Jeet Kune Do:The Way of the Intercepting Fist. Bruce Lee technique & philosophy VIDS

Skip to 1:00 in the first video. The footage is from the television show Longstreet written by Sterling Siliphant and Bruce Lee. In it, Bruce gives a simple explanation behind JKD.

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Here's the famous scene from Enter the Dragon where Bruce coaches a young martial artist on how to apply technique.

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These next two videos are from the Black Belt video series back in the 90's featuring Bruce Lee's students Ted WOng and Richard Bustillo demonstrating the self defense techniques from Bruce Lee's book on self defense in 1960something. The proposed book was not published during Bruce's lifetime because he did not want people to start selling JKD as a set of techniques.

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Jeet Kune Do: The Way of the Intercepting Fist: JKD Fingerjab


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In the GIF we see Mirko Crocop use a lead fingerjab to intercept his opponent's attack.

In brief - Bruce's ideas behind the fingerjab evolved out of his wing chun training when he combined it with the principles behind western fencing and boxing.

We see several Jeet Kune Do concepts at work here:

1) Closest weapon to the nearest target. Crocop uses a lead fingerjab as it is the closest weapon to his opponent.

2) Economy of motion. The shortest distance between two points is a straight line. Like the lead jab in boxing, the fingerjab lashes straight out traveling the shortest distance to the target - in this case the opponent's eyes.

3) Attack the opponents weakest point. Crocop attacks his opponent's eyes.

4) The rear hand maintains defense. Crocop keeps his left hand high as he attacks. This allows him to deflect any incoming attacks.

5) Attack by combination. Crocop takes advantage of the opening created by the fingerjab and follows up with a straight left cross.

In this fight, Crocop was able to gain the advantage by temporarily blinding his opponent with a well placed fingerjab. He followed up with a barrage of punches to stop his opponent.

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Bruce's techniques are very simple yet still effective in the modern age of MMA. One can only wonder what Bruce Lee would have done during the rise of the UFC and mixed martial arts.

I'm not talking about what Bruce would have done as a fighter or anything so mundane - rather I am talking about how he might have applied his martial philosophies to the business of mixed martial arts. Perhaps Dana White would have been a bad dream as ZUFFA would never have had the opportunity to purchase the UFC brand. UFC president Bruce Lee?

 

Here's a clip from Daily Motion. In it, Bruce Lee discusses why he does not "believe in styles" of martial arts. The audio plays over footage of Bruce Lee doing various drills and demos.

I wanted to include this in the first post, but Daily Motion doesn't embed here so I didn't want to mar the nice symmetry of all those videos above with an ugly old link like this:

http://www.dailymotion.com/playlist/ximp6_555mvp_jkd/video/xc5zo_bruce-lee-power-punching_events

 

Thanks for your comments. I included that clip because of the display of economy of motion and directness of attack. I'm not necessarily endorsing Carruthers because there are some things he says and does that I don't agree with. For example, in the clip you can hear him say that he doesn't teach his students to spar. I believe that some form of sparring is necessary for anyone that wants to be able to apply their techniques in the heat of combat.

Thanks again.

 

Oh, OK. I see what you're saying. You're probably correct.

That's great that you actually trained with Ted Wong. I tried to make it to one of those seminars in Virginia with Ted Wong and Joe Lewis - but wasn't able to work it out at the time. It's definitely one of my goals to train with Wong or Lewis or Inosanto at some point while they are still offering seminars.

Thanks for your comments.

 

I haven't really thought about how Bruce Lee would do in today's MMA. It's like comparing apples and oranges. If you go down the list of illegal techniques in MMA/UFC - you can find all of the starting combinations and attacks associated with JKD.

1. No eye gouging.
2. No groin strikes.
3. No striking the throat area.
4. etc. . .

So if everything in JKD is illegal in an MMA ring because it is too dangerous - then you are more than likely correct - Bruce Lee would not do very well in a MMA ring. However, Bruce Lee kept himself in superb condition, training cardio and weights on a daily basis which any professional or amatuer fighter will tell us is the cornerstone of being effective in the ring.

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Couple his conditioning with his actual martial knowledge, for example he was already cross-training in boxing, kung fu, judo, wrestling and submissions twenty-five years before Royce Gracie and the UFC made Brazilian Jiujutsu en vogue, then one can safely assume that Bruce Lee would have been quite competitive if picked up whole and uncut from 1973 and dropped into today's MMA ring.

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And if by some time-bending miracle that Bruce Lee were afforded the same opportunities as any other fighter training for MMA and was able to supplement his knowledge with the latest techniques and training methods -then it is extremely safe to assume that he would not only have done very well at MMA - but he could have been one of the absolute very best in the game today - going up against the likes of BJ Penn, Aoki, Alvarez, Faber and Sean Sherk.

This is all merely speculation as we will never know the truth. Rather than wonder how Bruce Lee would have performed in MMA, I am perfectly happy to follow the exploits of the great fighters that are active in the ring such as GSP, BJ Penn, Anderson Silva, Cung Lee, Randy Couture and the list goes on and on. Out of the fighters active in MMA, many have been trained by or have cross trained with various JKD influenced gyms. Randy Couture, Sean Sherk, Erik Paulson, and Josh Barnett are but a few of the names of fighters that have at one time or another supplemented their training and knowledge through schools with a direct lineage to JKD and Bruce Lee. So even though Bruce Lee is long gone, he still has an influence on MMA today.

Thanks for your comments.

 

Thanks for taking the time to respond. In answer to your question, no. Not quite. I suppose that is all rather confusing. I'm just throwing paint at the canvas to see what sticks - if you know what I mean. I just posted those Bruce Lee vids so that people can gleen whatever they can from them. The literal reason for posting these JKD vids was because another poster was inquiring into which martial arts were the most effective in terms of self-defense. Hopefully, viewing these videos will give him some ideas as to which course of action to follow.

That nonsense about Bruce Lee as UFC president that I typed at the bottom of my post was just a random musing to fill up the empty space beneath. I posted it because while I was trying to decide which videos to post, I suddenly realized how many demos that Bruce Lee used to perform in public or on television - even after he was an established TV and Hong Kong movie star. He really loved sharing his art with the public. That led me to speculate about what would have happend if Bruce Lee had been alive when the UFC debuted in 1994. It was just a random musing and nothing more.

 

And in this clip, Bruce Lee is back to remind us that a good martial artist must be like water. . .

http://www.dailymotion.com/playlist...eo/x2uzqe_bruce-lee-be-water-my-friend_people

 

Thanks for sharing your thoughts. I was marginally aware of the politics in the JKD community - but I've never really paid it mcuh attention. I like to gather knowledge from wherever I can so it doesn't matter me if it's JKD, OJKD, JKD Concepts, Jun Fan Jeet Kune Do, or whatever. If it works, I'll use it.

Thanks for the head's up on Wong and Inosanto. I certainly wouldn't want to say the wrong things around them. It seems like everyone disagrees with Dan Inosanto to a certain extent. I like how guys like Poteet, Wong, Taky Kimura and others are still teaching the art the way Bruce Lee taught it to them (at the respective times that he trained with each). I also like how Inosanto has applied his JKD to the Phillipino arts. It's all a form of self expression so there is room for growth into other arts - but at the same time it is important for the original art of JKD to be kept alive for future generations.