Jeet Kune Do (JKD) is the name Bruce Lee gave to his combat system and philosophy. A mixing of martial arts styles is inherent in Jeet Kune Do philosophy. At Kensho we help our students to find their own “way”. We learn to apply JKD principals in our modern context. Jun Fan / Wing Chun trapping and sensitivity training is an important part of our curriculum. We strive to continue to evolve as Bruce Lee would certainly have done were he alive today, but we always respect and find value in the roots of the styles we practice.

Bruce Lee personally drew from his experience in Fencing and Savate along with Boxing, Muay Thai and of course Wing Chun Gung Fu. JKD stresses familiarity with each of the “Four ranges of combat” (kicking, punching, trapping and grappling) and learning to flow between them. This in particular, is thought to be instrumental in becoming a “total” martial artist. JKD teaches that the best defense is a strong offense, hence the principle of an “intercepting fist”. For a person to attack another hand-to-hand, the attacker must approach the target. This provides an opportunity for the attacked person to “intercept” the attacking movement.

savate kick with a partner

Originally, when Lee began researching various fighting styles, he gave his martial art his own name of Jun Fan Gung Fu. However not wanting to create another style that would share the limitations that all styles have, he instead described the process that he used to create it:

I have not invented a “new style,” composite, modified or otherwise that is set within distinct form as apart from “this” method or “that” method. On the contrary, I hope to free my followers from clinging to styles, patterns, or molds. Remember that Jeet Kune Do is merely a name used, a mirror in which to see “ourselves”. . . Jeet Kune Do is not an organized institution that one can be a member of. Either you understand or you don’t, and that is that. There is no mystery about my style. My movements are simple, direct and non-classical. The extraordinary part of it lies in its simplicity. Every movement in Jeet Kune-Do is being so of itself. There is nothing artificial about it. I always believe that the easy way is the right way. Jeet Kune-Do is simply the direct expression of one’s feelings with the minimum of movements and energy. The closer to the true way of Kung Fu, the less wastage of expression there is. Finally, a Jeet Kune Do man who says Jeet Kune Do is exclusively Jeet Kune Do is simply not with it. He is still hung up on his self-closing resistance, in this case anchored down to reactionary pattern, and naturally is still bound by another modified pattern and can move within its limits. He has not digested the simple fact that truth exists outside all molds; pattern and awareness is never exclusive. Again let me remind you Jeet Kune Do is just a name used, a boat to get one across, and once across it is to be discarded and not to be carried on one’s back.

Bruce Lee

In 2004, the Bruce Lee Foundation decided to use the name Jun Fan Jeet Kune Do (振藩截拳道) to refer to the martial arts system that Lee founded. “Jun Fan” was Lee’s Chinese given name.

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