Jeet Kune Do training places in Europe...?

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Flyingknee

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What would be the best places in Europe where someone could train in Jeet Kune Do at a high level or at least a serious one? I absolutely love this martial art and I would like to train in it full time or as close to full time as possible.
 
Not sure anyone on here is currently training JKD and living in Europe. If no one beats me to it, I'll look through the websites tonight, but I don't have a JKD background.
 
Flyingknee said:
EDIT: I'm also including three links to websites that list places. Which ones look the most trustworthy and legit (the websites themselves not necessary the training places as well):
Click to expand...
Keep in mind I don't train Jeet Kune Do, and have not interacted with any of these groups. Below are my thoughts as I go through the websites; you may very well disagree with some of it. The order of the bullets isn't indicating anything, it's pretty much just the order that I went through the websites.
Also, as is always my advice with this, a system can be good or bad, but that doesn't mean an individual school is good or bad, or a good/bad fit for you. Check out the schools that are close to you, and match your schedule, and see what you like most.
Flyingknee said:
1. Members - INTERNATIONAL JEET KUNE DO KIM FEDERATION
International Jeet Kune Do Kim Federation
Click to expand...

  • Looking at the different international instructors, almost all of them are also instructors in other martial arts. To me, that means that they are following the ideal of JKD, in that they're open to cross training, and I would bet utilize multiple styles/types of pressure testing in their schools/system.
  • The curriculum/requirements to 3rd dan. The requirements themselves look pretty standard, and has everything I'd expect. It is odd to me that they write all the kicks with the korean names in parenthesis, which would indicate it's closer to TKD then JKD (if you showed the curriculum to me up to 1st dan and scrubbed out any language or art indicators, my guess would be it's a TKD curriculum), but I don't know enough about JKD to say if that's a flag in itself.
  • The 'founder' goes by "Grand Master Soke". Two things wrong with this: the first is that he clearly didn't know what the word soke meant when he chose that as his title, which lowers my confisence a bit. Think of it as if the head of a school called themselves 'Headmaster Principle" or "Dean Headmaster". The second is that the founder of JKD is bruce lee. There's no real debate on that. Calling himself the grandmaster or soke of JKD (even of just the specific sub-style) reeks of egotism.
  • That might not be an issue since you're likely not going to train directly with him, but that can often spread downwards in a system, and if you're thinking long-term it indicates you might be stuck doing some bootlicking if you want to advance past a certain point.
  • Going along with the egotism, that the grandmaster soke posts certificates of him being part of a bunch of different 'societies'. Most of those are mail-in things where you pay them a bunch of money, they give you a certificate, and you get to brag about it. In the history, he also just talks about the certificates he has, and Bruce Lee's death, but does nothing to explain where his own training came from, or what his lineage is. So it may not be 'actual' JKD, if that's a concern of yours.
  • The videos were meh. I'm not a fan of the techniques, static-ness, or the ease they had in no-contact, but I'm also just not a format of those drills, so that might be why. I've been guilty of doing/filming static films like that (with more contact) for demo purposes myself, so can't knock it too hard.
  • Saw some more videos. They remind me of the tapi-tapi videos in FMA that I'm not a fan of. Look flowery and fast, but ultimately useless. That might be how JKD is though, I'm not sure.
Personally, I could see two reasons to want to learn JKD - to learn how to fight, or to learn what Brue Lee taught. I would not choose a school from this federation for either of those purposes.
Flyingknee said:
2. Chinatown JKD Study Group Directory | AMERICA, EUROPE, ASIA
Chinatown JKD Authentic Jeet June Do
Click to expand...
  • First thing I clicked on was the feints, fakes and attacks by drawing. Immediately I like this video more. They're actually using footwork/more dynamic then the other federations videos, and I get the sense that they do good contact sparring from how they move. They're also actively describing what they're doing, and I've used those shoulder-feints successfully against plenty of kickboxers and muay thai guys to close distane. I'm a fan already.
  • Watched another video, with the same instructor where he goes over angles, and I didn't disagree with anything he said/did in it.
  • They've got video lessons that are $99. I could see that being useful to get a feel of them.
  • The ranking fits my understanding of JKD rankings, but I am not too familiar with them.
  • Looking through the "join" tab, and the services tab, it looks like it's almost all online. I'm not a huge fan of that.
  • Scrolling down - they have a "fast track" program, where if you're an instructor in another style, you can become the first instructor level, and teach at your school, with just 4 days training? I'm not a fan of that, at all.
  • Looks like the main instructor (Tim Teckett) trained directly under Dan Inosanto, and was kung fu brothers with someone who trained under Bruce Lee. So lineage is there.
I think overall, if I really wanted to learn JKD specifically, and there was no JKD near me (but I had a sparring partner to train with) I'd give this a shot. If there was in-person JKD I could do instead, or I was open to other styles, that's what I'd do. And if I saw an instructor of there's in-person, I'd be very wary about if they actually know JKD vs. just got a 4 day course on it.
Flyingknee said:
3. Jeet Kune Do Joaquín Marcelo
Jeet Kune Do Grupo Joaquin Marcelo
Click to expand...
  • Straight away they tell you the lineage - Ted Wong. Which is legitimate, so no qualms there.
  • They don't bother with ranks or certs, which is fine to me. If you need those for external validation, that might be an issue.
  • The way their philosophy is written, it seems like they're okay with cross-training, which is a must for me (not cross-training, but training where people approve of it - it means that they're open to new information, and actually testing).
  • Nothing eye-opening about the history of JKD. All standard stuff, nothing totally in left field.
    • Same with the Ted Wong info.
  • The founder of this group actually lists what his training was, which is a mix of multiple different things, including judo and kenpo. Those are two styles I've done so I'm biased here.
  • He learned directly from Ted Wong, so again the lineage is there - you can trace back directly to Bruce Lee if that's important to you.
    • It looks like he also learned directly from Ed Parker and Dan Inosanto. Even if everything else was a red flag, I'd still go out and try to train with this guy if he was nearby, just to learn more about those two and their philosophies. Wouldn't do the same for his students on this fact alone, but just a cool tidbit.
    • Also learned silat, which from my one experience with JKD (one month trial period), the school also taught silat, and the two seemed to gel together nicely.
  • So far I'm about 5 tabs in, and while I'm convinced that the founders pedigree is rock-solid, I haven't really seen much indicating whether or not he or his students are good as well. Seems like a lot of tabs to talk yourself up, but I guess that's marketing. Orange flag, I guess?
  • They said they don't focus on ranks or certificates, but in the coaches section, they have different levels of coaches. Weird. But also makes sense for quality control purposes.
  • Looking through the videos, it took 6 videos before I actually got past Ted Wong/Bruce Lee/casual talking, to demos/drills. I watched the next four videos of what I'm assuming is Joaquin based on the names, and they all look like a movie training/dance montage. Not sure if the rest are the same, but I'm not watching all of them to find out.
Ultimately, I'd go here if my goal is just to be able to say I'm learning JKD and know it's legitimate. If my goal was to learn to fight, unless this was around the corner from me, I'd probably go somewhere closer that I trust. That's not because they had anything indicating that they can't fight, but that they spend so much time creating a website, and after going through the entire site I come away with no knowledge of their actual ability doesn't leave me with confidence.
 
Monkey Turned Wolf said:
Keep in mind I don't train Jeet Kune Do, and have not interacted with any of these groups. Below are my thoughts as I go through the websites; you may very well disagree with some of it. The order of the bullets isn't indicating anything, it's pretty much just the order that I went through the websites.
Also, as is always my advice with this, a system can be good or bad, but that doesn't mean an individual school is good or bad, or a good/bad fit for you. Check out the schools that are close to you, and match your schedule, and see what you like most.


  • Looking at the different international instructors, almost all of them are also instructors in other martial arts. To me, that means that they are following the ideal of JKD, in that they're open to cross training, and I would bet utilize multiple styles/types of pressure testing in their schools/system.
  • The curriculum/requirements to 3rd dan. The requirements themselves look pretty standard, and has everything I'd expect. It is odd to me that they write all the kicks with the korean names in parenthesis, which would indicate it's closer to TKD then JKD (if you showed the curriculum to me up to 1st dan and scrubbed out any language or art indicators, my guess would be it's a TKD curriculum), but I don't know enough about JKD to say if that's a flag in itself.
  • The 'founder' goes by "Grand Master Soke". Two things wrong with this: the first is that he clearly didn't know what the word soke meant when he chose that as his title, which lowers my confisence a bit. Think of it as if the head of a school called themselves 'Headmaster Principle" or "Dean Headmaster". The second is that the founder of JKD is bruce lee. There's no real debate on that. Calling himself the grandmaster or soke of JKD (even of just the specific sub-style) reeks of egotism.
  • That might not be an issue since you're likely not going to train directly with him, but that can often spread downwards in a system, and if you're thinking long-term it indicates you might be stuck doing some bootlicking if you want to advance past a certain point.
  • Going along with the egotism, that the grandmaster soke posts certificates of him being part of a bunch of different 'societies'. Most of those are mail-in things where you pay them a bunch of money, they give you a certificate, and you get to brag about it. In the history, he also just talks about the certificates he has, and Bruce Lee's death, but does nothing to explain where his own training came from, or what his lineage is. So it may not be 'actual' JKD, if that's a concern of yours.
  • The videos were meh. I'm not a fan of the techniques, static-ness, or the ease they had in no-contact, but I'm also just not a format of those drills, so that might be why. I've been guilty of doing/filming static films like that (with more contact) for demo purposes myself, so can't knock it too hard.
  • Saw some more videos. They remind me of the tapi-tapi videos in FMA that I'm not a fan of. Look flowery and fast, but ultimately useless. That might be how JKD is though, I'm not sure.
Personally, I could see two reasons to want to learn JKD - to learn how to fight, or to learn what Brue Lee taught. I would not choose a school from this federation for either of those purposes.

  • First thing I clicked on was the feints, fakes and attacks by drawing. Immediately I like this video more. They're actually using footwork/more dynamic then the other federations videos, and I get the sense that they do good contact sparring from how they move. They're also actively describing what they're doing, and I've used those shoulder-feints successfully against plenty of kickboxers and muay thai guys to close distane. I'm a fan already.
  • Watched another video, with the same instructor where he goes over angles, and I didn't disagree with anything he said/did in it.
  • They've got video lessons that are $99. I could see that being useful to get a feel of them.
  • The ranking fits my understanding of JKD rankings, but I am not too familiar with them.
  • Looking through the "join" tab, and the services tab, it looks like it's almost all online. I'm not a huge fan of that.
  • Scrolling down - they have a "fast track" program, where if you're an instructor in another style, you can become the first instructor level, and teach at your school, with just 4 days training? I'm not a fan of that, at all.
  • Looks like the main instructor (Tim Teckett) trained directly under Dan Inosanto, and was kung fu brothers with someone who trained under Bruce Lee. So lineage is there.
I think overall, if I really wanted to learn JKD specifically, and there was no JKD near me (but I had a sparring partner to train with) I'd give this a shot. If there was in-person JKD I could do instead, or I was open to other styles, that's what I'd do. And if I saw an instructor of there's in-person, I'd be very wary about if they actually know JKD vs. just got a 4 day course on it.

  • Straight away they tell you the lineage - Ted Wong. Which is legitimate, so no qualms there.
  • They don't bother with ranks or certs, which is fine to me. If you need those for external validation, that might be an issue.
  • The way their philosophy is written, it seems like they're okay with cross-training, which is a must for me (not cross-training, but training where people approve of it - it means that they're open to new information, and actually testing).
  • Nothing eye-opening about the history of JKD. All standard stuff, nothing totally in left field.
    • Same with the Ted Wong info.
  • The founder of this group actually lists what his training was, which is a mix of multiple different things, including judo and kenpo. Those are two styles I've done so I'm biased here.
  • He learned directly from Ted Wong, so again the lineage is there - you can trace back directly to Bruce Lee if that's important to you.
    • It looks like he also learned directly from Ed Parker and Dan Inosanto. Even if everything else was a red flag, I'd still go out and try to train with this guy if he was nearby, just to learn more about those two and their philosophies. Wouldn't do the same for his students on this fact alone, but just a cool tidbit.
    • Also learned silat, which from my one experience with JKD (one month trial period), the school also taught silat, and the two seemed to gel together nicely.
  • So far I'm about 5 tabs in, and while I'm convinced that the founders pedigree is rock-solid, I haven't really seen much indicating whether or not he or his students are good as well. Seems like a lot of tabs to talk yourself up, but I guess that's marketing. Orange flag, I guess?
  • They said they don't focus on ranks or certificates, but in the coaches section, they have different levels of coaches. Weird. But also makes sense for quality control purposes.
  • Looking through the videos, it took 6 videos before I actually got past Ted Wong/Bruce Lee/casual talking, to demos/drills. I watched the next four videos of what I'm assuming is Joaquin based on the names, and they all look like a movie training/dance montage. Not sure if the rest are the same, but I'm not watching all of them to find out.
Ultimately, I'd go here if my goal is just to be able to say I'm learning JKD and know it's legitimate. If my goal was to learn to fight, unless this was around the corner from me, I'd probably go somewhere closer that I trust. That's not because they had anything indicating that they can't fight, but that they spend so much time creating a website, and after going through the entire site I come away with no knowledge of their actual ability doesn't leave me with confidence.
Click to expand...
A quick TL; DR,

Site 1: I wouldn't even bother trying out unless I had no other options.

Site 2: I I was planning to do remote training, I'd use them. If I could train with the primary instructors in person (the ones who create the remote courses), I would do that. I wouldn't train with any of the other in-person instructors, if my goal was to learn JKD, and if that wasn't my goal, I'd evaluate those instructors on their other, non-JKD, merits.

SIte 3: I would check out, but be wary/not have particularly high hopes for.

Sorry my responses aren't more optimistic. Keep in mind this is all from my perspective - I'm picky, and still stick with my advice for others of try it out and see if it clicks with you.

Edit: it thought I was adding a smiley in the middle of an acronym. Fixed it.
 
Last edited:
Monkey Turned Wolf said:
A quick TL; DR,

Site 1: I wouldn't even bother trying out unless I had no other options.

Site 2: I I was planning to do remote training, I'd use them. If I could train with the primary instructors in person (the ones who create the remote courses), I would do that. I wouldn't train with any of the other in-person instructors, if my goal was to learn JKD, and if that wasn't my goal, I'd evaluate those instructors on their other, non-JKD, merits.

SIte 3: I would check out, but be wary/not have particularly high hopes for.

Sorry my responses aren't more optimistic. Keep in mind this is all from my perspective - I'm picky, and still stick with my advice for others of try it out and see if it clicks with you.
Click to expand...

Thanks a ton for all the detailed replies! They're hugely helpful.

I'll post some info later about the trainers that are available here in the UK (they are listed on site 2 and they can be found through Google as well if you search for 'Jeet Kune Do UK').
 
Flyingknee said:
Thanks a ton for all the detailed replies! They're hugely helpful.

I'll post some info later about the trainers that are available here in the UK (they are listed on site 2 and they can be found through Google as well if you search for 'Jeet Kune Do UK').
Click to expand...
Cool. Like I said, I wouldn't not attend based on them being certified with them, would just be a lot more scrutinous about their JKD claims/ability since they do offer a 4 day course to instructorship.
 
Monkey Turned Wolf said:
Cool. Like I said, I wouldn't not attend based on them being certified with them, would just be a lot more scrutinous about their JKD claims/ability since they do offer a 4 day course to instructorship.
Click to expand...

4. Meet Your Instructors | JKD London | Bruce Lee | Jeet Kune Do
The lineage and their philosophy sounds good to me at least...

5. Unity Jeet Kune Do - Unity JKD
No info about the lineage.

6. Instructors - White JKD
Again, great lineage it seems

If you could take just a quick look at these sites as well...I'd be on cloud nine and bring you a fruit basket as well ;)
 
Last edited:
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