MY THOUGHTS ON JEET KUNE DO
A personal message from Jerry Meyers

I started training in Jeet Kune Do in the year 1967 in the Jun Fan Gung Fu Institute in Chinatown Los Angeles, Ca. Dan Inasanto, my friend and fellow Black Belt, under Ed Parker was Bruce Lee's assistant and protege at this time. I had talked to Dan about the training before I went down there. I went my first time with Steve Golden, another Kenpo Black Belt, and friend. At this time he told me a little about what to expect since I was to be interviewed by Dan first then Bruce. Dan basically told me what questions Bruce would be asking .The main thing that Bruce said was that he didn’t want the Kenpo and the JKD mixed, which I agreed to, he also made it clear that he didn’t think much of any other system, the "classical mess" was what he refered to them as.

Notice I say SYSTEM, Bruces own words.

The first class I went to at the JFGFI, Bruce was demonstrating his foot and hand speed. I'd seen this demonstrated before at the Long Beach Internationals where most people tried to block with their lead hand. When he picked me to demonstrate on, I figured that I would use the rear or cover hand which was closer since he said he was going to tap me on the side of the head, he still caught me ten out of 10, and I never saw him move and found out later that not only could he hit you at this speed but could also take your head off.

When we started, as I said, we were learning Jeet Kune Do at the Jun Fan Gung Fu Institute. At this time I had never heard the word concepts used, Bruce's principles yes, concepts no. I was only in Chinatown for the year 1967, so maybe I missed it?

When Bruce closed the JKD schools down, Dan got the OK from Bruce to teach a few students in his garage. I was experiencing some financial and transportation problems at that time but I was communicating with Dan on the phone. I believe some of the students that trained with Dan during the garage period were Jerry Poteet, Steve Golden, Bob Bremer, Pete Jacob,s and Daniel Lee, who during sparring broke two of my ribs with hook kicks I never saw (thanks Dan).

When I started back, the students had built a gym in Dans back yard. Some of the students I remember training with then were Jerry Poteet, Tim Tackett, Ted and Tana Lucay, Moses Torres, his friend Ramon, Joe Poe, and Richard Lee....Richard Lee was also in Chinatown. Most of the senior or JKD group are in the photo on my JKD page, I'm in the middle next to Ted Lucay. This same group plus many others continued on when the Kali Academy opend up. During the first year of the Kali Academy, I still had never heard the word concepts.

Some instructors say only Bruce could do Jeet Kune Do, so you could learn Jun Fan but not JKD. If this is true, why were all the classes back then called the JKD class and not the Jun fan class? Some say that JKD wasn’t a system or style, if so, then why did Bruce ask me not to mix the two systems Kenpo and JKD ?

I believe it was a system with a structure to be used as a guide, even if your individual results were different, because we all have different attributes. They should be different for each of us, hence the term "Your JKD is not my JKD". Now if you go outside the structure by "adding or taking away" as Jerry Poteet says, don’t call it JKD. For this reason if I add some thing that I feel is benificial from Kenpo, I call it Chinese Kick Boxing and I give a separate certificate from the Lucay Lucay Kali JKD certificate. Ted Lucay Lucay called what he taught "Kali Jeet Kune Do", meaning the Filipino Martial Arts with Bruces principles added to it.

These are my thoughts, there are many thoughts like these thoughts, but these are mine.

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Contact Jerry:
sifujerry@hotmail.com