what is Jeet kune Do

Greetings from Sweden. Michail, I hope that your flight back home went well.

I had 4 very informative training days with Micahil, and I hope that he had 4 evenly informative Jeet Kune do days with me.

During his stay we had many discussions about Jeet kune do and the current situation about JKD in the world, and what could be done to improve it. He described the situation in Poland and invited me to join the discussion on this Forum, as well as personal vists in the future.

Talking to him I feel like we would start this disussion with sorting ot which two basic approaches there is to JKD.

1. JKD Concepts
2. Jun fan JKD

I will of course give you my facts, researcheas, and experineces. I hope that you will not think of me coming on this Forum claiming this is better than that. Therefore I would gladly first let you give your facts and point of view, and then share mine. By "you" I mean everyone intrested in JKD, but it would also be nice to hear from the main repreentatives in Poland.

As for myself I am the only one certified JKD instruktor in Jun Fan JKD under Ted Wong in Scandinavia. Ted Wong is one of only two people in the worls certified by Bruce Lee in The world. We will of course discuss things in the future, like who is certified and in what, and by whom in the JKD world. Who is authaurized to teach, by who and what.

This with certification would be one big difference between Jun fan and Concepts. I would say tha with ever 1 Jun fan JKD certified instructor you would find 100 JKD Concepts. By this i mean that most Jun fan instructors have chosen the exclusive certification, just as Bruce lee did.

I really hope that you will welcome me to your siskussions, just as I was glad and fortunate enough to welcome Michail to sweden and our JKD society. Quoating Bruce lee I would say "under the skies, under the heawens, there is but one race"

I am looking forward to many informative diskussion about JKD. Hopely it will be just like Bruce Lee´s wife Linda Lee wanted when she started the organisation ted wong and Myself represent, The Bruce lee Educational Foundation. What she wanted was to preserve Bruce lee´s jeet Kune Do.

/SteFan

In "videoclip with SteFan" you can find Stefan training JFJKD video clips and pictures of him with Ted Wong as well.

I assure you that soon I will post some clips from my JFJKD training with SteFan.

W temacie "videoclip with Stefan" mozecie obejrzec filmiki SteFana trenujacego JFJKD i zarowno zdjecia Jego z Ted'em Wongiem

Zapewniam was że wkrotce umieszcze wiecej filmikow z mojego treningu JFJKD ze Stefan'em.

Thank you Stefan, I have flew safely back home. It was tremendous 4 days of intensive and very informative JFJKD training. I am very gratefull.

It seams there are no repies on this topic. Thinking JKD, by that I mean analythically asking question about something I came to this.
1. people intrested in JKD has not yet seen this
2. people cannot read or write in English
3. there is no knowledge and fact about this in Poland
4. there is no intrest in the knowledge and facts in Poland
5. people are unwilling to discuss the facts
6. people are not intrested in the facts.

I will nevertheles give my facts and knowledge in the subject since I am hoping that the facts I present will inform people about JKD and a discussion will start.

JKD Concepts. This approach is based upon Dan Inosantos interpretations on Bruce Lee´s teachings. Other people are Richard Bustillo and larry Hartsell. These three people studied with Bruce Lee but only Dan was certified by Bruce Lee in JKD. Larry and Richard received only Jun fan Gung Fu certuificated and their Jeet kune do certifikation comes fron dan Inosanto. The main approach is that you don´t need to train the actual techniques Bruce lee did but you can create your own JKD. You will mainly see Philipino, Indonesian arts, and Thai as well as savate, BJJ. This is because these are the arts Inosanto uses in his JKD and eveyone certified by him follows his way. The idea is that Bruce Lee said "No style", "no way" and "no technique" and in Concepts this is interpreted more or less as doing anything you want, creating your own style and calling it JKD. Bob Breen, paul vunak, burton richardsson are some of the second generation students in the Concepts approcah.

Jun Fan JKD. The only one certified in JKD by Bruce lee in this approach is Ted Wong He is on the Cover of Bruce lee´s Fighting method self Defense techniques and appears in most pictures with Bruce Lee in the book series). Other people are taky Kimura,Jerry poteet, Jesse Glover, Steve Golden, Bob Bremer etc. These peolpe are only certified in Jun fan Gung Fu by Bruce Lee. This approach believes that you are not totally free in your personal style if you are training Jeet kune Do. Bruce Lee wrote down over 6000 pages of material on his JKD. He wrote the facts of JKD, The root of JKD, he said JKD must be simple direct and non classical, JKD is daily decrease not daily increase. When you for example teach a Muay Thay Kick or Kali sticks it would not be JKD for a Jun fan practitioner, but only your own style since this is a classical method, the techniques are not sinple and direct etc. In jun fan we still research new methods, but we are "restricted" by Bruce lee´s principles of JKD if we study JKD. The prinvciple of "No way", No Style, no technique is more mental than not having any specific method or technique. The idea in Jun Fan JKD is that you find the simple, direct, and non-classical techniques and start refining it untill it becomes second nature, so that you don´t hve to think about it. As Bruce Lee said in enter the Dragon "I do not hit, it hits all by itself". In Jun Fan one believes that if you have 10 stances it will take you longer to become spontaneous than with 1 stance. second generation students would be myself under ted wong, Tim tacket under Bob Bremer and in Jun fan Gung Fu and Inosanto in JKD, etc.

So when someone is claiming to teach Jeet kune Do you can ask them if thet are representing jun fan or Concepts approach. Then you also have the right to ask about lineage. Unfortunately there are too many "fortuneseakers" out in the worls that claim this and that and acll it JKD. This is what Linda Lee wanted to stop with the Bruce lee educational foundation. I think that this is a good idea, I would also understand that these so called fortuneseakers wouls say that it is not necessary and not such a wonderful idea

/SteFan

This is a great article. I think that most of Polish people can't understand written English language that's why I will translate your posts SteFan for them.

So can u tell us a ptactical differences between JFJKD and JKD Concepts? Wich tranings method are for sure not original JFJKD? I'm reading "Tao of JKD" and i find there techniques from MT, Judo, Savate etc

I'm young student of JKD so don't be startled of my questions

On this forum sometime appear user with nick W.A., He is instruktor of JKD and i think you two might lead interting conversation.

Zmieniony przez - Swamprage w dniu 2008-04-09 19:38:27

The first thing you should understand when you read the Tao of JKD is that it is put together from Bruce lee´s notes after his death. We cannot be 100% sure if it was only his research or actuallly what he would have called JKD. Take the picture of the Savate kick, and many of the Grappling pictures. He studied them,wrote down them, but they never ended up in his jeet kune do.

As far as training differences. a JKD Concepts practitoner would use his rear leg just as a thai boxer and would shuffle back with his lead foot before executing a Lead leg Round kick (I hope that you are familiar with that lead leg Shuffle Thai Kick). This is by my opinion just somebody using Bruce Lee´s name to promote either Muay Thai or "their own JKD". JKD uses 80& Lead leg/hand and use Directnes (Simple, direct non-classical as bruce said) and goes directlty to the target. This is done by doing the JKD Burst going directly to the target without chanbering the kicking leg before or after the kick when jun fan does the same kick. There was a specific way Bruce executed a kick, and by my oppinion many people whot claims to teach his art have no idea about how he did it, and therefore simply made "their own JKD"

Another typical thing that you might see in Concepts aproach is the so called Hubud Drilling/respons. This would be when you Parry-pass-check-Hit. This is three passive movements before you hit? JKD is supposed to be Direct, stophitting, not doing nothing-nothing-nothing and then countering. In Jun fan we use Interception by either Stop Hitting, Single Time hitting or response hitting according to your abilities in JKD. If you don´t hear terminology like this by my oppinion you are not being thought JKD.

You mentioned this JKD authority in Poland. Michail did it too. Could you please write down his name. Hopefully he will himself join this discussion and start to explain his point of view, his experience and background in JKD. I think that it is important that we are thorough when we look at people claiming to teach JKD. I don´t know how it ia in Poland but in Scandinavia everybody is a "JKD Specialist" after reading a book or being on a seminar. This is what Linda Lee wants to put an end to. Isn´t it funny how this would never happen in Karate or another martial art. You can´t just read a book, make up your own Karate Style and start to taech. Everybody would tell you that you are not authorized and any good martial artist would see that their quality is poor. unfortunately the beginner student doesn´t see this and think that this instructor is god, until they see a authorized teacher.

Funny that this does not apply to JKD, or at least I hope that when beginners start to see authentic/certified JKD they will see the difference, the truth. In JKD it seams to be okey to take Bruce lee´s art and totally disrespect him by making up authorization in his art. Hopefully I will help to sort out these things in Poland

SteFan

Hello Stefan! Welcome on SFD forum. I am Apprentice Instructor in PFS (Paul Vunak) and I am student of Rick Young - Full Instructor under Dan Inosanto.
I hope we will discuss many subjects related to JKD.
Cheers

Michal Kiczela
www.vataha.pl

PS Sorry for my "english" ;)

Hello Michal Kiczela,

What do you think about my JKD Concepts desciption. Would you say that I am correct or is there anything yo would like to add or change in my description about the differences betwee jun fan JKD and JKD Concepts.

/SteFan

Maybe one thing...
As called JKD Concepts guys, like Rick Young, knows JF stuff. Dan taught them. I dont know if everyone of them, but Rick told me about that.
Dan is teaching it with time period division, like Seatle time, LA time etc.
I dont see anything wrong with the concepts unless You know basic rules of JKD and You know the "old" material. Seeking Your way and selfdevelopement is good, in my opinion...
Cheers

By saying Jun Fan Jeet Kune Do SteFan didn't meant Jun Fan Gung Fu. This is what JKD concepts people think that JKD is just a concept based on Jun Fan Gung Fu. Jun Fan Jeet Kune Do term is made to underline the meaning that this is Bruce Lee's Jeet Kune Do. ;)

The thing is that the L.A school in Chinatown was more like Jun Fan Gung Fu oriented. Jeet Kune Do was thought by Bruce Lee privately. Ted Wong is the las private student of Bruce Lee and he is the only one with the greatest amount of hours training with Bruce privately. He is also considered as being his protege. The JKD concepts guys don't know what JFJKD really is. JKD is not about adding new technique every day but it is about refinment.