People under 50 years old aren't old enough to know what the state of martial arts were in Lee's time. Back then, styles were known to be different. The experts of the time would not have dubbed Goju Ryu, as a grappling art. They would not have called Judo striking art, and they wouldn't have classified collegiate wrestling as a kicking art. They were, and still are, limited in the spectrum of totality, which is what Lee was interested in, relegating all styles as partial knowledge in regard to the whole of combat. Many will say, Goju can grapple, or Judo has strikes, but the fact is, back then, they were segregated, and the top guys all would say the same thing, such as Ed Parker, Chucky Norris, Jhoon Rhee. Back then, wrestling wasn't even really considered a martial art, or many more people would have wanted to train.
Ask yourself the following. Is Judo a martial art? Is Judo a style? Is Judo a system? Is it a method? How many TMA's have a philosophy? How many TMA's have no techniques, they are just a belief encompassed by 10 words?
Back then, and today still, martial art, style, system and method, in regard to eastern fighting methods, all meant the same thing. Hi, I am Jhoon Rhee, I brought a system of methods of kicking to the USA. It's a martial art from my homeland, Korea, one of several styles that are vastly popular.
Lee didn't want the stigma of being like the other arts, which were historically classified as particular and specific to one or two of the ranges of combat..
Do you understand art, Georgie? Like listening to music? Is music an art? Does music have styles, such as rock, classical, popular, blues, jazz, country, heavy metal, techno and whatever else? Why do you suppose some people get offended when someone says, so your a rock guitarist, or something along those lines? Often the reply is, "I am a musician." or "I am an artist" By being a rock guitarist, it insinuates great limitation or inability to play other "styles" By being a musician, in theory, it is stating they can play any style they want.
Jimi Hendrix, played with several bands before starting the Experience. He played guitar for the temptations on tour, and another big band of the time, both drastically different from the sound we relate to him. When asked, "What style of music do you play?" when the band first started, he replied, "We don't like tags, we want it to be known as free thinking." This is JKD in its art form, and "style of no style". What the moment decrees the style to be is when the style of JKD takes form, and it never ever takes form of a TMA technique.
For the record, I have had training from Lee students from all three periods, Seattle, Oakland and LA. I know what was being taught, and what was being done in each phase. I have permission to teach in both JKD, and the Modified Wing Chun, which was later named Jun Fan Gung Fu. I have had further training with Inosanto, Joe Lewis and various other 2nd generation wannabes under the Concepts methods.
If you want to better understand Bruce Lee's concept of Jeet Kune Do "The Way of the Intercepting Fist" there are two documentaries that are quite thorough in presenting his views and philosophies on "styles" and personal self-expression through Martial Arts, and combat in itself.
"The Greatest Martial Artist : Bruce Lee"
"Bruce Lee: A Warrior's Journey"
Jeet Kune Do was a concept on the way of fighting as it is best suited to the individual. It was not a style in and of itself. Bruce Lee actually closed his schools when he felt that his students were looking a JKD as THE WAY instead of it's original concept of opening the students' minds to adapt their training into their own personal system of combative self-expression.
Today it is often referred to as a "style" in training where the structure is focused on what techniques Bruce described and taught in his writing and teaching. IMO these instructors also miss the true message Bruce was trying to convey to the Martial Arts community. Learn everything you can, no matter what style or system it comes from, if it will help you in a fight. If it won't help you there is no need to learn it. There are also bits of Bruce's philosophy on Martial Arts and Ways in his movies, but you have to pay attention to catch them when they come up.
He may not have really wanted to but in the end he did. More to the point it was not so much he didn't want to create a style, because of the stigma a style carries which he did not like and did not want to be known as karate or whatever. The term karate is kind of generic for the majority of people and he felt was he was doing should not be lumped into the general category of "karate". In the end it does not really matter but what I don't like is that people mis use partial statements and think that anything they do, any hit or kick, is JKD if it works which is not true. That is MMA. To say it, JKD, is only a philosophy and nothing more minimizes his contribution to modern martial arts. JKD as he taught it has specific techniques to follow with the philosophy of JKD many of which are nothing like other arts.
Closing the schools had little or nothing to do with people treating it as an art. It had to do with where he was in his life and what he was doing at the time.
Those that say that JKd is a style always site someone other than lees stating that it is a style. If you state something and never say differently, then it should not matter what anyone else says that you meant or said.Lately people keep saying that Linda Lee and Shannon Lee say that JKD is a style. Funny but that is not what Bruce Lee said. Also consider that when Linda and Shannon said that it was a style they did so while being talked to by people that wanted them to say that it was a style. But it does not matter what they say or why they said it.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=pl...
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for all intense and purposes it doesnt matter
if u want to get technical then it is subjective
for some people it rubs them the wrong way and i can see why
mma is a misnomer ,a better wording was nhb or cage fighting
but mma has stuck and can be interpreted to each owns personal taste
It is both, it is a style that has no style. But as style is still a style. It all comes down to word play. It really depends on the person. Bruce lee was never into defining things like tiers, or styles or belts. But a fighting style is still a style.
bruce lee stated several times that jkd was not a style plus the fact he did stated he did not believe in styles as in the interview below
Jeet Kune Do is a style. I teach Jido Kwan (Tae Kwon Do)
There is a debate among several people, if this is a style or a concept.
The ones among you that are training (or have trained in the past), or have good friends that are training (or have trained in the past) in Jeet Kune Do...........
Are you training (or have trained in the past) in Bruce Lee methods, are you training (or have trained in the past) in a style plus adding whatever you are (or were in the past) finding useful from other styles, something different, or something between?
Thanks in advance for all the answers. I am just curious to see the differences in this.:)
