The Kip Pascal Interview
Conducted By Paul Bax

When and how did you first start your training in martial arts?
KP: I started when I was 6 with Judo. It was available ... and it was what James Bond was doing in the movies at the time (Sean Connery’s first Bond films).
Then I did Tae Kwon Do for a year in my early teens. I switched to Shotokan for about six months, and then I met Steve Golden. That was 30 years ago.

How did you first hear about Bruce Lee and his art of Jeet Kune Do?
KP: I saw Kato and the Green Hornet (emphasis on Kato). I dragged my parents to the drive-in to watch the Bruce Lee movies.
I was at summer camp, when my parents sent the small newspaper article that reported his death. Nobody else at the camp understood why I was so sad.

What was it about JKD that led you away from traditional martial arts?
KP: When I first met Steve Golden, he easily got through anything I could give him. He didn’t even have to work at it.
Then there was a space of time, before I went to a few of his classes. In that interim, I practiced my heart out with what I knew.
When I got together with his students, it almost seemed like my traditional practice helped them against me.
In retrospect, I was fighting at a traditional sparring distance, I didn’t know anything about tighter angles, broken rhythm, or moving the weapon first.
No wonder I was “easy pickings”.

JKD has gone through a lot of phases over the years due to different theories on how the art should be taught.  Were you ever a student of “JKD Concepts”?
KP: For a while, in the early 80s, Steve brought Dan Inosanto and others to give seminars. It seemed so fancy and fun. Later, I tired of some of the inefficiencies. Still, I think Filipino fighting has a tremendous amount to offer. You just have to be careful that what you absorb from it follows the Bruce Lee ideal.

Explain your training under Steve Golden.  Are you an instructor under him?