Jeet Kune Do is a combative sport that was introduced by Bruce Lee, one of the best Kung-fu fighters that ever graced the earth. However, so many people have doubted the effectiveness of the sport. So, in this text, you will be made to see the good in the sport and why you really should try it out.
What is Jeet Kune Do?
Jeet Kune Do, also known as JKD, is a combat sport that was coined from the techniques of Kung Fu. It involves the interception of fists and strong defense. In a brief interview with Bruce Lee, the brains behind this sport, he was asked of the idea behind his style of fighting.
He responded by saying that his style was the art of fighting without fighting. The meaning of his words remain obscure to many people, but in actual fact, he was looking for a complex sport that did not involve the players learning all the rules.
He wanted the players to be fluid with their moves and to be graced with the full opportunity of expressing themselves. Bruce wanted to create an avenue where the players of Kung Fu were allowed to channel the raw energy and anger they felt into what they loved doing.
So, Jeet Kune Do did not have a set of techniques or skills the players had to master. It also did not have any limitations. Once the players were in the ring, they were allowed freedom until the winner emerged.
Issues tied with rigidity and unrealistic moves were instantly settled. So, with this amount of simplicity and straight-forwardness Jeet Kune Do presented to the table, the players were able to achieve a higher degree of efficiency in the sport.
Why was Jeet Kune Do established?
Bruce Lee originally founded the sport— Jeet Kune Do for the street fighters. Street fighting back them was something that was based on the rawest emotions and the most vivid skills. So, the sport Bruce established helped the fighters get more skillful eventually.
As time went on, Jeet June Do became a sport that the fighters of MMA (Mixed Martina Arts) resonated to in their field. MMA involves two people fighting within a cage. It is a combative sport that involved total contact between the two persons involved. It also worked with several styles and techniques from other styles of combat sports and martial arts.
This sport was also established to achieve a rare realism in combative sport. Jeet Kune Do does not run along a regular path and so, it allows its players and practitioners to be dynamic.
This made them be able to adjust easily to any real-life occurrence. The more they practiced the sport, the more they were able to use it in their several fields more efficiently. For example, the players were allowed to deliver oblique leg kicks to their opponents as a means of defense.
Other martial arts did not allow this level of freedom. Instead, they canceled out any form of severity and trained their players to learn only a few sets of skills.
Styles involved in Jeet Kune Do.
Jeet Kune Do was based on four ranges of combat. So, it was required that before anyone took active part in the sport, he or she had to be willing to throw aside the hackneyed rules, patterns and styles of martial art, and then, learn to incorporate lively skills into his moves.
So, some styles were developed to express this level of simplicity, unrestricted movement and energy liberation.
- Kicking.
- Punching.
- Grappling.
- Trapping.
Apart from the styles listed above, the players had to come up with the best ways of defending themselves by practicing the worst and most offensive moves. This was allowed since the game did not have rules.
The only rules the game had were not in any way directed towards the sport. They include the following;
- The player must be very fluid in his movements
- A player had to be able to merge defense and attack into just one swing of his limb.
- The attack any player wields on his opponent must be unexpected. The opponent should not see it coming.
- The mind of the JKD student must be free and receptive to new ideas, styles, and techniques.
- A player had to be able to give quick advances.
- The players had to be dynamic and alive.
- The moves involved the players managing time and at the same time, maximizing energy.
- The players were to strike their opponents with their heels instead of using shoes made out of steel. This helped them to be able to focus on inflicting real pain on their opponents.
- The player had to be direct with his moves.
Ranges of combat in Jeet Kune Do.
In Jeet Kune Do, the players had to practice either long, medium or close hits. Long hits involved the player or student being able to creatively and timely come up with moves that were efficient regardless of the proximity between him and his opponent. Close hits involves the players learning to focus his power on a hit so that the opponent feels the full effect of the blow.
For example, the side-kick feature works so that whenever a player uses it, the opponent is stopped and then, he or she wears down at the impact of the hit. Other skills like trapping involved the player getting a hold of his opponent’s fist he or she is about to deliver a punch by doing something as creative as the ‘parry’ style.
While doing that, the player was also expected to hold one of the opponent’s hands Dow as he stroked the other. This inadvertently worked to create openings for the players as their opponent’s only method of defense was stolen from them.
Another skill used in this game was that when punching and parrying at the same time, the player had to confront an attack first by parrying or deflecting. Then, almost immediately after, he was expected to attack the opponent.
Efficiency was gained here sing the player was able to make adequate use of the parry. Parrying works to channel an attack from the opponent to another direction while blocking helped to put an end to an attack.
Is Jeet Kune Do effective?
With all the skills, techniques and styles listed above, you might have come to the conclusion that the sport is indeed effective in conveying the emotions of a player or Martina artist.
However, there are still some other things it works to achieve for the player.
- The player is able to defend himself. Sidekicks, jabs, crosses, strikes, attacks to the groin area, finger jab to the eye as well as biting off the skin of the offender are several ways by which a player can defend himself from unnecessary attacks.
- The game helps the players to have the right mindset while playing. When a martial artist has to actively combine and fuse into all his moves the skills of the game he is involved in, his mind is actively engaged. However, since this sport literally allows you to do anything, all you have to focus on is channeling all of your anger and skills into your moves.
- Jeet Kune Do helps the players to be highly flexible, fluid, adaptable and fit. Other martial arts may focus just on some parts of the limbs or the body, streamlining to a large effect the amount of good the sport does to their body. However, this game works on the whole body of the players and it helps them to be as fit as possible.
- The sport helps the players to brush up their skills and techniques in martial art and other combative sport by opening their eyes to a lot of several other skills. By the time a player uses the skill that he worked with when performing in martial art sports games in this sport, his eyes will be open to the several ways by which he can maximize the skill or technique.
- With this sport, the players can understand how the game of combat really works. Just like Bruce Lee always wanted to pass across to all the martial artists, Kung-Fu or any other combative sport was meant to be fused with multiple styles and freedom.
Whatever wasn’t useful, according to Bruce was supposed to be disregarded, and the needed things like simplicity and freedom needed to be pushed to the surface.
So, yes, Jeet Kune Do is a very effective game that helps its players to become the best at what they do.
Conclusion.
Jeet Kune Do was founded by Bruce Lee, one of the champions in martial art and it aims at achieving simplicity, realistic moves, flexibility and dynamic energetic moves. With the amount of freedom this game offers, the players can be as effective as Bruce Lee always wanted them to be.