Jeet Kune Do is the martial arts system developed by actor and martial arts expert Bruce Lee. Jeet Kune Do translates to “method of intercepting the fist”. Bruce Lee was very clear about Jeet Kune Do. Initially, when Bruce Lee started researching the different styles of martial arts fighting, he named his own style of fighting “Jun Fan Gung Fu”. However, Bruce Lee was more concerned with the way the different styles of martial art fighting had limited themselves. He therefore conceptualized the Jeet Kune Do philosophy and fighting system in the year 1967.
What makes Jeet Kune Do so different from the other styles?
The first thing about Jeet Kune Do, according to Bruce Lee, was that it was not a separate or different style of its own. Jeet Kune Do is more of a method than a style, which most people are led to believe that it is. Bruce Lee incorporated into Jeet Kune Do his techniques of economy of time and movement. Bruce Lee extolled that Jeet Kune Do was not a separate style of its own, to be compared with other styles. It is a method by which one can develop an independent, and more importantly, limitless style of fighting for themselves. In other words, Jeet Kune Do is a method by which one can develop and find new techniques and styles of their own!
Though Jeet Kune Do is governed by Lee’s philosophy with regards to time and movement, he stresses to point that the purpose of Jeet Kune Do was not to confine fighters to itself, but rather help fighters explore new techniques and efficient fighting systems as he himself did. Lee was against rules and hard lines that governed classical fighting systems because according to him, a fight is an unpredictable situation that could change every millisecond, and hence only spontaneity and liveliness can save one’s skin- not the rhythmic kata’s, that classical martial arts employed in initial training.
What are the basic principles of Jeet Kune Do?
Jeet Kune Do, as conceived by Bruce Lee, was like water. He said that water takes the shape of the utensil it is poured into, whether a teapot or a cup. Therefore, Bruce Lee likened Jeet Kune Do to water’s formless and shapeless attributes, and gave only outlining principles for attaining efficiency while fighting, not direct hard line rules. Jeet Kune Do has the following three outlines:
- Directness
- Efficiency
- Simplicity
Jeet Kune Do, unlike other systems, does not even confine a fighter to a particular range of fighting. Every Jeet Kune Do fighter is expected to undergo training in all four ranges of combat:
- Kicking
- Punching
- Grappling
- Trapping