Without entering into any mudslinging, I would like to present some facts:
In the summer of 1964 Bruce Lee and James Yimm Lee finalised plans for Bruce’s second school, in Oakland. The art being taught at the time was Jun Fan Gung Fu. I personally studied the Oakland method of Jun Fan Gung Fu during 1995 to 1998, from a student of Howard Williams. I still have the curriculum that was provided to me, and the majority of that curriculum is taken from a modified form of Wing Chun, Western Boxing, and the concepts of Western Fencing. This was the Jun Fan Gung Fu at that period of development in 1964 to end of 1965.
In 1966 Bruce Lee moved his family to Los Angeles and opened his school in Chinatown, later moved to 628 College Street in 1967. The name Jeet Kune Do was not even conceived until 1967 in Los Angeles, three years after Bruce and James Yimm Lee formulated the content of the Oakland teaching outline. Therefore, to argue that the Jeet Kune Do from the Oakland period is this or that is nonsense, the concept of Jeet Kune Do didn’t even exist during that time frame. You are referring to Jun Fan Gung Fu, and this is an art that developed immeasurably over the next five years.
Written by Bruce Lee and Dan Inosanto, I have the Jun Fan Gung Fu curriculum from 1967 to 1972, passed to me by Guro Inosanto. The latter day material is almost unrecognisable to the material I have from the Oakland era. It is essentially a Kickboxing structure, hence the term often applied to the latter day LA period is “Jun Fan Kickboxing”. Gone is the Wing Chun structure, the emphasis on Boxing is still very prevalent, as are the concepts taken from Fencing in terms of Progressive Indirect Attack, Attack By Drawing etc. Jujujason is exactly right, there is material in the curriculum from Judo, Ju-jitsu, Muay Thai, Savate and also a small amount of Filipino Martial Arts. The actual amount of arts present in the curriculum I have is 26, not 22, but that’s not a big deal because it changed all the time.
So, here for me is the most important point. This entire curriculum is not for Jeet Kune Do, there is no Jeet Kune Do curriculum, I don’t have one from Oakland (it didn’t exist) and I don’t have one from Los Angeles (it also didn’t exist). The curriculum is Jun Fan Gung Fu. Jeet Kune Do was Bruce Lee’s personal expression of the martial arts, and to argue over what it was and wasn’t is a nonsense. Nothing exists that will ever prove you right or wrong, because the gentleman in question is unfortunately no longer with us.
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