Defense against a larger opponent in Jeet Kune Do

We all know that Bruce Lee was a small guy but could pack a punch twice his size. Ever since he moved to United States, he realized that people were taller and stronger then him. What did he do? He learned to adapt my friend. The whole philosophy of Jeet Kune Do is to take what is usefully and discard what is not. In other words what works for you. Also, adaptation in JKD means that one technique, strategy will not work with every opponent so you need to tailor your moves accordingly. The key to a good self defense in Jeet Kune Do is for you to explore your attacker's weaknesses and use them against them. Use shortest time to reach your target, speed, strength, timing, precision. Each of these is a topic of their own.

To fight someone bigger, taller or stronger then you, means they have an advantage over you.When fighting a taller/stronger person, you need to have an equalizer that would give you a fighting chance against his reach. In this case your "equalizer" are your feet. Kick or punch to the vital areas of your adversary is one of the essentials of Jeet Kune Do. Vital areas such as groin for instance, doesn't take much of power to cause high volume of pain.  However, it takes a little more precision and speed. 


Also, kicking someone once and expecting for a fight to be over would be very foolish. The pain period is used for additional punches and kicks that would keep your enemy down for a certain amount of time to escape. Please check out Bruce Lee's Fighting Method: The Complete Edition, an excellent book on basic and advance training by Bruce Lee.  Above is a great example of Bruce Lee doing a groin kick to Ted Wong. Image property of Bruce Lee estate, from Bruce Lee's fighting method series. Notice how Lee's leg reaches it's target way before Wong's fist does? That's because the human leg is the longest part of the body and it travels the shortest distance from the floor to the groin in this instance. 


When fighting a bigger stronger opponent, your equalizer can come in many forms. Speed plays a big part as well as playing dirty. Being fight savvy is another big factor. Using your surroundings as a weapon can increase your chance of survival by double. This is another way of Jeet Kune do's adaptation. Since bigger person has more strength, it usually takes him one punch or kick to knock you down or out. In order to avoid this from happening, you have to destroy his outlets of power which are his limbs. Paul Vunak goes into great depths on this subject in his R.A.T.-Rapid Assault Tactics dvd. If you have time and money, purchase it and study very carefully. 


Use your knees and elbows to achieve this. Once the limbs are destroyed, your opponent can't continue with the attack since the volume of pain is unbearable. This will definitely prevent him from attacking you. Please check out this quick sketch that I've done to illustrate this HIA-hand immobilizaton attack or leg which is very popular term in JKD community. 

For the upper body defense, use your elbows and for the lower body defense use your knees. Since economy of the motion was and still is one of the main priorities of Bruce Lee's art, keep your elbows up like in a Muay Tai. This will decrease the distance from your elbows to your opponents fists. Move backwards as well, this will decrease the
chance of getting hit and increase more time for you to execute the right move.Warning: must practice timing, precision. 


These moves should not be taken serious to a point that this is the best & only way of defense. Jeet Kune Do is ever learning, changing & modifying process. There are millions of ways to achieve the same goals, you need to pick out those that work best for you. The ones that fit the best to your physical ability, strength, speed. When Bruce Lee came up with this combat art, he didn't even wanted to name it. The reason for this was that it would go against his beliefs that styles limit oneself from personal growth.

Bruce Lee's quote that talks about adapting and creating your own JKD:
"Absorb what is useful, Discard what is not, Add what is uniquely your own."


"Empty your mind, be formless, shapeless - like water. Now you put water into a cup, it becomes the cup, you put water into a bottle, it becomes the bottle, you put it in a teapot, it becomes the teapot. Now water can flow or it can crash. Be water, my friend".