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About ITG The Northampton Flying Dragon Martial Arts School was formed in 1976 by my first Chinese Kung Fu teacher Master Lee Fee Lung ( Flying Dragon), who encouraged me to "find my own path" and look into other systems which was unusual for someone from such a traditional background. Master Lee had trained in many arts being well versed in Thai Boxing and Wing Chun (he also met Bruce Lee in Hong Kong and had a signed photo of him). Along with my then training partners Sifu John Mann and Sifu Richard Sloane I was to take over the school when Master Lee moved away to do "protection" work. Unfortunately Richard, John and myself went on our separate life journeys. I continued my studies in JKD and many other systems that would include Wing Chun, Muay Thai, Kali, Savate, Aikido, Systema, Judo and Ju Jitsu.
After training at seminars and private lessons from many great first and second generation JKD teachers I was able to introduce Jeet Kune Do and the Filipino Martial Arts (around 1986) to my training group and eventually to the classes. A small group of us were going all out and no longer "swimming on dry land" or "dissecting the corpse", which is the norm for most NOW but back then it was a breath of fresh air. This changed my attitude to training and things started to progress rapidly. When in 1990 I first met Sifu Paul Vunak and realised that we were going in the right direction I changed the name to Intensive Training Group. Paul, an original student of Bruce Lee's friend and training partner Guru Dan Inosanto, was a pioneer in using protective gear such as motorcycle helmets in training that allowed a certain realism which is now used (but with modern adaptations) at many schools. Apart from being one of the first with the then VHS training tapes (including the famous and now copied in so many ways JKD Street-fighting series) he also wrote books on JKD's Concepts and Philosophies and its streetfighting application. Along with being the first to introduce JKD to the US Military via his unique and aptly named Rapid Assault Tactics (R.A.T. system), Paul was the first in the JKD world to discover and introduce into his training the amazing Gracie Family and their Ju-Jitsu that is now so common in most schools in one form or another. I continued training JKD under Sifu Paul in USA and was awarded Full Instructor in Jeet Kune Do Concepts and Filipino Martial Arts 14 years after first training with him. His original PFS JKD Streetfighting is taught at ITG. Also being an official certified Rapid Assault Tactics Instructor means that the RAT System is taught to all ITG Instructors as a quick to learn high level self protection capability. At ITG, JKD is a process of bringing Bruce Lee's Jeet Kune Do Concepts and Philosophies to life in each individual. I have been greatly influenced by JKD Instructors that have kept the original teachings and concepts of Bruce's art alive such as Sifu's Tim Tackett, Lamar Davis, James De Mile, Jerry Poteet, Patrick Strong and Chris Kent. All these great teachers of JKD have not only spread and perpetuated Bruce's art but have a working knowledge of all the concepts, philosophies techniques and training methods that Bruce used and taught in his lifetime!
Welcome to ITG. Clive
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