The following transcript below is from the video “Dan Inosanto Talks About Sifu Bruce Lee (Rare Interview)” by Beerdy – Bruce Lee Central.
TV Producer:
“I see there is nice stuff you gave the instructor rank in which arts?”
Dan Inosanto (Filipino-American Martial Arts instructor):
“Jun Fan Gung Fu, Dow Chinese Kung Fu, and Jeet Kune D — three separate arts.”
TV Producer:
“So there was actually three different arts?”
Dan Inosanto (Filipino-American Martial Arts instructor):
“Three different arts.”
TV Producer:
“In which you gave rank in?”
Dan Inosanto (Filipino-American Martial Arts instructor):
“Yes.”
TV Producer:
“Okay and who taught most of the classes at the Chinatown school, the majority of the school?”
Dan Inosanto (Filipino-American Martial Arts instructor):
“I taught the majority of classes, probably maybe 90% of the classes in Chinatown before Sifu Bruce. It’s because he liked to train and he thought he wouldn’t have his time for his own training so it was a… Told me in the beginning if he started, that I would do the majority of the teaching and then to keep me up-to-date, he would teach me privately. So I would keep up-to-date on the latest things.”
TV Producer:
“Okay. So actually the people that studied under you at the Chinatown school were actually you would say trained more by you than actually Bruce Lee at the time?”
Dan Inosanto (Filipino-American Martial Arts instructor):
“Yes, they were.”
TV Producer:
“They were more your students. I mean they were Bruce Lee’s students but they were actually, you were training them more.”
Dan Inosanto (Filipino-American Martial Arts instructor):
“Yes. He was the what you would refer to in Chinese a martial artist that is young and I was a Sifu, but we refer him as Sifu Bruce.”
TV Producer:
“Okay. Bruce Lee taught you privately, was the curriculum different than was taught at the school?”
Dan Inosanto (Filipino-American Martial Arts instructor):
“Yes, it was. You see there was certain things that he wanted taught at the school in Los Angeles and Chinatown, and there are certain things that he taught to me privately. Things that I think he was maybe experimenting on and things that he wanted to work on himself, and I just got the benefit of him wanting to work on the latest things and I was used as a sparring partner and things of that sort.”
TV Producer:
“Okay, so he took things further in private lessons and he..”
Dan Inosanto (Filipino-American Martial Arts instructor):
“Right, he was more expanded in our private sessions.”
TV Producer:
“Was it partly because he was secretive at that time or…?”
Dan Inosanto (Filipino-American Martial Arts instructor):
“I think at that period in the 60s, everybody was secretive. Chinese Kung Fu had not come out in the open and a lot of times in Chinese Kung Fu, they never taught non-Chinese that would include other Orientals at that time. So it was very, very secretive and everybody thought that way and that was the way they thought but it’s not true here in the 1990s. But at that time in the 60s, it was very, very secretive. It was coming out of that type of environment. So he was more select, even more secretive during that time period.”
TV Producer:
“So even like with yet his own students in a way…”
Dan Inosanto (Filipino-American Martial Arts instructor):
“Right.”
TV Producer:
“… at the school, he could even be a little bit secretive.”
Dan Inosanto (Filipino-American Martial Arts instructor):
“Right, he had to go through different types of levels before you got into the, what I may call the inner circle.”
TV Producer:
“Okay, alright. Did he change the curriculum at the school often or…?”
Dan Inosanto (Filipino-American Martial Arts instructor):
“Honestly, he’s changing the curriculum probably every two, maybe every three and sometimes every month because he was all constantly evolving, training methods. Just like contracted fuel, the training methods have changed from the 30s or the 40s or the 50s and on up to here in the 90s. You see, he was constantly changing his, experimenting and changing the way people train, training progression, training procedure, training equipment, experimentation all the time.”
TV Producer:
“At that time, were there sets or forms or patterns in JKD?”
Dan Inosanto (Filipino-American Martial Arts instructor):
“Yeah, JKD is not supposed to be stuff but at that time period, there were sets and then he said, “Oh no, that’s not where it’s at.” But there were sets like on the dummy.” It was supposed to be freelance but they’re sets. We had a kicking set which people under the literature said there’s no kicking sets and there’s no forms, which is true but he referred to calm as exercises but they were set.”
TV Producer:
“They’re [indiscernible] [03:34]?”
Dan Inosanto (Filipino-American Martial Arts instructor):
“Yes, they were sets that he chose like the kicking set but then we were supposed to liberate that and be able to shadow box that, but there were definitely sets.”
TV Producer:
“So would it be fair to say that someone who studied under you or Bruce Lee in 1967 or 68′ would have a different perspective than someone who studied say in 69′ or 71′? I mean on a JKD, they would have a different outlook on what it really is?”
Dan Inosanto (Filipino-American Martial Arts instructor):
“Yeah because it’s constantly evolving. Like I said, you only can relate it to American football. It’s constantly changing in the 40s and the 50’s, 60s. Every decade, any sport or any arts going to change.”
TV Producer:
“So maybe someone who studied just for a year or two would have a completely different outlook.”
Dan Inosanto (Filipino-American Martial Arts instructor):
“Right.”
TV Producer:
“It’d go onto a new time period. So it’s like pieces of the puzzle sort of basically.”
Dan Inosanto (Filipino-American Martial Arts instructor):
“Right, yes. Like 67′, the first part, training was more like Wing Chun but toward the latter part, we always privately did it more like kickboxing. Kickboxing was not popular. Everybody was doing Point karate and so the closest I could say was, sort of like a Sawan and a little bit like Muay Tai but not quite as heavy on the contact. But I think as time developed, he incorporated that into this system of training.
So we did a lot of kickboxing. So some people when they come in and some time period, they think it’s more like Wing Chun. Others when they come in at another time period, they think it’s more like just kickboxing. Or if you happened to working on a certain grappling type of techniques, they might think it’s trapping to grappling. But actually it’s because it’s the period in which they entered the training and where his emphasis and where his interest lie at that point.”
TV Producer:
“And I guess it’s also that person’s personal interest?”
Dan Inosanto (Filipino-American Martial Arts instructor):
“Yes.”
TV Producer:
“Yeah, so…”
Dan Inosanto (Filipino-American Martial Arts instructor):
“He tended to teach the guy how if he had the boxing background, he seen him started from there, if he had a wrestling or collegiate or high-school or Judo background. He tended to change the format in which he approaches teaching.”
TV Producer:
“Okay. Were Muay Tai, Pencak Silat, and Kali some of the arts that he investigated or research?”
Dan Inosanto (Filipino-American Martial Arts instructor):
“Yes, he did investigate it. We’re not saying that he took the entire system but he liked certain things. He says it’s good to draw the essence out of things like Muay Tai. Thai boxing is good to draw the essence out of arts like Indonesian Pencak Silat. You see, it’s in his nose. But people who are not really into the research on it, they don’t realize that. That he was heavily into, let’s say, researching different arts…”
TV Producer:
“Right.”
Dan Inosanto (Filipino-American Martial Arts instructor):
“… and the essence there.”
TV Producer:
“And you were training Kali at the same time that you were training with Bruce Lee, right?”
Dan Inosanto (Filipino-American Martial Arts instructor):
“I was training Kali in the Eskrima more so than I was with Kali but I wasn’t really at a high-level in Kali to fully appreciate it at that time.
TV Producer:
“It was simultaneously.”
Dan Inosanto (Filipino-American Martial Arts instructor):
“Almost simultaneously but I did share a Eskrima and he told me what he liked about it, and he definitely told me what he did not like about it. He would say, “Definitely, this would be good for movies and this definitely would not be good for combat.”
TV Producer:
“So at the time, did he mind that you were exploring other arts or did he encourage you?”
Dan Inosanto (Filipino-American Martial Arts instructor):
“No, he encouraged me.”
TV Producer:
“Okay, so.”
Dan Inosanto (Filipino-American Martial Arts instructor):
“The thing, always remember I’m not him. He says, “Well, you know you should research your own culture art but don’t be buying by your own culture art thinking that’s the way to go just because you’re Filipino.”
