Jonathan Parsons

Fighting To Keep You Focused

- Jason Korol

JONATHAN PARSONS was a private student of the late Ted Wong. More recently, he’s been training in Wing Chun under Sifu Tony Massengill. He goes on to say, that without the proper mindset and its accompanying emphasis on simplicity, you aren’t ready for the real thing.

What’s the most critical element of martial art training?

Mental preparation. We have to be mentally prepared for what real violence demands.

Is this a neglected part of training in your view?

I think so. People want a quick move, you know. They want things fast. They think they can go and “get” a technique and that’s that. Wrong, wrong, wrong. The intensity of a fight will be crazy, and they have to prepare for that mentally. When you think that all you need to do is accumulate technical knowledge, you underestimate the ferocity of a fight. A technique won’t work unless you can make it work—under pressure.

Why is it so neglected and how do we make sure we stay focused?

Sifu Ted Wong always talked about simplicity. If it wasn’t simple, it would not work. That’s the key to it—to keep things as simple as possible and stay direct. This is difficult because we naturally think more is better. In reality, for fighting, more is a problem. That’s why he always said that it was hard to teach Jeet Kune Do—and I would say Wing Chun too—because staYing focused and really mastering simple things like the Straight Punch is hard.

Not to be argumentative, but for the sake of our readers, I must ask. You train quite a few MMA fighters and boxers at your gym. Doesn’t that contradict your focus on self-defence?