So it begins.

After a very long time of a sedentary lifestyle, and realizing that my mortality was at stake, I decided it was time to put aside stressors and factors that were diminishing my ability to be a good man, friend, husband, father, and servant of the Lord. I needed a focal point and my desire was to find it in personal fitness, and the martial arts. Being a Retired Soldier and a Law Enforcement Officer, I am no stranger to physical fitness, but my experience with Martial Arts was limited to practicing with a friend, years ago who began studying Hsing I. I never quite got into it then. We had a little self defense training in the Law Enforcement Academy, but by far not enough in my opinion. While stationed in Egypt in 1994, I took an interest in Bruce Lee. I had never seen any of his movies or read anything about him until I checked out "Dragon: The Bruce Lee Story" which started my interest in Jeet Kune Do, although I never pursued it at that time, I was intrigued by his passion for "being without form".

Many life changes have occured since then. Job changes, my Mother's death, divorce, re-married, a son with Asberger's Syndrome , the death of my Father, and injuries to my left foot and left knee, and extended family pressures, led me into a depressive state and a sedentary lifestyle. My weight increased, my ability to see the world and people as interesting was diminished. I still had an interest in Jeet Kune Do and had purchased a copy of "The Tao of Jeet Kune Do", and a couple of other Bruce Lee books on the style. Then came what appeared to be a mistake by most, but a decision my wife an I made together, which has started us on a new lease in life... we moved to North Dakota.

It began rough. We moved in the beginning of February 2010. The area we moved to was saturated with oilfield workers. Many jobs up for grabs, but no where to live (lucky, we moved with my Law Enforcement job intact). Too many people, not enough housing. We lived in a small fishing cabin near a lake for 6 months. Beautiful accommodations, but not designed for an extended stay for 2 adults, at one point - 2 children (ages 9 and 16) and 2 dogs. In August, the 16 year old went back to live with his mother, and soon we stumbled across an apartment in town with a reasonable rent price, unlike the outrageous prices most landlords were seeking - but we had to give up our 2 beloved dogs. With the exception of losing our dogs, things were beginning to look up for the first time in several years.

Our son now has received great assistance from his Doctor, Therapist, and Teachers (better than we received in Phoenix) to where he is becoming academically sound, and socially aware. We placed him in a local Tae Kwon Do class in October to help him with his confidence, social issues, and to give him something that would be his. He has absolutely loved the classes, became sort of a peer leader, and is about to receive his Yellow Belt. This led me back to thoughts of Jeet Kune Do. Knowing that Bruce wanted to "keep the numbers low, and the quality high," I began to wonder if any instruction was available, in person or via video. My research initially led me to Sifu Jerry Poteet, one of Bruce Lee's original students. I wanted to learn "real" ie: Jun Fan Jeet Kune Do (Bruce Lee's Jeet Kune Do), not someone's modernization of the art Bruce created. Knowing that I would never be able to have person to person instruction by Jerry, I sought instructors that were close to my area. That is when I found Sifu Tom Harvey. A 3th Generation Jun Fan Jeet Kune Do Instructor (via Sifu Ted Wong (Bruce Lee's last private student) and Sifu Mike Rutter) just a one and a half hours drive away with his own hands-on, and on-line instruction, and he's also a Fitness Expert.

This blog will be my record of my JKD and H.E.A.T. (Harvey Extreme Athletic Training) programs. I welcome you all to check this out on a regular basis, and appropriate comments are welcome. The majority of this at first will be my progress in the 12 week Level 1 HEAT Program which I started today.