Q. It’s good to see you again.  How have you been?

A. Feverishly working on our reformation.  What I mean by this is this is the first month of The C.A.T. Magazine and it calls for a lot of time, energy, and effort; but, that’s what we’re all about.  As for me, I couldn’t feel better.

Q. For those of you who don’t know, Jonathan Kiser is the Head Founder of Integrated Combative Concepts® as well as a close friend and brother in the martial arts.  So tell me, Jonathan, what has ICC been up to in the last few years?

A. Since 1998, when I left Amarillo, ICC has been under an intellectual and experiential revision.  As is the nature of ICC, it evolves.  This means that many of the things that we practiced in the past has been further tested and found lacking; therefore, ICC is not necessarily the same creature it was on the outside.  However, the intellectual skeleton has always remained the same.  I have further evaluated and tested many methods under the “equate and relate” aspects of REALM training.  The outcome is startling.  Even as a mature martial artist I realized I was practicing things that involved too perfect of timing, too perfect idea situations, and too perfect energy.  As reality would have it, such occasions are rare if non-existent and should not be held as a standard… I’ll explain later.

Q. Tell me how ICC got started.

A. After meeting Charles Stotts, Will Blanscet, and Mike Parmley, all former Kenpo stylists with an appreciation of other martial arts, I began exposing them to Tzu Jan Gung-Fu, Kali-Silat, Muay Thai, Wing Chun, Jiu Jitsu, and other martial arts.  In this process I began to simplify things through what I believed were the constants of real combat.  As time went by we realized that our training was unlike other martial arts and in some ways like other martial arts.  The dissimilarity and similarity drove us to clarify the essentials that one must possess in order to survive a real fight.  One day Will Blanscet questioned me about the name of our approach and I blurted out, “It’s integrated combative concepts… so I guess that will do.”  From that day, I began to standardize our discoveries and it coalesced into the REALM formula.  The REALM became the standard by which we trained and proved our skills.

Q. If you could sum up ICC in one word, what would it be?

A. Reality!!!  That is all that matters.  Can what I practice work in real time, under real pressure, at the moment of real danger against an un-cooperative and aggressive opponent(s).

Q. So do you mean that most training halls don’t mirror the reality of the streets?

A. I am saying they better or else they are doing their students a disservice.  Look, I believe all martial arts have value.  In most cases, I believe most instructors are sincere, but blind obedience lends to error.  And in real life error is unforgivable.  No matter where it comes from, whether it is an ancient technique or some highly evolved method, it must stand the test of the REALM in order to prove truly, efficient, effective, and practical.

Q. It sounds much like what many others have tried.  So what makes ICC unique from other progressive arts like JKD and hybrid systems?

A. It is true that we owe much to Bruce Lee and other progressive martial artists that have paved a path of understanding; however, to each of the practitioners each path is different.  And because of this, how can they be sure that their direction is toward reality.  In ICC our motto is “reality through totality.”  Without getting ridiculous we sum up the necessary aspects or characteristics that one must possess or follow to be sure that what they’re practicing aims toward reality.  In ICC we have eight characteristics or considerations.  We must be progressive, scientific, open-ended, synergistic, research oriented, human based, personalized, and totalistic.  Also, no matter what we practice it is put to the test of the REALM.  This puts into context a particular skill's purpose, potential, and priority, what I call the “Triple P Standard.” Unlike many of the myths propagated today, and the confusions dogmatically pounded into martial artists.  To believe such myths requires faith without foundation, belief without proof, and going contrary is a form of heresy.  I say, ICC is for the rebel minded, skeptical, heretical, but truth seeking individual. When you take away the “GUESS” you have no BS!!!

Q. I’m confused… is Integrated Combative Concepts a style/system or just an idea?

A. ICC is an approach and can serve as a template for any style or system and therefore is more concerned with outcome than partiality.  ICC is in fact style neutral, yet at the same time recognizes the universal truths in all martial arts.  Some people say we’ve reinvented JKD, but that is not true.  What we’ve done is something JKD did not, which was to create a standard that must be followed in terms of training in order to get results that line up with reality.  For an example, in JKD camps the coach teaches the jab.  Depending on your coach, the jab may be thrown a bit differently with different emphasis, different tempo, and the like.  In addition footwork and attitude are taught to support the jab, and as it would be, every coach has a different way of training (though some may be similar to others).  There is no professional standard in the business.  Does this mean that they are not professional?  Of course not!  It means they are ‘round about in their ways.  ICC may be open-ended, but we’re not ‘round about.  When you study ICC from one teacher and go to another teacher, the curriculum is the same, although the open-ended nature allows for the teacher to share personal experiences and ideas that cultivate the subject.  This is not a style with no style or “a way of no way.”  Bruce Lee had all the right ideas, unfortunately he didn’t live long enough to see what I believe were many of the weaknesses involved in such an ethereal approach.         NEXT