08/08/2026
Different teachers may use different language, but the roots remain the same.
Last Saturday, we welcomed Jay’s class to train with us, along with Dan, visiting from out of town.
We revisited three of Bruce Lee’s Five Ways of Attack—Single Direct Attack, Attack by Combination, and Progressive Indirect Attack—not simply as techniques, but as different tactical approaches to solving the problem of an opponent.
Those approaches also gave us a practical way to explore Sonny Umpad’s concepts of First, Second, and Third Flow.
In First Flow, we slow things down enough to recognize and develop these choices with quality. In Second Flow, variability enters the exchange—we have to read, choose, adapt, disguise intention, and respond to what our partner gives us. Third Flow takes that progression further, toward expressing authority over the exchange with judgment and restraint.
In other words, the Five Ways give us different ways to attack. The Three Flows change the conditions under which we have to make them work.
The way I teach VSCK—and the language I use to understand and communicate it—may look very different from another practitioner’s. I think that’s part of what makes a living art alive. We may grow in different directions, but we’re drawing from the same roots: Sonny’s art.
Grateful to Jay, Dan, and everyone who shared the floor with us.
