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Bruce Lee and Jeet Kune Do. Jeet kune do or JKD is a martial art, mainly bare-handed, created by Bruce Lee around 1967.

Bruce Lee and Jeet Kune Do

 

Bruce Lee and Jeet Kune Do

JKD is above all a martial concept and not a sport or a traditional martial art. The JKD corresponds to what its founder identified as a path to liberation (and even then not the only one).

Inspiration of the invention

Jeet kune do is mainly inspired by wing chun, boxing, and fencing, but incorporates its techniques. Its founder was based on the praying mantis of the north and south, Choy Lee Fut, Eagle Claws, English boxing, wrestling, fencing, judo, jiujitsu, and certain kicks of the styles from northern and southern China; by discovering these styles, he will evolve his practice of traditional wing chun.

Specification

Jeet kune do should not be confused with mixed martial arts (MMA) and is not practicable in a rule-controlled environment.

Jeet Kune Do philosophy

Jeet Kune Do is not strictly speaking a fighting style; Bruce Lee no longer believed at this time in dogmas and fighting styles pre-established and fixed by their founders years before, but rather believed in a concept encompassing combat strategies. After studying many martial arts and mainly Western combat sports (fencing, English boxing, French-savate boxing, and grappling among others), he absorbed what he thought worked. Bruce Lee not only wanted to evolve his martial practice from the wing chun of southern China for its remarkable effectiveness, but to compensate for the limitations of this style which he found too defensive and which did not apply over long distances.

 

Principles

Jeet Kune Do, literally “the way of the intercepting fist”, abbreviated JKD, is “simple, direct and non-classical”, according to its founder. The principle is to intercept the opponent's movements before he hits, to arrive first while leaving second; there is no blocking or responses in two or three steps (blocking and striking are always simultaneous) but rather a single movement/response executed at the same time, i.e. the most direct response reaching the opponent(s) with a minimum of movement. The JKD adage is: “absorb what is useful, reject what is not, and add what is unique to you.”

Training strategy

Bruce Lee wanted us to draw inspiration from these principles without creating mass education. He also asked his student instructors to close his schools to keep only closed groups of students to work in small numbers to keep the quality and spirit of what he considered his martial way. These groups were distributed across the West Coast of the United States and developed in the form of different lineages, including three major ones.

Start of the invention

It was in 1964, following his fight against Wong Jack-man, that the young master created jeet kune do; the fight having lasted too long, Bruce Lee questioned his wing chun which he described as a classical mess (“classical bazaar”). Although victorious, he remains disappointed by his performance. He radically changed his practice; he moved from kung fu to boxing and bodybuilding. He created a form of combat based on wing chun, to which he only added this time Western boxing and unarmed combat; however, the principles of fencing take on more importance. This simplification gave rise to Jeet Kune Do and Bruce Lee's theories on combat.

Technical development

Subsequently, Bruce Lee showed interest in any martial form, regardless of its origin; he borrowed and combined many movements to develop his own.

Jeet Kune Do is thus a coherent and integrated synthesis of knowledge from all the martial arts known at that time by Bruce Lee.

Jeet Kune Do extension

Since the death of Bruce Lee, Jeet Kune Do has been taught in the form of concepts by Dan Inosanto in particular. Other people certified by Bruce Lee are Taky Kimura in Seattle (Jun Fan Gung Fu period; the latter received his rank 5 in 1973 just before Bruce Lee's death), James Yimm Lee in Oakland (Jun Fan Gung period; died in 1972, six months before Bruce Lee and the same year as Yip Man) and Daniel Arca Inosanto in Los Angeles (the only one to graduate in jeet kune do from Bruce Lee).