By Larry Hartsell

The root of jeet kune do lies in its emphasis on constant change.

As a longtime practitioner of the martial arts -- most notably jeet kune do -- I have often heard people talk about Bruce Lee and the type of training he advocated.  Many of these people ahve focused their discussions on the meaning behind jeet kune do, or more specifically, what it does not mean.

People must realize that JKD was Bruce's personal fighting concept.  It had its origins in Bruce's early days in Oakland and Seattle, when he began to modify the wing chun gung-fu he learned growing up in Hong Kong.  The process continued as Bruce experienced new situations and arts.  Bruce's JKD developed mostly during his tenure in Los Angeles.  As he researched and analyzed new martial arts and fighting situations, he was constantly adding and deleting techniques to his personal combat repertoire, which for the sake of convenience, he called jeet kune do.

But it is important to remember that JKD was Bruce's personal art.  He never inteneded it to be a style in the traditional seince of it being an unchanging catalog of techniques.  And he often said as much during his short, but eventful life.

He emphasised that each person must research his own truth.  Just as each person's perspective is different, so is each person's JKD.  Although one can copy the style of a Rembrandt, one will not become Rembrandt by doing so.  The artist must develop his own style, and then pattern its strokes after his particular skills -- even if he uses the same brush and canvas.  What is true in the visual arts is true in the martial arts.  Just as a painter can learn from studying a master's style, the martial artis can learn from studying Bruce's approach.  However, he should never slavishly copy every move, step and punch.

That is why, along with my instructor and mentor, Dan Inosanto, we have continued to research other martial art styles.  Our network of apprentice and associate instructors around the world are also involved in this process.  It is not as though the original techniques of JKD are obsolete.  It is just that we have taken the concepts which Bruce used to develop those techniques and applied them to new arts and new situations.

Following the approach Bruce himself used, we adapt the techniques we can use and discard the ones that are of no value.  Many people ask what Bruce meant by "using no boundary as boundary".  It simply means that we don't try to contain the truth in a box, saying "this is it", or "this isn't it".  We don't limit ourselves to the techniques of JKD as they existed at a particular point in time.

At one time, science thought the atom was an indivisible unit of matter.  Then they learned to split the atom and new theories were born.  But they learned to split the atom by applying an established and valid scientific method of existing knowledge.  Once the method showed the pre-existing ideas about the nature of the universe to be incomplete, the same method provided them with an orderly way to better understand the "new" truth.  Of course, the truth was always the same; it was an incomplete understanding of this truth by the finite mind that created the illusion of "truth".  And that was later disproved.

Our present level of scientific knowledge and technology is the result of thousands of years of human knowledge building upon itself one step at a time.  One discovery brings a new understanding, which makes it possible for a new discovery.

This is how it is with JKD.  It is not that we have disregarded the original footwork, trapping, kicking, punching, etc.  We still teach and believe in them.   But we also have built upon them.  To teach the art we must start somewhere.  The techniques developed by Bruce Lee during his lifetime form the nucleus, the foundation upon which we can build.

I have been speaking of JKD as a science, but as we all know, it is also an art.  Perhaps it is accurate to say that it is a scientific application of art.  As an art, however, it is individual.  No two people are exactly alike.  They differ in size, strength, flexibility, aptitude and attitude.  In JKD we deal in four ranges of combat; kicking, punching, trapping and grappling.  We teach our students to flow between these ranges and how to fit in with their opponent.  On shouldn't box with a superior boxer or wrestle with a superior wrestler.  In JKD one must find his own way of expressing himself in combat.  As each person is an individual, so must each person uniquely express himself in battle.  So to encompass all people in the art, JKD must present a wide spectrum of arts.  Our commitment is to truth, not a particular set of techniques.

Bruce understood this.  When he was alive, he added kicking techniques from Muay Thai, grappling techniques from Gene LeBell, Japanese Jujitsu, hand and foot movements from boxing, Filipino Kali techniques from Dan Inosanto and others to innumerable to list.  At the time of his death he was continuing to research and add to his personal JKD.  I find it impossible to believe that he would have ever reached a point where he thought his art was complete.

The best predictor of what a person has been in the future is what a person was like in the past.  That is why I think Bruce whould have done what Dan Inosanto has done; continue to grow and change in light of new experiences.

The original concept of an academy in ancient Greece was that it would be a place where students could come to be exposed to a variety of disciplines.  This is what the Inosanto Academy has tried to be.  We cannot be a prepackaged "truth" to our students.  We can only provide them with an environment in which they can experience combat reality and attain a method which allows them to analyze this experience and make it work for themselves as individuals.  JKD is not a destination; it is a vehicle which each individual can use to arrive at his destination.

We will continue to have instructors and guest instructors from any art we believe will benefit our students.  That includes Indonesian Pentjak Silat, Filipino Kali, Chinese Kung-Fu, French Savate, Japanese Jujitsu, Boxing, Wrestling or whatever.  It is up to the student to apply what is useful to his particular style.  Not giving our students the opportunity to find their own truth would be a dereliction of our responsibility as teachers and a betrayal of the concepts to which Bruce dedicated his life.

1. Begin in a fighting stance.	2. Open with a left jab that opponent parries.	3. Wedge in with your right.
4. And follow with a palm strike.	5. Right comes to capture the right tricep.	6. Apply a vertical fist to the face.
7. Pull forward on the elbow.	8. and move into a cradlelock.	9. Flow into a takedown.
10. And chicken wing to a reverse.	11. Follow with a chin lock.	12. Control chin while kneeling.
		13. Continue to turn and lock.

About the Author: Larry Hartsell is one of the world's most popular jeet kune do seminar instructors.  He is based in Marina del Rey, California.

Originally published in Inside Kung-Fu magazine for the June, 1990 issue.