AUTHENTIC & FRAUDULENT! Bruce Lee Fans, Beware & Be Informed

Discussion in 'Jeet Kune Do' started by redronin, Jun 11, 2010.

  1. redronin

    redronin New Member

    Bruce Lee stumped the world with his invention of a new age martial art JKD – Jeet Kune Do. His movie "Enter the Dragon" showcased JKD for the first time to the world and drew millions to embark on the martial arts journey.

    Jeet Kune Do (JKD) is a physical- martial and philosophical-spiritual art. The MARTIAL part includes various ranges–Kicking, Punching, Knee- Elbow striking & Grappling with ground fighting.

    JKD is unlike Karate & Taekwondo where major emphasis is on kicking, Judo & Wrestling where major emphasis is on body grappling and Boxing which focuses on punches. In JKD emphasis is total on all ranges of fighting - Kicking, Punching, Trapping-Elbow & Knee, as well as grappling & Matwork. JKD deals with the techniques developed by Bruce Lee specifically for himself- Jun Fan JKD, made up from Fencing, Boxing & Wing Chun, which Bruce Lee adapted to form his specific Stance, specific Footwork & specific Strikes.

    The PHILOSOPHICAL part is about Lao Tzu, Zen and JKDization of Life. LAO TZU is about balancing Ying & Yang – harder forces and softer forces of existence (Masculine- Feminine, Day-Night, Optimism- Pessimism, Aggression-Accommodation). ZEN is about translating thought into action without rumination or worry. JKDization of Life is problem solving by the 4 fold path – Researching the subject at hand, Absorbing the useful parts & rejecting useless parts of your analysis and finally tailor-making the conclusions to suit your problem.

    Despite the colossal success of his films, Bruce Lee did not want to commercialize his art JKD. Hence JKD is not publicly available till date. All those who claim to commercialize JKD by opening schools, using Press & Media, holding tournaments and teaching numbers in batches are prostituting the name JKD without even scratching the surface of the iceberg. A JKD school is always kept low profile, trains only about 7 students at a time, and each is taught individually (tailormade to correct his mistakes & develop his individual attributes) without hoards trained in batches on common techniques.

    After Bruce Lees death, since JKD was not available, the result was other martial arts which were available got popular all over the world. Bruce Lee issued certificates to very few students in his lifetime. Dan Inosanto, Richard Bustillo, Ted Wong, James Lee and Taky Kimura. Today Inosanto, Richard Bustillo and Ted Wong are the only individuals who are available for teaching JKD. These so called ORIGINAL STUDENTS run seminars all over the world to introduce JKD to the participants. The participants are then awarded JKD Seminar attendance certificates. These are not to be confused by INSTRUCTOR CERTIFICATIONS awarded to some Instructors by the Original students after a lifetime of training under the Original students. The Instructor Certifications are APPRENTICE, ASSOCIATE & FULL INSTRUCTOR which takes decades of researching & training specifically in the Bruce Lee arts.

    Those who have been certified by these above Bruce Lees Original Students (First Generation) are called SECOND GENERATION JKD artists. Those who have been certified under second generation are called third generation. Upto third generation Instructors, one can safely assume that the art of JKD is least diluted. I, Ritesh Reddy, am a third generation instructor, under Dr. Rao, private student of Richard Bustillo.

    After Bruce Lees death, Dan Inosanto & Richard Bustillo opened up the IMB Academy (Filipino Kali Academy) which was the first academy to teach JKD. Ted Wong, Taky Kimura, Dan lee & others have trained this academy before branching off themselves. Richard Bustillo & Ted wong was instrumental in training Bruce Lees son Brandon Lee, daughter Shannon Lee & in helping raising the Bruce Lee foundation. To the best of my information, The Bruce Lee foundation has YET NOT DEVELOPED the JKD training program, and is still to develop the JKD Schools all over the world in few years. There are many who locally register Bruce Lee foundation with the TM & Patent office in their country & claim to be the BL Foundation, without any connection to Bruce Lee. The false claims of being BL Affiliate schools can be easily verified by contacting the BL foundation & Ted wong for verification of authenticity of the so called BLF Schools in India (!). There is nothing like a BLF affiliated school anywhere in the world. http://www.bruceleefoundation.com/

    Then there is the World JKD Federation, which is NOT RECOGNIZED BY the BL Foundation. The World JKD federation is a diploma mill, which offers Full instructor certification to those who pay 500 USD, without ever meeting the students! The BL foundation will not vouch for the online certificate activity of WJKD federation. Many Karate Instructors in Delhi & Mumbai have been certified by the World JKD federation & claim to teach JKD, without any JKD training. They also hold competitions such as Rajiv Gandhi JKD tournaments without realizing that Bruce lee was dead against martial tournaments & sport fighting, with major focus only on full contact no holds barred, all our sparring. Check out all these paid instructor certifications by Video education (!) on the WJKDF websites
    http://jeetkunedo.org & http://jeetkunedo.org/inslist.htm

    WHO CAN THEN TEACH JKD?

    As per Bruce Lee foundation, authentic JKD can only be learnt under those qualified instructors who have been issued Full Instructor certifications by the Original students (Dan Inosanto, Richard Bustillo, Ted Wong). You may read the article quoted in the website of BL Foundation below to see how to identify an authentic JKD Instructor. http://www.bruceleefoundation.com/index.cfm?pid=10607

    So, only those with full Instructor certifications from original students Richard Bustillo, Ted Wong & Dan inosanto, can teach JKD. In my approximation there are about 500 JKD Instructors at all levels in the world of which only about 50 hold full Instructor certifications from original students. Only so many in the last 4 decades after Bruce Lees death!
    There are martial artists in the world who have trained under Ted Wong/ Inosanto/ Bustillo for a session or two & who claim that they have Instructor Certifications from him (in their websites, there is no display of any Instructor Certificate from ted Wong). There are those who are falsely representing BL Foundation in india and "authorize" Indian martial artists to represent BL Foundation to teach JKD in India. Please contact BL Foundation (http://www.bruceleefoundation.com) to verify these fradulent claims.

    One may also contact the JKD Brotherhood (http://www.jkdbrotherhood.com) which is a historical JKD website to verify claims of Instructorship.

    One may even contact, Richard Bustillo, based in LA, USA, who still runs the IMB Academy, the first academy that taught JKD after Bruce Lee died. He was an original student of Bruce Lee who was the first senior JKD Instructor certified by Dan Inosanto. He is in his 60;s and is a FBI & LA-County Police Defensive Tactics Instructor. He is a martial arts legend and his seminars are in demand all over the world. At 69 years, he constantly travels world wide spreading the torch of JKD. His fansite is http://bustillojkd.tripod.com where more info can be found about him. He too can verify who is authorized to teach JKD as approved by BL Foundation & who is certified by him. Contact him at www.imbacademy.com

    JKD in India
    The only authorized JKD School in India & Asia is the IMB Academy-India/Asia chapter, in Mumbai called JKD Ideology. I have personally learnt JKD here under the authentic Instructors, who donot wish their names to be publicized. These Instructors are authorized by Richard Bustillo and are full instructors in JKD. This can be easily verified by contacting IMB Academy or Richard Bustillo himself at www.imbacademy.com He will vouch for the JKD Ideology School in India to be the local IMB chapter under his guidance.
    Richard Bustillo frequently travels to india to supervise & train the Indian Bruce Lee fans. His last trip was a low publicized trip to Mumbai in March 2010.

    If you have to understand more about JKD, you may visit many websites which offer authentic information on JKD. Yes, there are many which mislead you to believe that they offer authentic BLF endorsed information on JKD like World JKD federation, which has nothing to do with BL Foundation, but inserts links to BLF website to convince surfers about its realtion to BLF. See this misleading website www.JKDworld.com which leads to non authentic www.worldjkd.com where pictures of Bruce lee books are displayed to add more authenticity. Note how they have inserted links to BL Foundation, without being part of it.

    For JKD information in India - Mumbai, you may please refer to http://jeetkunedoindia.tripod.com which is IMB – Asia chapter representing Richard Bustillo, Original student of Bruce lee. This website is close in identifying with the concepts & techniques of Jeet Kune Do. For training in Jeet Kune Do under the same school, visit www.JKDindia.com or contact info@JKDindia.com or call at +919820496752 to learn the authentic low profile Bruce lees art of Jeet Kune Do in India under authority & supervison of IMB Academy USA President, Richard Bustillo, who has been certified by the great Bruce Lee himself.

    I hope I have cleared some misconceptions about JKD in India & helped in preserving the good name of the legendary Bruce Lee for the benefit of his fans in India. Bruce lee strongly believed that one must tailormake every technique to his individual need, by researching, absorbing the useful & rejecting the limitations. He also devised specific techniques to suit his constitution JFJKD. While we must study his methods, we must also understand his concepts, philosophy & ideologies. These will not only help us in becoming better martial artists and also to become good individuals in arena of life.

    I wish you luck in your JKD quest, search & journey. I also urge you to remember that JKD is the journey not the destination. So brothers, In the words of Bruce Lee, Walk On!

    ~ Ritesh Reddy is a Third generation Instructor, JKD Ideology, India
     
  2. Yohan

    Yohan In the Spirit of Yohan Supporter

    Congratulations on your English Ritesh. It is very good. If you hadn't said you were from India in the post, I would have thought you were American.

    I think the heart of what you are trying to say is that there are many fake JKD schools in India. That is bad news, and I am glad you are taking the best steps you can to combat that. I will tell you that we don't have many members that I know to be from India, so you night want to post this elsewhere.
     
  3. redronin

    redronin New Member

    Thank you Yohan, I will do so.

    In the spirit of Bruce Lee,
    Keep Safe, Keep Training!
     
  4. Kwajman

    Kwajman Penguin in paradise....

    I think like every other martial art, its more hassle to sue someone if they use the name than it is to just ignore the fake school. I believe we'll see more and more schools teaching 'authentic' JKD....
     
  5. DontMoveTilUCIt

    DontMoveTilUCIt Valued Member

    The trouble with JKD is that it is a styleless art. This means that it is hard to distinguish what attributes make an art JKD. This is also often true of wing chun

    At the end of the day, if a martial art does what it claims, I have no problem with it. If a martial arts claims to be the 'best defence art' etc and then doesnt deliver, it should be named and shamed

    Most of the schools I train in are of an exceptionally high standard, but it doesnt boast about it, or claim to be the bets of the best. Im sure there are schools/teachers out there that are better, but they allow you to make up your own mind without forcing that belief on you

    I think you have to be careful (Redronin) of not falling into the trap, which has often tainted teh wing chun community. This is to claim that other schools of your style are not as pure or real etc.

    I understand your desire to warn people of fakery out there, especially those that claim to be something they are not, or trading off Bruce Lee's name when they never even met him etc. However, it is possible to have a JKD school which contains loose concepts of the original art and then change them slightly. That is how arts progress!! New things come in and arts change
     
  6. ap Oweyn

    ap Oweyn Ret. Supporter

    I don't think you can ever combat schools you disagree with by trying to disband them. The best you can do is to provide worthwhile alternatives.
     
  7. Yohan

    Yohan In the Spirit of Yohan Supporter

    I'm glad you came up with a way to rationalize this. It's like some karate instructor teaching Wing Chun. There's no way this is kosher. These folks aren't developing JKD.
     
  8. Ashutosh Sen

    Ashutosh Sen New Member

    Fake Jeet Kune Do

    Sir,this is a perfect example of fake Jeet Kune Do event being organised in West Bengal.
    [​IMG]
     

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