Jeet Kune Do
截拳道A system that Bruce Lee named in 1967. It grew out of Wing Chun, added fencing and boxing, and rejected prearranged forms. Today it is taught by the Original JKD and JKD Concepts lineages.
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About Jeet Kune Do
Jeet Kune Do was created by Bruce Lee in the United States and he named it in 1967. The name literally means the way of the stopping fist and is interpreted as the way of the intercepting fist: the opponent’s attack is to be interrupted before it reaches its target. Lee studied Wing Chun in Hong Kong under Ip Man, to whom William Cheung introduced him in 1953. From 1959 he taught in Seattle his own version called Jun Fan Gung Fu, and opened further institutes in Oakland (1964) and in the Chinatown of Los Angeles (1967). After a private fight with Wong Jack-man in Oakland in 1964, whose course the two sides describe differently, he began to change his training.
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From Wing Chun he took the theory of the centreline, trapping and simultaneous defence with attack. From fencing he added the stop hit and stop kick, that is a strike into a beginning attack, and from Western boxing the work of hands and feet. Training distinguishes four distances: kicks, punches, trapping and grappling. Kicks target the shins, knees, thighs and midsection, no higher. Lee rejected prearranged forms as limiting. Lee died on 20 July 1973. He never formally codified JKD, and for teaching he personally certified only three people: Taky Kimura, James Yimm Lee and Dan Inosanto. Two lineages come from there. Original (Jun Fan) JKD teaches what Lee taught, and JKD Concepts around Dan Inosanto takes JKD as a continuing development and adds grappling and the Filipino kali and eskrima. JKD has no competitions, and we have not been able to document in the sources how one trains against resistance in it. Lee’s notes were published posthumously in 1975 as the book Tao of Jeet Kune Do.
History
Jeet Kune Do was created by Bruce Lee in the United States. From 1959 or 1960 he taught in Seattle Jun Fan Gung Fu, his version of Wing Chun, which he had studied in Hong Kong under Ip Man and Wong Shun Leung. He opened a second institute in Oakland in 1964 with James Yimm Lee, and a third in 1967 in the Chinatown of Los Angeles. After a private fight with Wong Jack-man in Oakland in 1964, whose length and winner the sides describe differently, Lee said that Wing Chun was not very practical and began to change his training. He outlined the basic concepts in an interview in 1965, and gave the system the name Jeet Kune Do in 1967. Literally it means the way of the stopping fist, and it is interpreted as the way of the intercepting fist. Lee officially closed the schools two years before his death and had the syllabus taught privately. He died on 20 July 1973 and never formally codified JKD. His notes were published in 1975 as the book Tao of Jeet Kune Do.
Technique
The foundation consists of three sources: Wing Chun, Western boxing and fencing. From Wing Chun Lee took the theory of the centreline, trapping and simultaneous defence with attack, from fencing the stop hit and stop kick, that is a strike into a beginning attack. Other influences listed include judo, jujutsu, savate, arnis, taekwondo, tai chi and catch wrestling. Training distinguishes four fighting distances: kicks, punches, trapping and grappling, practised to an equal degree. Kicks target the shins, knees, thighs and midsection, no higher. Attacks are classified into five ways: the direct simple attack, the attack by immobilising a hand or foot, the progressive indirect attack, the attack by combination and the attack by drawing.
Training
Lee's own training combined weights for strength, running for endurance, stretching and morning meditation. He followed the exercises of the Indian wrestler Great Gama, including isometrics and squats. According to Black Belt, he did isometric exercises two to three times a week, each for 6 to 12 seconds at maximum effort. Bending forward with a barbell that was too heavy, he injured his back without warming up and was bedridden for months. Black Belt gives the year of the injury as 1969 and the Bruce Lee Foundation as 1970. During his recovery, according to the foundation, he studied physics, biomechanics, nutrition and training theory. He conditioned his forearms with Da Sam Sing exercises and worked with the wooden dummy Mook Yan Jong, which in JKD simulates an opponent with four limbs. In Seattle after 1959, Lee began teaching in an alley behind a restaurant, in parks and on Sundays in empty garages. According to HistoryLink, he adapted his teaching to each student's strengths and weaknesses and taught Chinese culture alongside fighting. He rejected set forms as limiting and wanted techniques judged by their use in combat. Students are led to study all forms of fighting. We have not found how a lesson is structured in today's schools.
Ranks and progression
We have not found a belt system in JKD. Lee personally certified three people to teach: Taky Kimura, James Yimm Lee and Dan Inosanto. According to his obituary in Rafu Shimpo, Taky Kimura held the 5th degree in Jun Fan Gung Fu, while a statement from his family quoted there gives the 7th degree. He taught for free in the basement of the family store, led small classes under the motto keep the numbers low, but the quality high, and certified his son Andy as the only instructor. We have not found a ranking scale that applies across lineages. We have not been able to confirm whether and how any organization certifies instructors today. Indiana University divides instruction into a basic and an intermediate course, one credit each, but these are university courses, not ranks.
Who it suits
We have not found a JKD children's program with an age limit set by an organization, children's competitions, bans, protective gear or injury studies. According to the Bruce Lee Foundation, Lee openly taught people of all races, ages and genders. At his Seattle institute in autumn 1963, the monthly fee was 22 dollars, and 17 dollars for juniors. Teaching was not always public: the Oakland school later moved to the garage of James Yimm Lee and entry was by invitation only. According to Newsweek, traditional masters in San Francisco wanted to ban Lee from teaching non-Chinese students through a match with Wong Jack-man, while other authors see the cause more in his criticism of the old masters. Some of Lee's students came from other arts. The karateka Joe Lewis trained JKD privately with him in 1967 and 1968, and Jerry Poteet switched to Lee from kenpo under Ed Parker when Lee opened his third institute in Los Angeles. After the cancellation of The Green Hornet in 1967, Lee privately taught Hollywood stars. The Bruce Lee Foundation names Steve McQueen, James Coburn, Roman Polanski, Sharon Tate and Kareem Abdul-Jabbar among his students. Today JKD is also taught at universities, and Indiana University Bloomington offers the course Jeet Kune Do Concepts with no prerequisites.
Competition
Jeet kune do has no competitions. According to our search, no organization has published competition rules or holds championships. According to Black Belt magazine, JKD Concepts classes spar in protective gear, and some of the students have chosen to fight in full-contact tournaments with different rules. Campbell McLaren, the first executive producer of the UFC, said that Lee and jeet kune do played a big role in the early days of the UFC. The daily Variety writes that JKD is often called a pioneer of modern MMA.
Gear
We have not found prescribed clothing, protective gear or gloves. The equipment mentioned in JKD is the wooden dummy Mook Yan Jong and tools for conditioning the forearms. According to Bruce Lee Foundation photographs, Lee used a wooden dummy and sandbags in Seattle around 1963 and 1964. The foundation states that he designed less rigid training aids meant to imitate the unpredictable movement of a live opponent. Black Belt writes that he often kicked a shield derived from the Rawlings football shield, introduced to him by Dan Inosanto, and the shield can be seen in the series Longstreet and in the film The Way of the Dragon. We have not been able to confirm weapons as part of the system. Lee learned nunchaku and the stick from Dan Inosanto, and the JKD Concepts branch includes Filipino kali and eskrima.
Philosophy
Lee drew on Zen Buddhism, Confucianism and Taoism and named effectiveness, directness and simplicity as the marks of JKD. The maxim absorb what is useful, disregard that which is useless is commonly attributed to him. He took an interest in Jiddu Krishnamurti, and his sentence Be formless, shapeless, like water is well known. The symbol of JKD is the taijitu with the sentences Using no way as way and Having no limitation as limitation. Lee called the name a mere name, to be discarded once it has served its purpose like a boat after crossing a river. Later he regretted it because it suggested fixed boundaries, and he described JKD as a style without a style, a process, not a product. In a letter to Wong Shun Leung of 1970 he wrote that what matters is not to train with prejudices.
Styles and schools
Bruce Lee first taught his art as Jun Fan Gung Fu, his own version of Wing Chun named after his Chinese given name. He opened his first institute in Seattle in the basement of the family shop of his assistant Taky Kimura, and the institute in Los Angeles's Chinatown on 5 February 1967 with his assistant Dan Inosanto. According to Black Belt magazine, the original JKD classes were held privately in Lee's yard in Monterey Park without advertising and stressed the straight lead punch and the side kick. The terminology comes from Wing Chun, boxing and fencing. After Lee's death two approaches emerged. Original JKD, by its own description, keeps to what Lee taught. According to Black Belt, JKD Concepts around Dan Inosanto drew mainly on Jun Fan gung fu and Western boxing and added deflecting of attacks, leg locks, throws and ground fighting. According to Variety, Inosanto was one of three fighters Lee trained to teach. The Bruce Lee Foundation, founded by Lee's daughter Shannon Lee, is a charity with the Warrior Academy program and does not list instructor certification on its website.
Today
After Lee's death, teaching split into two lineages. Original (Jun Fan) JKD, around Taky Kimura, James Yimm Lee, Jerry Poteet and Ted Wong, teaches by its own description only what Lee taught. JKD Concepts, around Dan Inosanto, Richard Bustillo and Larry Hartsell, takes JKD as a continuing development and adds grappling, kali and eskrima. We have not found a single governing body. Wing Chun Do by James DeMile, one of Lee's first students in Seattle, as well as Non-Classical Gung Fu and Wei Kuen Do, derive from JKD. JKD is considered a predecessor of MMA because of its hybrid approach. JKD has no competitions, and we have not found competition rules from any organization. Chad Stahelski, director of the John Wick films, studied JKD under Dan Inosanto and taught at his school in Los Angeles.
In culture
In the West, Bruce Lee first became famous as Kato in the series The Green Hornet (1966–1967), which was many viewers' first glimpse of kung fu. According to TCM, The Big Boss from 1971 was until then the highest-grossing film in Hong Kong, Fist of Fury from 1972 surpassed it, and The Way of the Dragon was the first Hong Kong film shot in Europe. Enter the Dragon from 1973, the first joint venture of Hong Kong and American producers, was Lee's last completed film, and he choreographed all of its fight scenes himself. Lee died shortly before its premiere. In 2004 the Library of Congress added it to the National Film Registry. The film Game of Death from 1978 was made from about 11 to 12 minutes of Lee's footage from 1972, and the rest was played by doubles. In it Lee faced Dan Inosanto and the basketball player Kareem Abdul-Jabbar. Lee's yellow jumpsuit from this film was borrowed by Quentin Tarantino for the film Kill Bill (2003). Lee's notes were published in 1975 as the book Tao of Jeet Kune Do.
Did you know
The name jeet kune do first appears in Lee's diary on 9 July 1967. Lee resisted naming it for a long time because he did not want to preserve the essence of his art. The syllable jeet means to intercept or stop in Cantonese. Lee described JKD as the art of fighting without fighting and the form without form, and in his stages of refinement he distinguished partiality, fluidity and emptiness. In the series The Green Hornet, Lee's fights were filmed in slow motion because his movements were too fast for television cameras. Demonstrations in Long Beach in 1964 brought him to Hollywood. After the match with Wong Jack-man that same year, Lee felt, according to Mental Floss, that the fight had lasted too long and began to train harder. His teacher Ip Man died in Hong Kong on 2 December 1972.
Frequently asked questions
Who taught Bruce Lee?
Bruce Lee began studying Wing Chun under Ip Man in Hong Kong in 1953 at the age of 13. He stayed with him and his best students until leaving for the USA in 1959.
What martial art did Bruce Lee practice?
The foundation was Wing Chun, which Lee learned from Ip Man. In the USA he taught his own version under the name Jun Fan Gung Fu, and in 1967 he named his approach jeet kune do. He added elements of boxing and fencing to it.
Is jeet kune do a real martial art?
Jeet kune do is Bruce Lee's combat system, still taught today in two main lineages. It has no competitions or competition rules, but according to Black Belt magazine, classes include sparring in protective gear. Variety writes that JKD is often described as a pioneer of modern MMA.
What does jeet kune do mean?
Jeet kune do means the way of the intercepting fist. The syllable jeet means to intercept or stop in Cantonese and refers to the principle of striking into the beginning of an attack, which Lee took over from fencing.
When did jeet kune do originate?
Bruce Lee gave his approach the name jeet kune do in 1967, and the name first appears in his diary on 9 July 1967. It was based on Jun Fan Gung Fu, which he had taught in the USA since the turn of the 1950s and 1960s.
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