Jeet Kune Do: Is it worth learning?

When looking for a martial art to learn, one of the martial arts that can get your eyes is Jeet Kune Do. Jeet Kune Do is a martial art developed by Bruce Lee. Because of his popularity, Jeet Kune Do also became popular. But is Jeet Kune Do really worth learning? Will it be good or you should just try other martial arts? Let’s find out.

Jeet Kune Do is worth learning if you are learning self-defense. The reason is that Jeet Kune Do is specifically made for self-defense and street fighting. Furthermore, if you are a student who likes being creative and trying to learn by experience, Jeet Kune Do offers you the freedom to choose the right moves for you.

In this post, we are going to talk more about Jeet Kune Do being worth learning. Furthermore, we will also discuss when Jeet Kune Do might not be for you. We will also discuss the difficulty in learning Jeet Kune Do and How effective it really is.

Is Jeet Kune Do Worth Learning?

Jeet Kune Do is worth learning since it is an effective martial art. Jeet Kune Do is a philosophy of finding out what works for you. It is a martial art or Philosophy that teaches freedom. Freedom for you to find it out yourself what moves are the best for you.

If you are starting out and wondering if Jeet Kune Do is worth learning, then the answer is it depends.

The first thing you need to know about Jeet Kune Do is its philosophy. Don’t worry because I will explain later why I am starting with this.

Generally speaking, the philosophy of Jeet Kune Do is to find out what works for you.

So if a certain training is not for you, or the moves are not for you, then you are free to not do it.

This is both good and bad.

If you are a creative thinker or a veteran martial artist, this is very good for you.

The reason is that you are free to learn whatever works.

Someone who already knows some martial art would know their strengths and weaknesses. They know what type of moves are they good at and what moves they aren’t good at.

For these types of people, the freedom JKD has to offer is a huge plus.

Furthermore, if you are the type that hates rules and would like to learn at your own pace, then Jeet Kune Do will also be good for you.

However, if you are a complete beginner and prefer to have a set of lessons and curriculum, then it is a bad idea to start with Jeet Kune Do.

Jeet Kune Do’s lessons are not systematized. They don’t have any governing body to regulate the lessons.

This means that the lessons will be different from each school. Furthermore, there are also instances that their belt progression might have some differences.

So, if you’re the type that wants everything to have standards, then studying JKD is a bad idea.

Despite this, Jeet Kune Do is an effective and strong martial art.

It is one of the martial art that doesn’t care about doing any flashy moves such as flying kicks.

They only have one thing in mind which is to teach the most effective and energy-efficient moves.

So, if we are talking about if Jeet Kune Do is good for self-defense, it is really good for self-defense and if that’s your priority, then Jeet Kune Do is worth it.

However, if you prefer showing off some cool moves to your friends, then the simpleness of Jeet Kune Do moves will not help you.

In that case, it won’t be worth it.

If you are looking for how effective Jeet Kune Do is and that’s what you want to learn if you will try the sport, then continue reading.

But for now, let’s now talk about if Jeet Kune Do is hard to learn.

Is Jeet Kune Do Hard to Learn?

Jeet Kune Do is quite hard to learn because it is a combination of a lot of moves from other martial arts. Furthermore, it is a martial art that requires you to be creative and critical in thinking since it involves some feints. But, Jeet Kune Do’s moves are easy to follow along and learn because they are simplistic.

Let’s first start by saying what makes Jeet Kune Do easy to learn.

As I already told in the last section, Jeet Kune Do is good if we are talking about effectiveness and energy efficiency.

What I mean by energy efficiency is that they prefer moves that don’t require much energy but are effective.

That’s why you won’t see a lot of complicated moves in JKD. The reason is they prefer having easy to do but very effective moves.

You won’t learn how to show off and break bricks in Jeet Kune Do. You would also not learn easy to predict flying kicks in Jeet Kune Do.

This makes their moves very simple but effective.

So that’s the aspect of making it easy to learn.

But now, let’s go to the hard part.

One of the things that makes Jeet Kune Do hard to learn is it is a combination of multiple martial arts.

Since the philosophy of JKD is to only use the good ones, they started to borrow a lot of moves from multiple martial arts.

That’s why it can be hard to learn JKD since you will learn moves from other martial arts.

In fact, they say that Jeet Kune Do is a hybrid martial art since it uses martial arts such as Fencing, Boxing, Wing Chun, and many more.

But take note that it only uses efficient and effective moves on all these martial arts. So you will not study all of them.

So overall, it is not that bad.

But what makes Jeet Kune Do extremely hard is that it is more of a mind game.

In Jeet Kune Do, you are going to learn about feints and reading your opponent’s moves.

You will learn how to manipulate them so you can put yourself at the advantage.

Because you are learning not just mastering your own but predicting your opponent, it makes Jeet Kune Do extremely hard to learn.

That’s why in JKD, the middle tier belt is still considered as people who are “learning” the craft.

The reason is even if you’ve reached Blue belt, they will still consider you as a beginner.

Although, in all honesty, you are already an intermediate-level JKD user.

For a guide on Jeet Kune Do Belt progression, you may check this article I’ve made: Does Jeet Kune Do have belts?

How Effective Is Jeet Kune Do?

Jeet Kune Do is effective in actual fights. This is especially true because JKD is especially good at predicting and controlling their enemy movements. Jeet Kune Do is good at producing feints and strikes such as boxing making it ideal for self-defense.

If you are looking for a good one-on-one martial art, then Jeet Kune Do is a good choice.

In fact, the majority of your training will be done on a one-on-one spar.

Furthermore, since they are extremely focused on effectiveness, most of your moves will be very good for actual fights.

Lastly, since JKD is good at training the person’s critical thinking, they are good at predicting strikes so they can easily dodge and block attacks.

This can be seen as they can produce feints that can trick their opponents into doing the things they want.

But, there is a catch.

Jeet Kune Do is not ideal for competitive matches.

Since Jeet Kune Do is good for actual fights, they don’t have a strict set of rules.

That’s why in a UFC or MMA fight, it can be hard for a JKD user to fight simply because there are lots of illegal moves in these sports that aren’t allowed in UFC.

The usual argument is you’ll see UFC fighters using JKD such as McGregor. But take note that JKD is a good supplement to other martial arts and using it alone in UFC is a bad idea.

If you want to learn more about Jeet Kune Do and UFC, then I prepared an article you can read. Here is the link: Is Jeet Kune Do in UFC?