Studying Wing Chun & JKD at the same time

[StormShadow]

Has anyone done this and what were/are the obstacles you've faced? I am back into jkd and also 3 months into wing chun. I am just learning how to incoporate the punching I have learned so far with movement. I know the stances between wing chun are different. The movement of feet is not entirely different though. I am just wondering will I negatively impact my wing chun training. And at the crux, a additional question, can one really be under two sifu's at once? And if so, does doing so violate some ethic?

 

[Xue Sheng]

The guy I trained JKD with would likely think it is a good thing since he wa sof the beleif that to really understand JKD you needed a base of Wing Chun and/or Jun Fan

 

[StormShadow]

Sheng, I actually believe the same thing from having been in jkd in the past for a short time. After taking wing chun I grew to love it alot and I also love jkd. Though, I really to not want to impede my wing chun training with the idea of being "formless" when in fact I am trying to master forms in wing chun... lol I laugh because in the most both are so much alike yet different.

 

[Argus]

Which art do you really want to focus on, or are you just exploring them both?

If your focus is JKD, I think Wing Chun will help your JKD significantly.

If your focus is Wing Chun, then JKD might actually be detrimental. But then again, it might not; it depends on your teacher, and on you, and how well you are able to keep the two separate in practice.

If you're just exploring both, don't worry about it yet. Just explore each art for what it is.

That's just my impression though; I've never trained JKD personally.

 

[Xue Sheng]

Which art do you really want to focus on, or are you just exploring them both?

If your focus is JKD, I think Wing Chun will help your JKD significantly.

If your focus is Wing Chun, then JKD might actually be detrimental. But then again, it might not; it depends on your teacher, and on you, and how well you are able to keep the two separate in practice.

If you're just exploring both, don't worry about it yet. Just explore each art for what it is.

That's just my impression though; I've never trained JKD personally.

That may be true, I have trained a little of both and I can see only benefit to JKD training Wing Chun, but I can see a potential harm to Wing Chun training JKD.

I never trained them both enough to know for sure

 

[knight2000]

I did the same thing. If you are learning authentic Jeet Kune Do then 60 percent of it is Wing Chun. The only hard thing is sometimes trying to forget things when doing Wing Chun. For instance I am always raising my rear heel but that is JKD not wing Chun

 

[arnisador]

Similar hands, very different stances--studying both is good but together may be a challenge!

 

[Xue Sheng]

I did the same thing. If you are learning authentic Jeet Kune Do then 60 percent of it is Wing Chun. The only hard thing is sometimes trying to forget things when doing Wing Chun. For instance I am always raising my rear heel but that is JKD not wing Chun

I actually trained more Jun Fan than JKD but it is the stance where I saw an issue going back to Wing Chun from JKD and even though JF is much closer to Wing Chun that JKD there is still a stance issue

Similar hands, very different stances--studying both is good but together may be a challenge!

Agreed

But I have to say, and this is just my opinion so take it for what it is worth, if I were a younger man and faced with the choice between Wing Chun and Jun Fan/JKD...I would have picked Jun Fan/JKD..... actually I likely would have stuck with Jun Fan over both. And that is not saying any one of those is better than the other it is just saying Jun Fan appealed to me more

 

[StormShadow]

Which art do you really want to focus on, or are you just exploring them both?

If your focus is JKD, I think Wing Chun will help your JKD significantly.

If your focus is Wing Chun, then JKD might actually be detrimental. But then again, it might not; it depends on your teacher, and on you, and how well you are able to keep the two separate in practice.

If you're just exploring both, don't worry about it yet. Just explore each art for what it is.

That's just my impression though; I've never trained JKD personally.

Right now, I truly want to focus more on wing chun. I can see how the stances could be detrimental as they are very different. Some of the structures in kicking as well. I guess I will have to kind of "forget the other" when I practice each.

 

[StormShadow]

I did the same thing. If you are learning authentic Jeet Kune Do then 60 percent of it is Wing Chun. The only hard thing is sometimes trying to forget things when doing Wing Chun. For instance I am always raising my rear heel but that is JKD not wing Chun

I'm learning from instructors taught by Sifu Poteet. I'm not sure if that is authentic or not but I know sifu Poteet directly learned under master Lee. I will say, the jkd stance feels more natural to me than the wing chun stances. Maybe it's due to previously having experience in jkd when I was younger.

 

[StormShadow]

Similar hands, very different stances--studying both is good but together may be a challenge!

This seems to be the consensus from everyone here. Though, I don't want to quit one and I do not want to hamper my wing chun training.

 

[geezer]

Interesting question. If you are a creative, open-minded individual and you study WC long enough, I suspect that eventually "JKD" happens ...at least in the broader, more philosophical sense. If you are a narrow minded follower, no matter how long you study anything, you will remain a narrow-minded follower.


I have been doing WC for a long time now, and lord knows, I still have tons to learn. But I've also trained Filipino Martial Arts since the 80's. My current guro/coach helps me understand how to integrate concepts from boxing, grappling, short and long range fighting, with and without weapons ... and make it work with my personal WC instincts. One time we were talking about how well it all worked together, and yet was still so different for each member of our FMA group depeding on their personal inclinations, abilities and their differing experiences in other martial arts. Our instructor leaned back and said, Yeah, it ends up almost like JKD, ...or at least what JKD was meant to be.

For what it's worth, I train these arts separately, and wouldn't ever teach a "blended system". But, in sparring (or if I had to use MA for self -defense) I wouldn't worry about keeping things so pure and discreet as I am more focused on functionality and effectiveness, and what will work for me.

 

[Xue Sheng]

I'm learning from instructors taught by Sifu Poteet. I'm not sure if that is authentic or not but I know sifu Poteet directly learned under master Lee. I will say, the jkd stance feels more natural to me than the wing chun stances. Maybe it's due to previously having experience in jkd when I was younger.

So did I, sifu Poteet certified him to teach, and after that he trained with Lamar M. Davis. He taught me a heck of lot about martial arts in a very short time that applied to the other arts I train. He taught me a heck of a lot about martial arts in a very short time that was applicable to all the other arts I trained

 

[Argus]

Interesting question. If you are a creative, open-minded individual and you study WC long enough, I suspect that eventually "JKD" happens ...at least in the broader, more philosophical sense. If you are a narrow minded follower, no matter how long you study anything, you will remain a narrow-minded follower.


I have been doing WC for a long time now, and lord knows, I still have tons to learn. But I've also trained Filipino Martial Arts since the 80's. My current guro/coach helps me understand how to integrate concepts from boxing, grappling, short and long range fighting, with and without weapons ... and make it work with my personal WC instincts. One time we were talking about how well it all worked together, and yet was still so different for each member of our FMA group depeding on their personal inclinations, abilities and their differing experiences in other martial arts. Our instructor leaned back and said, Yeah, it ends up almost like JKD, ...or at least what JKD was meant to be.

For what it's worth, I train these arts separately, and wouldn't ever teach a "blended system". But, in sparring (or if I had to use MA for self -defense) I wouldn't worry about keeping things so pure and discreet as I am more focused on functionality and effectiveness, and what will work for me.

That's a very interesting way of looking at it.

I have to say, if I were interested in JKD, I might be more inclined to just study the arts from which it derived individually, than to try to learn them all as one blended and mixed method.

 

[MindWarrior]

I train in Tsui Shong Tin as well as Wong Shun Leung. While probably not as much of a contrast as JKD vrs WC, there are enough differences to make you really think about the difference. Being forced to think and make up my own mind about things has been hugely beneficial to me. I would imagine cross training in JKD would have a similar effect.

 

[angelariz]

Sigung Francis Fong and Sifu Kevin Seaman are both amazing and both practice JKD and TWC.
So, naturally wanting to move like them i have been training TWC, Arnis, and JKD.