Is Inside Kung Fu Anti JKDC?

[basketball jone]

Is it just me or do the vast majority of Inside Kung Fu Magazine's
articles on JKD always negative against JKD Concepts?

It seems that most interviews/articles always paint Dan's approach as wrong and misguided. It seems weird to me.

[Dr Jack]

Hello basketball jone,

I guess I used to feel that way but I look at it more from the view of the JFJKD practioners. I assume you are referring to the "Debunking 10 JKD myths" article. I read it yesterday. It does seem that JKDC doesn't seem to get the respect it deserves , but it seems the JFJKD side is fighting for respect. Personally I view it as the yin and yang of JKD. One can not really exist without the other and they are interrelated parts of the JKD whole.

Until very recently the only JKD out there , or the only one we heard about was from the Guro Inosanto line. Then about 10 years ago all kinds of instructors also claimed Lee certification and I suppose they have a good point and want recognition as well. This as far as I am concerned in no way lessens the importance of Guro Inosanto, as I am indebted to all he did to advance JKD. The JFJKD instructors claim they to are carrying on in the advancement of JKD.


Just my opinion, I invite your comments.


Jack

[basketball jone]

hi Jack,

I am a huge JFJKD fan as well as a Huge BJJ fan.

While I like the FMA and other arts, I have spent the bulk of my
time with JFJKD and BJJ.

However, most of these magazine articles etc have nothing to do with JKD and everything to do with instructor programs, certificates, seminars, marketing and the like.

Also, if you base everything around nostalgia and the past, you have to accept the negatives that go along with that.

And it is hard to convince people crosstraining is bad because of three things: ULTIMATE FIGHTING CHAMPIONSHIP!

[Dr Jack]

Hi Basketball,

Yeah you are right. It is all about selling magazines and what they advertise.

Jack

[gungfuhero]

just a thought...

I think you can have JKD concepts without JFJKD. I know this sounds pretty radical but think about it. Jun Fan borrows its principles from boxing, fencing and wing chun, etc. etc. etc. This implies that these principles were not so much created by Bruce Lee but discovered. JKD Concepts, which is all about the individual's experience, self expression, autonomy, is not limited to Jun Fan practitioners. If Bruce Lee had never been born, fighters would have, and may have before Bruce Lee's time, learned to transcend style to honestly express themselves. The dichotomy people try to construct between Jun Fan or OJKD or whatever and JKD Concepts is bunk. JKD Concepts is the whole, Jun Fan, like any method, is a part.

[gungfuhero]

Look at Marco Ruas. He has researched from his own experience, absorbed what is useful and rejected what was useless for him. When asked what style he practices he answers "Ruas Vale Tudo," an expression of himself. He also realizes that no art has a monopoly on the truth and that the individual is what makes the art. Now Marco Ruas has probably never studied Bruce Lee's JKD, but he is practicing the philosophy of JKD very well.

[basketball jone]

Hi guys

I read marco's interview in Grappling. It was EXCELLENT!
I really enjoyed it!

And, I support the OJKD guy's in their training endeavors, just not in
political endeavors!

[ECS]

I've noticed this trend as well, but rather than question peoples opinions on what's, authentic what is not, I always refer to the source of true JKD material, Dan I.

As Dan himself said "Jeet Kune Do and Jeet Kune Do Concepts are the same, you can't have one without the other."

There is really nothing you must be, nothing you must do. There is really nothing you must have, nothing you must know. There is really nothing you must become. However, it elps to understand that fire burns, and when it rains the earth gets wet...

[Halloween Jack]

I wouldn't really worry about what Inside Kung Fu thinks about JKDC...in my opinion, most mainstream martial arts magazines don't ever present a clear or honest editorial opinion about which systems are good and which aren't. Take Black Belt, for instance. If you were to read their magazine and believe everything printed in there, you'd come away with the impression that everyone has a great and practical fighting style. The martial arts community is a relatively small one, and to enjoy success as a "mainstream" martial arts magazine, you have to be nice to everybody...even if their system includes flying triangle chokes or spinning kicks.

[Halloween Jack]

And you also have to disparage anyone who points out these flaws and stresses training with sparring and active resistance and call them a violent thug.

Forgot that last one.

[gungfuhero]

Styles only exist in our minds; people fight, not styles. With that said, who is to say what is and isn't an effective fighting style? Through my own experience, I'm not real keen on death touches and hurricane kicks, but saying that they don't ever work (maybe with the exception of the death touch) doesn't hold up. That is making what Daniel Howard-Snyder called a noseeum inference; basically "I don't see it so it's not there." I can with a good conscience say that jump backspin hurricane whatever is very complicated and unlikly to work, but you never know the efficacy of a technique without taking the person performing it into account. Do I think that hours of kata will make a great fighter, no. Do I think that if you spend a truck full of money learning the ultimate street fighting techniques packed into twelve easy lessons on video tape that you will be a baddass, no. But I can't make that decision for anyone because it is their choice how to train. There are no magic rules of the universe governing what will and what won't work outside of physics and kinesiology.