Jeet Kune Do, style or not?

[Xue Sheng]

I was reading “Bruce Lee, Artist of Life

Bruce Lee was quoted as saying

Jeet Kune Do favors formlessness so that it can assume all forms and since Jeet Kune Do has no style, it can fit in with all styles. As a result, Jeet Kune Do utilizes all ways and is bound by none and, likewise, uses any techniques or means which serve its end.”

But in a letter to Taky Kimura he refers to a “system” which to me says style

Form the letter in the book

Following the above suggestions will give you endless hours of instructions, Of course, you must use the set system, that is REPETITION, of each technique in sets for perfection. You begin now immediately to work on what I mentioned and apply all you’ve learned with ECONOMY OF MOTION — You will double your speed and skill doing just that
I hope I have impressed in your mind a most important rule of our style—-Stick to the program, I’ve given you, use variety, and do not worry too much and do not worry to much that your students need more and more to stay with you—truly [only] if they can do perfectly all you’ve taught them [/quote}

I'm not trying to start anything here, but I am of the opinion, that no matter what Bruce Lee wanted, JKD has become a style.

Although I will admit that any JKD I have trained, I tend to look at like this

"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,

I am also not sure when he wrote the letter to Taky Kimura, but talking about a system does sound like a style to me

 

[Holmejr]

When I was training JKD in the late 70’s there was definitely a style to it. Boxing, savate kicking, elements of WC. At the end of every class we did FMA for 15 minutes. It was called JKD. Was it simply Danny’s version? I don’t know.

 

[Buka]

Call it a style, a system, whatever, but it’s open ended and really good in my experience.

By “open ended” I mean if they find a better way of doing something they’ll add it to their existing curriculum. At least the Jeet schools that I’ve been to.

 

[Xue Sheng]

Call it a style, a system, whatever, but it’s open ended and really good in my experience.

By “open ended” I mean if they find a better way of doing something they’ll add it to their existing curriculum. At least the Jeet schools that I’ve been to.

It has been my experience too, what little experience i have had with it anyway. Style, system, or something else, isn't really that important, but I was wondering what others felt

 

[Xue Sheng]

When I was training JKD in the late 70’s there was definitely a style to it. Boxing, savate kicking, elements of WC. At the end of every class we did FMA for 15 minutes. It was called JKD. Was it simply Danny’s version? I don’t know.

I trained with one guy that comes from Dan Inosanto, but more (still not much actually) from the Jerry Poteet side of the JKD fence

 

[Taiji Rebel]

Perhaps the system was devised to allow Taky to teach absolute beginners. Every martial art has principles and concepts on which it techniques are based. Once the basic foundations and patterns are memorized it becomes easier to play with the concepts that underly the forms. Without some kind of system to work with there is going to plenty of chaos, confusion and ambiguity. At least when you have a basic framework/system in place it gives students the opportunity to transcend the forms and play with the principles - I reckon that's what Bruce was addressing when writing to Taky.