FELIX MACIAS SR. & JR.

One important aspect of Bruce Lee 5Bay Area (Oakland) period was that of"family ". For it was there that Brucebegan his own family, and that is wherehe, and his good friend and assistantinstructor, James Uimmy) Lee and theirrespectivefamilies lived under one roofas an extended family householdfor sev-eral years. During this time there wasalso another family that was a part ofBruce and Jimmy 5 lives - the Maciasfamily. Both Felix Macias Sr. and hisson, Felix Jr., reaped the benefits ofdirect tutelage as original first-genera-tion students in Jun Fan/jeet Kune DoUF/jKD). This is their story.

JEET KUNE DO: Sifu Macias(Sr.), where are you from?

FELIX MACIAS SR: I am a native

Californian, and have spent the major-ity of my life in the San Francisco BayArea.

JKD: How did you first encounterJames Lee?

FMSr: In the early 1960s a mutualfriend first introduced me to James Lee.From the very beginning James and Ibegan to develop a good friendship.

Felix Macias, Sr.; the originalbearer of the Oakland JKD torch.

JKD: How did you become one ofJimmy's JF/JKD students?

FMSr: I was invited to see what

JF/JKD gung-fu was all about at sifuJames Lee's Hayward (CA) trainingfacility. Sifu AI Novak co-taught therewith Jimmy as well. When I observedfirst hand what James was doing withhis training, I became immediatelyinteresred in learning to also do what I

was seeing. That was where my life'sjourney down the path of martial artsand self-discovery began.

JKD: Did you ever study wirhBruce Lee as well?

FMSr: I consider myself to be astudent of James Lee's, however, I wasfortunate enough to have been invitedto several "closed-door" training ses-sions conducted directly by Bruce Leehimself.

JKD: Fortunate indeed. What wereyour impressions of Bruce?

FMSr: I remember at one of the

private sessions (I was the only non-Chinese there) Bruce was demonstrat-ing some hand and foot techniques. Hewas so fast that every kick and punch hethrew made a sound like a towel crack-

ing the air. No one could touch him,and no one dared!

JKD: How was James as an instruc-tor?

FMSr: James was very intense anddevored to his art. He was very innova-tive with training, rechniques, and indesigning and building different appa-ratus to enhance one's technical train-

ing as well as conditioning the body.

54 June 2002 . Jeet Kune Do

,

JKD: And outside of the traininghall, how was Jimmy?

. FMSr: Outside of training he wasavery good friend of mine and a mentorto me as well. James provided as muchguidance as possible on any problemsthat might arise for his students, inmartial arts as well as general life.

JKD: What do you think of the cur-rent JKD scene?

FMSr: When I look at some of the

JKD of today, I see an art that wasnever fully developed due to theuntimely deaths of both Bruce andJames. I feel that to truly expandupon, and further develop what theyhad started, people need more knowl-edge of how to cultivate their naturalabilities to adapt to and cope with dif-ferent arts, types of opponents, andsituations. Anyone can learn to fightand defend himself, but James wantedhis students to be able to freely adaptand apply what they had learned. Lifedoesn't give you well-regimented andstructured situations, so to truly honorthe spirit of what James and Brucestarted, and left for us to carryon,your training should allow you to be

.., '"

"

"(Bruce)wassofastthatevery'kickandpunchhethrewmadea soundlikea towelcrackingtheair.II

- FelixMaciasSr.

able to instinctively adapt withoutthought or hesitation to the infinitenumber of unforeseeable complica-tions and situations that may arise.

JKD: Sifu, do you have distinctmemories of Bruce and James Lee?

FELIX MACIAS JUNIOR: One ofmy earliest memories was when I wasabout eight years old. I didn't believemy father when he asked my brotherand I if we would like to meet "Kato"from the "Green Hornet" television

show. Naturally, being kids, we werepretty excited when he convinced usthat he was serious. That evening he

Felix Macias' personal autographed copy of Bruce Lee'sfirst book published by James Lee.

took us over to James Lee's house.When we walked in, there wasBruce/Kato sitting at the table signingautographed photos of himself Boywas I nervous and excited when mybrother and I were introduced to him.He shook our hands and asked if we

would like autographs. As I nervouslywalked toward Bruce I accidentallystepped on his brand new suede boots.He just looked at me and smiled. I wasso nervous that my dad had to nudgeme to take the photo from Bruce. Thatwas my first meeting with Bruce Lee.

JKD: How and when were youintroduced to the actual gung-fu train-ing?

FMJr: I remember during anothertrip to Jimmy's house being very excit-ed when James offered to take mybrother and I down to the training areaand start teaching us how to kick,punch, and move. Those were myintroductions into Bruce and JamesLee's gung-fu. This was while I was stillonly eight.

JKD: How did your trainingadvance after that?

FMJr: Right after James started

James Lee (left) with his stu-dent Felix Macias, Sr. (frontrow) Felix Macias, Jr. and

Larry Macias, 1968.

Felix Macias (right) with his student,the late Robert Fong.

--

teaching my brother and me gung-fu, Ialso began training with my dad. By thetime I was 14 years old I was trainingseriously. I maintained my trainingstrongly and diligently until I reachedmy early 20s.

JKD: What happened then?FMJr: That was when I decided

that it was time to go on my own. Asgood as the fighting methods thatBruce and Jimmy developed are, andthey are very good, they did leavebehind the legacy of an art that wasnever fully developed. I had a vision ofthe direction that I thought the devel-opment of the JFIJKD should be taken.

I felt that a lot of the other guyswere mixing in too many different artsand were getting away from what wasoriginally laid out by Bruce.

JKD: SO, given those feelings, how

IIAs I nervously

walked toward Bruce

I accidentally steppedon his brandnew

suede boots. Hejustlooked at me and

smiled."- FelixMaciasJr.

did you proceed?FMJr: I started to examine what I

had been taught by Jimmy and myfather, and looked for ways to tightenup the movements and make themeven more economical and adaptablethan they had been. I wanted to makeit as fluid as possible without beingmechanical in nature.

JKD: What do you mean by adapt-able?

FMJr: It is difficult to explain whatI mean without one being able to feelwhat I am talking about. What I havedone is to take a technique and make itso that it will flow and fill in the gapsleft by one's opponent. Whenever youare confronted by a situation whereinyou must defend yourself, you arebeing presented with a problem. Sinceyou will probably not know the experi-

56 June 2002 .Jeet Kune Do

A group shot at the Oaklandhome studio of James Lee on

Monticello Avenue.

ence of your opponent, or the way thathe fights, you must be prepared andable to handle any situation that comes.Using our unique brand of gung-fu,with very little adjustments, we are ableto adapt to whatever the opponent(s)throw our way. When presented with aproblem, many other arts will turn toanother for the answers to their short-

comings. We are able to work the prob-lem out by adapting what we are doingwithout having to look to outsidesources. I have an answer for the prob-lems that they create, and create prob-lems for the answers that they thinkthey have.

JKD: Ultimately, JF/JKD is aboutfinding self-expression using martialarts. How do you encourage your stu-dents toward that goal?

FMJr: I encourage my students todevelop their fighting skills by firststarting them with the basics as a struc-ture for building a fighter. Teachingthem basic techniques and principlesgives us a base to work from. Once theyhave the basics down we move into

more advanced techniques. These tech-niques are designed to enhance the self-statement of the students in their fight-ing skills as well as teach them that theydon't have to copy or imitate anyone. I

1972. James seems vel}'vigorous and healthy. At thistime he was diagnosed with

inoperable lung cancer.

III always knew thatBrucewasgoingto

bethebiggestmartialartsbox-office

attractiontheworldhaseverknown."

- Felix Macias Sr.

give my students a framework to workwithin. How they utilize the tools Ihave taught them inside of that frame-work is where they find self-expressionand are then able to make their own

personal fighting statement. Because notwo people are exactly the same I feelthat it is so important that my studentsbe able to adapt and adjust to differentbody types and body mechanics forboth their opponents and themselves.This leads to "total domination" of our

opponents. By total domination I amreferring to the controlling of both thesituation and the opponent. We striveto exploit the weaknesses that ouropponents possess.

JKD: Sifu, why are you coming outnow?

FMJr: I want to bring what I havedone to the public and share my knowl-edge. We have worked very hard over theyears to cultivate an art that we feel ismore directly in the spirit of what Bruceand Jimmy started. I would prefer tostay away from the political mess associ-ated with making claims using the nameJKD. I want to show people a fightingmethod that doesn't succeed on claims ofa commercialized name, but rather onhow effective a fighting art it truly is. Iwould also like to honor the Chinese

community as well as the memory ofJimmy and Bruce for their contributionsin the martial arts that have been such a

big and valuable part of my life.JKD: Given your above statements,

what do you prefer to call your uniqueversion of gung-fu?

FMJr: Simply, "The Way Of TheIntercepting Fist."

JKD: What final message wouldyou like to impart to our readers?

FMJr: I am just a gung-fu man whofound and went his own way. ~