Rest in Peace..........

At Jun Fan kickboxing class last night, my sifu informed the class that Larry Hartsell just passed away. I checked the facts on Wikipedia & found that Mr. Hartsell died on Aug. 21,2007 at age of 67. Mr. Hartsell earned black belts in Judo & Kenpo Karate before serving in the US Army in Vietnam. Upon his discharge, he studied under Bruce Lee and Dan Inosanto. He added many grappling concepts & techniques to the Jun Fan Jeet Kun Do curriculum and founded the Jun Fan JKD Grappling Association. Bruce Lee was small but FAST & excelled in Wing Chun and Western Boxing...Dan Inosanto is also of a slight build,very fast & with expertise in Filipino Martial Arts. Mr. Hartsell was built solid & powerful, with a Judo & Wrestling background (he worked a lot with wrestler/stunt man Gene LeBell & "small-circle ju-jitsu" master Wally Jay to refine his grappling technique) and he added a new dimension for larger,stronger (and perhaps slower) fighters to enter past kicking/punching & trapping ranges to use grappling skills. This was before BJJ & UFC-type MMA became popular! I have personally benefited from 2 of his books: JKD: Entering to Trapping to Grappling and JKD: Counterattack: Grappling Counters & Reversals. I never met the man,however my instructor did train with Mr.Hartsell at the Inosanto Academy in California. Hartsell's grappling concepts have evolved along with the rest of JKD over the years. Mr. Larry Hartsell will be missed in the worldwide Jun Fan JKD community....may he rest in peace.