ASOMBA- (uh sahm buh) is an acronym for
Assimilated System of Modern Battlefield Arts. This is my own hybrid self defense system that I will be showing a little bit of in future posts.
One subject area that I see a huge void in on Steemit is the martial arts community. In fact, I can't recall seeing a single post related to the warrior disciplines pass through my news feed since I joined Steemit in January.
Please don't misunderstand me, I'm not advocating violence but in the current state of the world climate, I consider it absolutely essential that I pass on what little knowledge that I have to my fellow Steemians, in hopes that you will never have to use what I teach.
Every living thing has a natural right to defend and protect itself and with evil running rampant all over the world, my hope is that I can reach as many of you as possible!
Disclaimer: Please use utmost care when practicing these or any techniques for that matter. These techniques could seriously harm someone or even end their life so it is solely up to you to decide how to react to the threat of an attacker. Always check local and state statutes to find out what is legally considered to be justifiable self defense in your area. I am not legally or morally responsible for the actions of another and the decisions that a person makes.
There. I had to cover my bases.
Although I live in the West, I have been an avid practitioner and follower of Eastern philosophies and traditions for my whole life. Something in my soul has drawn me to study their ways of life since I was old enough to walk and talk.
Anybody over the age of 40 can remember the magnetism of Bruce Lee and the effect that he had on Western culture in the latter half of the 60's, and first 3 years of the 70's. This man was not only a physical force to be reckoned with but he was just as fierce of a spiritual force as well. I generally try to avoid comparing people to each other, but I can hardly think of anyone else that made a more explosive impact in such a short time, not only in the martial arts world, but in Hellywood and pop culture as well.
Bruce Lee was the first mixed martial artist in the modern era way before UFC had even been conceived of. I don't even think Rorion Gracie moved to California until 1978, so Brazilian Jiu Jitsu didn't even take off until after the arrival of the Gracies.
Bruce had formulated his theory of Jeet Kune Do while he was recovering from a severe injury and had been bedridden for a few months. He made excellent use of his time and his book "The Tao of Jeet Kune Do" was the final result of his intense study, thought, and compilation.
This book is still one of my favorite books on the martial arts and every time I pick it up and reread it to refresh my memory, it furthers my own understanding of his deep concepts over and over. It's a lot like staring at one of those Magic Eye pictures, you see something new and different every time.
Bruce did not care a whole lot about the rigid traditions of the East, particularly China, which forbade teaching their arts to foreigners, especially westerners. His philosophy was a humane, right to life approach and he believed that the right to self defense should be available to all people regardless of their nationality, racial group, creed,etc. The elder sifu and grandmasters soon caught wind of this and it shook up the martial arts communities from Seattle, down to San Francisco, and eventually made it's way back to Hong Kong.
The controversy surrounding Bruce Lee's refusal to compromise his spiritual principles and "obey the authority" of the old timers led to him being "summoned" to a challenge match. If he won, he would be left alone to teach whomever he chose to. But if he was defeated, well, you get the idea... I kind of got sidetracked giving you an overview of Bruce Lee's history, but the point I want to make out of all this is that he was willing to fight to defend his principles, and if it comes down to it, we have to be willing to do the same...
Bruce used a meticulous, Hegelian method to synthesize Jeet Kune Do and drew from multiple combative arts such as Wing Chun gongfu, French Savate, Western Boxing, Judo, and Jiu-Jitsu. His mindset was very Zen-like as he never incorporated each system in it's entirety, he took what he determined to have a useful application in H2H combat and cut away all excess baggage that he thought to be ineffective or unnecessary.
After compiling an incredible amount of raw data in the form of kata, techniques, and applicable theories, he was able to separate the techniques and categorize them by long range, medium-range, and short-range or close combat. Using Wing Chun's strong protection of the body's center line enables the practitioner to simultaneously attack and defend during close combat.
While attending the University of Washington, Lee was a philosophy major and many of his thoughts and reflections meshed superbly into JKD and are written down in his completed work "The Tao of Jeet Kune Do."
I would like to include several of my favorite quotes of his that are relevant to our present troubled times...
On Zen
"If nothing within you stays rigid, outward things will disclose themselves. Moving, be like water. Still, be like a mirror. Respond like an echo."
"Wisdom does not consist of trying to wrest the good from the evil but in learning to ride them as a cork adapts itself to the crests and troughs of the waves."
ART OF THE SOUL
"The aim of art is to projecting intervision into the world, to state aesthetic creation the deepest psychic and personal experiences of a human being. It is to enable those experiences to be intelligible and generally recognized within the total framework of an ideal world."
I hope you got something useful from this, I'll be doing many more articles on the warrior disciplines.
Thank you for your time and support!