Krav Maga, Brazilian Jiu-jitsu, and Jeet Kune Do

There are three forms of martial arts that I regard as the most effective. These are Krav Maga (KM), Brazilian Jiu-jitsu (BJJ), and Jeet Kune Do (JKD). What sets these styles apart is that they are modern, mixed martial arts rather than traditional martial arts. I will not say that any of these are better than the others. They each have their strong points and their weak points.

Krav Maga was developed by Imi Lichtenfeld (1910-1998). It was originally based on western wrestling and boxing. In the 1930s, anti-Semitic riots broke out in Slovakia and Imi joined a gang of Jewish boxers and wrestlers to fight off racist gangs that were terrorizing the Jewish neighborhood. In 1940, Imi fled Czechoslovakia due to the Nazi occupation of the country. He eventually ended up in Palestine, where he trained militia members in hand-to-hand combat. The militia he trained would eventually become the Israeli military. Eventually, Imi would incorporate take-downs, locks, and throws from Aikido and ground work from Judo.

Brazilian Jiu-jitsu traces back to Mitsuyo Maeda (1878-1941). Maeda was a student of Kano Jigoro, the founder of Judo. Maeda brought Judo and Jujutsu to Brazil. Maeda trained Carlos Gracie in Kano Jujutsu (AKA Judo). Carlos Gracie and his younger brother Hélio founded modern Brazilian Jiu-jitsu. BJJ differs from Judo and other traditional forms of Jujutsu in that it emphasizes full-contact fighting. BJJ also incorporates techniques from Sambo and other forms of wrestling. BJJ is unique because it emphasizes ground fighting, an aspect of fighting that is often neglected by traditional martial arts. Modern BJJ is evolving due to the efforts of Eddie Bravo and 10th Planet BJJ, which has greatly improved the art by dropping the Japanese uniforms and incorporating the rubber guard along with some western wrestling techniques.

Bruce Lee (1940-1973) developed Jeet Kune Do as his own martial art style, based on his personal philosophy. Bruce Lee originally trained in Wing Chun and began teaching Wing Chun in the 1960s. The Chinese community forbade him to teach the traditional art to non-Chinese students. He was challenged to fight Wong Jack Man. If he won, he would be allowed to continue teaching non-Chinese students. If he lost, Lee would have to stop teaching his students. According to Lee, he won the fight in 3 minutes. According to Wong, the fight went on for 20 minutes and Lee lost. If you have seen Dragon: The Bruce Lee Story, you should know that the reality was different from the Hollywood narrative. Lee was not blindsided and paralyzed after the fight was over. His back injury was actually the result of an accident while lifting weights. Lee came to realize that Wing Chun had its limitations and began cross-training with other martial artists. He developed JKD based on a mixed martial arts philosophy and emphasized the idea of “intercepting” an opponent's strike with a strike of your own. He threw out the traditional Wing Chun stance in favor of a JKD stance that is basically a mixture of a fencing stance and a boxing stance.

As I've said, each of these styles of MMA have their pros and cons. BJJ is oriented more towards sport fighting, whereas JKD and KM are focused on self-defense and street fighting. Most fights end up on the ground, and BJJ is the best when it comes to ground work. KM and JKD don't have as much ground work because they are designed for street fighting and generally assume that you will have multiple opponents. You don't want to spend much time on top of someone on the ground if their buddy can run up and kick you in the face. KM has the best defenses against bats, knives, and guns, whereas BJJ neglects weapons defense. JKD teachers can show their students how to throw really powerful punches without broadcasting with their shoulders. Unfortunately, it seems like JKD would take a lot of training before one would be able to use it effectively, whereas KM is much easier to learn. BJJ is really technical as well, but in an entirely different way.