Techniques In Jeet Kune Do - JKD
Techniques In Jeet Kune Do - JKD
Jeet Kune Do : literal meaning: "Way of the Intercepting Fist"), also Jeet Kun Do or JKD, is the system developed by Bruce Lee.
This eclectic system combines techniques taken from some other martial arts; the trapping and short-range punches of Wing Chun, the kicks of northern kung fu styles as well as Savate, some footwork found in Fencing and the techniques of Western Boxing, among others. It should be noted that JKD is not a hybrid system, rather, it is Bruce Lee's personal interpretation of the martial arts. Bruce Lee stated that his concept is not an "adding to" of more and more things on top of each other to form a system, but rather, a winnowing out. I
Techniques In Jeet Kune Do, is what was left at the time of Bruce Lee's death. It is the culmination of the life-long martial art development process Lee went through. JKD was heavily influenced by Western Boxing and Fencing (Bruce gave up on the more traditional Wing Chun elements because he felt that they were only good at medium range, not at long range, where he claimed real fights often start), the result was that Bruce stopped using many of the Wing Chun stances he had learned in favor of what he claimed were more fluid, flexible Western fencing and boxing stances. The claim is that allowed him to "flow", not to be stuck in stances, a positioning that Lee believed was a feature of some of traditional Wing Chun that he dismissed as the "classic mess".
JKD not only combines some aspects of different styles, it also simplifies many of those aspects that it adopts. For example, Bruce Lee almost always chose to put his power hand in the "lead," with his weaker hand back, therefore he almost always used the right hand stance of Wing Chun in JKD and discarded the left hand and center stance. This is not the case in all modern branches of JKD, some follow the favored left hand forward stance of western Boxing.
Lee emphasized what he believed to be the combat effectiveness of JKD, and did not stress the memorization of kata, the way that most traditional styles do in their beginning level training. While practicing Western wrestling moves, Lee was once pinned by a skillful opponent, who asked what Lee would do if he actually found himself in this situation. Lee replied, "Well, I'd bite you, of course." The JKD theory being that a fighter should do whatever is necessary to defend him or herself. Lee's goal in JKD was to break down what he claimed were limiting factors in the training of the traditional styles, and seek a fighting art which he believed could only be found in the event of a fight. JKD is nowadays seen as the first of the modern spate of mixed martial arts.
JKD followers claim that it is not a fighting style so much as a fighting philosophy. What JKD practitioners describe as the weakness of traditional martial arts is its "rote memorization" disciplines. They claim that these memorized movements will not be of help in an actual street fight. JKD does not make one a good fighter, they claim, it makes one a better fighter.
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Techniques In Jeet Kune Do, is part of a series of Jeet Kune Do articles we have here.
