JKD The Old Way

IS JEET KUNE DO JUST A PHILOSOPHY?

Last week I was skimming through some of the JKD facebook pages.

Most of the people on these JKD pages have good viewpoints, though I may not necessarily agree with all of their posts, but I respect them.

On the other hand, there are some who are the Facebook village idiots of martial arts You know the type, the guy who sits behind his computer who had very little training, but he thinks he’s an expert on any and all martial arts.

This guy was adamant that Jeet Kune Do was just a philosophy. He said one can insert techniques into JKD regardless of system or style as long as they follow the philosophy of JKD, because JKD is only a philosophy and not a real fighting system.

Normally I don’t waste my time arguing or trying to rationalize on Facebook with stupid people but this time I couldn’t let this untruth go uncontested.

I’ve been in JKD for 53 years and I have heard this BS for years from other stupid people who didn’t know what they were talking about.

I guess during those years that I trained at the Oakland School, we just sat down and talked about all of the philosophical aspects of JKD, holding hands, smoking weed and singing hippy protest songs.

No, instead we trained and trained hard, working on the fighting techniques developed by Bruce, the punches, strikes, kicks, combinations, entering to attack drills, block & counters, and so much more.

The only philosophy that was brought up was that if you want to be effective in JKD, you better develop the “Killer Instinct,” period.

Because of this incorrect concept that JKD is only a philosophy is what started watering down JKD in the 80’s. Some unscrupulous instructors slapped together techniques not even similar to the core JKD techniques and called it JKD at their commercial school so they could beef up his enrollment.

As well as being my pet peeve, as well as being unethical to misrepresent JKD in this way I had to confront him I finished my comment by writing, “JKD is a living, breathing fighting system and not a frigging hippy philosophy.” I hoped this guy went back behind his computer in his parent’s basement and finished eating his jelly donut.

And as Forrest Gump said, “Well, that’s all I got to say about that.”

About the Author:

Professor Gary Dill was one of the original JKD students (1971-72) of James and Bruce Lee’s Oakland school. He has been active in JKD for 53 years and taught thousands of students. In 1986, he was appointed to the JKD Society Board of Directors along with Linda Lee, Dan Inosanto, Taky Kimura, Richard Bustillo, and other original students.