg. When we get into the mechanics of the straight lead, you’ll actually offset that balance slightly. Also know that while widening your stance may make you more stable, you will sacrifice mobility in doing so. Again, aim for a little wider than shoulders’ width. Experiment and strike a balanced trade-off between stability and mobility.

Figure 14: The proper stance strikes a balance between mobility and stability.

Finally, remember that “phasic bent-knee”? One of its purposes is to lower the center of gravity, contributing to a more stable stance. Keep this in mind when we get to the chapter on mechanics. One of the most common problems JKD students run into, in executing the lead punch, is that they often will straighten their legs instead of rotating their hips. This causes two problems. One, their center of gravity overtakes their front knee. Their center of gravity, therefore, falls outside the triangular base, causing imbalance. Two, straightening of the legs raises the center of gravity, further contributing to instability. Both will result in less force production and in lack of mobility. Also know that your stance may slightly widen when you are working at kicking ranges. See Figure 15.

Figure 15: Once your center of gravity overtakes your front knee, it falls outside the base of the triangle. You’ll lose not only balance but leverage and power as well.

On the subject of balance and stability, Bruce was heavily influenced by Edwin Haislet, who argued the importance of body alignment. The greatest contributor to balance, Haislet argued, is foot position. Your feet, of course, are connected to your legs, which are connected to your trunk, which in turn is connected to your arms. So proper alignment must start with correct foot position. The arm, according to Haislet, is merely a “vehicle of body force.” The fist may get all the glory, but it’s really only along for the ride. Your body does all the work. And this starts with the stance. You will have to experiment to find the width of stance for optimal stability and mobility, but always remember that your center of gravity must fall within the base determined by your foot position.⁹

T H E U P P E R B O D Y : C A T S A N D C O B R A S

A N D G R E A S E D L I G H T N I N G

When we discuss the JKD stance at rest, think of yourself as storing potential energy; at any moment you may uncoil and lash out with tremendous power and speed. With this in mind, you’ll want to hunch your back a little, which gives you more space for uncoiling at the shoulder. This serves to decrease your target area as well and puts your right shoulder in a position to protect your chin or roll away from punches. In describing this storing of energy, Bruce had this to say:

Slight crouch—balance evenly on your right foot and the ball of your left foot, with your knees slightly bent—more on the order of a cat with his back hunched up and ready to spring (except that you are relaxed), or like a cobra coiled in a relaxed position. Like a cobra you must be able to strike so that your touch is felt before it’s seen.¹⁰

Compare with Nadi:

To fence well is to be greased lightning with the potential forward speed of a coiled spring. Like the cobra, a fencer must remain coiled in a relaxed position having at the same time the potentiality of leaping from absolute immobility to top speed, power and precision. The guard position is the only position from which one can attack efficiently. Like the cobra, the fencer must be able to strike (with the point of his blade) so that his touch is felt before it is seen.¹¹ See Figures 16 and 17.

From Figure 16, you’ll see that there is a slight bend at the waist (but remember to keep your center of gravity low), and the back is slightly hunched. The point here is that you want be slightly curled up—to protect yourself by making yourself a smaller target, but also to give yourself more room from which to uncoil. You’re storing more potential energy from which to unleash that lead punch.

T H E P O W E R L I N E

When we think of stances, we usually think of a static position, an at-rest position. But we’ve already established that the JKD stance is designed to maximize mobility and force production. We stand in the on-guard position so that when we do hit, we’ll be in the most favorable position to relay force. With this in mind, we need to consider what proper alignment will look like at the point of impact, and one of the most important elements of the stance at impact is the power line.

Figure 16: The slightly coiled JKD stance. The back is slightly hunched, and the right hand is completely relaxed.

Figure 17: Side view of upper-body coil.

The power line is the reason why we punch “thumbs up,” as opposed to the palm-down fist we see in modern boxing. It’s also why we use the bottom three knuckles as our striking surface instead of the top two knuckles used in other martial arts.

The power line is quite simply determined by our anatomy. If you extend your arm and make a fist, you’ll see that there is a straight line from your shoulder to those bottom three knuckles, not to the top two knuckles.

The origins of the power line may be traced to Jack Dempsey. Chapter 9 of Championship Fighting is heavily underlined in Bruce Lee’s copy.¹² Dempsey defined the power line as a straight line that runs from your shoulder and exits at your bottom fist knuckle. Because of the way we are anatomically structured, this is the purest, most solid point of contact. To use the top knuckles disrupts the focus of the power line.¹³ I don’t make the rules. We’re just built this way.

In accordance with Bruce Lee’s advocating of kinesthetic learning, I recommend that you try the following. Stand in front of a wall in the JKD stance. Extend your arm and fist. Rest the bottom three knuckles on the wall. Take a moment to feel the solidity of contact. Try lightly tapping the wall as you go through the motion of throwing a straight. This is how you should land every time you throw a straight lead. See Figure 18.

Figure 18: Line up against a wall to feel the solidity of the power line.

Now do the same thing, but with the top two knuckles resting on the wall. Do you feel how you’ve deviated from the power line? Instead of forming a stable straight line from your shoulder to your fist, you’ve actually created an angle at your wrist with your fist and forearm. Feel how unstable this is. Try tapping against the wall. Can you imagine throwing all of your body weight with your wrist in such a precarious position? This is how hand and wrist injuries occur. See Figure 19. Just thinking about hitting with those two knuckles makes me queasy!

Figure 19: Incorrect use of top two knuckles at point of impact. Using the top two knuckles necessitates a bend at the wrist, which is often the cause of injuries.

Now compare this with the proper thumbs-up, bottom-three-knuckles fist in JKD, as demonstrated in Figure 20. You should be feeling a lot more solid.

Figure 20: Correct use of bottom three knuckles at point of impact. There is no bend at the wrist, and the power line is not disrupted.

Keep in mind that one of the underlying principles of the straight lead design is Newton’s third law, which states that when an object exerts a force on another object, that second object exerts an equal and opposite force on the first. You’ve probably heard it stated as, “For every action, there is an equal and opposite reaction.”

Physicists will tell you that the application of force is not so much one thing acting on another as it is an interaction between two objects. So in our example of tapping the wall with the top two knuckles, you exert a force on the wall, and that jarring you feel through your shoulder and elbow is the wall exerting a force on you.

Another example would be the focus pads. You can only exert as much force on the mitt as your trainer is exerting back toward you. Notice that when your trainer doesn’t give you much resistance, you cannot punch with very much force. But if your trainer gives you more resistance, you punch with more force (and have a lot more fun). As another example, think of trying to punch a piece of paper, versus hitting the heavy bag. No matter how hard you try, you can only hit that piece of paper so hard, because it cannot exert much force back. The heavy bag, on the other hand, allows you to hit much harder because it sends back a much greater force.

As you can see from our experiment with the power line, then, the JKD stance is designed to best withstand whatever force is coming back at you. It puts you in the best possible alignment to absorb the force returning from your punches. One of the benefits, of course, is that the power line makes for an efficient punch. Nothing is wasted. All of your force is focused and concentrated and directed toward your target. There is no dissipation at the weak links at the wrist, as is the case when a punch is incorrectly landed with the top two knuckles. In a properly constructed JKD stance, there are no weak links.

The second benefit of the bottom-three-knuckle landing is a “big picture” argument. Since the straight lead is the most frequently thrown punch in JKD, it makes sense that we want to incur the least wear and tear on our bodies from throwing it. Good form is what will keep you in JKD for the long haul. It is why Ted Wong, at sixty-five as of this writing, is still actively practicing, while many of his contemporaries have been sidelined with injuries. He’ll tell you that he even hits harder than he did more than thirty years ago, and he attributes this to the sound mechanics he’s honed over those years. As Bruce observed, “The older athlete regards form as a means of energy conservation and the great athlete saves energy because his extra skill makes each motion more effective—he makes fewer needless motions and his conditioned body uses less energy per movement.”¹⁴

So if you have any intentions of practicing JKD for a long time, you must be able to feel and utilize the power line.

R E A R H A N D

The rear hand is positioned for protection, to parry and block blows aimed at your head. You’ll want to keep your left hand close to the left side of your chin. A good left hand and judgment of distance can make you nearly impossible to hit. Parrying with the left hand also gives you a feel for your opponent’s range.

You’ll also want to keep your elbow close, to protect your side. By simply turning your trunk, you can deflect most blows to the body with your left arm, as shown in Figure 21.

Figure 21: With a slight turn to the right, the left arm provides protection as you roll with the punch.

T H E F R O N T H A N D

To correctly position the front hand, stand in the stance as we’ve discussed so far, with your lead hand extended and resting at your side. Keeping your shoulder completely relaxed, bend your arm at the elbow at about a forty-five-degree angle. See Figure 22.

Figure 22: Correct position of the front hand. There is no space between my arm and my side. This allows for complete relaxation of the arm.

Figure 23: Incorrect position of the front hand. The slight extension at the shoulder places unnecessary tension on the arm, which will slow your punch.

There should be little space, if any, between your arm and your side. Holding your arm away from your body places tension on your shoulder, and you’ll be wasting energy holding your arm out. This will slow you down.

Some people incorrectly think that holding your arm out gives you a speed advantage, by keeping the hand closer to the target, but it will only fatigue your poor deltoids, making you slow. As with our phasic bent knee, keeping the arm close gives you more potential energy. You have somewhere from which to lash out. If your arm is already extended, you have a tired arm with nowhere left to go. See Figure 23.

THE GUNSIGHT

Now let’s be a little more precise about positioning the lead hand. Have someone stand in front of you, and with your right hand up, extend your right index finger. Where is your finger pointing? It should be toward the target, your opponent’s nose. If you find yourself pointing too low—say, at your opponent’s foot—readjust your hand so that you’re pointing at the nose. Likewise, if you find yourself pointing at the sky, you’re aiming too high. Again, adjust your hand so that you’re pointing at your opponent’s head. Now close your fist. This is the correct position of the hand. See Figures 24 through 26.

Figure 24: To check if your hand position is correct, extend your index finger. It should point directly at your target—in this case, my opponent’s face.

Figure 25: Close your fist. This is your correct lead hand position.

Figure 26: From the correct hand position, shoot your fist straight out. This is the fastest way to reach your target with the lead hand.

Think of your right hand as a gunsight. You always want to keep your target within range of this gunsight, which is your correctly placed hand. This will increase your accuracy, of course, but it will also increase your speed, because your hand is already positioned to hit the target without any other adjustments. You just shoot your hand out. No fuss, no muss.

If the hand is positioned too high or too low, you’ll have to lower or raise both your hand and forearm first and then shoot out. This extra movement not only slows you down but telegraphs your attack as well. See Figures 27 through 30.

Figure 27: If your front hand is kept too low (left), you’ll be pointing at your opponent’s kneecap.

Figure 28: You’ll have to raise your hand first, before you can fire a straight punch.

Figure 29: If your hand is positioned too high (left), you’ll be pointing toward the sky.

Figure 30: Keeping your hand too high requires you to lower your hand before you can throw a punch.

T R U N K R O T A T I O N

I’ll talk more about mechanics and hip rotation later, but let’s touch on the subject here, in relation to what proper alignment looks like at impact. From the on-guard position, extend your lead arm as you rotate your hips counterclockwise. As your hip rotates, your shoulder will follow. See Figures 31 and 32.

Figure 31: Straight lead from correct stance

Figure 32: Hip rotation with arm extension. Notice how this makes me less of a target by decreasing the target area. The centerline is virtually unreachable.

Notice that as you rotate your hips and shoulders, you actually become a narrower target, making you less susceptible to counterattacks. Passages in both The Tao of Jeet Kune Do¹⁵ and Edwin L. Haislet’s Boxing¹⁶ address this additional advantage of the stance. By the way, throwing a modern-day boxing jab does not give you this benefit. The palm-down jab does nothing to narrow your target area. It is only the straight lead that allows you to further protect the centerline as you launch an offensive.

S T R A I G H T S H O O T E R

We call it straight hitting for a reason. From the on-guard position, your right hand should shoot straight out and retract along exactly the same path. I’ve already talked about how keeping the target within range of the gunsight will keep your punch straight and improve accuracy. Another important contributor to straight hitting is the position of your lead elbow. It should be kept close to the body. If kept too far away, your target will be out of gun-sight range. Notice how you’ll be pointing in the wrong direction.

Keeping your elbows close also serves a defensive purpose by giving your opponent less of a target. See Figures 33 and 34.

Figure 33: Elbow pointing away from the body. If you were to extend your index finger from this position, you’d be pointing downward and off to the side. In order to throw a straight lead, you’d first have to center and raise the front hand.

Figure 34: Correct elbow position for straight lead. Keeping the elbow close to your body enables correct positioning of the hand and, consequently, more efficient punching.

R E L A X, M A X

Relaxation, both mental and physical, is something repeatedly referred to in The Tao of Jeet Kune Do, as it should be with all sports and martial arts. In any movement, we have something called “force-couple relationships” occurring. This means that muscles—agonists, synergists, stabilizers, neutralizers, and antagonists—are working together to create the most efficient movement around a joint.¹⁷ To maximize efficiency, we want to minimize extraneous motion and unnecessary tension.

I’ve just mentioned muscles called agonists and antagonists. Agonists are prime movers that create joint motion. For instance, when we throw out a straight lead, we are performing a pushing motion. The triceps act as prime movers. Antagonists are muscles that act in direct opposition to the prime movers.¹⁸ As we throw out a lead punch, the biceps are antagonists, because they are involved mainly in pulling motions. Therefore, they act in opposition to the triceps. As we shoot out a straight, then, we want to activate the triceps while relaxing the biceps.

As we retract the hand, though, the opposite is desirable. When we pull back the hand, the biceps become the prime movers—the agonists—and the triceps become the antagonists that we must relax.

If antagonists are fighting against the prime movers, you will be slow—and tired. It’s hard enough to fight an opponent; you don’t want to be fighting yourself as well. Maintaining unnecessary tension wastes energy. This is why we want to rest the right arm against our side instead of holding it away from the body. Keeping the arm away from the body requires unnecessary contraction of the muscles to hold it up. Your deltoid has to work overtime just to keep your arm in that position. Then, already in a fatigued state, it must throw out a punch. If you see a fighter constantly holding the lead arm away from the body, you already know that he or she will not be fast with the lead hand.

Likewise, being in a general state of tension—mental and physical—will also slow you down. If the agonists and antagonists are simultaneously activated, the prime mover must overcome the counteraction of the antagonists before it can perform the desired movement. Again, you will be slow, slow, slow.