If you’re looking for Jeet Kune Do classes in Vancouver, WA, Bruce Lee may be the reason you want to start martial arts. His speed, freedom of movement and willingness to challenge tradition still inspire people to train.
At SBG Vancouver, that interest connects to a real part of our history. SBG founder Matt Thornton taught Jeet Kune Do before helping develop an approach to martial arts built around live training. Today, our boxing, Brazilian Jiu Jitsu and MMA programs give you a practical way to explore that approach.
Our classes are offered under those names. Their connection to JKD lies in the question that drives the training: can you make your skills work against someone who is moving, reacting and resisting?
Find your starting class at SBG Vancouver
Bruce Lee’s philosophy of Jeet Kune Do
Jeet Kune Do means Way of the Intercepting Fist. Bruce Lee’s official website describes its guiding principles as simplicity, directness and freedom, and emphasizes the individual’s honest expression over an organized style.
Its familiar motto captures that outlook:
“Using no way as way; having no limitation as limitation.”
For us, the lasting value of that philosophy is the invitation to keep learning. Develop useful skills, test your understanding and allow your approach to evolve.
That is how SBG connects Bruce Lee’s ideas to training today.
Read Bruce Lee’s official explanation of Jeet Kune Do.
Matt Thornton’s roots in JKD
Matt Thornton’s perspective comes from inside the JKD community. He became a certified JKD Concepts instructor and taught at a JKD school for several years. With an existing background in boxing, he was already interested in practical fighting skills when an encounter with Rickson Gracie changed his direction.
Watching Rickson apply Brazilian Jiu Jitsu against other martial artists gave Thornton a powerful example of skill demonstrated against resistance. He began studying BJJ and questioning how training methods affected what students could actually do.
Thornton founded Straight Blast Gym in 1992, before the first UFC event in 1993. His emphasis on live training became central to SBG’s development.
Read the profile published on Thornton’s website and his biographical overview on Wikipedia.
Preserving Bruce’s techniques or continuing his approach
Thornton’s critique of JKD draws an important distinction. Preserving Bruce Lee’s personal techniques from the late 1960s and early 1970s is one goal. Helping a student develop an effective approach for their own body is another.
In his essay on how JKD lost its way, Thornton challenges both imitation of Bruce’s personal style and the idea that collecting techniques from many arts automatically creates fighting ability.
His alternative is to learn reliable fundamentals, train them against resistance and let your own style develop through experience. Students can share those fundamentals while becoming very different martial artists.
He puts SBG’s position plainly:
“Helping people earn their style is what JKD should have been – and what SBG is.”
That is the sense in which we see SBG as carrying Bruce Lee’s philosophy forward.
Randy Couture and the missing clinch game
Thornton describes SBG’s early training as boxing, some Muay Thai and developing Brazilian Jiu Jitsu. There was a gap between striking at distance and fighting on the ground.
Randy Couture helped fill it.
In an interview published on Thornton’s website, Matt explains that Couture brought Greco-Roman wrestling, clinch work and pummeling into their training. Couture gave them practical skills for controlling an opponent at close range.
It is a concrete example of the approach: recognize a weakness, learn from someone with proven expertise and improve the training. It also makes SBG’s history more substantial than a philosophical connection to Bruce Lee alone.
Read Thornton’s account of Couture’s contribution.
On Thornton’s biography page, Couture credits training with Matt and SBG as instrumental in his UFC preparation.
Trapping and training against resistance
For some people, JKD brings to mind intricate hand-trapping sequences. Thornton has long questioned the value of rehearsed patterns when a partner supplies predictable reactions.
The important question is whether the training develops timing against a person who can change what they do.
His writing emphasizes that sensitivity and timing require interaction with another human being. A sequence that looks impressive with cooperation still needs to be tested with resistance.
Our interpretation follows that distinction: controlling hands and arms can have a place in fighting, but its value comes from what you can apply in live exchanges. Couture’s contribution shows why practical clinch skills became so important to SBG.
Read Thornton’s explanation of Aliveness.
Bruce Lee and modern MMA
Would Bruce Lee have loved the UFC?
Thornton has answered that question with care. He would like to think Bruce would have loved modern MMA and become involved, while acknowledging that nobody can know which direction he would have taken.
We see a strong philosophical connection. MMA gives martial artists an arena in which striking, wrestling and ground fighting meet, and where ideas face a resisting opponent.
That connection is our interpretation of Bruce’s principles. It gives us a reason to keep testing and developing our training.
Read Thornton’s answer about Bruce Lee and MMA.
Conor McGregor and individual expression at SBG
The connection continues through John Kavanagh, an SBG coach who received his Brazilian Jiu Jitsu black belt from Thornton and became Conor McGregor’s coach.
McGregor has named Bruce Lee among his inspirations. His distinctive movement and counterstriking offer a modern example of the appeal of individual expression.
More directly, SBG Vancouver’s own training page records McGregor’s appreciation of Kavanagh’s open mind and encouragement of different movements.
The point for a new student is freedom to develop. You can learn sound fundamentals without being expected to become a copy of your coach or a famous fighter.
Read Thornton’s account of the coaching connection, McGregor’s UFC interview and SBG Vancouver’s explanation of its training method.
How you can train at SBG Vancouver
You can start with the part of martial arts that interests you most:
Boxing: develop your punching skills and movement.
Muay Thai and kickboxing: explore stand-up striking.
Brazilian Jiu Jitsu: learn grappling, control and submissions.
Mixed martial arts: connect striking, takedowns and ground skills.
SBG’s teaching method progresses from learning a movement to practicing it with appropriate resistance, then integrating it into a wider exchange. Coaches adjust the challenge as students develop.
That progression makes live training accessible to beginners. You have time to learn, ask questions and build skills at your pace.
Explore our classes and teaching method.
Start training in Vancouver WA
If Bruce Lee’s ideas have inspired you to search for JKD classes near you, come and explore where they connect with SBG.
Tell us what interests you: striking, grappling, self-defense, fitness or learning martial arts for the first time. We’ll help you choose a starting class.
Contact SBG Vancouver or call 360-768-6534.
Find us at 11505 NE Fourth Plain Blvd, Suite G-1, Vancouver, WA 98662.
Frequently asked questions
Does SBG Vancouver offer traditional JKD classes
Our advertised programs are boxing, Muay Thai and kickboxing, Brazilian Jiu Jitsu and MMA. This page explains their connection to SBG’s JKD roots and Matt Thornton’s emphasis on developing your own skills through live training.
Do I need martial arts experience
SBG Vancouver welcomes beginners. Contact us so we can help you choose an appropriate class.
Do I have to compete in MMA
No. SBG Vancouver’s MMA program welcomes people interested in fitness and practical skills as well as competition.
Why train boxing and BJJ if I am interested in JKD
They give you opportunities to develop striking and grappling against resistance. For SBG, that practical learning process is central to carrying forward the philosophy that attracted many people to JKD.