# Is it jkd?



## Martial D (May 24, 2017)

Lifelong student of combat, I started with Wing Chun, but as a young man found it insufficient on it's own. When I was 16 I attained Bruce Lee's book, the tao of Jeet Kune Do. I must have read it 1000 times.

I endeavored to study and train in several of the styles he talked about, such as boxing and fencing, and have suplimented that by borrowing from, and training with, various martial arts including Mui Thai, BJJ, Karate, Arnis, 52, whatever and whoever I could find to supliment my physical expression..always framed within the context of 'no' style.

Yet, I have never trained at a jkd school, or with jkd people.

Is it JKD?


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## Headhunter (May 24, 2017)

No you've just trained in those styles


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## ShortBridge (May 24, 2017)

As a lifelong student of combat you determined that Wing Chun isn't sufficient by the time you were 16?


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## Tony Dismukes (May 24, 2017)

You can make arguments either way.

My personal thoughts go like this: I've trained in a variety of styles, including BJJ, Muay Thai, Boxing, Wing Tsun, and Kali. My personal fighting style is my own expression of the principles I've found useful in these different arts. It has at least some resemblance to what I've seen from some JKD practitioners and some people would say my approach matches the philosophy of JKD.

_However_ - I feel using the name "JKD" would be deceptive on a couple of levels. Firstly, using the name would imply to potential students that I have some direct lineal connection to Bruce Lee, which I do not. Secondly, JKD has earned a certain degree of prestige in some circles based on the accomplishments of Bruce Lee and his students and his students' students. Claiming to be a practitioner of JKD when I have no connection to those people would feel like an attempt to steal their reputation by implication. I don't appreciate it when a practitioner of some generic submission grappling style claims to do BJJ, so I don't imagine someone who has devoted years to studying JKD would appreciate my claiming the name.

If names are not important, then I can just say I practice my own personal expression of everything I've learned without worrying about stylistic boundaries. Bruce Lee may have done the same, but so have countless other martial artists. If names _are_ important, I could come up with my own. No need to swipe someone else's.


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## DanT (May 24, 2017)

Your determination was incorrect. Try again.


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## hoshin1600 (May 24, 2017)

i agree with Tony.
you may follow the same path and concepts as Bruce but unless you have a linage to him why would you want to use the name ?  i follow a lot of concepts he used but what i do is not JKD.  if the linage is not there then the only reason to use the JKD name would be deception for personal gain.
however the OP question could be a bit deeper than just the name. we may have had this discussion before on MT.   what exactly is JKD?  if it is a philosophy of self exploration into various arts, and the foundation arts can be from any source, if you follow the philosophy does it matter if you dont do wing tsun?  what are the defining attributes that make it JKD?


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## Buka (May 24, 2017)

The oft quoted _A rose by any other name would smell as sweet _might apply.


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## Martial D (May 24, 2017)

ShortBridge said:


> As a lifelong student of combat you determined that Wing Chun isn't sufficient by the time you were 16?


No, I was a stupid 16 year old that thought he knew it all.


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## hoshin1600 (May 24, 2017)

Martial D said:


> No, I was a stupid 16 year old that thought he knew it all.


weren't we all.  i was stupid at 16......and 18....and 20, 30, 40..........


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## ShortBridge (May 24, 2017)

Martial D said:


> No, I was a stupid 16 year old that thought he knew it all.



Hey, me too!


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## Andrew Green (May 24, 2017)

Martial D said:


> Is it JKD?



No, think of styles like franchises... just less formal.

You can fry up chicken according to Colonel Saunders recipes, serve up the same gravy and fries along with it, but you don't get to call it a KFC just because you have the same food.

And why would you want too?  So much of Bruce's philosophy was about doing your own thing and breaking the traps of traditional arts.  Don't go and recreate those traps in his name.  I'm not sure how you can claim to follow a philosophy of "no style" when you are trying to imitate someone else style and use the name they gave it.  

I do think it's safe to say that if Bruce had lived in the 2010's instead of the 1960's his style would look rather different.  Same if it had been the 1910's instead.


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## Martial D (May 24, 2017)

No, you have it all wrong..I am certainly not trying to emulate Bruce Lee's style. I couldn't..his style was perfectly attuned to someone who was 5'5" and 130 pounds, with his strengths and his weaknesses. 

What I took from his jkd was and is more philosophical in nature. Don't be constrained, play to your body type and your physical attributes in your attack and in your training. Read your opponent and stop hit. Don't be rigid, be like water. Formless form.
Don't think of winning or losing, only perfect execution.

These ideas have helped and inspired me greatly over the years, and are the package I fit all my MA training into. 

You guys are probably right though, not JKD.


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## Xue Sheng (May 25, 2017)

Again let me remind you Jeet Kune Do is just a name used, a boat to get one across, and once across it is to be discarded and not to be carried on one's back.  - Bruce Lee


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## wingchun100 (May 26, 2017)

Bruce has said in many of his writings that he calls what HE does JKD. While you may have created a hodge podge of styles, it is not JKD because you are not Bruce Lee, nor are you associated with any JKD people.


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## wingchun100 (May 26, 2017)

There is a gentleman who runs a martial arts school upstairs from my old Wing Chun school. He teaches concepts that he got from Wing Chun, as well as elements from a few others. Although he has mixed things just like Bruce did, he does not call it JKD. The school is called Modern Self-Defense Academy. If what you have is a mix of styles, you could give it your own name.


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## Isaiah90 (Jul 24, 2018)

Martial D said:


> Lifelong student of combat, I started with Wing Chun, but as a young man found it insufficient on it's own. When I was 16 I attained Bruce Lee's book, the tao of Jeet Kune Do. I must have read it 1000 times.
> 
> I endeavored to study and train in several of the styles he talked about, such as boxing and fencing, and have suplimented that by borrowing from, and training with, various martial arts including Mui Thai, BJJ, Karate, Arnis, 52, whatever and whoever I could find to supliment my physical expression..always framed within the context of 'no' style.
> 
> ...



It depends on many things. 

Does it teach interception? 

Does it teach various tactics that Bruce used? 

Is it adaptable? 

Is it simple, efficient, and practical? 

All of those things will tell you if it's JKD or not.


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## Martial D (Jul 25, 2018)

Isaiah90 said:


> It depends on many things.
> 
> Does it teach interception?
> 
> ...


Hmm. It doesn't teach anything;there is no it. It is me.

With that said. Yes, I do stop hits regularly. I'm a righty that boxes southpaw, the right jab and right front kick are my 'blocks' so to speak.

Yes, I tend to view combat in terms of the 4 ranges of jkd, although my responses, as a 210 pound man that is 6'3", differ from that of 5'6" 130 pound Lee.(which was also something he talked about)

Adaptable, simple, efficient, and practical..more so every day, at least I like to think so.

I view JKD as a philosophical and strategic base rather than a crystalized set of techniques, stances, and movements.


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## Bino TWT (Aug 6, 2018)

Here's a bit of info to let soak in; Bruce Lee technically didn't even write the Tao of Jeet Kune Do. It was compiled, organized, arranged, and published a few years after his death by his widow Linda Lee-Cadwell, Dan Inosanto, and the editor Gilbert Johnson, borrowing heavily from the book he actually wrote, the Tao of Gung Fu (which was also published posthumously) , and his random personal notes from all of his notebooks over the years. Not to say it isn't a good book, because it is, but it's not the secret blueprint that Bruce left behind. As far as Bruce is concerned, that book never existed.


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## Regroove (Mar 7, 2020)

Good question, I wrote a humble article on this here: Jeet Kune Do.


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