Is Bruce Lee's jeet kune do better than other martial arts?

Question

And if so, why?

Answer 1

it has no rigidity, a 'no style' style, and focuses on the individual and their personal abilities and talents, and less than on mass production of set skills. so it has the potential to be YOUR best martial art.
it is the people after all, that make styles good and bad.

you can teach 100 people to do a set combo, but they will all do it differently, yet expertly, because weight, height, sex, confidence, determination, heart, threat analysis, reaction, skill, timing (etc) are different for everyone. so Bruce saw no value in a one size fits all approach. you need to shop around, compare techniques, feel the body's comprehension and ability to reproduce it, identify useless and unrealistic movements, and build yourself an arsenal of things that DO work for YOU.

this is how Bruce saw martial arts, and less of a fixed art, but a growing science of understanding, testing, refining. and no one can sharpen your blade but yourself, sure, someone can show you how, but the true sharpening is up to your effort and honesty to your approaches.

at the end of the day, it is the winner who has won, not the style s/he used to win with. its all arms and legs anyway.

GRIZZLY9URSUS: you claim that your TKD instructor could beat these people "MAINLY because he wouldn't be hampered by their silly boxing rules, which they have been brainwashed into following." well, you do realize that the majority of TKD is brainwashed crap don't you? sure, he may win, but it wont be TKD that will win, because as soon as he goes against the set of rules it will be the man, and only if he goes against the opponents expectations and fights outside of rules. TKD is rule heavy, so you may need to address that statement.

is it the man himself that is competent, or the art he uses, because the art isnt complete enough, as it has rules, rules that are known by others. so I think Bruce Lee wins here purely on philosophy of individual achievement, and you win based on YOU winning, not a style.TKD! to think you could fight outside of rules with it. once you do, you fight your OWN way, and Bruce smiles.

so your instructor fights by the rules or not. if he doesnt, then he has liberated himself out of the rubbish, and it shows that TKD wasnt that good anyway as it wasnt complete enough to allow it to be used throughout all of its rules and movements. so he may drop Bruce to the floor, but Bruce would have been proud of his removal of restriction. its a win-win for Bruce here.

Answer 2

Let's put it in perspective, Bruce Lee was better at Jeet Kune Do than any of us are at any other martial art. Not even Dan Inosanto is as good at JKD as Bruce because Bruce created it and because of that knew everything about it.

The same can be said about Helio Gracie and Gracie Jujitsu. Nobody is better at Gracie Jujitsu than Helio. He created it. He taught it to his kids. They may be more physically fit than him, but he created all the moves. He knows them better than anyone.

Is Helio better than Bruce? We will never know despite what peoples opinions are. They were the best at their arts because they created them.

If I create a martial art and call it Kick Butt Do, and proclaim myself 10th degree Grand Poo-bah. Nobody will be better at my art than me. Does that mean my art is better or worse than anyone else? No. Does it mean I'm not 'legitimate' or 'authentic'? No. There is only one way to prove that a martial art is legitimate and that is to put it to the test against resisting opponents. If I'm the Grand Pooh-bah, I better be able to do that. But if my students can't do it, it doesn't mean the art is flawed. Maybe I'm just a bad teacher.

The point is that there is no 'better' or 'worse' unless you have a specific test to compare against. Let's say you use a stack of 10 boards. If one style can break 8 boards, and the other style can break 10 then that style is better at breaking boards than the other one. You should have a base of quantitative measurements in order to determine which is better. Otherwise you are just asking for opinions.

Answer 3

While I don't think it's "better" than any other Martial Art, but it does remove much of the formality of the traditional or classic disciplines in favor of a more streamlined fighting technique and posture.

Bruce studied many disciplines and incorporated many of the techniques into his own Martial Arts background to better add to his own fighting arsenal by researching these similar principles and evaluating the pros and cons of the individual disciplines and how cross training in more than one discipline can produce a more well rounded fighting technique for the individual.

Answer 4

I actually don't know anyone that practices it.

If you are talking about fighting then in theory it should be better than alot of martial arts because it allows multiple techniques from striking to ground. He says if you do Judo then you know throws if you do Karate you know kicks. He was all for whatever works.

There are better styles for real fight applications. For example if someone says karate is equal to muay thai for street fighting they are wrong. Since Bruce believed in actual application his system should be good.

Answer 5

This is right up there with "whose pistol is better" or "whose Bike is better".
One martial art has advantages in one way, while another may have different advantages. It depends more on the person using the art than the art itself. Mike Tyson and the "mighty" Muhammad Ali might both have been heavyweight champion boxers, but my Tae Kwon Do instructor (5th degree black belt- Chung Moo Kwan) could kick BOTH their ar ses in less than 5 seconds, MAINLY because he wouldn't be hampered by their silly boxing rules, which they have been brainwashed into following.
As much respect as I have for the late Mr. Lee, his art can't be compared as "better" than another, because it is actually a combination of several others, mostly Tae Kwon Do.

Answer 6

Bruce Lee incorporated the defensive moves of Kung Fu and combined them with street fighting techniques. His 1" punch (can floor a grown man weighing over 200 lbs).

If you like Kung Fu, and like Shodokon, you will like Je Kun Do

Answer 7

there is no such thing as a "better" martial art...they are all different, they all have their strong and weak points...jeet kune do is more gruesome than many martial arts, but that doesn't mean that it is better...

Answer 8

Bruce Lee claimed that his version was better because it eliminated the fixed positions and other fancy stuff. Being more flexible in how you're allowed to react is better because it gives you more options.

Answer 9

But ti was Bruce's JKD and that maybe better, but your JKD will be totally different!! Find the true meaning of what Bruce wanted JKD to be!

Answer 10

No art is better than any other art.
There are only best artists, not best arts.
The quality and frequency of training will outweigh the style of training.