# Wing Chun to Jun Fan to Jeet Kune Do



## Xue Sheng (Jul 23, 2012)

I recently had the opportunity given to me to take a free class in Jeet Kune Do and I will say the class changed my mind on my view of it. Until the class I did not have anything against Jeet Kune Do but I looked at it as kick boxing with eye jabs&#8230;. I now feel it is a bit more than that, quite a bit more and I currently look at Jun Fan as Wing Chun simplified on steroids. 

I have come across a few JKD guys that have told me how awesome their style is and how much all others are no good and some even said that Wing Chun was useless.  But I will say the guy teaching did not have that attitude at all. He felt that Wing Chun was rather important and that it was the foundation of Jun fan Gun Fu and without a foundation in Jun fan Gung Fu you would never understand Jeet Kune Do and I have to tell you it all made a lot of sense to me.

I may go back and actually train some Jun Fan, still not sure about that but I have been doing some research, and I came across these two articles (by Lamar M. Davis II) that I thought may be of interest to Wing Chun, Jun Fan and JKD practitioners

Wing Chun to Jun Fan to Jeet Kune Do (Ip man to Bruce Lee)

The Wing Chun/Jeet Kune Do Foundation Structure Connection

There are a couple other articles here as well


----------



## Nabakatsu (Jul 23, 2012)

I started with the second one, it sounds pretty interesting, but there are a lot of things he talks about which are lineage specific, and more importantly to me, not specific to my lineage, so it feels like he doesn't quite know what he's talking about. For example, I've never heard of a wu sau being below the man sau, and I don't understand why someone would want to do things that way, I don't really feel like I have anything constructive to add, just had a hard time not chirping in, I appreciate the reading material none the less, and the desire to share! Thanks


----------



## mook jong man (Jul 23, 2012)

Nabakatsu said:


> I started with the second one, it sounds pretty interesting, but there are a lot of things he talks about which are lineage specific, and more importantly to me, not specific to my lineage, so it feels like he doesn't quite know what he's talking about. For example, I've never heard of a wu sau being below the man sau, and I don't understand why someone would want to do things that way, I don't really feel like I have anything constructive to add, just had a hard time not chirping in, I appreciate the reading material none the less, and the desire to share! Thanks



Having your Wu Sau that low usually results in you getting punched in the throat or allows quick one arm throat grabs to get through.
In our lineage the back hand protects the throat and acts as a back up to anything getting past the front hand.


----------



## geezer (Jul 23, 2012)

Good _Ving Tsun_ is more than enough for me. Although, I admit that what the DTE eskrima guys I train with do is more like JKD ... or what, in my opinion, JKD "should be" ...without capitalizing on the name.


----------



## Domino (Jul 24, 2012)

There was a good PDF posted the other day on Bruces interpretation of wing chun chi sau you might be interested in.

EDIT : Ignore that, it's your thread amigo hahaha. My bad.


----------



## Xue Sheng (Jul 24, 2012)

Domino said:


> There was a good PDF posted the other day on Bruces interpretation of wing chun chi sau you might be interested in.
> 
> EDIT : Ignore that, it's your thread amigo hahaha. My bad.



Yup, that was my thread too


----------



## MacPedro (Jul 24, 2012)

mook jong man said:


> Having your Wu Sau that low usually results in you getting punched in the throat or allows quick one arm throat grabs to get through.
> In our lineage the back hand protects the throat and acts as a back up to anything getting past the front hand.



I fully appreciate the foolishness of lowering your guard MJM though I wondered if it's perhaps possible this is not for fighting but for body development? I tried a low wu sau sort of motion and noticed a bit more of a 'burning' sensation in my forearm. This is just speculation as I don't know a hole in the ground from shinola  and I've yet to read the links. I thought it worth mentioning but do find myself thinking too much sometimes.
Regards,
            Pedro


----------



## Domino (Jul 24, 2012)

Xue Sheng said:


> Yup, that was my thread too



hahaha, my bad, just looking out.


----------



## mook jong man (Jul 24, 2012)

MacPedro said:


> I fully appreciate the foolishness of lowering your guard MJM though I wondered if it's perhaps possible this is not for fighting but for body development? I tried a low wu sau sort of motion and noticed a bit more of a 'burning' sensation in my forearm. This is just speculation as I don't know a hole in the ground from shinola  and I've yet to read the links. I thought it worth mentioning but do find myself thinking too much sometimes.
> Regards,
> Pedro



It depends on what the context is , if I'm doing the SLT form then the Wu Sau will be lower.
Because I am learning to drive my force out and back in a straight line.

But if I'm facing an opponent then I will want to have it positioned at a height where I have to only make a minimal movement to intercept fast and direct attacks.

It's the same for many techniques , Bong Sau for example.
In the form you do it at shoulder height , depending on your lineage , but if you do chi sau with a taller opponent and you try to keep your Bong Sau at the same height as you do in the form then you will get hit.
You have to adjust the technique for the height of the opponent.


----------



## knight2000 (Aug 13, 2012)

I am not suprised with your experience. True Jeet Kune Do,as in what Bruce taught and practiced, is hard to find. The name has been hijacked by people wanting to use it to make money and use the whatever I do is my JKD crap. Considering that Wing Chun makes up about 55-60% of JKD, it should look and feel pretty familiar.


----------



## Thunder Foot (Aug 26, 2012)

Xue Sheng, in my experience good Jun Fan Gung Fu can not be acquired without a solidbase in WingChun. Jun Fan techs attempt to expand on an existent Wing Chun knowledge base. Jian dai lek, Gung lek, fa jin, chiu ying and all those various tools are required before one can start expanding in my opinion. Its like trying to run before you can walk. Furthermore, both of these are required before one can really excel at JKD, as the expansion is taken even further with fencing influence. This attempt at trying to run before one can crawl... just results in watered down techs that become lost  in translation. $0.02.


----------



## celestial_dragon (Oct 22, 2012)

Jun Fan is JKD, Bruce Lee was born with the chinese name Jun Fan Lee. It wasn't until recently that the JKD association changed the name from JKD to Jun Fan JKD.


----------



## James Kovacich (Oct 22, 2012)

celestial_dragon said:


> Jun Fan is JKD, Bruce Lee was born with the chinese name Jun Fan Lee. It wasn't until recently that the JKD association changed the name from JKD to Jun Fan JKD.



What JKD Association?

Sent from my DROID3 using Tapatalk


----------



## Xue Sheng (Oct 23, 2012)

celestial_dragon said:


> Jun Fan is JKD, Bruce Lee was born with the chinese name Jun Fan Lee. It wasn't until recently that the JKD association changed the name from JKD to Jun Fan JKD.


Actually that depends on which JKD camp you belong to but IMO Jun Fan is the first (early) version of JKD but it is not the same as the final product that Lee was promoting at the end of his life. Jun Fan looks more like Wing Chun than JKD. And I know Bruce Lee's actual name was Lee Jun Fan and that his first style was based on his name but what came later, from what I was shown, was not the same. but then the guy I trained with comes from Jerry Poteet and Lamar Davis and that is their view. But from what I understand Dan Insanto may not agree.

And since Bruce Lee wrote The Tao of Jeet Kune do and was quoted on several occasions using the terminology Jeet Kune Doand there are people saying they were there when Bruce Lee came up with the name (I think that is Dan Insanto) it looks to me that Bruce Lee himself changed the name not the JKD association whatever that is


----------

