What is Jeet Kune Do?

Jeet Kune Do, “The way of the intercepting fist” in Cantonese, abbreviated JKD, is a hybrid philosophy of martial arts heavily influenced by the personal philosophy and experiences of martial artist Bruce Lee. Lee, who founded the system on July 9, 1967, referred to it as “non-classical”, suggesting that JKD is a form of Chinese Kung Fu, yet without form. Unlike more traditional martial arts, Jeet Kune Do is not fixed or patterned, and is a philosophy with guiding thoughts. It was named for the Wing Chun concept of interception or attacking when one’s opponent is about to attack. Jeet Kune Do practitioners believe in minimal effort with maximum effect. On January 10, 1996, the Bruce Lee Foundation decided to use the name Jun Fan Jeet Kune Do (振藩截拳道) to refer to the martial arts system which Lee founded; “Jun Fan” being Lee’s Chinese given name.

Bruce Lee believed that kata forms and martial art tournament matches alike (like Karate) were simply “organized despair”. He believed that in order to “fully express oneself, one must” “have no limitations” (kata and rigid and non-flowing movements being the limitation). His system was revolutionary, and included all possible forms of strikes: attacks to the groin, finger jab to the eye.

What is Jeet Kune Do was often said by Lee to be just a name, and he often referred to it as “the art of expressing the human body” in his writings and in interviews. Through his studies Lee came to believe that styles had become too rigid and unrealistic. He called martial art competitions of the day “dry land swimming”. He believed real combat was spontaneous, and a martial artist cannot predict it, but only react to it, and a good martial artist should “be like water”—move fluidly without hesitation.



Jeet Kune Do Principles



Seen in many of his movie fight scenes such as in The Way of the Dragon vs Chuck Norris, Bruce Lee fought in a side southpaw horse stance. His jabs and crosses came from his right hand and followed up with a lot of side kicks. Instead of a common check seen in Muay Thai, Bruce uses an oblique leg kick to block a potential kick. Bruce Lee adopted other defensive concepts found in many other systems such as slipping and rolling from Western Boxing and forearm blocks found in Eastern martial arts such as Kung Fu.

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Bruce Lee’s nimble and agile skipping-like footwork is seen in his movies. This technique was adopted from Muhammad Ali’s footwork in his boxing stance. This quick and agile footwork can be achieved from practice using a jump rope as jumping rope imitates this nimble, jumpy action that is a quick way to move your way around and away from an enemy’s strikes.Footwork also has its influences from fencing.7

Front Hand Lead


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Non-telegraphed punch


Economy of motion



Directness: Doing what comes naturally in a disciplined way.

Simplicity: Thinking in an uncomplicated manner; without ornamentation.


Stop hits


Simultaneous parrying and punching


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