Wing Chun Kung Fu Jeet Kune Do: A Comparison (Literary Links to the Orient)

Rating:
Summary: A good reference book on Ted Wong's JKD
Review: The purpose of this book is to compare the basics of JKD as taught by Ted Wong with the basics of Wing Chun, and it obviously fulfils that purpose wholly. But I bought it for the very clearly-written descriptions and less clear black & white photos of JKD. The section on stances & footwork is particularly good, I think. Of course it is true that one cannot learn martial arts from a book, but that is not this book's purpose -- it is a reference work. One important point to note, though, is that there is a lot about JKD trapping (larp sao, pak sao, etc.) in the book, but Ted Wong has, as far as I am aware, since stopped teaching trapping very willingly as he (and many others) says that trapping will not work in a real fight, or even in proper sparring.

Rating:
Summary: nothing new and not a lot of meat
Review: There isn't anything new to be found in this text that hasn't been covered more thoroughly in other texts. The topics covered seemed glossed over without any meat or substance. Skip this one for more up to date books.

Rating:
Summary: nothing new and not a lot of meat
Review: This book makes a decent reference guide, or a hypothetical fight comparison, but there isn't much that can be personally gained from it. It is divided into five chapters: stances, hands, kicks, tactics, and self defense. There is a woefully inadequate into paragraph for each chapter, then the rest is filled with "what-if?" situation counters. This book does a poor job of explaining the REASONS Wing Chun and Jeet Kune Do are different and simply shows you what ted wong and william cheung would do in an assortment of fighting situations. Also, it is important to note that Ted Wong practices JUN FAN, not JKD. Some of his counters are hopelessly outdated. For example, an attacker stabs with knife [angle 7] and he does an INSIDE CRESCENT KICK to deflect it. Is he the Flash? The material in this book might be okay to play around with a friend, but I'd rather apply the money towards paying an instructor: you cannot learn JKD (even Jun Fan) or Wing Chun from a book.

Rating:
Summary: If you like examples without explanation...
Review: This book makes a decent reference guide, or a hypothetical fight comparison, but there isn't much that can be personally gained from it. It is divided into five chapters: stances, hands, kicks, tactics, and self defense. There is a woefully inadequate into paragraph for each chapter, then the rest is filled with "what-if?" situation counters. This book does a poor job of explaining the REASONS Wing Chun and Jeet Kune Do are different and simply shows you what ted wong and william cheung would do in an assortment of fighting situations. Also, it is important to note that Ted Wong practices JUN FAN, not JKD. Some of his counters are hopelessly outdated. For example, an attacker stabs with knife [angle 7] and he does an INSIDE CRESCENT KICK to deflect it. Is he the Flash? The material in this book might be okay to play around with a friend, but I'd rather apply the money towards paying an instructor: you cannot learn JKD (even Jun Fan) or Wing Chun from a book.