As Bruce Lee said, “The art of Jeet Kune Do is simply to simplify.”

Seriously, what is so difficult to understand about this concept?

I haven’t been very up-to-date on Jeet Kune Do politics until recently, but now that I have begun spreading the word about JKD on a larger level (namely the internet) I’m seeing a JKD community that could really use a timeout and reassessment.

I have a healthy respect for all martial art forms and I am happy to see that the rise of the NHB (no-holds-barred) type of organizations like the Ultimate Fighting Championship and Mixed Martial Arts has truly opened the world up to the exploration and experimentation of other fighting systems. With this in mind, there is also a trend of so-called Jeet Kune Do practitioners transforming what they call JKD into an ever growing and complicating hybrid system.

So what’s my point? I’ll be blunt. Jeet Kune Do is not MMA and it is not an amalgamation of endless martial arts systems.

Jeet Kune Do is a scientific bare bones approach to the art of self defense. In essence, it is martial arts filtered through a medium of efficiency, directness, and simplicity in the laboratory of human biomechanics. Less is more.

Sure, you can apply some Jeet Kune Do principles to other fighting systems to make them more efficient and effective, but this does not make that system JKD. I already see the counter argument that is so often used in this situation. It would be claimed that this rigid blind-faith standpoint of protecting the “Original” JKD is exactly what Bruce Lee was trying to avoid. As good intentioned as this argument is, the key element that is being missed is the fact that, as Bruce Lee stated, “unless human beings have 3 arms and 3 legs, then we will have a different way of fighting.”

The human body can only apply force in so many ways, developing new techniques and variations only serves to entertain those with the impatience to perfect the fundamentals.

Happy Training,

–
Nhan-Esteban Khuong, L.Ac.
www.SGVJeetKuneDo.com