Is jeet kune do the best fighting style?

Question

Is jeet kune do the best fighting style?

Answer 1

I was just about to ask a question about JKD myself! What a coincidence...

Anyways, Jeet Kune Do is not technically a style, but instead a system of guiding principles meant for efficiency and adaptability. So it utilizes the teaching of many different fighting techniques and leaves it up to the student to develop their own "style".

And in my opinion, yeah, I think it's the best..

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docroy77,

From what I know,

A "style" is a set of techniques that are learned in that particular martial art. That's the way Bruce Lee saw it, and he made sure to make it clear to everyone that what he was teaching was NOT a style. There is no specific set of techniques or methods you HAVE to learn in JKD. There may be a set of techniques that Bruce Lee used  himself, but if people try to teach those exact techniques as JKD then they have strayed from what JKD what meant to be in the first place.

So you can't call JKD a style. JKD is not a style. What certain people have made of it may be, but if that is the case then it is no longer JKD.

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docroy77...

Those are the techniques that Bruce had found efficient for himself to that point. You can't try to say that Bruce Lee would say "Jeet Kune Do is these techniques and that's it." That's BS. His entire point was that there are no limitations in the way you express yourself when you are developing your own style.

&

If Bruce meant for JKD to be a style, why would he say,

"I actually do not teach Karate because I do not believe in styles anymore. I mean I do not believe that there is such thing as like Chinese way of fighting or Japanese way of fighting or whatever way of fighting... Styles tend to, not only separate men because they have their own doctrines and their doctrines become the gospel truth, that you can not change. But if you do not have styles, if you just say "here I am as a human being, how can I express myself, totally and completely?" Now, that way you won't create a style. Because a style is a crystallization. But that way it's a process of continuing growth."

Sounds to me like he didn't believe in styles. Call it what you like, but this is Bruce's definition of "style", and he was against it.

Answer 2

No!!!

No style is ,it depends on your ability to adapt and feel comfortable with your chosen style most styles work fine if you totally dedicate your self to it and live it.

Answer 3

How many times must we see this stuff about JKD not being a style but a concept or philosophy??

Bruce devised a martial art which suited his outlook. Fact. It was his way of fighting, his ideas. He formulated these ideas and taught them. HE TAUGHT THEM. How can you teach an 'idea'? Bruce laid down the curriculum for Seattle, Oakland and LA schools. Where people were taught Bruce's way of fighting. His way of punching,his way of kicking, his way of moving and theory of interception, etc. These syllabus still exist people are still practising the teachniques and theories that Bruce taught them. QED. Bruce saw what was happening to his art in LA (note: LA alone) and didn't like it and so, knowing he was not going to be able to teach and keep an eye on his schools and what was being taught he told his three instructors to close commercial schools. However, at that time there was only ONE commercial school - LA. He knew that Taky in Seattle and Jimmy in Oakland had classes which weren't commercial and they continued completely normally. Most people teaching original JKD are quiet modest people who aren't in it for the money in any way and teach alongside holding down jobs *(unless retired). People like Bob Bremer, Dan Lee, Howard Williams, Tim Tackett and a number of others teach the art that Bruce taught. His PHILOSOPHY continues to guide them to improve and refine what they have studied but their art is JKD. In my life in martial arts and while working as an MA writer I have been lucky enough to talk to many of Bruce's students and family and was blessed to be a student of his senior Oakland student, Bob Baker. Now if you want to tell me that Linda Lee, Bobby Baker, Taky Kimura, Steve Golden, Tim Tackett, Bob Bremer, Dan Lee, Howard Williams, Gary Cagaanan, Dave Cox and many others all are liars, misguided, confused then so be it. I know where I would lay my belief. Try getting a look at Tommy Carruthers and see how he demonstrates JKD 'philosophy' or 'ideas' and then tell me (and him) how that differs from any other martial art. Please guys.... lay off this 'it isn't a martial art' stuff. Bruce made these comments in the early seventies when he was more interested in acting and was despondent with how his art was being presented in LA and feared for how it could be abused. Bruce believed he would become more famous than he ever expected he knew from his experiences in Hong Kong (my instructor was with Bruce in Hong Kong and saw how he was idolised there) he knew his art was capable of being destroyed due to commercialism and exploitation and he also knew he could not sit down and manage this so he opted to concentrate on his acting.

You go to a Shotokan/Tae Kwon Do/Wing Chun school and you learn the techniques formulated by the founder and seniors that art. Punches, kicks, movement, blocks, theories and drills(kata/pre-arranged sparring/formulated drills) are taught. What do you think Bruce taught? What do you think the people teaching JKD now teach?

As to is it the best fighting style.....

NO! It isn't. There is not a single BEST fighting style. Best for whom? Best in what circumstances? There isn't any single best fighting style. Each person has his own needs and his own desires. Some people adore Aikido but put an Aikido fighter against an MMA or Krav Maga stylist and in a small confined space and he will be eaten alive. Put a BJJ stylist in against a dozen street fighters and he will be killed. Put a boxer against an escrima/iaido stylist and he will be dead in a second. Best for what? Best for who?

JKD is a style (STYLE) which teaches a very economical method of fighting where mastery is never possible (as in all arts) but understanding and improvement is the goal. It is for me the best but for others is not. Each to their own.

Joshua:

Bruce laid down curriculum for each school. I have a copy of these curriculum which was given to me by my instructor a couple of years before his death. He certainly seemed to believe JKD was a 'style' even though he refused outright to teach it. Obviously he might not have understood Bruce as well as you (he was only one of his best friends and student for 6 years).  Here is a link to where the syllabus are printed:

http://www.leejkd.com/jkd.htm

Please explain to me though why, if JKD is not a 'style' that Linda Lee, Shannon Lee, Dan Lee, Taky Kimura, Pat Strong, and many other people who have trained JKD since well before Bruce died consider it so? Bruce taught a method of executing techniques which are pretty unique (chung Choi, jeet tek, burning step, etc) so what are those?

No offence but here is a dictionary definition of 'style'

1.  The way in which something is said, done, expressed, or performed

2. The combination of distinctive features of literary or artistic expression, execution, or performance characterizing a particular person, group, school, or era.

3. A quality of imagination and individuality expressed in one's actions and tastes

Are you trying to tell me that these don't apply to JKD?  Bruce decried the idea of it becoming a 'commercial' style for reasons I have explained and thus said it wasn't a style to stop people trying to milk him and his art. However, he told EVERYONE he taught that what he was teaching was JKD. In fact to that end, he even gave out certificates to the likes of Dan Inosanto, Ted Wong, Dan Lee, etc. Jeez, on his grave stone it states ' Founder of Jeet Kune Do' - what more do you want?

Answer 4

Jeet Kune Do as an open ended philosophy of combining multiple styles, economy of motion, and "Addition by subtraction" is a great thing, but it in itself is proof that there is no best. You have to decide for yourself what is best from it, and cover all the combat ranges.

There is JKD concepts, and Jun Fan Gung Fu (Which is the style that is an emulation of Bruce Lee's fighting), but those also don't work for everyone. JKD tells you that no two people fight alike. Someone fifty pounds heavier than me isn't going to fight the way I do. Someone a foot shorter than I am won't do that either. We all have to find our own thing.

Answer 5

Well, to answer the question it's important to understand that jeet kune do is not a style, but a method. This method basically says take what's useful, and throw away what's not. This allows the practitioner to develop a unique system that is 'custom fitted' to them. No one in the world could ever learn Bruce Lee's JKD, because it was his own. If you decide to take this path, then, or if you have, then your JKD is your own. As for the best fighting style, well this does not exist, as no one style suits everyone. If there was a style that applied to everyone, and would ensure victory against any other form, then everyone would spend their time learning that. Seeing as how this does not exist, people learn what works for them. Remember, its not the style, form, or method, but the fighter who defines themselves.

Answer 6

there is no best fighting style .. it all depends on who is fighting... the better trained will usually win... although some forms of fighting do better against some other forms..

much like in football... just because the cowboys beat the eagles.. and the eagles beat the giants.. that doesn't mean the cowboys will beat the giants...