Jeet Kune Do

Histoire

Jeet Kune Do — "the way of the intercepting fist" — is the approach Bruce Lee named in 1967. After training Wing Chun with Ip Man in Hong Kong, he opened schools in Seattle, Oakland and Los Angeles, and took ideas from Western boxing, fencing and many other styles.

Lee saw it less as a style than as a philosophy: "absorb what is useful, discard what is useless, add what is specifically your own". After his death in 1973 his notes were published as "Tao of Jeet Kune Do" (1975), and students such as Dan Inosanto carried his teaching forward.

Le saviez-vous ?

• The strong hand is kept in front, an idea Lee borrowed from fencing.
• The famous "one-inch punch" was shown at the Long Beach tournament in 1964.
• Lee taught that the best defence is to intercept the attack as it starts.
• Jeet Kune Do has no fixed forms: training is built around sparring and drills.

Glossaire des techniques

Straight lead

fast punch with the lead (strong) hand

Stop hit

hitting the opponent as he starts to attack

Stop kick

low kick that intercepts an attack

Bai jong

on-guard position

Five ways of attack

SDA, ABC, PIA, HIA, ABD

Armes et équipement

Nunchaku

two sticks joined by a cord

Kali sticks

Filipino rattan sticks

⚔ In the Arsenal

Nunchaku

☯ Philosophy and quotes

“Nothing in the world is softer than water, yet nothing is better at overcoming the hard.”— Lao Tzu, Tao Te Ching, ch. 78 (c. 4th century BC)

“Empty your mind, be formless, shapeless — like water.”— Bruce Lee, The Pierre Berton Show, TV interview (1971)

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Figures clés

• Bruce Lee (1940–1973) — founder of Jeet Kune Do
• Dan Inosanto (1936–) — Lee's student and training partner, also a Filipino martial arts master
• Taky Kimura (1924–2021) — one of Lee's first students in Seattle
• Ted Wong (1937–2010) — Lee's student and sparring partner in Los Angeles

Sources: Bruce Lee Foundation · Encyclopaedia Britannica