PDA

View Full Version : Jeet Kune Do and Grappling



xingyiman
10-08-2001, 07:41 PM
We read all the time how traditional Kung Fu always gets verbally bashed by BJJ stylists, who say ground fighting is superior to stand up striking and kicking. Since Bruce Lee also had qualms with traditional kung fu, I am wondering what is Jeet Kune Do's perspective on the Standup vs. Groundfighting debate?? Is traditional Jeet Kune Do(that's probably an oxymoron) primarily a stand up art?? Most of what I've read about it in books and magazines would seem to imply this. What grappling styles/techniques(ground or stand up grappling) did Bruce Lee incorporate or receive inspiration from when formulating Jeet Kune Do? I know many people are going to respond to this post by saying that Jeet Kune Do is whatever you make it, but I'm looking for an answer based on Bruce Lee and his contemporaries approaches. Thanks

Cyborg
10-08-2001, 09:53 PM
To my knowledge Bruce did very little grappling. He felt that he was just too small to compete with the larger grapplers. JKD is primarily a standup system and I have had pretty good success with keeping grapplers at bay with it. I have studied BJJ as well, so that may have something to do with it.

And to those who say JKD is only what you make of it THAT'S NOT TRUE!!. So there. Blast away. :D

Any body wanna spar?

apoweyn
10-08-2001, 10:29 PM
I won't say that it is whatever you make of it. But some people's JKD takes grappling more into account than others. Certainly, there are many JKD guys today who concentrate on grappling. Eric Paulsen and Egan Inoue (sp?) jump to mind.

But if you're talking about Bruce Lee, I'd have to agree, based on my limited knowledge, that he was more standup than groundfight. But Larry Hartsell, a long-standing member of the JKD community, was a vocal JKD grappler for ages.


Stuart B.

Grappling-Insanity
10-10-2001, 09:21 AM
Yah man Larry Hartsell is really into grappling, when your supposed to be good in all ranges wouldnt learning grappling be good 2?

apoweyn
10-10-2001, 06:44 PM
One would think, yeah. :)

Hartsell, I think, did a lot of stuff on transitioning from striking to grappling too. Entries, footwork, that sort of thing.


Stuart B.

DragonzRage
10-11-2001, 01:31 AM
Bruce Lee believed very much in being prepared in all ranges, and he passed this philosophy on to his JKD disciples. Bruce did indeed practice grappling and implemented it to a limited degree in his method of fighting. The problem is that he died before he ever got extremely proficient at it. He did a good amount of training with "Judo" Gene LeBell though and even back then, long before all the contemporary submission grappling craze got started, Bruce said that practicing grappling "opened his eyes". So would Bruce Lee encourage a student to seek proficiency in grappling? Definitely yes. But did he know enough to teach real grappling proficiency in Jun Fan Gung fu? No. Sifu Larry Hartsell specialized his brand of JKD in grappling. In the early 1980s he even published a series of books starting with "Jeet Kune Do: Entering to Trapping to Grappling" in which he presented a lot of incite and techniques regarding the grappling range (combining his knowledge of JKD, wrestling, judo, etc). Although the ground grappling aspect of those works has become dated, I still find the transition techniques between ranges very interesting since it flows very well and fits JKD like a glove.

So there you have it...

Ish
10-11-2001, 02:00 PM
how is jkd not what you make it?