Dan Inosanto holds the highest of the two Jeet Kune Do certifications that were ever awarded by Bruce Lee.
Why then, does it appear that most of Sifu Inosanto’s certified instructors do not teach Jeet Kune Do as Bruce Lee taught it . . . the “original” stuff? This is extraordinarily perplexing.
Is Sifu Inosanto teaching the actual “Jun Fan” Jeet Kune Do in all its simplicity and biomechanically efficient glory?
From what I have seen in his videos and the videos of some his top students like Paul Vunak and Ron Balicki, they just seem to be teaching a mixture of wing chun, kickboxing, grappling, stick fighting, and knife fighting without emphasizing the core principles of simplicity, directness, and efficiency.
I don’t know about you, but this phenomenon was very confusing for me in my early training days. It was not easy to separate the supposed “concepts” material from the concrete historical stuff. I was being taught one way in class, while the material that was publicly available from the JKD Concepts clan was showing something else.
Applying the JKD concepts to other martial arts is fantastic, and I would like to see more of that (especially in sport fighting) but I am not seeing this in much of the "Concepts" material that I come across.
Also, I understand that it was Bruce Lee’s wish that commercial jeet kune do schools not exist and that jkd training only be conducted privately and in a low numbers but high quality format. Could it be that sifu Inosanto is still honoring that request after all these years?
If this is the case, I can certainly understand. Yet I feel that most the Concepts people are doing Jeet Kune Do a terrible disservice by watering down the crown jewel of modern self defense.
Other martial arts are great, I have studied and continue to respect all martial systems, but to teach something other than JKD yet claim it as authentic Jeet Kune Do is a shame.
If anyone has some information regarding this matter, let me know!
In Health,
–
Nhan-Esteban Khuong, L.Ac.
www.nkhuong.com/blog
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