Bruce Lee's Jeet Kune Do

Jeet Kune Do when translated from Cantonese roughly means "Way of the intercepting fist". In 1964 Bruce Lee first began developing the martial art/philosophy that would eventually and slightly reluctantly don this name. Prior to 1964 Bruce Lee had been teaching the Chinese art of Wing Chun, which he had studied since the age of 13, in Oakland, CA. A group of Chinese men who also taught Kung fu were very upset that Bruce was teaching Chinese Arts to non Chinese students. They challenged Bruce to a fight. If he lost, he would have to stop teaching, but if he won, he could teach to whomever he wished. Needless to say Bruce won in just under 3 minutes but was very disappointed in himself. He was very winded and thought that the fight should have ended in well under 3 minutes. Thus began his development of Jeet Kune Do. Bruce wanted to adapt his fighting style and techniques to create a way of fighting that was powerful yet fast, flexible yet strong, but most of all, boundary-less and ever evolving. He adapted ideas from numerous different fighting styles with an emphasis on western boxing and fencing. Bruce did not want to name his style because he felt that it would give it limitations. Many people believe that Jeet Kune Do is actually more of a philosophy than a fighting style. He believed in taking ideas or techniques that work for you, discarding those which are useless, and adding that which is your own. And that is what he did. He took ideas he liked from many different styles, ignored the ones he didn't, added in his own ideas and then taught his students to do the same. He eventually created the name Jeet Kune Do because he need a way to refer to his concepts but he encouraged his students to never let the name define it. Way of the intercepting fist was chosen as the name because that was one of Bruce's main concepts. He discovered over years of training and experimenting that the most opportune time to attack your opponent is when they are at their most vulnerable point, as they attack. So a good portion of JKD (Jeet Kune Do) is based on the idea of intercepting your opponents attack with your own. JKD is a fighting style and it is just that, it is not a sport. Bruce believed that if you have to fight you need to know how to stop it as quickly as possible, and that means hurting or disabling your opponent just enough to stop the fight or get away. By training in a sport like Judo where you are taught to submit your opponent you're training not to win but to submit. In a real fight that can be very dangerous. While you are busy trying to get your opponent to give up or tap out, who's to say their friend won't sneak up behind you and hit you over the head. There are no rules in a real fight and by training with rules you automatically fight by them. By having the knowledge and skills to win a real fight then your confidence may be enough to stop a fight before it starts.

As some of you may know I have been studying JKD for the past 2 years and I am currently an assistant instructor at the CMS Martial Arts and Fitness Center in Citrus Heights. Not many people know of JKD or even know that Bruce Lee was more than just a Kung Fu film star. This is my way of sharing something with you that is a great source of enjoyment in my life and also hopefully teaching you something new. If you would like to learn more about the Bruce Lee, Jeet Kune Do, or even the CMS Martial Arts and Fitness Center I have attached some links below. And by the way, if you have never seen a Bruce Lee film before you should go rent one. I recommend Enter The Dragon, Fists of Fury, and The Chinese Connection.

http://www.bruceleefoundation.com/ http://www.conflictmanagementsystems.net/ http://www.ocf.berkeley.edu/~chenj/brucelee/brucelee.html