is PFS JKD formless.

[Capoeirajc]

Im in PFS Jeet Kune Do and I'm loving it but sometimes I feel like if im not being "free" like Bruce Lee said. For ex. theres some moves in Jun/Fan that aren't done it PFS that I like and would like to do, like the lunge kick. But we dont do much kicking and if we do its mostly below the waist. I still cant understand of how can I be free if someone is teaching me moves that are from THAT system. And in JKD( PFS dont know about jun/fan) they thaugh me that when you get close to someone you plum up and headbutt.elbow and knee... I makes me feel like a robot, almost " programed" that when i get that close I'm SUppost to plum up. So how is this formless. If I see someone in a bar doing a Jeet-tek and a destruct, i know this person does JKD, so is that formless. Im not going against JKD moves, im just confused a bit.ThaNx...Juan.

[Watchdog]

Generally speaking, PFS JKD is a stripped-down version of JKD and kali. The RAT approach is an easy-to-remember, formulatic approach. It may be good and effective and contains elements of Bruce Lee's JKD, but it obviously doesn't include a lot of what he did. However, you, as an individual, should feel free to incorporate other techniques and principles from Lee's art as you see fit, if it works for you.

[StraightBlaster]

You can't become free until you have reach a high skill level.

An untrained fighter is free when he fights, he fights with pure instincts, and fights well.

He learns how to fight and becomes a robot, his fighting skill decreases from before he began training, he no longer fights from instincts.

He then masters the techniques of fighting and they become second nature, no longer is he a robot but he is free, fighting from his instincts like when he started but now his instincts are honed martial techniques. Now he is Great.

[aseepish]

PFS is also big on the concepts of self-preservation and self-perfection. RAT - pure self-preservation - comes first. This is drilled/programmed until it becomes second nature because this is what's going to save your butt. Self-perfection is the way you master yourself and improve your attributes, eventually leading to pure self expression and all that great Bruce Lee stuff. Self-perfection also gives you more options should you screw up.

To say PFS doesn't have certain tools or techniques is a bit misleading. PFS is a TRAINING SYSTEM. You can put any tool from any art into the system and you can discover for yourself whether or not it works (for you). Voila! More self-perfection!

I personally love Kali, Wing Chun, and Silat, so I tend to spend a lot of training time in these areas. These are arts that I appreciate as arts. Self-perfection.

-T.

[Brokenmace]

When Bruce Lee talked about "formlessness" he wasn't saying there was no form in fighting. What he meant was that the fulfilled fighter needs no set formula in order to fight. He becomes the key to his apponent's lock. A key is a form, but in this case it is dynamic, like water. Water takes the form of its opposition, therefore it has no set form. The techniques you are taught merely illustrate principles from which to judge other martial endevours. They give solidity to concepts. These concepts guide your understanding and incorporation of other techniques and approaches.

That is formlessness.

If your apponent high kicks to your head, he probably has developed a host of defenses against high kicks to the head. Don't kick him in the head! Flow into the gaps in his knowledge.

Of course, pure survival always comes first. That's the reason for R.A.T., as far as I understand. Over time, your understanding will deepen and you can branch out beyond the PFS corriculum.

[seekeroftruth]

Very well put aseepish!!!!