He insisted that martial arts techniques should be incorporated based upon their effectiveness in real combat situations.
This would differentiate JKD from other systems where there was an emphasis on "flowery technique" as Lee would put it.
Lee claimed that flashy "flowery techniques" would arguably "look good" but were often not practical or prove ineffective in street survival and self-defense situations.
This premise would also differentiate JKD from other "sport" oriented martial arts systems that were geared towards "tournament" or "point systems".
Lee felt that these systems were "artificial" and fooled its practitioners into a false sense of true martial skill.
Lee felt that because these systems favored a "sports" approach they incorporated too many rule sets that would ultimately handicap a practitioner in self defense situations.
He also felt that this approach to martial arts became a "game of tag" which would lead to bad habits such as pulling punches and other attacks; this would again lead to disastrous consequences in real world situations.
Because of this perspective Lee utilized safety gear from various other contact sports to allow him to spar with opponents "full out".
This approach to training allowed practitioners to come as close as possible to real combat situations with a high degree of safety.
Donn Draeger, world renowned martial arts pioneer, was the first Westerner to bring widespread attention to the often cited “-do” versus “-jutsu” controversy.
Historically the "do" or way arts were based on the "jutsu" or technique arts without what was deemed "dangerous techniques".
The "do" arts such as Judo were thus seen as a "watered down" version of their "jutsu" counterparts such as jujutsu, a combat-tested martial art, and thus considered a sport. Lee objected to these "sport" versions of martial arts and instead emphasized combat realism.
Absorbing what is useful
This is the idea that a martial artist can only learn techniques in their proper context, through a holistic approach. Styles provide more than just techniques:
They also offer training methods, theories, and mental attitudes.
Learning these factors allows a student to experience a system in what Lee called its "totality".
Only through learning a system completely will an artist be able to, "absorb what is useful," and discard the remainder.
Real combat training situations allow the student to learn what works, and what doesn't. The critical point of this principle is that the choice of what to keep is based on personal experimentation with various opponents over time.
It is not based on how a technique may look or feel, or how precisely the artist can mimic tradition. In the final analysis, if the technique is not beneficial in combat, it is discarded.
Lee believed that only the individual could come to understand what worked; based on critical self analysis, and by, "honestly expressing oneself, without lying to oneself."
