JKD vs MMA

[Yessir]

This is not a "who would win thread".

I think that the core philosophy of JKD is pretty similar to MMA, and what most MMA fighters, shootfighters, Vale Tudo fighters, NHB etc. etc. are training in the spirit of JKD, especially is they add a little bit of selfdefence training in their game.

I read an article that said that Bruce was turning away from Chi sau and trapping, is this total BS or is there something to it?

When I practiced PFS JKD, back when they where still affiliated, the training was pretty similar to MMA or shootfighting, with the only exception that there were a little more dirty tricks, and FMA training, and the strong side was forward, of course.

What do you guys think?

I MMA/Shootfighting/NHB what Bruce was moving towards? I read some guy saying that he was becoming a Neo Muay Thai Fighter.

[Yessir]

That's what I thought. My english is still a little lacking, what are focal points?

[Thai Bri]

The focal point is the direction - in this case being sport or street.

I disagree when people say MMA is like JKD...... JKD is like all kinds of things, depending on the background of the instructor.

MMA was born out of the so called "no rules" competitions, with all kinds of weird and wonderful techniques being removed until a small nucleus of effective techniques were left behind.

I feel a bit embarrassed on behalf of JKD people when they try to afilliate themselves to MMA. It's like a desperate bid for credibility.

Precious few MMA guys spins sticks or does the Hubud drill.

[Guest]

Bri. Your views remind me a lot of Matt Thornton, in that I agree with and support the vast majority of them, until the point where you drop into negative generalisations.

To support you, I don’t personally see a great deal of comparison between the JKD of today and the MMA arena. From my training I feel that the JKD taught in the latter day Chinatown era was more comparable to the concepts of MMA, i.e. a very stripped down approach to technique where conditioning and all out sparring were the focus. The JKD matrix today is one that draws from a vast myriad of arts, where the scope of knowledge takes more than a lifetime to absorb, and in many cases ownership comes down to the sheer talent of the individual. When an individual from JKD has moved into the MMA arena, this hasn’t proved that JKD can cut it in MMA, because these people have become MMA fighters, not JKDr’s. They have done so under their own ability, and they have been exceptional athletes that I believe would have succeeded without JKD. A few people that spring to mind are Erik Paulson, Shaun Sherk and Neil Mcleod here in the UK.

However, to go over some old ground for us Bri, every intelligent fighter knows that to train for sport your training has to be sport-specific. Therefore the drills from the Filipino Martial Arts are a totally different entity, and have nothing to do with whether a fighter with a JKD background will succeed or fail in MMA. Let the hubud thing go mate, let it go.

Moreover, all of the people I train with and surround myself with, have absolutely no need for “a desperate bid for credibility”. Have they proved it in the MMA arena? Some have, some haven't, so what.