Jeet Kune Do VS Shaolin Kung Fu...?

[Kibou]

Hello everyone. I just wanted to find some information about the two martial art styles Jeet Kune Do and Shaolin Kung Fu...I was wondering what are some of the pros and cons of each style and how do they compare to each other? I've looked through the internet but I haven't really found too much info other than lots of other martial arts were built off of some techniques of Shaolin Kung Fu ... and that Jeet Kune Do isn't really much of style but more actually like a way of thinking...or... something...like that...

[MizuRyu]

From what I know Shaolin encompasses many different styles (at least the syles that they study AT Shaolin), but the more commonly accepted "shaolin kung fu", from my knowledge, refers to the 5 animal system. The tiger, leopard, crane, snake, and dragon. You can train in one or train in all and combine them. It seems to me to be a very complete system. Search 5 Animal Kung Fu on yahoo to get more details.. because that would be a loooot of typing.

JKD, Bruce Lee's martial art, can mean 2 things. It can be viewed from the philsophy of it, or some view it as what Bruce Lee actually practiced. Bruce Lee found JKD's roots very deep in Wing Chun (Jeet Kune actually being a WC drill), along with Fencing and Boxing, and he took many other scattered arts, absorbing "what was useful and discarding the useless". The idea was to take all the knowledge possible and combine it into a fluid and adaptable style (inherently a lack thereof), unreliant on tradition or structure. The idea was to be like "water". Of course, this wasn't a new concept, just popularized by Bruce (due to his dedication to this philsophy and his fame through film).

Comparing them to eachother is rough... that all depends on what you're looking for. Some schools offer "Jeet Kune Do", but I would never personally consider taking it. The idea behind it is as simple as cross training and finding what's the most fluid and effective for your body and mind. Shaolin 5 Animal seems like it would insanely hard to find, especially a quality school, though I did find this: http://www.shaolin.com.au/cyber.html... that site also has a lot of great information, but I'm not entirely sure on what to think about the DVDs...

Hope that helped a little

[shogeri]

Jeet Kune Do was Bruce Lee. Bruce Lee was JKD.

It is the core or essence of the Martial Artist that was evolving within him at the time.

It is a principle based system of fighting.

Korea, Japan, China, India, Africa, and South American, were each evolving their Martial Arts throughout the centuries.

There were't always forms or katas.

However, there were drills and practices, and cardiovascular activities that enveloped around the study of martial arts in any given region.

Bruce Lee simply attempted to do what worked for him, and that was return to the way of training that was indeed more to the point than what traditional martial arts had evolved to, and for the most part is still doing today.

Some people have time to wait. Other's feel that they do not.

This is what makes it just as much art as a science.

Take care...