There are plenty of people who will tell you that Bruce looked at 22 different martial arts and that he combined them to make JKD. That simply is not true. But it has been repeated so many times that people believe it
Bruce looked at every art that he could. He studied the forms and the history to learn how to defeat each system and to gain insight into the "essence" of each method.
the Original JKD was not however a conglomeration of these systems. It was and still is, in the few schools which still teach it, an original art developed by Bruce and James Lee. It was strongly influenced by Wing Chung and possibly other forms of Kung Fu through James, Western Boxing and Fencing.
Bruce and James were well informed about other systems, but it is not true that they took a little of this and a little of that and called it JKD.
Significantly, Both Bruce and James were amateur Boxers early in their history.
As for TKD, TKD is a sport. I like TKD and in fact I was a TKD student some years back. But as Bruce pointed out sports have rules and the rules influance the play and the techniques. As a result, such tequniques have severe restrictions and dangers when used in the real world. For example, when was the last time someone grabed your foot when you executed a TKD kick. Never, because that is against the rules. But use that same kick on the street and you will learn why they made up the rule.
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