the development path of JKD

[Falcor]

I was just curious as to why in modern JKD (JKD as it has developed into the year 2004) there is such a heavy influence by Kali, Silat, etc, the various Filipino and Indonesian arts? I'm not saying it's good or bad - no value statements, but I've noticed from working with friends in JKD that a lot of drills, exercises, techniques are Silat and Kali based with serious flavorings of Wing CHun. Is it due to the influence of Dan Inosanto and the direction he took JKD after BL's death? I find it interesting that JKD didn't incorporate very many other kung fu elements into it - i.e. Hung Ga, Praying Mantis, Bagua, etc. These are all arts known for fierce fighting skills and I would have expected, since Bruce Lee comes from a kung fu background himself, that there would have been a heavier influence from other kung fu styles. Any information or comments?

[mantis108]

Bruce Lee wasn't looking to develope specific skill sets. He was looking to build a complete figther who "honestly articulate the ideals of the art of expression the human body in combative form. In other words, he wanted the attributes of a boxing (power and speed in the punches), savate (distance control and hand feet coordination), fencing (rythym, timing and cunningness), JJ (clinch and positional control), etc... I believe he said many times that he couldn't careless about the skill sets but he wants the attributes. He couldn't find anyone in the TCMA community who would be capable and willing to share those attribute building skill sets (ie drills) with him. The closest he could get was Yip Man's Wing Chun. So Yip Man's Wing Chun became the base of his Jun Fan Kung Fu.

Mantis108

[Ford Prefect]

We do a drill spawned from tai chi's push hands in my jkd class. My instructor actually studied tai chi for a while in the 70's before meeting up with Vunak 20+ years ago.

[Vash]

KL

Would you want to move this over to the JKD forum? Seems it would be a bi more at home there.

[David Jamieson]

I would say that JKD is not a style...(once again) and it is a concept that can be influenced by any art at the foundation of teh individual practitioner.

many people "think" it is an art form unto itself. It ain't, it's a nebulous idea that has been marketed to death etc etc etc.

mantis is correct in that jun fan kungfu is a little bit of wing chun, a little bit of boxing, a little bit of this and that etc etc, but it's enought to get a foundation in martial arts in order to grasp teh concept of jeet kuen do.

Dan Inosanto is a hard working martial artist who propogates teh styles of Escrima, Arnis and other FMA and so being that he is so well known and has such a large student base, people seem to perceive JKD as a style that is becoming an offshoot of FMA.

Anyway, It's really about the artists and not the art. That's what Bruce's messge was and is in his books on the matter. But then he never carried a system to fruiition and unfortunately he died before he could fully develop a style of his own. At least in my opinion that's how I see it.

As an individual he was apparently by all accounts a good fighter.

cheers

[jmdrake]

While Bruce Lee was alive JKD WAS an art and NOT simply a "concept". That's how he trained it, taught it and marketted it. Yes marketted it! He didn't go Ed Parker demonstrations and simply wax philosophically about some "concept". On more than one occassion Bruce called JKD a "Chinese martial art". He NEVER called it a "concept". There was a definite curriculum and practictioners were expected to follow it if they were calling what they did JKD. Even Dan Inosanto will admit this.

Now as to the original question about the kali/silat stuff, the vast majority of this was added after Bruce's death. Yes Dan did introduce Bruce to nuchakus. As for Kali sticks, according to Dan, Bruce seemed to "naturally" know how to use them. So why the emphasis on Kali later? A couple of reasons. Dan didn't feel right marketting JKD (even though Bruce had) so when he did his seminars he often taught other arts such as Kali. He would teach JKD privately. From that some people began to think that the Kali WAS JKD! If you go to Dan's website and look at the class schedule you'll see Kali and JKD taught seperately. (Actually you won't SEE JKD on the class schedule at all. You'll see "Jun Fan Gung Fu" and "Jun Fan Kickboxing". But if you check out Dan's video series on JKD it's quite obvious that these are the "JKD" classes.)

Final point. I have no problem with someone incorporating Kali or Muy Tai or BJJ or whatever into their JKD. I don't even care any more what they call it. But this "JKD is not an art" line is totally bogus.

Regards,

John M. Drake