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Bruce Lee Martial Art Jeet Kune Do in India

Bruce Lee stumped the world with his invention of a new age martial art JKD – Jeet Kune Do. His movie "Enter the Dragon" showcased JKD for the first time to the world and drew millions to embark on the martial arts journey.

JKD is a physical- martial and philosophical-spiritual art. The MARTIAL part includes various ranges – Kicking, Punching, Knee- Elbow striking & Grappling with ground fighting.

JKD is unlike Karate & Taekwondo where major emphasis is on kicking, Judo & Wrestling where major emphasis is on body grappling and Boxing which focuses on punches. In JKD emphasis is total on all ranges of fighting - Kicking, Punching, Trapping-Elbow & Knee, as well as grappling & Matwork. JKD deals with the techniques developed by Bruce Lee specifically for himself- Jun Fan JKD, made up from Fencing, Boxing & Wing Chun, which Bruce Lee adapted to form his specific Stance, specific Footwork & specific Strikes.

The PHILOSOPHICAL part is about Lao Tzu, Zen and JKDization of Life. LAO TZU is about balancing Ying & Yang – harder forces and softer forces of existence (Masculine- Feminine, Day-Night, Optimism- Pessimism, Aggression-Accommodation). ZEN is about translating thought into action without rumination or worry. JKDization of Life is problem solving by the 4 fold path – Researching the subject at hand, Absorbing the useful parts & rejecting useless parts of your analysis and finally tailor-making the conclusions to suit your problem.

Despite the colossal success of his films, Bruce Lee did not want to commercialize his art JKD. Hence JKD is not publicly available till date. All those who claim to commercialize JKD by opening schools, using Press & Media, holding tournaments and teaching numbers in batches are prostituting the name JKD without even scratching the surface of the iceberg. A JKD school is always kept low profile, trains only about 7 students at a time, and each is taught individually (tailormade to correct his mistakes & develop his individual attributes) without hoards trained in batches on common techniques.

After Bruce Lees death, since JKD was not available, the result was other martial arts which were available got popular all over the world. Bruce Lee certified few students in his lifetime in various martial arts he taught. Dan Inosanto, Richard Bustillo, Ted Wong, James Lee and Taky Kimura are some of his prominent students. Today Inosanto, Richard Bustillo and Ted Wong are the most sought out Teachers of JKD.

These so called ORIGINAL STUDENTS run seminars all over the world to introduce JKD to the participants. The participants are then awarded JKD SEMINAR ATTENDANCE certificates. These are not to be confused with JKD INSTRUCTOR CERTIFICATIONS awarded to deserving by the Original students after a lifetime of specific JKD training under the Original students. The Instructor Certifications are APPRENTICE, ASSOCIATE & FULL INSTRUCTOR which takes decades of researching & training specifically in the Bruce Lee arts.

Those who have been certified by these above Bruce Lees Original Students (first generation) are called SECOND GENERATION INSTRUCTORS. Those who have been certified under second generation are called third generation Instructors. Upto third generation Instructors, one can safely assume that the art of JKD is least diluted.

After Bruce Lees death, Dan Inosanto & Richard Bustillo opened up the IMB Academy (Filipino Kali Academy) which was the first academy to teach JKD. Richard Bustillo had received student certification from Bruce Lee and later was the first student of Inosanto to be issued Senior JKD Instructor Certification, before partnering the first JKD Academy the IMB Academy. Ted Wong, Taky Kimura, Dan lee & others have trained this academy before branching off themselves. Richard Bustillo & Ted wong was instrumental in training Bruce Lees son Brandon Lee, daughter Shannon Lee & in helping raising the Bruce Lee foundation.

To the best of my information, The Bruce Lee foundation has YET NOT DEVELOPED the JKD training program, and is still to develop the JKD Schools all over the world in few years.　There are many who locally register Bruce Lee foundation with the TM & Patent office in their country & claim to be the BL Foundation, without any connection to Bruce Lee. The false claims of being BL Affiliate schools can be easily verified by contacting the BL foundation　& Ted wong for verification of authenticity of the so called BLF Schools in India (!). There is nothing like a BLF affiliated school anywhere in the world. http://www.bruceleefoundation.com/

Then there is the World JKD Federation, which is NOT RECOGNIZED BY the BL Foundation. The World JKD federation is a diploma mill, which offers Full instructor certification to those who pay 500 USD, without ever meeting the students! The BL foundation will not vouch for the online certificate activity of WJKD federation. Many Karate Instructors have been certified by the World JKD federation & claim to teach JKD, without any JKD training. They also hold competitions without realizing that Bruce lee was dead against martial tournaments & sport fighting, with major focus only on full contact no holds barred, all our sparring. Check out http://jeetkunedo.org & http://jeetkunedo.org/inslist.htm

WHO CAN THEN TEACH JKD?

Authentic JKD can only be learnt under those who have been issued Full Instructor certifications by the Original students (Dan Inosanto, Richard Bustillo, Ted Wong among few). You may read the article quoted in the website of BL Foundation below to see how to identify an authentic JKD Instructor. http://www.bruceleefoundation.com/index.cfm?pid=10607

So, only those with full Instructor certifications from original students such as Richard Bustillo, Ted Wong & Dan inosanto, can teach JKD. In my approximation there are about 500 JKD Instructors at all levels in the world of which only about 50 hold full Instructor certifications from original students. Only so many in the last 4 decades after Bruce Lees death!

There are martial artists in the world who have trained under Ted Wong/ Inosanto/ Bustillo for a session or two & who claim that they have Instructor Certifications from him (in their websites, there is no display of any Instructor Certificate from ted Wong). There are those who  are falsely representing BL Foundation in india and "authorize" Indian martial artists to represent BL Foundation to teach JKD in many countries such as india. Please contact BL Foundation to verify these fradulent claims. http://www.bruceleefoundation.com/

One may even contact, Richard Bustillo, based in LA, USA, who still runs the IMB Academy, the first academy that taught JKD after Bruce Lee died. He was an original student of Bruce Lee who was the first senior JKD Instructor certified by Dan Inosanto. He is in his 60's and is a FBI & LA-County Police Defensive Tactics Instructor. He is a martial arts legend and his seminars are in demand all over the world. At 69 years, he constantly travels world wide spreading the torch of JKD. His fansite is http://bustillojkd.tripod.com where more info can be found about him. He too can verify who is authorized to teach JKD as approved by BL Foundation & who is certified by him. Contact him at www.imbacademy.com

The authorized JKD School in India & Asia is the IMB Academy-India/ Asia chapter, in Mumbai called JKD Ideology. I have personally learnt JKD here under the authentic Instructors, who donot wish their names to be publicized. These Instructors are authorized by Richard Bustillo and are full instructors in JKD. This can be easily verified by contacting IMB Academy or Richard Bustillo himself at www.imbacademy.com He will vouch for the JKD Ideology School in India to be the local IMB chapter under his guidance.

Richard Bustillo frequently travels to india to supervise & train the Indian Bruce Lee fans. His last trip was a low publicized trip to Mumbai in March 2010.

If you have to understand more about JKD, you may visit many websites which offer authentic information on JKD. Yes, there are many which mislead you to believe that they offer authentic BLF endorsed information on JKD, while having nothing to do with BL Foundation, but inserts links to BLF website to convince surfers about its realtion to BLF.

For JKD information in India- Mumbai, you may please refer to http://jeetkunedoindia.tripod.com which is IMB – Asia chapter representing Richard Bustillo, Original student of Bruce lee. This website is close in identifying with the concepts & techniques of Jeet Kune Do.

For training in Jeet Kune Do under the same school, visit www.JKDindia.com or contact info@JKDindia.com or call at 9820496752 to learn the authentic low profile Bruce lees art of Jeet Kune Do in India under authority & supervison of IMB Academy USA President, Richard Bustillo, who has been certified by the great Bruce Lee himself.

I hope I have cleared some misconceptions about JKD in India & helped in preserving the good name of the legendary Bruce Lee for the benefit of his fans in India.

Bruce lee strongly believed that one must tailormake every technique to his individual need, by researching, absorbing the useful & rejecting the limitations. He also devised specific techniques to suit his constitution JFJKD. While we must study his methods, we must also understand his concepts, philosophy & ideologies. These will not only help us in becoming better martial artists and also to become good individuals in arena of life.

I wish you luck in your JKD quest, search & journey. I also urge you to remember that JKD is the journey not the destination. So brothers, In the words of Bruce Lee, Walk On!

About the Author

Ritesh Reddy is a Third generation Instructor, JKD Ideology, India

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