The passing of Tim Tackett. There’s a lot to say about the late-great Tim Tackett.
In 1986 I went to my first Dan Inosanto seminar and the first Jeet Kune Do CONCEPTS seminar. The key word here being “concepts,” with smatterings of Bruce Lee JKD in with other arts collected under the initiative of Lee’s open-minded pursuits. (Which is just perfectly fine and I enjoyed them all.) In 1988 I went to a Tim Tacket seminar and we did actual JKD for 2 full days and was even more hooked in that. “So THIS was just Jeet Kune Do only!” I said.
Tim was “all good things.” Funny. Smart. Knowledgeable. Experienced. He’d been around when Lee was around and very close with Dan. When Tim would see Dan “on the street, he would say “Hey Dan!“ – “Hi Tim!” This was seen as disrespect among the few Inosanto accolades. Not with Dan of course. Newbies did not know just how tight and how long they knew each other.
Needless to say, I saw Tim around when I could. When I got “on the market,” in the 1990s doing seminars I invited Tim to join me for some I knew would work well. We did New England, Texas, Kansas City, New Jersey, San Diego and London England. I introduced him to my connection in Italy. For a while this turned into some MAJOR Italian seminars there for him and in Sicily. I got him connected to Jim McCann which evolved into a big European connection. Others also.
Not to mention, he and Hartsell introduced Hubad drills to the Dallas Cowboys – which those drills became a staple in just about every pro team. His big, garage Wednesday Night Groups was a Mecca, a travel spot for people “in the JKD know” around the world.
I have numerous Tacket stories and one of my favorites – we were eating somewhere, me and him, and I told him about my idea and my hesitation to do a serious, violent knife saber stabbing training film.
“I don’t now if I should do it” – me.
“Go ahead and do it,” – Tim.
“You think so?” – me.
“Yeah, first of all. Nobody’s gonna’ buy it. And if they buy it, nobody’s gonna’ watch it. And if they watch it? They’ll quickly forget about it. So go ahead and make the damn movie.” -Tim
I did. And guess what? It has been forgotten!
JKD: Bruce Lee’s YMCA Boxing by Tim Tackett. Many martial arts teachers who teach techniques and exercises and who have adopted a full contact sparring system always find the same problem: to keep their students. Most are workers and logically they don’t want to be injured or don’t want to get a black eye. Bruce Lee had to face the same problem and he noted that, as soon as his students began their full contact sparring training, they decided to stop training. It was like this that, trying to find new training methods, he discovered a safe way to apply the exercises and techniques learned in contact sparring…
Through the years at Dan, Tim, Vunak, Hartsell and Gibson seminars and Gibson privates, I have seen sets, bits and pieces of these 21 drills. He and I were sitting in a pub in London, England and Tim said,
“…wonder what I should teach tomorrow…”
“Well,” says I, “I’ve never seen the full 21 moves in the YMCA boxing program, I’d been wanting to get the whole program for years.”
“Okay,” he said. And he did. I have all the handwritten notes from that seminar. He and I tag teamed and when he taught, he showed these. And I must confess it’s kind of a prize possession. There is boxing contact but many moves have focus mitts used slapping body parts with the mitts in place of punches. Anyway, I – we always got the pure JKD from Tim.
Tim always told me and others that I was part of his “JKD family.” I felt like I was. My then wife Jane, for years before she died, she became close to him over Tim’s fathers amazing paintings. Tim would send her the artwork and they were indeed great.
There are numerous videos on youtube of interviews with Tim. Worth watching for JKD history.
Adios, amigo. I chunk of me left when you left.
*********
“Sad news. The legendary Tim Tackett passed away this morning. He was at peace in his sleep with no pain. The Wednesday Night Group lives on as I continue it at my house and with the group and all of our friends across the world who celebrate the amazing man who passed on the teachings of Bruce Lee to us. Those of you that pray, please pray for his family at this difficult time. The best way to celebrate this amazing man as he would always tell you, would be to get your butt in gear and train so that we don’t lose this magnificent art.” – Jeremy Lynch