Jun Fan Jeet Kune Do Grappling Association

We feel that change is necessary by constantly searching for ways to improve ones martial arts abilities and update training methods. This relentless search becomes a life journey of investigating and training in various martial arts styles and systems.

Over the past five decades extensive research has been given to Indonesian Pencak Silat, Shoot Wrestling (Shooto) Japan, Thai Boxing and the Filipino martial arts. During those years the fighting structure was modified and geared towards the art of grappling and submission.

Combining the knowledge in the arts of grappling and submission alongside the skill of trapping and the striking arts, Sifu Larry Hartsell took these arts into a new dimension. The Jun Fan Jeet Kune Do Grappling Arts is one of the most sought after systems today. The Jeet Kune Do Grappling Arts were created by Sifu Larry Hartsell, who made constant changes throughout his development process. Integrated Grappling is a mixture of takedowns, throws and a various blend of groundwork of all styles, irrespective of size, weight or physiology.

" Knowledge in martial arts actually means self-knowledge. A martial artist has to take responsibility for himself and accept the consequences of his own doing. The understanding of JKD is through personal feeling from movement to movement in the mirror of the relationship and not through a process of isolation. To be is to be related. To isolate is death. To me, ultimately, martial arts means honestly expressing yourself. Now, it is very difficult to do. It has always been very easy for me to put on a show and be cocky, and be flooded with a cocky feeling and feel pretty cool and all that. I can make all kinds of phoney things. Blinded by it. Or I can show some really fancy movement. But to experience oneself honestly, not lying to oneself, and to express myself honestly, now that, my friend, is very hard to do ". — Bruce Lee

* Larry Hartsell

Larry Hartsell came into Bruce Lee’s school as a man with a black belt in Judo and over 10 years of experience in grappling as well as a strong foundation in the striking arts that began in 1961 with his training in Kenpo Karate under Ed Parker. Shortly after receiving his black belt rank from Ed Parker, he spent time in the Army including combat in Vietnam, where he served with military police.

Larry Hartsell, already an accomplished Judo man, enjoyed sparring with soldiers from the elite South Korean ROK division stationed nearby. Upon his return to this country he enrolled in SiGung Bruce Lee’s Chinatown school in Los Angeles. It was at this school that he began his thirty plus years of training under Guro Dan Inosanto. Larry Hartsell’s training under Bruce Lee continued with Private instruction at Bruce Lee’s home in Bel Air, California.

It is well known to the students of Bruce Lee’s Jeet Kune Do that Bruce Lee broke combat down into the four ranges of Kicking, Boxing, Trapping and Grappling. The serious students of Jeet Kune Do are also aware that the development of the grappling range techniques in this system were assigned to Larry Hartsell. At the time of Bruce Lee’s untimely death there were only 33 formal techniques in the grappling range. As the final and closest range there was much research to do in this range and Larry Hartsell continued his research into this area with various discrete techniques that now form the core of Jun Fan Jeet Kune Do Grappling.

Larry Hartsell’s skill in hand-to-hand combat, his weapons training and his development of techniques in the grappling range led to a wide and varied range of professional experiences. With his training under Bruce Lee, his degree in criminology, his ten years of law enforcement experience, and his training under Dan Inosanto, Larry Hartsell has been in wide demand as a professional bodyguard for celebrities like Mr. T of the A-Team fame, and as a trainer for both the Dallas Cowboys and the San Francisco 49ers. In addition to this he taught classes at his own schools as well as at the Inosanto Academy, and offered self defense and combat courses for the elite Navy Seals and police officers through various colleges and agencies.

Larry Hartsell authored several books on the subject of Jeet Kune Do Grappling. “Entering to Trapping To Grappling and takedowns, Counters, and Reversals.” In addition he nine internationally distributed videotapes on the grappling arts. These books, videos and his skill in the grappling arts have resulted in Larry Hartsell being listed in the “Who’s Who in Martial Arts” and cover shots with numerous feature articles in Inside Kung Fu, Black Belt, Martial Arts Training, Inside Karate, Australasian Fighting Arts, and many others.

Larry Hartsell is the man Dan Inosanto described as “One of the premier Jeet Kune Do fighters of our time.” Larry Hartsell focused his efforts on the development of the Jeet Kune Do Grappling Association. With the tremendous rise in the popularity of the grappling arts it became paramount to Hartsell to demonstrate to martial artists the fact that Jeet Kune Do has had a strong emphasis on the grappling range for thirty years and that these thirty years have produced an extensive development of the grappling arts. The Jeet Kune Do Grappling Association has representatives worldwide.

Source : jkdassoc.