G'day all. Somehow, I doubt any women JKDers post on this forum, but if there are some out there, I'd like to get a reply. If not, maybe someone who teaches JKD can help me out.

I was wondering, what different do you do if you do JKD as a female?

Its just, I sometimes stuff around with the punching bag with my sister who does some form of Karate (dont remember which) and my dad (who just has his own form of streetfighting based loosely on western boxing... which is quite effective). Alot of the motions I do, just simple stuff, like the leading straight punch, my sister finds challenging to do. I dont want to sound stupid or anything, but being built like a woman appears to make JKD as I know it very challenging. Compared to boxing and karate, which isn't nearly as bad.

So yeah, there are probably instructors out there that teach JKD as womens' self defense. Do you teach it much differently if you were teaching a male?

The reason why the JKD you do is not effective for your sister is because you are practicing something that is based on your physical strength. Of course western Karate is generally also strength orientated but the moves are simpler.

I suspect that the reason why there are few women in JKD is because women are more practical when in comes to learning self defence. Because they are more vunerable they are more easily able to see past the bull**** as they can not generally use strength to make up for the failing of the technique. To be quite frank most of the JKD I have seen is fitnest based but does not have the glamour that say kickboxing has, so am not suprised that there are few women who do it.

Question everything, Know nothing.

Hello!

I replied to this the first time you posted it. maybe you missed it or something! I would like to add something else based on Jack's post above. Jeet Kune Do IS NOT a strength based martial art! It is, however, based on good structure and practical techniques. If you have a good instructor, the gender of the student should not matter, as the instructor will know how to tailor the instruction to fit the student. To me, that is one of the most beautiful things about Jeet Kune Do. The art bends to fit the student, rather than the student having to bend to fit the srt! Women can learn JKD just as easily as men, and sometimes even better! I have had female students that excelled in a short period of time!

I have trained many women in Jeet Kune Do. There are certain problems that you often run into when training women. The main problem I have run across is nails! Yes, I said nails! Most women wear their nails long, and as a result, cannot make a good fist. Therefore it becomes necessary to focus on open hand strikes such as palm strikes and chopping motions, but most importantly, the bil jee, or finger jab. I also work with them quite a bit on striking with the elbows.

Women do have a lower body strength advantage, so they seem to adapt well to kicks and knee strikes. I concentrate on the eight basic JKD kicks, placing the most emphasis on the straight kick, side kick, hook kick and back kick, as well as the forward knee smash and the foot stomp. The new issue of Hardcore Jeet Kune Do magazine has an article on self defense training for women.


Keep Blasting!
Sifu Lamar M. Davis II
Certified Full Instructor
Jun Fan Gung Fu/Jeet Kune Do
Sifu@HardcoreJKD.com
http://www.HardcoreJKD.com
http://www.RealCombatOnline.com
Phone (205) 956-1901

"Hit Hard, Hit Fast, Hit First - ALWAYS!"

I suppose I should note, that I was not suggesting that JKD was based on strength. That would be silly, there are so many intepretations of it or so it seems. Just the ones I have seen.

It is interesting that Lamar mentions that he teaches women to concentrate on lower kicks. May I ask, why? The reason for the question is that in what I have been taught it is equally applicable to both men and women. If it effective for women than it is diffinately more effective for men. If their are moves that women can not do than to me it suggests it is based on strength. Of course knowing when to use strength is good, but surely one should not train to much in something that relies on strength for obvious reasons.

I appreciate that one taylors to the student, but do you teach different moves to different students based on their structure, or do you teach the students to learn how to move freely, fluidly and to hit whereever they want when they want?

Question everything, Know nothing.

Hello Jack!

What I was referring to is the natural way that human beings are built. Men are just designed with more upper body strength, that's all there is to it! Women are designed with more lower body strength. And yes, the man is going to be stronger overall in all areas. That is just the way we are built. To a certain extent, everyone can grow stronger through weight training and nutritional supplementation (hopefully the LEGAL kind of supplementation).

The main difference in the way that I teach men and women is, as I stated above, if the women have long nails and just absolutely will not cut them off, it is not smart to teach them to punch! They will break their hands due to making an improper fist! Those who are willing to cut their nails are taught EXACTLY like the men are!

Keep Blasting!
Sifu Lamar M. Davis II
Senior Instructor
Hardcore Jeet Kune Do
Sifu@HardcoreJKD.com
http://www.HardcoreJKD.com
http://www.RealCombatOnline.com
Phone (205) 956-1901

"Hit Hard, Hit Fast, Hit First - ALWAYS!"