Jeet Kune Do
截拳道Bruce Lee's system from the late 1960s, rejecting closed styles. He started from wing chun but concluded that any fixed system is a limitation.
Quick Facts
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Training
Who It Suits
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Editorial rating on a 0–3 scale, based on how much room each area gets in ordinary training.
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About Jeet Kune Do
Jeet Kune Do was created by Bruce Lee in the late 1960s as a rejection of closed styles. He started from wing chun, learned under Yip Man, but came to the conclusion that any fixed system is a limitation: a real fight does not keep to a form, so training should not bind the fighter to a canon of techniques. The name means "the way of the intercepting fist" and points to the central principle — hit the opponent at the moment his attack begins, not after it finishes. Technically JKD draws from wherever it can: punches from boxing and from fencing (Lee studied fencing and took from it the handling of distance and the lead hand), kicks from karate and savate, footwork from boxing, grips from judo and wrestling. The stance is bladed with the strong hand forward, because the fastest route to the target is the shortest one. Lee died in 1973 and left no closed system — he left principles and notes. That is the source of a lasting dispute: one line teaches the specific material Lee taught (Jun Fan Gung Fu), the other treats JKD as a method of personal enquiry and changes the material. Both claim the same name. Its historical importance is beyond doubt — JKD anticipated the logic of modern MMA by twenty years. The practical quality of any given school today, however, depends purely on what is actually trained there and whether they spar.
Similar styles
Selected by overlap in the style profile, not by historical lineage.
