Jeet Kune Do and the thread of True Human Combat

Bruce Lee was looking for the true art of fighting like a human. He called it Jeet Kune Do (JKD). I think of it as the art of True Human Combat (THC) even though I still usually call it JKD in honor of Bruce’s work.

JKD is not the same as Mixed Martial Arts (MMA). JKD is about eliminating and simplifying. MMA is a process of putting on more and more arts/systems.

MMA is a collection of different arts - Doce Pares for stick and Kali for knife, Boxing in hand range, Muay Thai kicks and elbow, Brazilian JuJitsu and a little Sambo for fight on the ground. It’s like a chimera with a lion's head and a goat's body and a serpent's tail. It’s unnatural.

JKD pursues the thread of True Human Combat that runs through many arts. I may adopt punches, kicks, etc., but have no loyalty to those systems. If I learn a Muay Thai kick and simplify it and a Muay Thai guy tells me, "that's wrong, we don't kick like that" - it means nothing because it isn’t a Muay Thai kick anymore. It's a JKD kick again. It's my kick. It's part of my JKD - the art of fighting like Iron Punk.

NOW - that doesn't mean I can just throw my fist or leg out there anyway I want and it’s the Art of True Human Combat. We are all subject to the same physical realities. There are principles of movement, striking, combat that are true and apply to all of us, but even those truths are reexamined for cleaner, simpler ways of expressing True Human Combat for each individual.