Jerry Meyers Martial Arts

LucayLucay Interview - Click on below image for complete interview as seen in the October 1987 Black Belt magazine.

Ted LucayLucay was the first student to graduate under Dan Inosanto from the Kali Academy in both Kali and Jeet Kune Do. Ted received his certification in both these arts but he was also certified an instructor by Leo Giron in Arnis , Angel Cabeles in Serrada and by Ben Largusa in the Villabrille-Largusa Kali system. Ted was my J.K.D Brother in Dan's Back Yard Group and I was honored when he asked me to become an apprentice Instructor in LucayLucay Kali Jeet Kune Do. I have since been promoted to Associate Instructor by Guro Greg Allen one of the two senior Instructors in the LucayLucay Kali Jeet Kune Do system.

When Guro Ted Lucaylucay died, he left two full Instructors Guro. They are Leonard Trigg in Oregon and Guro Greg Allen in El Paso, Texas. We refer to them as Senior Instructors with Leonard being the senior of the two. Ted gave them both the authority to promote to full Instructor. He also left various Apprentices and Associate Instructors with the right, as I will show later in a letter from Ted to his Instructors, to promote and recommend to a certain level. He also left a written curriculum for us to follow. While Ted was developing his program, he was also making videos. The context of the videos changed as he researched and developed his final written program. So what you see in his earlier videos is an earlier version of what he ended up with. You can’t take the videos as the final way but I think you can rely on the written way.

Bruce Lee’s Tao of Jeet Kune Do is another example. What you see in the Tao is Bruce’s experimentation not the final product and a lot of the time, it is out of context. The Tao was just notes to himself. Again, not necessarily what he ended up with. The Tao is certainly worth reading just as Ted’s videos are worth seeing. Just remember that they are good for reference, not gospel. My time training with Bruce was short but just the short time I was there, I saw these discrepancies and I believe others who were there would agree with me. Both he and Ted were constantly revising and re-constructing while simplifying. As Bruce would say, “Cutting away the unessential.”

Guro Russ Lafuente and I, both associate Instructors under the supervision of Guro Greg Allen, are teaching what we call Original Lucaylucay Kali Jeet Kune Do, which is the written way and is not modified except by Ted himself. We think this is what he would have wanted. Those Instructors of Ted’s that agree with us on this, we welcome your comments.

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