Martial arts phenom Bruce Lee reached his peak in the late 1960s and early ’70s and then, as we all know, tragically passed away in 1973 at age 32. Yet 44 years later, his combat creation, that which we call jeet kune do, remains as popular as ever.

That fact speaks volumes about Lee’s genius. In this tutorial, second-generation jeet kune do instructor Lamar M. Davis II — who’s trained under Ted Wong, Joe Lewis, Howard Williams, Patrick Strong, Jesse Glover, and other JKD luminaries — offers advice that’s guaranteed to help you fine-tune your understanding of Bruce Lee’s fighting method.

— Editor

1: Power-Side Forward

In jeet kune do, it’s essential to position your stronger side forward. In other words, the hand with which you hit the hardest should be in front, where it’s closest to the opponent and can be used most quickly. A secondary reason for this is the notion that if one of your hands needs more distance to travel so it can generate more force, it’s the one on your weak side.

Need yet another reason to get that power hand out in front? Recall that jeet kune do means “way of the intercepting fist.” With your strong hand as your lead, you have a better chance of intercepting your opponent with knockout force.

This is in contrast to what’s taught in many traditional martial arts. For years, practitioners of these systems were told to keep their strong side in the rear and weak side in the front. The justification was that the lead hand should function as the primary defensive tool while the rear, or stronger, hand was reserved for the “killing blow.”

But if you think about it, this doesn’t make sense. Your weak hand is closer to the opponent, which means it can more easily strike, yet your power hand is farther away, which means he has more time to see it coming. More time to see it coming translates to more time to block, parry, or simply get out of the way.

I like to think of this JKD principle in terms of firearms. Imagine having a .22-caliber handgun positioned where you can’t miss the target and a .44-caliber handgun positioned where it will take you more time to aim it and pull the trigger.

It would be nonsensical to go into combat that way. It’s much more efficient to place the powerful weapon in the front so it immediately can eliminate the threat.

2: Longest Weapon, Nearest Target

Another foundational principle of JKD is using the longest weapon to strike the nearest target. This enables you to intercept an adversary at the earliest opportunity.

Of course, in most situations, your longest tool is your leg. The longest leg weapon is the leading side kick to the opponent’s shin or knee, so this is an obvious choice when it comes to kicks.

The longest hand weapon is the leading finger jab, making it an obvious choice when you can’t kick. If you hit an attacker with a finger jab to the eyes or a side kick to the knee, you’re well on your way to ending the fight.

3: Non-Intention

This JKD principle refers to the ability to strike without giving away your intention to do so.

Unfortunately, it’s easier said than done. Patrick Strong, a close friend of mine and a Bruce Lee student from the Seattle period, has taught me much about non-intention. Strong says Lee used to describe the concept by likening it to a set of keys sitting on a table.

If someone bumps the table and the keys fall off, do they just fall, or do they “think” about falling, pause for a moment, and then fall? Of course, keys can’t think, but it’s the principle that’s important here.

Yes, the keys just fall.

You should do the same when you strike. The moment you detect an opening, strike. Don’t think about striking before you do it. If you have to think, it’s likely that by the time you strike, the opportunity will have disappeared.

If you need a visual reminder, watch the restored version of Enter the Dragon. Fast forward to the scene in which Lee is talking to the monk in the garden. “I do not hit,” Lee’s character says. “It hits all by itself.”

For an illustration of why you should strive to not give away your intention, consider these wise words on how you can exploit an opponent who isn’t quite so careful:

"Once you’ve made physical contact with your opponent, you can feel his intention. You learn to flow or 'fit in' with his force or movement by developing second-nature reflexes. Ultimately, you expand that heightened awareness to include any thought or emotion your opponent has."

— Jerry Poteet, Black Belt Magazine

4: Immovable Elbow

This principle comes from wing chun kung fu, one of the arts that contributed to JKD. It holds that your lead elbow should be at least a fist’s width (4-6 inches) in front of your lead-side ribs at all times. Never allow your elbow to rest against your body or out to the side of it. Here’s why.

When your elbow is against your body, it’s in what’s called a pre-pinned position. That makes it easier for an adversary to trap your lead arm. If your elbow is held out to the side and away from your centerline, your ribs on that side of your body are exposed. Clearly, that makes it much more difficult to protect your core.

A fringe benefit is that properly positioning your elbow in front of your body makes it easier to deliver a non-telegraphic strike with your lead hand.

While wing chun was being created, the first technique developed was the vertical punch. It’s more powerful because the elbow, shoulder, hip, knee, and stance are behind it all the way. When the elbow is at the centerline of the body, the distance the punch must travel is only one-third the distance the horizontal punch travels. Furthermore, the vertical punch doesn’t require any preparation. The wing chun vertical punch is just like jeet kune do — simple, effective, and dynamic.

— William Cheung, Black Belt Magazine

5: Hammer Principle

The last of the five JKD principles you need to know makes maximum use of the immovable elbow. Called the hammer principle, it greatly increases your non-telegraphic striking capability.

The principle is actually simple in concept but not so simple in application because most students still telegraph when they’re trying to use it even though the idea entails eliminating all signs that a strike is on the way.

The most common techniques that are taught in conjunction with the hammer principle are the leading finger jab and the leading straight punch. Both are effective strikes that can be made even more effective by adding this principle.

The best way to explain the hammer principle is to start from the beginning.

Have you ever noticed that when you use a hammer to drive in a nail, most of your arm movement is from the elbow out?

This is what keeps the hammer blows accurate. If you don’t believe it, try pounding a nail into a board using your whole arm. You’ll experience an immediate decrease in accuracy — hopefully, a decrease that won’t involve a smashed thumb.

This motion, which stems from the elbow functioning as a hinge, is the origin of the hammer principle. When using it to propel your punch, remember that your arm movement remains basically the same as when you’re pounding: from the elbow out.

If you’re an experienced striker, you probably keep your lead arm moving when you’re in your fighting stance. Usually, it’s small circling, rising/falling, or weaving motions. You likely realize that these movements go a long way toward concealing the initiation of your punch. After all, if your arm is already in motion, there’s no “startup” for your opponent to see.

Enter the hammer principle. When you’re making those small motions, keep your lead elbow in basically the same spot. In other words, move mostly your forearm, wrist, and hand. Think of the immovable-elbow principle outlined above. Your lead elbow should stay 4 to 6 inches in front of your lead-side ribs.

This is where the hammering movement comes from. To execute the strike, drop your lead limb until your forearm points at your opponent’s nose and then let your fist fly. Done properly, this motion will conceal your intention to strike. This crux is referred to as “dropping the hammer.”

I once witnessed Bob Bremer, one of the original Chinatown JKD students, repeatedly land strikes against a much younger opponent using the hammer principle — and that was after Bremer had suffered a heart attack. Even more amazing, it occurred even though the opponent knew exactly what Bremer was going to do. Nevertheless, again and again Bremer got in and touched the man’s forehead with a bil jee before he could do anything about it.

When teaching the hammer principle, I like to use an analogy: Imagine you’re standing on the sidelines and watching an archery match. When the archer releases the arrow, you can follow it all the way to the target.

Now imagine that same scenario except that now you’re the target. Horribly, the arrow would hit your face before you even realized it had been released.

Direct linear motion is the key.

At times, I refer to this jeet kune do principle as “aiming the gun” to help students better understand it. Think of your forearm as the barrel of the gun and your fist (or finger jab) as the bullet. Wherever you aim, the bullet goes. If the gun’s already aimed, it’s ready to fire.

That’s why I teach my students to “track” their opponent’s nose with their lead hand. It greatly simplifies interception.

"Your lead hand should be like greased lightning and must never be held rigidly or motionless. Keep it slightly moving (without exaggeration) in a threatening manner, as it not only keeps your opponent on edge but also can be delivered faster than motion from immobility."— Bruce Lee, Tao of Jeet Kune Do

Training Time

Although a few of the five principles presented in this article are unique to jeet kune do, all can be adapted to any martial art to improve the effectiveness of the practitioner. This makes it easy to understand why Bruce Lee was such a phenomenal martial artist.

The bit of advice I’ll leave you with comes from the mouth of the master. “Learn the principle, abide by the principle, then dissolve the principle,” Lee said.

At that point, the principle has become part of you.

Photography by Robert Reiff

Lamar M. Davis II teaches Jun Fan gung fu and jeet kune do. He’s a head instructor at Hardcore Jeet Kune Do Academy in Leeds, Alabama. For more information, visit HardcoreJKD.com.

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