Jeet Kune Do

[Brad]

This might be kind of a silly question considering Bruce Lee is the most well known martial artist of our time, but what is Jeet Kune Do? Is it an actual MA system with techniques, or more of a philosiphy toward martial arts which could be incorparated into my training without giving up on my current style?

[Demi @ CSPT]

Bruce Lee wrote that Jeet Kune Do “is not to hurt, but is one of the avenues through which life opens it’s secrets to us.” Lee also wrote “Do not be concerned with escaping safely! Let him smash your flesh, and you fracture his bone. Let him fracture your bone, and you take his life. Lay your life before him.” Can these two statments exsist at the same time within the conceptual framework of JKD? Of course they can. JKD was a vehicle used for self discovery. What is it we are talking about? Is it Bruce Lee's JKD? No, because I don't care what rock you look under or what closet you peek into it's not gonna be there...!!! We are talking about my JKD and your JKD. JKD can't be owned, can't be organized, can't be taught and it can't be sold. JKD is a process, not a product. It is the individuals experience and growth that "is" JKD, that's what gives it life. There is no boss, no one in charge. There are only those who "train" and share thier experience with others. JKD is also about “self preservation” and “best options” in combat. This is where my primary focus is. It’s not all philosophical, when practiced intelligently it produces results. Understand this however, it is what it is... Circle with no circumfrence?!? Repose in the nothing?!? Diluting JKD?!? Adding other arts?!? There is just totality in combat or there is'nt!!!

People say there is only dark or light but Bruce taught us that there are so many shades of gray... There are no limitations... There is no way... There is no JKD...

Even while Bruce was alive there was never a time when he himself could have put
JKD into a little box and gave it to you as a present... It was always alive and growing just as he was...

Demi Barbito
The C.S.P.T.
www.DemiBarbito.com

Hello Brad!

For an extremely thorough definition of Jeet Kune Do, go to my Jun Fan Fighting Arts Association website at http://www.jffaa.8m.com and read the section titled, "What Is Jun Fan/Jeet Kune Do?" After reading that, there will be very little doubt in your mind as to exactly what Jeet Kune Do is!

Keep Blasting!
Sifu Lamar M. Davis II
JUN FAN/JEET KUNE DO

[Daedalus]

Jeet Kune Do (JKD) is whatever you make it. When you reach that point in your martial arts training where you put aside style and systems because you realize that the reality of combat far exceeds system or style. Then you are touching on JKD. JKD is whatever works best for you. It is "using no way, as your way". Not adhering to any one particular style that you might encompass all styles. For alot of good info on JKD you might check out
http://www.aikia.net

[Warhawk]

jeet kune do is a concept not a style, where you throw out all ineffective techniques and keep the good ones.

[RAYNYSC]

Heres a article that was written by Guro Dan Inosanto on Jeet Kune Do under the same title.

What is Jeet Kune Do?

In the past many have tried to define JKD in terms of a distinct style: Bruce Lee's Kung fu, Bruce Lee's Karate, Bruce Lee's Kickboxing, Bruce Lee's System of street fighting. To label JKD "Bruce Lee's martial art" is to completely mistake Bruce Lee's & JKD's meaning. JKD concepts simply cannot be confined within a single system. To understand this,a martial artist must transcend the duality of "for" & "against," reaching for that point of unity which is beyond mere distinction. The understanding of JKD is the direct intuition of this point of unity.
According to Bruce Lee, knowledge in the martial arts ultimately means selfknowledge.

Jeet Kune Do is not a new style of kung fu or karate. Bruce Lee did not invent a new or composite style, nor did he modify a style to set it apart from any existing method. His concept was to free his followers from clinging to any style, pattern, or mold.

It must be emphasized that jeet kune do is merely a name, a mirror reflecting ourselves. There is a sort of progressive approach to JKD training, but as Lee observed: "To create a method of fighting is like putting a pound of water into wrapping paper & shaping it." Structurally, many people mistake JKD as a composite style of martial art because of its efficiency. At any given time jeet kune do can resemble Thai boxing or Wing Chun or Wrestling or Karate. Its weaponry resembles Filipion escrima & kali,in long rage application it can resemble Northen Chinese Kung Fu or Savate.

According to Lee, the efficiency of any style depends upon circumsatnces and the fighting range of distance: the soldier employs a hand grenade at 50 yards, but he chooses a dagger for close-quaters combat. A staff, to take another example, is the wrong weapon to take a fight in a telephone booth, a knife would again be the most appropriate weapon.

Jeet Kune do is niether opposed or unopposed to the cocept of style. We can say that it is outside as well as inside of all particular structures. Because JKD makes no claim to existing as a style, some individual conclude that it is neutral or indifferent to the question. Again, this is not the case, for Jkd is at once "this" and "not this".

A goood Jkd practitioner rests his actions on direct intuition. According to Lee, a style should never be like the Bible in which the principles and laws can never be violated. There will always be differences between individuals in regard to the quality of training, physical make-up, level of understanding,enviromental conditioning, and likes and dislikes. According to Bruce, truth is a "pathless road", thus JkD is not an organization or an institution of which one can be a member. "Either you understand or you don't & that is that, "he said.

When Bruce taught a Chinese system of kung fu(it was shortly after his arrival in the U.S.), he did operate an institute of learning, but after that early period he abandoned his belief in any particular sysytem or style, Chinese or othewise. Lee did say that to reach the masses one should probably form some type of organization, for his own part, he dismissed the notion as unnecessary to his own teaching. Still, to reach the ever growing numbers of students, some sort of preconceived sets had to be established. And as a result of such a move by martial arts organizations, many of their members would be conditioned to a prescribed system, many of their members would end up as prisoners of systematic drilling.

This is why Lee believed in teaching only a few students at any time. Such a method of instuction required the teacher to maintain an alert observation of each student in order to establish the necessary student/teacher realationship. As Lee so often observed, " A good instuctor functions as a pointer of the truth, exposing the student's vulnerability, forcing him to explore himself both interally and externally, and finally intergrating himself with his being."

Martial arts like life itself is in flux in constant arhythmic movements, in constant change. Flowing with this cahnge is very important. And finally, any JKD man who says that JKD is exclusively JKD is simply not with it. He is still hung up on his own self enclosing resisitance, still anchored to reactionary patterns, still trapped within limitation.Such a person has not digested the simple fact that truth exists outside of all molds or patterns. Awareness is never exclusive. To quote Bruce: " Jeet Kune do is just a name, a boat used to get one across the river. Once across it is discarded and not to be carried on one's back.

In 1981, the JKD concept was taught in only three places: the filipino Kali Academy in Torreance, California, in Charlotte, North Carolina( where Larry Hartstell taught a few select students) & in Seattle,Washington (under the direction of Taki Kimura). The bulk of the JKD concept is taught in torrance, where the school is under the direction of myself & Richard Bustillo. It is organized in accordance with the premise that a JKD man must undergo different experiences. For example, in Phase 1 & 2 classes at the Filipino Kali Academy, students are taught Western boxing & Bruce Lee's method of kick boxing-Jun Fan.

I deeply feel that students should be taught experiences as opposed to techniques, In other words a Karate practitioner who has never boxed before needs to experience sparring with a boxer. What he learns from that experience is up to him. According to Bruce, a teacher is not a giver of truth, he is merely a guide to the truth each student must find.

The total picture Lee wanted to present to his pupils was that above everything else, the pupils must find their own way to truth. He never hesitated to say, Your truth is not my truth, my truth is not yours".

Bruce did not have a blueprint, but rather a series of guidelines to lead one to proficieny. In using training equipment, there was a sysytematic approach in which one could develop speed,distance,power,timing,coordination,endurance and footwork.

But JKD was not an end in itself for Bruce nor was it a mere by product of his martial studies, it was a means of self discovery. JKD was a prescription for personal growth, it was an investigation of freedom, freedom not only to act naturally and effectively in combat, but in life. In life, we absorb waht is useful and reject what is useless, and add to experience what is specifically our own. Bruce Lee always wanted his students to experience judo,jujutsu,aikido,Western boxing, he wanted his students to explore Chinese systems of sensitvity like wWing Chun, to explore the elements of Kali,Escrima,Arnis, to explore the elements of Pentjak Silat,Thai boxing, Savate. He wanted his students to come to an understanding of the strengths and weakness in each method.

No art is superior or inferior to any other. That is the object lesson of JKD, to be unbound, to be free, in combat to use no style as style, to use no way as the way, to have no limitation as the only limitation. Neither be for or against a particular style. In other words, JKD "just is".

Or to use the words of a Zen maxim to describe jeet kune do, In the landscape of spring there is neither better nor worse. The flowering branches grow, some short, some long.

PEACE

RAYNYSC