Jeet Kune Do is the martial arts, or rather, the fighting system created by Sijo Bruce Lee. Let's analyze the evolution of this art: in his youth Sijo Bruce studied Wing Chun (with Master Yip Man) and Tai-Chi (with his father Lee Hoi Chuen) and also some other Kung Fu styles; he often used his technical knowledge in Hong Kong during the typical challenges among different martial arts schools. In the fifties he arrived in USA and there, after various brawls with some american boys (it was not easy for a chinese guy to live in USA!), he understood that what he studied was not really effective and applicable in a street fight and so he started to re-elaborate his martial knowledge creating a fighting method that he named Jun Fan Gung Fu (Bruce Lee's Kung Fu).
This base, between 1964 and 1973, has been modified and evolved: so Jeet Kune Do (Jeet = to intercept Kune = fist Do = way) was originated. Sijo Bruce analyzed various martial arts to understand their essence and their principal virtues with the goal of creating a complete and effective system, which twisted the traditional martial arts rules. Doing this task, he was helped by his closest students and especially by Sifu Dan Inosanto, he was Sijo Bruce's great friend and one of his best students; Sifu Dan introduced filipino martial arts to Sijo Lee.
Sijo Lee selected the elements among 26 martial arts to reach his goal and to create the bases of his fighting method, Jeet Kune Do:
-WING CHUN
-TAI CHI (Wu style)
-NORTHERN PRAYING MANTIS
-SOUTHERN PRAYING MANTIS
-CHOY LI FUT
-EAGLE CLAW
-LAW HORN KUEN
-PAKUA
-HSING-I (inner style)
-BAK HOO PAI (White Crane) BAK FU PAI (White Tiger)
-BOK PAI
-NG GA KUEN (5 families system)
-NY YING GA (5 animals system)
-BAK MEI PAI (white eyebrow)
-NORTHERN SHAOLIN
-SOUTHERN SHAOLIN
-CHINNA
-MONKEY STYLE
-DRUNKEN STYLE
-WESTERN FENCING (foil)
-WESTERN BOXING
-WRESTLING
-JU JITSU
-ESCRIMA
-FILIPINO SIKARAN
-MUAY-THAI
Sijo Bruce Lee gave the title of JKD Jun Fan Gung Fu Instructors just to three
students of him: Taky
Kimura, Dan Inosanto e Daniel Lee.
In creating Jeet Kune Do, only 5-10% of these arts or only the training method or the philosophy of fighting was considered; Sijo Bruce used to say that techniques were not the principal thing, but concepts and principles were more important. Considering Sijo Lee's art, you can find those important points:
It has to be a simple, instinctive, real effective and complete fighting method;
In Jeet Kune Do is fondamental the ability to "intercept" the opponent and to hit him before he does it;
The description of the 5 ways of attack;
The exhaustive examination of the different ranges of combat;
To free the fighter from rigid patterns and from precodified forms: techniques are important and they have to be simple and applicable, but
concepts and principles, which drive techniques, are more important;
Training method is very important, it has "to sharpen effectively your weapons" (improve yourself) and to improve skills and
attributes, which support techniques.
Jeet Kune Do is not a simple martial arts mixture, like some people think; Jeet Kune Do is a technical elaboration of different martial arts done with the goal of taking the best of each of them considering fighting. Techniques or only concepts (and not the whole system!) were considered and blended in accordance with the principal concepts of Jeet Kune Do, which were produced by Sijo Lee. Jeet Kune Do looks like Thai Boxe or Wing Chun or Boxe, but at the same time Jeet Kune Do is quite different from them. It's very important to understand that there is not a superior art in every circumstance; each fighting method has strong and weak points: who usually train to fight standing will have big problems in groundfighting, for a grappler will be difficult to defend himself against punches or kicks or against multiple attackers.
Sijo Lee remarked that for each range or situation there is a martial art more effective than others, so it is important to be able to flow from one art to another considering the situation or the range of combat. In Jeet Kune Do there is an instantaneous and continuous transition from a martial art to another during the fight considering the situation: techniques are blended together and applied in a fluent and continuous way, there are not rigid patterns, precodified forms or competition rules because Jeet Kune Do favours the totality, which lets you adapt your techniques to the reality of combat. The reality is alive, it continuosly changes and it's impossible to foresee and to codify it. We can say that Jeet Kune Do allow you to have the keys for reading every martial arts and for understanding their principles with the goal of blending different methods; this system allow you to find common points of various fighting method and to analyze and blend various martial arts which might seem very different.
Jeet Kune Do is built around Sijo Bruce Lee's concept of "absorbing what is useful (to you) and rejecting what is useless (to you)". Considering Sijo Bruce ideas: "Jeet Kune Do is like a finger pointing at the moon. Do not concentrate on the finger……or you will miss all that heavenly glory", so often martial artists become fixated on techniques, style or forms, instead of freeing themself.
Jeet Kune Do fighter is an ecletic expert of various fighting styles. Sijo Bruce Lee's unexpected and mysterious death created confusion on his own style; his students splitted in two schools or philosophy:
L'improvvisa e misteriosa morte di Sijo Bruce Lee contribuì a creare molte incomprensioni relativamente al suo metodo; i suoi allievi si divisero fondamentalmente in due scuole o correnti di pensiero:
ORIGINAL JEET KUNE DO:
those martial artists continue to train Jeet Kune Do as it was when Sijo Bruce
died and without modify it;
JEET KUNE DO CONCEPTS: on the other side those practitioners, ideally leaded by
Sifu Dan Inosanto, apply Sijo Lee's concepts and so they also continue to evolve
Jeet Kune Do analyzing techniques, principles and training methods of other
martial arts, without forgetting the goal of being effective. Considering that
point of view, Jeet Kune Do has adopted arts such as filipino Kali, indonesian
Silat and Brazilian Jiu Jitsu.
Now maybe you have a question! Which of those two schools is the most faithful
to Sijo Bruce Lee's will? Which is the best way: training only what Sijo studied
and teached or evolving his art considering the concepts, which he applied when
he was alive? Maybe each one of you has his own answer and idea……… In our
opinion, at the end, "Jeet Kune Do is only a name!" and anyway the two
groups are like the two black and white halves of the Tao……
"My mouvement is originated by your mouvement; my technique is originated by your technique! The best way to intercept a fist, is to hit first!"
Sijo Bruce Lee