Originally Posted by: SilimtaoJKD is really more of a philosophy of fighting than an art in and of itself. I know plenty of JKD "instructors" that don't even get this- they just show a bunch of techniques and say, "this is JKD". Bruce Lee really wanted to move away from classical/traditional arts, recognizing there was no perfect art. He's often thought of the godfather of mma, as he mixed the best of other arts into his style of fighting. The JKD philosophy is as much mental as it is physical.

I agree 100% there, it helps to get concept if you already have experience in a few different styles including some form of MMA. The Tao of Jeet Kun Do is a great book, Lee always has been one of my life time heroes - defeinitely the father of MMA. Another more ancient swordsman with a similar formless approach who was unbeatable in his day was Miyamoto Mushashi - author of the "Go Rin no Sho" (book of 5 rings). Worth checking out if you havent done so already.

I've had the same 'instructors' experience too. The budo taijutsu that I do is more commonly called ninjutsu but the reality is that pure ninjutsu is not thaught anywhere anymore, yet you see loads of "instructors" and "experts" guffing on about a whole load of nonsense all over the internet. The dojo I trained in was just a class room in a kids school in the middle of the country side. Tiled floor with no tatami mats so you had to get your rolls, breakfalls and handsprings pretty good pretty quick :eek: That said, the 'students' were all 4th degree black belt up to Ishizuka sensei who was 10th degree. It was an amazing experience, totally raw training. I never got injured there in over 5 years compared to the numerous broken bones, hyper extensions and sprains I got training in Ireland - kick boxing and MMA were different though, permanent split lip and black eye syndrome :p . The grand masters dojo was a different place all together, very cool but also had a hint of 'marketing' behind it.

Re BJ Pen, he's a great grappler always interesting to watch but I agree the Sherk fight wasn't a showcase. Grappling in MMA is a bit of a strange one, very effective but in the real world not that great. Before I sign off from waffling on this thread, my favourite MMA fighters are probably Mirko Crocop, Ueda Machida, Kazushi Sakuraba and Antonio Inoki (from the days of yore). Back to work!