Preserving Bruce Lee's Jeet Kune Do

Bruce Lee's art of Jeet Kune Do continues to live on regardless of its founder's untimely departure more than thirty years past.

Over the past decades, two very distinct Jeet Kune Do schools of thought have emerged.  Both approaches have the powerful and positive intentions of continuing Bruce Lee’s work and legacy of dissolving human limitations, while inspiring discovery and personal evolution.

Jeet Kune Do Concepts versus Original Jeet Kune Do.  Opposing sides of the same spectrum continually at odds with one another.

In the Original JKD camp (otherwise known as Jun Fan JKD), supporters hold fast to the concept that the founder's martial arts compendium should be maintained in it's original form, free from any third party interpretation and alteration aside from the natural evolution that already exists within Bruce Lee's existing records and first hand accounts of his family, friends and first generation students.

The Jeet Kune Do Concepts proponents strictly adhere to the core ideal of constant change and evolution.  They generally start with a base of the Filipino arts, as Dan Inosanto made popular, and integrate many other mainstream martial art systems such as Jiu-Jitsu, Muay Thai, MMA and so on.

Strengths and weaknesses abound on both sides of the Jeet Kune Do equation, but which approach is best?  Which approach serves Bruce Lee's original purpose best?

The original JKD clan oftentimes establishes such a anchored and closed position around the founder’s  original body of knowledge that the true value, the inspiration, is often suffocated within the unyielding dogmatic mentality.  Despite the well meaning intentions, this approach has the seed of directly opposing Bruce Lee’s goal of freedom from limitation.  He made it very explicit that he did not want his "way" to be crystalized as the "gospel truth."

The “Concepts” clan, on the other hand, often takes an extremely nebulous interpretation of Lee’s philosophy.  The concepts are sometimes taken so far out of context and watered down that the driving spirit of the art becomes muddled and lost entirely.  An obsessive exploration and incorporation of so many martial arts systems often adds to the confusion by way of excess.  The continual increase and accumulation of combative techniques and strategies directly opposes the JKD guiding tenet of daily decrease and refinement.

So then what is the solution?

How do we preserve Bruce Lee's legacy while staying true the purpose behind the inspiration?

A harmonious and holistic Jeet Kune Do lies in a marriage between both sides.  It is essential to preserve the original material, including notes, videos, and all first hand accounts revolving around the methods, techniques, strategies, philosophy, and history Lee's art in order for future generations to become inspired and have access to it without the filter of someone else's interpretation.

As important as it is to protect the original body of knowledge, JKD only truly lives when expressed uniquely and honeslty through the individual.  It lives through the practitioner’s self discovery and personal evolution, through liberation and self actualization.

Fortunately, the internet has become a powerful element within the global human culture.  The advent of Jeet Kune Do online, although still controversial, is perhaps the single most powerful product of Bruce Lee's legacy.

Online and web based systems have allowed for things, that would otherwise succumb to time and disappear from history, to be preserved indefinitely and easily accessible be anyone.