In any way, is jeet kune do related to the filipino martial art kali?

Question

because when ever I see a school that teaches JKD, they also teach kali...

Answer 1

Original Jeet Kune Do had NO escrima/kali/arnis in it. None whatsoever.

As for it being a 'concept' - I have heard this same thing for the past two dozen years plus since Guro Dan Inosanto started incorporated numerous martial arts (including escrima, silat, shoot fighting, etc) into what he called Jeet Kune Do Concepts.

The Jeet Kune Do taught by Bruce Lee in Seattle, Oakland and Los Angeles Chinatown were not a 'Concept' they were a style. The classes had a curriculum, JKD had its own techniques, drills and strategies like any other art. The difference was that it allowed students the freedom to play to their own strengths without having to adhere to the system.

When Bruce called for his club in LA to close, it was because he didn't like what was being taught there under his own name (a fact which can be confirmed by listening to the taped conversation between Dan Lee and Bruce).

There are numerous great examples of instructors teaching original JKD under people like Ted Wong, Jesse Glover, Lamar Davis, Chris Kent, Tim Tackett, Tommy Carruthers.

A friend of mine went for lunch with Burton Richardson and asked him why his (and many other similar lineage) schools taught such a lot of different styles under the JKD banner (at the time it included Jun Fan, escrima, savate, muay thai, BJJ, silat and zulu stick fighting) his answer was that if he taught JKD alone, the students would have learned it all at the end of a year.

So to reitterate, true JKD has no escrima in it. Dan once showed Bruce some escrima Bruce said 'let me show you how I would use the sticks'  and went through some random motions. Dan was amazed. He said "Thats (I think) Largo Mano" to which Bruce replied 'It's not, its what I would do'. That is actually reported by Dan in one of his books.

Answer 2

Although I am a fan of JKD Concepts, I have to agree with Docroy here. JKD had nothing related to escrima in it before Guro Inosanto started teaching it. I think it does complement the style but I've trained a few times with Jerry Poteet and actually prefer original style to concepts. I think i would prefer to learn escrima serperately and pick up the 'attributes' (a JKD term) seperately.

Answer 3

Jeet Kune Do Concepts involves Kali a great deal. In the concept branch they teach the Lacoste-Inosanto Kali system which takes what is useful & rejects what isn't from a variety of Kali & Escrima styles.

Answer 4

Jeet Kune Do is a mix of Arts.  Dan Inosanto, who was Bruce Lees friend and student is a Filipino Artist, so when you notice a Filipino combo it's from Dan !

Look him up..... Dan Inosanto

Answer 5

Bare in my mind that Jeet Kune Do isn't a martial arts style... it's a concept. So it wouldn't be surprising the school that you're talking about teaches Kali.... Jeet kune do is about taking what you need and throwing away what you don't need. So you're basically adapting the useful techniques from different systems/fighting styles to your own style.