JKD....The Real Deal Or What

[petemcr]

Hi everyone,

first post so here goes.

more of a question, but, in my local area there is a gym saying they teach JKD, not saying anything about the guy teaching (because he'd probably kick my arse), but is it going to be the real deal? i'm looking to start doing a form of martial art, is it best to join a traditional form, and read up on Bruce Lee's teachings in books and try to incorporate it into your own teachings? (sorry about the bad spelling)

[Kirves]

Very hard to say as long as you don't go ask what the instructor has trained and under who.

[petemcr]

yeah, might check out some of the other plces near by and see what it's like. cheers man

[jeff5]

First, no, you can't take a tradtional martial art and read Bruce Lee's books and do JKD that way. That's not JKD. You start with a base, which is what Bruce Lee taught (call it Jun Fan/ JKD, whatever), and then go from there. You need an instructor. Its a fair question to ask this instructor who he was taught by and what his lineage is. Also, see how he teaches, and what he teaches. He should let you take a trial class or two. Its not important that he has a piece of paper or certification, but it is important that he learned from someone who knows what they're doing and that he know's what he's doing himself.

[ASHTANGA05]

Tell us who the Instructor is? Any www. address? Then people here can easily verify if they are genuine or not.

Many teaching JKD are not even certified by anyone!

[petemcr]

here's the link to his site

http://www.jeet-kune-do.info/

[petemcr]

in theory though what Bruce Lee did was take the martial he learnt and just modified it to suit himself, and learnt from experiance. Shouldn't that be the same for anyone

[eXcessiveForce]

you should be fine with the material with that instructor. His page lists him as training with Many JKD guys. But check out what he does and decide for yourself.

[jeff5]

It seems like he's trained with some really good folks and he teaches a very diverse curriculum. I'd say take a couple of classes and see how you like it and him. Again, that's the best way. On the outside it seems like it would be a good school.

[petemcr]

really? cheers guys

[kooky]

you should also check out Karl Tanswell.

[jeffmichaels]

re

There is no real deal, there are only individual schools.
Does a school teach real self-defense, and do you like the instructor?

[doubleouch]

You should run not walk over to see Karl Taniswel. He is a SBG guy and one of the best standup clinch guys around. His ground game is awesome too. If you are only interested in Bruce Lee stuff then skip Karl. If you want to learn functional martial arts Karl is your guy.