What is Jeet Kune Do? I'm Confused.

:: By Adam Williss ::

Who knows any more? I started training in Wing Chun in 1995 and after all these years I still haven't figured it out. Here's what I've learned... Jeet Kune Do was created by Bruce Lee. It means Way of the Intercepting Fist. For the most part, Jeet Kune Do is a hodgepodge of the individual Jeet Kune Do instructor's martial arts experience. There are a few exceptions, but mainly its just a mixture of this and that and something else and then the other thing. There are so many different interpretations of JKD. Each person's particular interpretation claims to be the only true and correct interpretation. There seems to be those practitioners that only use Jeet Kune Do concepts and those that just use Jeet Kune Do. But there's no way for a novice to tell the difference between the two. The people using Jeet Kune Do concepts are really mixed martial artists. But what is Jeet Kune Do concepts? This shouldn't be too hard to distinguish, right? Here's where it gets even more confusing. Jeet Kune Do principles are pretty much Wing Chun principles. Don't let Jeet Kune Do practitioner's fool you into thinking its concepts were original when Bruce Lee put them into writing. And don't let people tell you that Bruce Lee was the original mixed martial artist. Martial arts have been evolving since the beginning of time and they will continue to evolve. So why did Bruce Lee create a whole new name for his version of Wing Chun? Basically, because could. Bruce Lee was the man. No martial arts figure has ever been held in such a high regard as Bruce Lee. Plus, Bruce and his Wing Chun teacher, Yip Man, parted on bad terms. Even when he started teaching, he called his style Chinese Gung Fu or Jun Fan Gung Fu (his Chinese name was Jun Fan). Make no mistake, whether Bruce called it Jeet Kune Do or Jun Fan, his martial art was Wing Chun. And for those that practice Bruce Lee's Jeet Kune Do as he taught it, don't be fooled, they're practicing Bruce Lee's Wing Chun.

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:: By Adam Williss :: Who knows any more? I started training in Wing Chun in 1995 and after all these years I still haven't figured it out. Here's what I've learned... Jeet Kune Do was created by Bruce Lee. It means Way of the Intercepting Fist. For the most part, Jeet Kune Do is a hodgepodge of the individual Jeet Kune Do instructor's martial arts experience. There are a few exceptions, but mainly its just a mixture of this and that and something else and then the other thing. There are so many different interpretations of JKD. Each person's particular interpretation claims to be the only true and correct interpretation. There seems to be those practitioners that only use Jeet Kune Do concepts and those that just use Jeet Kune Do. But there's no way for a novice to tell the difference between the two. The people using Jeet Kune Do concepts are really mixed martial artists. But what is Jeet Kune Do concepts? This shouldn't be too hard to distinguish, right? Here's where it gets even more confusing. Jeet Kune Do principles are pretty much Wing Chun principles. Don't let Jeet Kune Do practitioner's fool you into thinking its concepts were original when Bruce Lee put them into writing. And don't let people tell you that Bruce Lee was the original mixed martial artist. Martial arts have been evolving since the beginning of time and they will continue to evolve. So why did Bruce Lee create a whole new name for his version of Wing Chun? Basically, because could. Bruce Lee was the man. No martial arts figure has ever been held in such a high regard as Bruce Lee. Plus, Bruce and his Wing Chun teacher, Yip Man, parted on bad terms. Even when he started teaching, he called his style Chinese Gung Fu or Jun Fan Gung Fu (his Chinese name was Jun Fan). Make no mistake, whether Bruce called it Jeet Kune Do or Jun Fan, his martial art was Wing Chun. And for those that practice Bruce Lee's Jeet Kune Do as he taught it, don't be fooled, they're practicing Bruce Lee's Wing Chun.