I feel that often the two topics are mixed up. This is understandable as both Jeet Kune Do and the idea of personal development/evolution come from the same source, Bruce Lee! So what are my views?
Jeet Kune Do is the martial art that Bruce Lee developed, it was his personal 'end result, or end product' of his years of studies on the martial arts. He did this through study of martial arts, starting with looking at 'mixing' techniques etc from various arts. He then realised that this wasn't the way to go as the structure of some arts or techniques didn't really 'flow' well together. He then looked how the human body moves, and how this fits in a martial arts structure. He used those studies to eventually arrive at what his Jeet Kune Do looked like/contained in the year(s) leading up to his untimely death. Yes the dominant influences are Ving Tsun, Fencing and Boxing, they do form the foundation, but that's a topic for a future post.
At that time, Jeet Kune Do was already far developed, it contained elements of all forms of unarmed combat, including striking (punching and kicking), trapping, wrestling/grappling etc. If you have trained in the art for a few years, and you have understood Bruce Lee's notes/comments etc. you will start to realise that actually Jeet Kune Do isn't really missing much, if anything. It is a well rounded system that has everything you'll need for self defence. People that say it is 'missing' something are probably focussed on just a part of the art, perhaps because that idea is enforced due to the fact that most JKD practitioners train on the stand up elements of fighting, seemingly neglecting the 'ground work/wrestling' parts. This is where personal preference/opinion comes in.
I am all in favour of people training / furthering their knowledge on certain aspects of (unarmed) fighting/combat. Perhaps it fits your fighting style, perhaps its because the person intends to compete in tournaments where that aspect is prevalent, so you start to 'specialise'.
So what's the problem? My issue is with the identity of Jeet Kune Do, Bruce Lee's body of work. I want to preserve that body of work for future generations. If people proceed to 'do their own thing', then there is a real risk that at some point personal preferences will dominate and perhaps deviate from some of the basic principles that Bruce Lee incorporated in his JKD and that form it's identity. A simple example is the strong side forward. If that is no longer the case in someone's preference, then that is deviating from Bruce Lee's JKD and will over time (students of that person and beyond) lose any semblance with what the orginal art once was.
I'm not saying that what ever the result is, is inferior. It may in fact be very well suited to the individual. So if that is what your goal is as a martial artist, to find what works for you by studying all sorts of styles etc and to take what works for you and develop your own style/system, then great. You are doing what Bruce Lee at times spoke off. You are not neccesarily arriving at the same point that Bruce Lee did, and what he called his Jeet Kune Do.
So in closing:
- Jeet Kune Do is Bruce Lee's personal 'art', that deserves to be preserved 'as is' and you will find that it is a great art in it's own right that will serve you well. Changing/adding things will muddy the water and JKD will eventually cease to exist, which would be a crying shame.
- If you are looking for 'more', or want to follow your own path, then that is doing what Bruce Lee did himself, but will not neccesarily lead to the same end product, and therefore should not be called Jeet Kune Do, even if you studied JKD first and then start to move away from it for whatever reason.
Feel free to disagree, we are all individual, but if you do I'd be interested in your views on why. Comment below.
Walk On!
No comments:
Post a Comment