Samurai (侍?) was a term for the military nobility of pre-industrial Japan. The word "samurai" is derived from the archaic Japanese verb "samorau," changed to "saburau," meaning "to serve"; thus, a "samurai" is a servant, i.e. the servant of a lord.

YOUR Now Chosen “Art of Combat and Self Defense” has been proven thru history since the ancient warrior days of the Samurai.

We could trace "jiu jitsu" back all the way to at least 2000 B.C. by tracing the origins of martial arts to ancient Egypt. In Japan, we can trace jiu jitsu back as far as 23 B.C. to the origins of sumo wrestling. This ancient form of wrestling has evolved and has came into it's own as a sport, but before that, it gave birth to the warrior art of jiu jitsu. The bugei, or warriors, of ancient Japan were schooled in various ryu or methods of jiu jitsu depending upon location and which school had established dominance at the time. There has been official documentation of 725 schools of jiu jitsu which were greatly varied in the way that they approached combat. They dealt with weapons as well as empty hand techniques, but jiu jitsu was always considered secondary and supplementary to the bugei's main tools of the trade: weapons of war.

Jiu jitsu had eventually earned quite a bad reputation for itself. Schools would often battle for supremacy and compete for the local economy. Injuries were frequent and the schools had turned into places where only the toughest and roughest of men could endure. The teaching was often disorganized and didn't follow a logical set of concepts and principles.

On October 28, 1860 Jigaro Kano was born in the seaside town of Kikage. He was to be a great influence upon Japanese martial arts and change them forever. As Japan was coming into modern times and adopting to European influences and industrialization, Kano yearned for the ancient ways as eagerly as he was absorbing these new influences. At his mid-teenage years he was reaching his full growth at 5'2" and literally a 90 pound weakling. Being so small and frail, he was a perfect target for the bullies that are so common at that age. So, he resolved to turn to jiu jitsu as the art had earned quite a reputation for making young men tough. However, his father forbade him to begin studying jiu jitsu; he viewed it as a thing of the past and of no use. He also thought that jiu jitsu was uncivilized and uncultured and that he would better spend his time learning the arts and other more important subjects.

So, of course, Jigaro Kano began looking for a teacher. He eventually found one and began studying. In fact, he continued studying until he had studied from many teachers and many ryu of jiu jitsu. His studies had included: Seigo Ryu, Yagyu Ryu, Kito Ryu and Tenshin Shinyo Ryu, which was a fusion of Yoshin Ryu and Shin No Shindo Ryu jiu jitsu. By the age of 21, Kano had became a master of Tenshin Shinyo Ryu jiu jitsu. Kano studied so fervently that he would even wake up screaming jiujitsu words!

During his studies, Kano met Tsunetoshi Ikubo, a master of Kito Ryu Jiujitsu. Years earlier, Kuninori Suzuki, a master of Kito-ryu, had changed the name of Kito-kumiuchi to Kito-ryu Judo in 1714. Over time, "Kito-ryu Judo" had slipped into common usage as Kito-ryu ju jitsu, but later the name Kodokan Judo would come from this source.

During this time, Kano was finding ways to change, modify and invent within his Jiujitsu training. He had invented new throws and had discovered the underlying concept of what he coined as "kazushi", or off-balancing, as a way of throwing an opponent rather than just leverage. One day, he even threw his master, Ikubo, 3 times. "From now on, you teach me", Ikubo was reported as saying. It was here that Judo was born.

During this time, Kano was studying at the Tokyo Imperial University. When he graduated in 1881 he immediately received an appointment to the Gakushin, a private school for the children of the Japanese elite, teaching literature. In 1882, at the age of 22, Kano took 9 of his private students to the Eishoji temple to set up a class for teaching his Judo, although the training was still more Jiujitsu than Judo. After he started this class is when the name "Kodokan Judo" came into usage. He wanted to use this term to set it apart from the old Jiujitsu and to signify that it was something new and had a deeper philosophy taken from Chinese Taoism.

When the monks at Eishoji had become tired of the damage that was being done to the temple from the Judo training, Kano built a temporary location next to the temple until moving the group to his own home in 1883.

In 1884, Kodokan bylaws were drawn up. The Kodokan name was officially established, "taking together all the merits I have acquired from the various schools of jujitsu, and adding my own devices and inventions, I have founded a new system for physical culture, mental training, and winning contests. This I call Kodokan Judo."

It is interesting to note that Kano had sought to preserve many of the ancient samurai ideals of the Japanese martial arts, but he wanted to weed out the ideals that were not fit for the modern age. One of these was the idea of "sudden death", or Shobu. "Sudden death" was the losing of a contest with one "fatal" blow. These contests promoted too much of a cautious attitude and did not promote the idea of risk taking that would allow creativeness, strategy and tactics to flourish. His contests were based on a 3 point system instead of an "ippon", or one point/sudden death. Unfortunately, during the 1930's, Japanese militarism had attempted to revive the Samurai idealism of sudden death for nationalistic purposes; the idea of complete sacrifice of the individual for the good of the nation. The military imposed upon the Kodokan the one point win system. As Kano had feared, this created a fear of risk taking for fear of losing and still exists today. However, this created a stronger growth of "randori"(free-sparring) in practice.

The "randori" or free-sparring attitude of Judo was also a unique idea of the time. Kano had witnessed that many of the styles of the time had become a very pale comparison to their former combative selves. During the decline of the Tokugawa shogunate period and the modernization of Japan, competition was looked at as too violent, primitive and even vulgar. The practitioners of the arts of that time viewed their arts as too "deadly" to be fully practiced on a partner or opponent. This attitude was handed down from kenjitsu, the sword fighting arts. Since they could not practice on each other, the perfection of movement was considered to be a test of skill. The kenjitsu masters were the most admired in the Japanese arts, so this attitude was also adopted by the other arts as well as the Jujitsu ryu of the time. This fallacy was also a way to avoid all of the agony, sweat and the overall ordeal of arduous martial art training. This poison is still prevalent today in most martial arts.

This promoted the growth of "kata", literally forms, as the main core of training. Instead of a natural, free competitive attitude of practice, pre-set and idealized movements were taught that were supposed to translate into actual fighting ability. The idea of "Budo" and the image of "Budo" had become a poor substitute of actually experiencing "Budo", the "warrior’s way".

Remember that in 1884 the Kodokan by-laws were drawn up and Judo was officially founded. Kano was only 24 years old and had taken all of the jiujitsu training that he had accumulated and developed his own method that he named Kodokan Judo. During this year they held their first tournament.

In 1885, the Kodokan had their first recorded tournament with the Metropolitan police. This was the first tournament to test this new Judo with ancient Jiujitsu. This was the first of many wins to come.

In 1886, the Tokyo Metropolitan Police hosted a historic tournament between the Kodokan Judo and Totsuka-ha Yoshin-ryu Jiujitsu, the school considered to be the strongest fighting school in Japan at the time. Although other masters were included, the Totsuka-ha was the school to beat as they were greatly known for thoroughly beating the other styles.

The Kodokan lost two matches, drew one and won the remaining twelve matches! This small little group of the existing Jiujitsu ryu at the time had beaten the recognized masters in Japan. Martial arts were changed forever.

In 1893, Kano was able to build a place solely for his Kodokan Judo. During this time, Judo began to change it's approach to ground or mat work techniques. Up until this time, Kodokan Judo had mainly focused on throwing because of Kano's own personal preference for throws. Kano was now 5' 2" and 165 pounds, he was very strong and powerful from his Judo training, but preferred to not go to the ground. Students were left to train their mat work on their own. Before this, jiujitsu would mainly put the bottom person in a face down position for defense. Kano had them start to lie face up so that they would have their arms and legs for defense and counter-attack.

A ranking system had also started to come into use. Previously, Jiujitsu either had no rank or just had varying degrees of teaching certification such as "beginning teacher" and "advanced teacher". Kano saw this as being very disorganized and left little incentive for a student to continue training without goals to achieve. Non-black belt grades then were purely representative of technical levels to achieve until sufficient material had been mastered to be considered a true student of Judo. This was the first Dan level, or black belt. The black belt, then, was considered to be a grade of beginning, not a finish as most people view it. When you have achieved the black belt, now you are ready to truly learn the art. Everything else until now has just been to get you ready so that you can now learn. In the beginning, the lower level belts consisted of 3 white belts, 3 brown belts and 3 black belts. Eventually it came to include colors as well as 10 grades of black. Note that this is the beginning of all belt systems in the martial arts.

All was not always great with Judo; however, as in 1900 the Kodokan suffered a school defeat from the Fusen Ryu Jiujitsu. Fusen Ryu had specialized in grappling techniques, or ne-waza, and this was the nature of the tournament. The grappling had out shined the throwing of the Kodokan. Kano saw their weakness and typically asked the headmaster of the Fusen Ryu to share with him their core syllabus. He also sought out a similar style, Jikishin Ryu Jiujitsu, to add to the Kodokan syllabus. From this moment on, the Kodokan began to incorporate more ne-waza into the training.

In 1908, Kano was the first Oriental member to be inducted into the International Olympic Committee. In 1911, he created the Japan Amateur Athletic Association and in the same year both Judo and Kendo (the sword fighting sport) were adopted into the Japanese school system. During this time, Jiujitsu was fading from the Japanese culture. Kano eventually even said, "Eventually Judo replaced ju jitsu in Japan, and no one any longer speaks of jujitsu as a contemporary art in Japan, although the word has survived overseas."

As such, Kano felt that he had a responsibility to preserve some of the ancient Jiujitsu techniques since this was the foundation of his Judo and he felt that he owed these arts everything. Kano became a historian and the Kodokan had become a place of eduacation. He started to create Kata, or pre-set forms to preserve many of these techniques for historical purposes. He himself had studied Seigo Ryu, and Yagyu Ryu, as well as his Kito Ryu and Tenshin shinyo Ryu. Tenshin shinyo Ryu was, itself, a fushion of Yoshin Ryu and Shin No Shindo Ryu ju jitsu. In addition, Yoshin Ryu was Kano's chief asstistant, Yamashita's specialty. Tenshinshinyo Ryu incorporated striking, throwing, holding, and choking techniques as well as joint locks and aiki-type movements. Training also included study of eighteen battlefield weapons.

Later, Takeuchi Ryu masters helped with the development of the Kodokan syllabus. Takeuchi Ryu itself was a derivative of Daito Ryu Jiujitsu. As Daito Ryu itself evolved into subsequent arts, Kano sent students such as Mochizuki to Sokaku Takeda and Kenji Tomiki to Morihei Ueshiba, founder of Aikido, to bring back developments that they had made.

In 1912, Kano brought together the remaining leading masters of Jiujitsu to finalize a Kodokan syllabus of training and kata. Jushin Sekiguchi and Mogichi Tsumizu participated from Sekiguchi Ryu, Eguchi from Kyushin Ryu, and Hoshino from Shiten Ryu, Inazu from Miura Ryu. Aoyagi of Sosusihis Ryu, Yano, Takano, Kotaro Imei and Hikasuburo Ohshima participated from Takeuisi Ryu. Takamatsu, a Kukkishin Ryu expert, had worked with Kano on weapons, at which Kano was recognized as expert, and contributed his favorite personal technique of hiza guruma, which remains today as a popular Judo competition technique.

The Kodokan had become THE source of martial art knowledge in Japan.

In 1914, the All Japan Special High School championships were started at Kyoto Imperial University. These championships focused on grappling techniques, or ne-waza, and the schools that participated became so proficient at the matwork that they earned the name "Kosen Judo" or grappling Judo. In 1925, this form of Judo was becoming so predominant and popular that Kano began to see throwing techniques as disappearing from the syllabus of effective Judo skills since matches would usually go straight to the ground and be decided there. Judo rules were changed to specifically require that all techniques had to begin from a standing throwing technique, or tachi waza, and if a competitor pulled his opponent down without even trying to throw, the opponent would be declared the automatic winner.

However, Kano could not deny the effectiveness of Kosen Judo, and saw a need for specialists to be encouraged in its growth and development. So, the Seven Universities Tournament, which exists in Japan to this day, has been exempt from this 1925 Kodokan rule change. The Kosen Judo students were pretty hardcore and considered it shameful to tap or surrender. A match would have to continue until the submission technique that was being used was taken to its intended goal. This attitude continued into Gracie Jiujitsu and some schools of BJJ, whose proponents would sometimes rather have an arm broken than to tap, which is not surprising since the founding instructors learned Judo during this pre-1925 period. Kosen Judo exists to this day in Japan in University tournaments as well as in Gracie and Brazilian Jiujitsu.

Kano's election to the International Olympic Committee in 1908 took him abroad on many trips on Olympic business and allowed him to teach and spread Judo wherever he went.

Kano's chief assistant, Yamashita, went to America in 1903 where he taught at Harvard University, the US Naval Academy at Annapolis, and taught Theodore Roosevelt.

In 1904, Tsunejiro Tomita and Mitsuyo Maeda followed Yamashita to America. Tomita taught at Columbia University, while Maeda traveled to Europe, and Central and South America.

Other instructors went to different countries all over the globe spreading their love of Judo.

In 1897, a man by the name of Mitsuyo Maeda entered the Kodokan to begin his Judo training in the time when Kodokan Judo was beginning a great emphasis on ne-waza, or grappling techniques. He had a natural talent for Judo and moved through the ranks very quickly, establishing himself as the most promising young student in the Kodokan.

In 1904, at the age of 26 and as a 4th degree black belt, he was given the chance to go to the U.S. with one of his instructors, Tsunejiro Tomita. He and his instructor were invited to demonstrate at West Point. They started with kata, which the Americans did not understand or take well to. Maeda was challenged by a student that was a wrestling champion. The student thought that he had won because he pinned Maeda, but Maeda, unfamiliar with western wrestling continued to fight until he got his opponent in a joint lock and made him tap out. The students then wanted to see Tomita fight. Since he was the teacher, they figured that he must be the better fighter. Tomita had only come to demonstrate; not except challenge matches, but to save face he had no choice. Tomita, however, was in his 40's and past his prime, so when the much larger American rushed him and tackled him, he was easily able to pin him under his weight so that Tomita could not move. He was forced to give up.

Tomita and Maeda parted ways with Tomita going to the West Coast and Maeda staying in New York to teach. He accepted a few challenge matches and taught at Princeton as well as in New York City, but Americans did not take well to Japanese style teaching and did not stay long.

Maeda was offered to take a challenge fight for money by the local Japanese, which was against the Kodokan rules, but he needed money. His match was against a New York wrestler, which he won, and his fighting career began.

Maeda persuaded some Japanese business men to back him with $1000 in prize money and he began his travels fighting and proving the superiority of Judo in North, Central and South America as well as in Europe. At 5'5" and 154 pounds, he fought all takers even if they were much larger than he was. Out of over 2000 matches he was undefeated in Judo/Jiujitsu type matches and only lost 2 matches in the catch-as-catch-can world championships held in London. He entered both the middleweight and heavyweight divisions advancing to the semi-finals and finals respectively.

In 1908, while in Spain he adopted the name Conde Koma, or Count Trouble. Because of his financial trouble he was in and his other surrounding problems, he first took the Japanese verb "komaru", or trouble, as his name. However, he didn't think that Maeda Komaru had a good ring to it, so he dropped the last syllable. A Spanish friend of his suggested that he use the name Conde, or Count, so Maeda adopted this name and later it became part of his legal name.

In 1915, Maeda ended up settling in a town called Belem, in Brazil. He felt that Brazil was the idea place for the Japanese to immigrate to. America, at the time, had strong anti-Japanese sentiments and Brazil was very open minded. The Amazon was also more promising with it's lush vegetation. While there, he still continued his challenge fighting and would travel abroad again when needed, but Brazil became his home.

Maeda still taught as part of his profession. His fame as a fighter brought to him policemen, army college cadets, and politicians as well as ordinary citizens. One politician, named Gastao Gracie, asked him to teach his son Carlos Gracie.

Carlos Gracie was the son of Gastao and Cesalina Gracie. Gastao's father, George Gracie, had immigrated from Scotland years earlier. Gastao had asked Conde Koma, or Mitsuyo Maeda, to teach his son, Carlos Gracie, his art of Judo. Maeda agreed and began his lessons. Carlos actually only studied about a year with Maeda himself before he had to leave again. Carlos continued his training with the Brazilian assistant instructors that Maeda had put in place to teach the students in his absence. Carlos would then teach the techniques to his brothers.

Carlos opened his own school in 1925 under the name of the Gracie Jiujitsu Academy. The name of Judo had been changed back to Jiujitsu to reflect its combat attitude. The Gracie's Jiujitsu was not focused on points, it was focused on simply making the opponent give up with a submission technique or to carry the technique to its completion, much as the older style of Judo once was and still existed in the Kosen style. The new name was to separate it from its sport counterpart of Judo. This was not about sport, this was about fighting.

Carlos had four younger brothers: Oswaldo, Gastao Jr., Jorge and Helio. Helio was often on the sidelines watching his brothers practice because of his poor physical condition, but he was learning much as he watched. One day, a student showed up for his private lesson with Carlos, but Carlos was late. Helio decided that he would teach the lesson since he had watched his brothers for years and was sure that he could teach as well as he needed to. In fact, as the lesson ended and Carlos burst in apologizing for his being late, the student said, "That's alright, your brother gave me a good lesson, and if you don't mind, I'd like him to teach me from now on." This began Helio's career in Jiujitsu.

Just as Maeda challenged other schools and fighters, so too the Gracie brothers began challenging anyone and everyone. Boxers, wrestlers, Karate men and champions of all styles were fought and beaten by Gracie Jiujitsu. Helio first stepped in the ring at the age of 17 and soon became the strongest fighter in the Gracie Family.

Eventually, Helio sent a challenge to the current Judo Champion and one of the greatest Judoka of all time, Masahiko Kimura, in 1952. Kimura accepted the challenge, but took two assistants with him. If Helio could not defeat his assistants then he would not even bother with him. Helio's first match was with Kado, a 5th degree black belt. Helio choked Kado into submission from the guard 6 minutes into the fight. Kimura accepted the match.

Weeks later, the match was scheduled in front of 20,000 spectators and it was given the largest possible media coverage. The Gracie's brought in a coffin for Kimura as a symbol as to how they thought the fight would end.

During the fight, Kimura threw Helio many times with very powerful throws. The Gracie's, however, had brought in very thick mats for the fight so that Helio would not sustain too much damage from the throws. In pictures, you can see their bodies sinking into the mat as they grapple. After 12 minutes of punishing throws and submission techniques, Kimura caught Helio in an armlock and had to break his arm in order to get Helio's corner to throw in the towel. Helio would still not tap, even with a broken arm.

Kimura would later comment on Helio's fighting spirit, and the armlock that broke Helio's arm is still called the Kimura by BJJ stylists to this day. Kimura also later noted that Helio's Jiujitsu reminded him of the old pre-WWII style Judo, which is obvious considering they were taught by Maeda himself.

In 1957, Helio would suffer his second major loss against a former student named Valdemar Santana. They had what is believed to be the longest match in Jiujitsu history with 3 hours and 45 minutes of punching, kicking, elbowing, knees and headbutts along with vigorous grappling looking for submissions of all types. It was not until regaining their feet that Santana was able to connect with a kick to Helio's head as he was standing. Helio went down and the match was finally over. Helio was 45 years old at the time, this would be his last fight.

With Helio's loss to Santana, Carlson Gracie, the son of Carlos, would enter the ring at the age of 17 to avenge the family name. He defeated Santana and earned the title of "king". They would fight again for a total of 6 times with Carlson winning four and drawing for two.

Helio eventually had sons of his own who followed in the tradition of the Gracie family style of martial arts. The family continued to challenge all takers and were undefeated since Helio was beaten by Kimura. Eventually, one of Helio's sons, Rorian, decided that it was time to take Gracie Jiujitsu out to the world, and where better to start than America?

Rorian had made a trip to America in the late 1970's and started teaching in the early 1980's. He was surprised to find that Americans virtually had no idea of how to fight on the ground. It was something that most schools didn't even attempt to address. To further his point, he offered $100,00.00 to anyone that could beat their style in a no-rules competition.

In 1993, Rorian's brother, Royce, took Gracie Jiujitsu to the world by entering the first Ultimate Fighting Championship and easily winning the entire event against fighters that were two and three times his size. He did it again in UFC 2 and UFC 4. This opened the door for many Brazilians to come to America to fight against fighters from all over the world. Gracie Jiujitsu suddenly realized a huge surge in popularity. As people realized that this was one of the most effective styles to come along in years they scrambled to learn as much as they could.

Suddenly, America was the land of milk and honey for any and all instructors of Jiujitsu from Brazil. Rorian suddenly saw his new empire being fed upon by people other than his own family. So, in an effort to keep all of the money for themselves, he had the term "Gracie Jiujitsu" copyrighted so that only the people in their organization directly under Helio could use it. Thus, the term Brazilian Jiujitsu began to replace it in the common language.

The marketing of Gracie Jiujitsu began to also include the false propaganda that if you were not directly learning from Helio or his sons themselves then you were receiving inferior training and not the "true" Gracie Jiujitsu. Even Carlson Gracie was not considered to be teaching "true" Gracie Jiujitsu. This was the same Carlson that avenged Helio's loss to Santana several times. This is also the same Carlson who has one of the very best fighting teams in the world that has won many titles with many champions. Yet, money was a motivator for saying that he was not teaching "true" GJJ.

The dark cloud over the Gracie name would continue to darken. During the past few years, the Gracie family, and Helio's sons in particular, would suffer several losses. Fighters all over the world began to study Brazilian Jiujitsu, if for no other reason, to learn how to beat it. Weakness have been exploited and the playing field has been more leveled. Now, the man (or woman) is once again more important than the style.

Brazilian Jiujitsu is still a great style to study, though. It has much to offer the modern martial artist, which is why we study it as one of our main styles for grappling knowledge. However, in the spirit of Bruce Lee and his Jeet Kune Do, we are not limited by any particular style and we do not put our faith into one method.

Muay Thai, or "Thaiboxing" is the national art of Thailand and the most sought-after style of kickboxing in the world. Muay Thai is known for its brutally effective arsenal of strikes using kicks, knees, punches and elbows. It is sometimes called the "science of the eight limbs". Fighters all over the world seek Muay Thai to improve their effectiveness and give themselves the edge in the ring.

Muay Thai, translated into English as Thai Boxing, is the national sport of Thailand and is a martial art with origins in the ancient battlefield tactics of the Siamese (or Thai) army. It evolved from Krabi-Krabong, literally sword and baton, the hand-to-hand tactics of the Thai army. The early Muay Thai bouts pitted different companies within the Siamese army against each other with few rules and no weight divisions or time limits. They became quite popular and eventually were shown in stadia across the country. In the early 20th century, time limits, boxing gloves as well as a uniform set of rules were introduced. During the latter half of the 20th century Muay Thai was exported to many countries and is now practiced by hundreds of thousands of people all over the world.

Muay Thai is known as "King of the Ring" in kickboxing circles. These fights feature punches, kicks, elbows, knees, standing grappling and head-butts to wear down and knock out their opponent. Thai training methods develop devastating power, speed and superb cardio-vascular endurance as well as fighting spirit. Muay Thai training as also quite safe thanks to sophisticated pad training that evolved to keep fighters healthy between fights. Muay Thai has also proven very effective outside the ring and has been embraced enthusiastically by practitioners of a variety of self-defense, sporting, military and law enforcement activities.

Jeet Kune Do (JKD) is the name Bruce Lee gave to his combat philosophy in 1967. Originally, when Lee began researching various fighting styles, he gave his martial art his own name of Jun Fan Gung Fu. However not wanting to create another style that would share the limitations that all styles have, he instead gave us the process that created it.

JKD as it survives today – if one wants to view it "refined" as a product, not a process – is what was left at the time of Bruce Lee's death. It is the result of the life-long martial arts development process Lee went through. Bruce Lee stated that his concept is not an "adding to" of more and more things on top of each other to form a system, but rather, a winnowing out. The metaphor Lee borrowed from Chan Buddhism was of constantly filling a cup with water, and then emptying it, used for describing Lee's philosophy of "casting off what is useless". He also used the sculptor's mentality of beginning with a lump of clay and hacking away at the "unessentials"; the end result was what he considered to be the bare combat essentials, or JKD.

Bruce Lee, and thus JKD was heavily influenced by European boxing and fencing. Although the backbone concepts (such as centerline, vertical punching, and forward pressure) come from Wing Chun, Lee stopped using the Wing Chun stances in favor of what he considered to be more fluid/flexible fencing and boxing stances. Lee stated that they allowed him to "flow" rather than being stuck in stances. For instance, instead of using footwork to position the body for maximum fighting position vis-a-vis the opponent, JKD uses flowing "entries" that do not require "bridges" from Wing Chun. Bruce Lee wanted to create a martial art that was unbounded and free. Later during the development of Jeet Kune Do, he would expand that notion and include the art for personal development, not just to become a better fighter. To illustrate Lee's views, in a 1971 Black Belt Magazine article, Lee said "Let it be understood once and for all that I have NOT invented a new style, composite or modification. I have in no way set Jeet Kune Do within a distinct form governed by laws that distinguish it from 'this' style or 'that' method. On the contrary, I hope to free my comrades from bondage to styles, patterns and doctrines."

While practicing European wrestling, Lee was once pinned by an opponent, who asked what Lee would do if he found himself in the situation in a real fight. Lee replied, "Well, I'd bite you, of course". One of the theories of JKD is that a fighter should do whatever is necessary to defend himself, regardless of where the techniques used come from. Lee's goal in Jeet Kune Do was to break down what he claimed were limiting factors in the training of the traditional styles, and seek a fighting thesis which he believed could only be found within the event of a fight. Jeet Kune Do is currently seen as the genesis of the modern state of hybrid martial arts.

Jeet Kune Do not only advocates the combination of aspects of different styles, it also can change many of those aspects that it adopts to suit the abilities of the practitioner. Additionally, JKD advocates that any practitioner be allowed to interpret techniques for themselves, and change them for their own purposes. For example, Lee almost always chose to put his power hand in the "lead," with his weaker hand back, within this stance he used elements of Boxing, Fencing and Wing Chun. Just like fencing, he labeled this position the "On Guard" position. Lee incorporated this position into his JKD as he felt it provided the best overall mobility. Lee felt that the dominant or strongest hand should be in the lead because it would perform a greater percentage of the work. Lee minimized the use of other stances except when circumstances warranted such actions. Although the On-Guard position is a good overall stance, it is by no means the only one. Lee acknowledged that there were times when other positions should be utilized.

Lee felt the dynamic property of JKD was what enabled its practitioners to adapt to the constant changes and fluctuations of live combat. Lee believed that these decisions should be done within the context of "real combat" and/or "all out sparring". He believed that it was only in this environment that a person could actually deem a technique worthy of adoption.

Bruce Lee did not stress the memorization of solo training forms or "Kata", as most traditional styles do in their beginning-level training. Lee often compared doing forms without an opponent to attempting to learn to swim on dry land. Lee believed that real combat was alive and dynamic. Circumstances in a fight change from millisecond to millisecond, and thus pre-arranged patterns and techniques are not adequate in dealing with such a changing situation. As an anecdote to this thinking, Lee once wrote an epitaph which read: 'In memory of a once fluid man, crammed and distorted by the classical mess.' The "classical mess" in this instance was what Lee thought of classical martial arts.

Bruce Lee's comments and methods were seen as controversial by many in his time, and still are today. Many teachers from traditional schools disagreed with his opinions on these issues.

The notion of cross-training in Jeet Kune Do is similar to the practice of Mixed Martial Arts (MMA) in modern times -- Bruce Lee has been considered by UFC president Dana White as the "father of mixed martial arts"[2]. Many consider Jeet Kune Do to be the precursor of MMA because of its synteric nature. This is particularly the case with respect to the JKD "Combat Ranges". A JKD student is expected to learn various combat systems within each combat range, and thus to be effective in all of them, just as in MMA.

– Bruce Lee