The Vern Rochon Interview
Conducted by Paul Bax

When and how did you first start your training in martial arts?
Vern Rochon: I started back around 1972 with Kerry Fournet in Goju Ryu Karate, and later with his older brother Ernie Fournet. I was lucky enough to catch Ernie after he’d been discharged from the U.S. Army Special Forces (“Green Berets”), where he found that traditional Goju Ryu didn’t work as advertised and modified it to reflect real world combat.

How did you first hear about Bruce Lee and his art of Jeet Kune Do?
VR: My first awareness of Bruce Lee was from watching The Green Hornet in the 1960’s. I was a kid at the time and couldn’t identify the art; I only knew that I was transfixed.
When Bruce Lee emerged as a film star in the early 1970’s, I remembered him from Hornet and read the magazine articles that began to appear about him and Jeet Kune Do.

What was it about JKD that led you away from traditional martial arts?
VR: The fact that Jeet Kune Do’s fundamental precepts matched my personal objective: I train in the fighting arts to be effective—period. The years I spent wearing Kendo armor, shin guards and gloves getting my butt kicked by Ernie in full-contact sparring were the same years I spent researching Jeet Kune Do, and the resemblance was uncanny. That early time taught me most importantly how to recognize impracticality when I saw it, and although classical arts can be effective in a very skilled individual, they usually either have too much stuff that causes problems or not enough stuff to solve them.

JKD has gone through a lot of phases over the years due to different theories on how the art should be taught. What is your take on the “Concepts” vs. “Original” controversy?
VR: It’s too bad there is a controversy in the first place. To my understanding of what Bruce Lee intended, political controversy is precisely what he opposed. Can efficient, fluid spontaneity truly be dominated by personal opinion directing what should be? It’s easy to develop a preference about combat before it happens, but I’ll bet when the yogurt hits the fan, the very last thing you’d worry about is whether to use “concepts,” “original,” “extra crispy” or any other artificial variation.
We are lucky to have so much of Jeet Kune Do on record from Bruce Lee himself, making it easy to examine firsthand. I feel that this is the logical starting point and yes, should, remain the continuing touchstone throughout an education in Jeet Kune Do. Obviously, training under a qualified instructor is necessary to actually learn the art. But the truth is, every single individual will learn and practice Jeet Kune Do in a way unique to them, whether someone sticks as closely to the record as possible or goes off on an artistic tangent. Avoiding this is like avoiding your fingerprints.

You have trained with several original Bruce Lee students. Please list your instructors in JKD and what you have learned from each of them and some of the differences in their teaching styles and their application and interpretations of Jeet Kune Do.