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Jeet Kune Do
Jeet Kune Do, to me, translates into, anything that actually works in a fight. So please, do not mistake this article for an attack on it as a system (even though it isn't technically a system at all.) and I am in no way saying that it doesn't work.
My BEEF, is that its so largely misinterpreted by people these days. If you search for books, or WebPages or anything that could show you pictures of those considering themselves as JKD, mostly you'll find your typical hilarious fat white guy in some traditional Chinese clothing and doing some over the top stance. It bugs me mightily.
Three times have I seen over the last few weeks, either in games, films, or in real life somebody seeing a back summersault kick and then remarking: "That's Jeet Kune Do!"
No it isn't, that's probably the least JKD move there is, and I still see it being taught in JKD classes. It's like instructors just saw Enter The Dragon and picked up their teaching liscense. It's funny that the move most people seem to associate with Bruce Lee is also one that a stunt double did instead of him.
The fact that JKD, which is supposed to be a no-gimmick, no-nonsense approach has so much junk surrounding it is just annoying. The original point of it is that people don't need costumes, flashy stances and tradition when essentially all we need is to hit people really hard.
I don't understand why we keep seeing Chinese symbols flying about the places all the time now, and why we even have a lasting connotation between the East and martial arts. Martial arts don't belong to any country anymore, and if you think that they do then you're probably one of these people that talk about the philosophy and spirit behind it all and don't bother actually training. If you like the East you can like the East, you don't HAVE to be a martial artist for that. Yes, many martial arts have come from the East, but now we understand what is needed to be successful in fighting, various systems have come into our society and it speaks for itself. We have are own versions of these martial arts which are just as effective as any other country because the martial art does not make the martial artist, people should take individual responsibility for their own ability and put effort into everything they do. Effort put not only into training, but having common sense and finding a way of understanding that all martial arts are is essence the same old bunch of movements and the same old physical principles repeated again and again. There's only so much that the human body has.
If there was truly one style that actually worked, all other styles would no longer exist. What actually happens is a system may work for some but not for others because it stresses aspects of fighting that they find easier to apply than others.
All martial arts have become Jeet Kune Do. You go to a Wing Chun glass where they're teaching grappling, or a karate competition where you're practicing kicks above the waist - both of these are Jeet Kune Do. What we have these days is a very diluted (As I'm sure it should be) version of what martial arts should be, and it is always adapting to become more practical and efficient.
Why is it that martial arts have such a bad name in terms of actual fighting? It seems to have no association with fighting at all anymore.
So why do people still count punches in Japanese in classes and buy those silk pyjamas and stuff? I understand the importance of culture and all of that, but it's so overshadowing over what's really important: Fighting.
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