(a post from Mr. Chapél on Facebook, August 2022)
A reminder that Bruce Lee's JKD is not a style of martial arts any more than Ed Parker's Kenpo Karate.
Both were designed to suggest students should follow a particular regimen to achieve the best outcome for the individual. Unfortunately, JKD doesn't actually set any parameters or even suggest specifics for encounters beyond a straight punch reflecting the rudiments of its roots in Wing Chun. This is not surprising considering Bruce's youth and time having a formal teacher, which was relatively short and done by the age of 18.
A perusal of Bruce Lee's written works is mostly philosophical with much of his Tao of JKD being little drawings and quotes from other philosophers and was compiled after his death. Most of his written works surfaced after he had passed and most displayed essentially the same lead leg knife edge kick to the knee, back-fist combination trapping the lead hand. Classic Wing Chun.
Although his association with Dan Inosanto brought additional knowledge to him, as well as with Gene LeBell, and others. Bruce's genius was his gift to assimilate physical movement, and he did that with everyone he came in contact with, while his celebrity students paid the bills.
So in many ways, JKD is like EPKK. But, Ed Parker's version is light years ahead of the concept. By creating an actual guideline curriculum, and providing concepts of execution, as well as suggesting specific encounter scenarios, Mr. Parker was constantly pointing students in the correct direction while giving them the flexibility to tailor to their liking. None of this exists in JKD, and even Bruce's number one training partner, Dan Inosanto doesn't teach JKD, essentially because it only exists philosophically on a conceptual level.
So in that sense, there is a definite connection between the two (JKD & EPKK), and Bruce's relationship with Ed Parker and others had a definite impact. It was even Mr. Parker who suggested Bruce Lee needed to learn to kick. Imagine that, but at the time Bruce only had Wing Chun experience with very limited kicking skills. So Mr. Parker sent Bruce to Sea Oh Choi of Hapkido over on 3rd and Fairfax, (in L.A. ) at the time and we (Cliff Stewart, Hugh Van Putten, and myself) got to watch Mr. Choi "teach" Bruce "how" to kick, especially for the movies.
Mr. Parker said Bruce was a tremendous athletic talent, He said, "If you show Bruce something the first time he might do it almost as good as you. A second time he could do it as well as you, and if you weren't careful and showed him a third time, he might do it better than you."
That was his gift, although he was not knowledgeable, he continued to grow and absorb from those around him without having a formal teacher.
Had he lived, and if he had chosen to, he would have been a tremendous martial artist beyond the screen stuff. But, you see, Bruce was not interested in being the best martial artist in the world. Bruce wanted to be an actor, he wanted to be Steve McQueen, and had he achieved that status who knows if he would have continued to grow beyond the obvious screen prowess he already possessed.
However, my biggest complaint about Bruce devotees is they tend to take his screen persona as real life instead of the "reel life" that it is. On top of that, the philosophy of training he espoused was major league flawed for anyone but himself. To do what Bruce did, you would have needed to have Bruce Lee's gift. Most do not.
Bruce told people to throw away the inessential, but how do you know what is and isn't essential when you have no training and no experience? Interestingly, Bruce hated forms, but he did them before he discarded them, and is famously depicted in full Gung-Fu uniform on the cover of his first book doing a form.
So Bruce gave good advice, but only from his own gifted and extremely talented perspective. Those significantly interested in Bruce Lee and his life should obtain a copy of Tom Bleecker's Book, "Unsettled Matters."
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