I'm currently doing Judo as I have been for a while but I really want to get involved in the MMA scene. You see this craze about JKD started for me when reading a MA Australian magizine called BLITZ and it had a whole section on JKD. I then hired Bruce Lee's training vid Jeet Kune Do and while it blew me away it also popped thousands of questions into my head.

I just need help with a few main ones. What's the difference between MMA and JKD as I hear JKD is the pathless way and is not about the styles etc. Also would I be able to apply my judo experience to this martial art? Lastly is there some catch to this martial art as it sounds too good to be true .

Thanks heaps, hope i put this in the right section :).

Hi Leeman.

I'm currently doing Judo as I have been for a while but I really want to get involved in the MMA scene.
Do you wish to compete in MMA?

I just need help with a few main ones. What's the difference between MMA and JKD as I hear JKD is the pathless way and is not about the styles etc.
I think it'd be fair to summarise and say there are two main definitions of JKD.
There's the Jun Fan groups, following BL's teachings.
Then there's the concepts groups, who are arguably more progressive.
Some JKD groups are sufficiently encompassing that their training could be classed as MMA.
The popular vision of MMA is manifest in its sporting medium.

Also would I be able to apply my judo experience to this martial art?
Absolutely.

Lastly is there some catch to this martial art as it sounds too good to be true .
JKD?
Well yeah, there's a lot of politics, bickering and accusations of being a Bruce Lee wannabe for starters.

Hope that was of some help.

Thanks heaps, really love the fast replies :).

leeman wrote:
Thanks heaps, really love the fast replies :).


Here's Tommy Carruthers, probably the best guy to look at from the Jun Fan groups.



Various concept groups have spun off into defferent things, e.g. Dog Brothers

just remember that jeet kune do, is one mans concept, its an idea.

A very good idea, Im sure your already aware JKD is not a style, and cannot be taught, only understood.

Its an interesting one JKD.

One mans rejection of a classical system and taking all the stuff from various arts he studied.

However, wouldnt you argue that after 30 years of books been published and of course video/dvd that JKD has become a fixed style rather then a fluid evolving martial art?

PeteMills wrote:


However, wouldnt you argue that after 30 years of books been published and of course video/dvd that JKD has become a fixed style rather then a fluid evolving martial art?
As an idea, I think it's very much alive.

Of course, the idea that we change, absorb, adapt etc is intrinsic to mankind and nature itself.

JKD becomes fixed by outside perspective.

It's like watching an Olympic 100M race and taking a picture.
The picture cannot convey the race.

If it aint a style can't new styles be made from JKD?

Also I can't find JKD in my area is it not too popular a martial art?





Thanks :).

It's like watching an Olympic 100M race and taking a picture.
The picture cannot convey the race.


True, but couldnt you say in the same breath there becomes a fixed way of leaving the starting blocs? A fixed way of training this way?

For example in JKD, you have the straight lead - I have the book at home written by Ted Wongs daughter using the materials of Bruce Lees library - surely that in itself is an example of how JKD has become fixed as a style. Non?

Got distracted from this with my trip to London last week.

PeteMills wrote:



True, but couldnt you say in the same breath there becomes a fixed way of leaving the starting blocs? A fixed way of training this way?

For example in JKD, you have the straight lead - I have the book at home written by Ted Wongs daughter using the materials of Bruce Lees library - surely that in itself is an example of how JKD has become fixed as a style. Non?

Certainly, with the Jun Fan groups there is more of a fixed syllabus to get through.
Not so much in the concepts groups, some of which don't even use the name any more, so I guess the concept is still very much alive, though this was not invented by BL.
It's just the natural progession of things that we forget while caught up in the moment.

There is an interview with Diana Lee Inosanto on this site she says that JKD is more of the philosophy behind the MA.
So really it relates to anything as its more the understanding rather than the MA itself?

Is that correct?

Not quite Pete, a straight lead is efficient, JKD is always striving for for efficiency of movement balanced through expression. If your thinking is static is will cling to the familiar, if it is dynamic, you will change your whole understanding of your art over time.
I would agree with mule, that you can never convey JKD because philisophy depends on perspective. I asked my teacher how much training I would have to do to catch up with him. His response was, he was behind me?