JKD is not about rejecting any particular style or worshipping the ground Bruce Lee walked on. It is simply about finding your own path through your own experience and being open minded to any approach. To the day of his death bruce had great respect for ANYONE regardless of style who had an open minded, realistic no nonsense approach to fighting and the martial arts. If he was as adamantly against anything having to do with classical styles (as most of you seem to think) then why would he continue to work with and associate with his old wing chun brothers such as Hawkins Cheung? Because Cheung, much like Bruce, is not concerned about the showy facade and ritualistic BS and politics that surrounds the martial arts community. All he is concerned about is what works. And why did Bruce have a long association with Ed Parker? Because unlike many other blind sheep classical martial artists, Parker was extremely open minded and wanted to do whatever he could to further the knowledge level and development of effective martial arts. Ed Parker did a lot to increase knowledge about different martial arts in his day, much like Dan inosanto has done recently. So you see, its not the style that matters....it's the APPROACH. Many people were offended by the way Bruce openly pointed out weaknesses in various styles. They thought to themselves, "who the hell is HE to tell me what's wrong with the techniques I've been practicing for my entire life?? He's an idiot!" THAT, my friends, is the problem right there! Styles are created by men so ultimately, none of them are perfect and are bound to have shortcomings. By criticizing certain techniques or practices, Bruce was not trying to be arrogant or disrespectful (although he may have come off that way) but was merely exercising the attitude of objectiveness and constant improvement that he felt was essential to martial arts training. The problem with many traditionalists is that they have such absolute faith and contentment in one style that they fight progress and continued development beyond their acquired comfort zone. Bruce saw that with many of them (especially in the Chinese martial arts community) if their style is faced with a limitation, it becomes THEIR limitation. Some people simply refuse to accept the fact that the one pure, traditional, unchanged for a thousand years style of MA that they've dedicated 30 years of their life to simply doesn't have ALL the answers and that ultimately, the truth is found through unlimited personal research and open mindedness. That is what JKD is supposed to be about.

I personally do not deitize Bruce. I never said that he was a fighting god or that he'd mop up the floor with Frank Shamrock and Vanderlei Silva. And I do not think that he was infallible. in fact i'm quite certain he made many mistakes and i don't necessarily agree with everything he said or did. I simply respect his vision of training and admire him for his work ethic and contribution. As for being dedicated to one style all your life...who the hell cares? Bruce was dedicated to training like a fanatic. Just because he did it his own way and used many influences instead of being strictly a wing chun man doesn't mean that he wasn't any good.

"Shoot Wrestling's effectiveness stems from the way it gears its grappling toward taking a kickboxer down and its kickboxing toward keeping a grappler off. Combined, they are a pretty good mixture."
-Erik Paulson