Is JKD a Style?

[MartialDirect.com]

What do you think? Is it a style or not?

[jukado1]

Is JKD a style ?    For those who believe it is it is, Whose that Bruce Lee's intent,  Not in MY opinion, JKD was Bruce Lee's method of putting out the principles of effective fighting, Out side of the one girl in India who was born with 2 sets of extremities all the rest of us have 2 arms and legs, I believe that what Bruce Lee did was give us the OK to focus on the result of being an efficient fighter, And not get tied up in non productive time wasting endeavors. Also in MY opinion as good as Bruce was as a teacher he was MUCH BETTER as a trainer, While the principles he thought can and do make anyone from any style a better fighter those who gained the most were those who trained with him personally,  Most of my knowledge of JKD came from training with Joe Lewis while he was training with Bruce Lee, And as far as techniques, I to this day have never seen anything in JKD that I have not seen in all other styles, The difference is in the focused mind that Bruce tried to develop.

[MartialDirect.com]

...I to this day have never seen anything in JKD that I have not seen in all other styles...

Bob,

I agree with your statement with one exception. The JKD Lead punch. When you see someone throw this punch, it does not look any different than other arts. But once you get into the mechanics of it, it is a punch I have not seen in any other martial art. Many of the mechanics are the same, but the total approach and sequence of motions are unique to JKD. At least from what I have seen and experienced.

As to the rest, there's not much difference in the tools. As you said, the mindset is the difference.

But, is it a style with its own set of techniques, philosophies, etc.? Some say that JKD is only a philosophy and can be applied to any art. Many of these people disregard any of the techniques and mechanics that Bruce Lee taught as JKD.

Then of course, you have those that say JKD is ONLY what Bruce Lee taught and therefore it is a style with technical boundaries.

[jukado1]

MartialDirect:  Did you ever see Marvin Hagler throw his front hand punch/jab ??  His jab WAS our forward hand punch, He would n occassion have a full body tork, I saw him ko somebody with it on one occassion,And a couple of times he sure rang some people's bells,
 And I have yet to see anything That Bruce did that I haven't learned from my instructor, I just saw it refined and done MUCH MORE EFFECTIVLY, Again I feel that Bruce simplified and took out what ever kept us from being at our peak in effectivly applying what ever we used.