Does your JKD instructor do...

[BenchModel]

Does your Jeet Kwon Do instructor do:-

- sparring

- lead high kicks

- ground fighting

I ask because my first experience in JKD was a little odd to me. My instructor said that they don't do sparring because the first thing you have to do in sparring is set the rules for safety which in his opinion is not the same as street-fighting, so he says there's no point to sparring. Also he taught lead leg high round kicks. He has officially been taught by Dan Inosanto, but I think he taught him a long time ago (possibly 10 years ago). Did Dan Inosanto teach ground fighting 10 years ago, because my instructor doesn't seem to teach ground fighting at all.

I am seriously starting to think that I should change my JKD instructor. What are your answers/opinions?

Thanks

[joesteph]

My JKD instructor hssn't had me spar yet, not till I get JKD techniques down better being my guess, but I did see him sparring with two students (wearing gloves) while he gave me a break. One of the students tried a roundhouse, and our instructor moved in on him and turned, so that the roundhouse's thigh was striking the instructor's ready knee. Slick move.

When I was first speaking with my instructor about taking JKD, I asked about sparring, and he told me it was light contact and to be done respectfully. I liked hearing that and, from what I saw, that's the way it's done in his training hall.

I wonder if your instructor had had an incident, BenchModel, and so this is his "public" explanation while he avoids telling the true one.

[tallgeese]

My experience is mainly in cross training with guys working out of JKD rather than formally taking it per se.

That being said, all the exposure I've had has used sparring as a training tool extensively. It's treated as a tool to training, not and end of itself. Still, sparring was a major part.

Yes, the lead leg round was used. The particular group I was with used them as an interrupting movement. It seemed to be a secondary skill, but yes it was in there.

The grappling is tougher. Some groups will, some won't. Almost all will have some semblance of defense from there since it's acknowledged as a "range" of combat. JKD will often, from my experience with different groups, take on the flavor of the major intreset and expertise of the individual practitioner. This is one of it's strengths in my view. If a group has an active intrest in grappling, then expect more of that sort of training.

[sensei8]

The cross training that I've done in JKD; sparring WAS done alot. By alot, I mean, ALOT. Lead leg work was done just as much as sparring was.

As far as grappling was concerned, I didn't see much of that whenever I crossed trained with JKD practitioners. Whether that was set in stone or just the preference of those that I cross trained in JKD with, I truly don't have an answer for that, just an assumption at best because I never asked. I was getting alot of grappling in my style as well as with other grappling practitioners.

So, it does sound strange but, stranger things have happened before.

[bushido_man96]

I think the grappling aspect is going to vary from instructor to instructor based on the experience that they have. I don't know that a lot of grappling was done in the early days of JKD, although Bruce did train with Gene LeBelle a little bit. He was aware of it, but I'm not sure if the exposure was there to address it as much as it is today.

[Jay]

My JKD instructor hssn't had me spar yet, not till I get JKD techniques down better being my guess, but I did see him sparring with two students (wearing gloves) while he gave me a break. One of the students tried a roundhouse, and our instructor moved in on him and turned, so that the roundhouse's thigh was striking the instructor's ready knee. Slick move.

When I was first speaking with my instructor about taking JKD, I asked about sparring, and he told me it was light contact and to be done respectfully. I liked hearing that and, from what I saw, that's the way it's done in his training hall.

I wonder if your instructor had had an incident, BenchModel, and so this is his "public" explanation while he avoids telling the true one.

That technique is called the Jam. I was told you cannot defend it and from what I have learned if you opponent doesn't know its coming then yes it is very difficult to defend.

We pretty much do just lead leg stuff but we also do rear leg work occasionally, its very much a lead side art.

Grappling in JKD is usually limited to defending against grappling rather than rolling around on the floor grappling. Although I haven't done any I have learned that basically you learn to get back on your feet as fast as possible back to stand up fighting because you don't really wanna be on the ground on hard floor on the street especially if you against more than one person.

[glockmeister]

Yes, we do all those as well as training knife/stick sparring