The Many Faces of JKD

With JKD being a PERSONAL liberation for a martial artist, shouldn't everybodys JKD be unique? It seems that the current trend sweeping the JKD world is BJJ. So many are getting their basis in that then they move on to other techniques. But JKD should be different to every person thus likewise appearing different because of the many different types of people (i.e. body structures, sizes, etc.)

It seems that every "system" of JKD has their own approach as far as methods and techniques. They all have the chi sao and wing chun techniques, muay thai and savate kicks, now adding the BJJ groundfighting, kali/arnis stickfighting, knife fighting, etc, etc... Instead of forms they do shadowboxing and combination drills. To me it seems that JKD is becoming quite formalized into a style and not a philosophy.

So what's the skinny? Hopefully somebody will school me on this so i can better understand. Whats so new about JKD's approach to fighting? The same concepts have been found in the Liu He (Nature Boxing) style for hundreds of years. I know that many martial arts styles have gone down the way side, but many haven't and they are continuing to grow.

Somebody help me out on this!!!!

Peace out [img]/infopop/emoticons/icon_smile.gif[/img]

Illusionfist,
There are a number of different groups within JKD, the differences are for the most part conceptual. Basically every person's JKD is different to some degree no matter what group within JKD they fall under. Also the ideas in JKD are nothing new and can be found in a number of different sources. The idea behind JKD to put it as simply as possible is to take what is best from each system and make it your own. Yes many if not almost all JKD people study some form of ground fighting or grappling, as a matter of fact ground fighting has been a part of JKD since Bruce Lee began training with Gene Lebell. Also we do not limit ourselves to one style or system to reseach, yes many study BJJ, but often techniques from Judo, Shooto, Wrestling, and Sambo have also been incorporated as well. No one system has a monopoly on the truth, so pieces of the truth are taken where they are found. It also just happens that many of the concepts and techniques within BJJ are very effective and are easily incorporated within JKD. Prehaps it is because there training methods are very close to JKD's as both systems believe in keeping the training as alive as possible. As to JKD becoming formalized, yes there is a certain order to the methods within JKD things are not randomly added because we like them. JKD has for the most part a very scientific out look, where there are certain ideas and theories that set guildlines both for techniques within JKD and training. These guildlines are sometimes broken or amendmented if some training method or technique shows itself to be effective. An example would be the Muay Thai round house kick, one of the ideas in JKD is that techniques need to be simplistic, economical in motion and non telegraphic. The Thai round kick is very much telegraphic but it makes up for that with its power and simpliness so it is an exception. I hope this answers some of your questions, there are a number of good websites that go into great detail about JKD. Peace all.-ED

ginsuedog- you mention making the art more alive, what do you think makes an art become dead? Is it just the mindless practicing of an art?

Peace out [img]/infopop/emoticons/icon_smile.gif[/img]

IllusionFist,
It's not about making the art or style more alive, it's about making your training more "alive." The idea behind JKD is that your training must be as realistic as possible. You fight the way you train, it's as simple as that. If you train effectively in a flexable environment, then your method of fighting should envolve into something effective.-ED

You are definately right about fighting like you train, i wish more people thought that way.

I don't think that Bruce Lee was coming up with anything new in the way of taking what is useful and bringing an aliveness into training, but he was just reviving a dying idea. One can point out all these martial artist in the 1900's alone that were huge advocates of cross-training and aliveness in practice, but they didn't have the podium that Bruce had to get his message across. Would we be talking about the man or his message if he wasn't a movie start? Nobody can say for sure. Whatever the case, he played an inticral role in reviving cross-training. Sure, everyone now cross-trains; just like everyone now trains in ground fighting. Both are age-old methods of training for combat, have been practiced for ages, and sworn by by those who practiced them, but it took somebody with a national/international podium from which to speak to bring wide-spread acceptance of the idea. That is why Bruce Lee's message is great: it reached the whole martial arts world.

Ford,
I completely agree, all Bruce did was take the best concepts and ideas that he found to be effective and used them to build upon. The ideas he used were nothing new and some of them had been around for quite a long time. I think anyone who has studied JKD even for a short time understands this. What does make Bruce unique in some way was that he was able to get his message across to so many in so short a time, that because of television and mass media we were able to see first hand the results of his message.-ED

What Bruce Lee did works wonders for Bruce Lee and his followers. That's great!

However, not everyone benefits from his teachings. That's great too!