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A quick note, Bruce Lee created Jun Fan Gung Fu, which he later applied the Jeet Kune Do philosophy to. Jeet Kune Do itself is not a martial art, but a way of approaching the martial arts to make them more effective. Just a little terminology correction, your point is still extremely valid.

I think that your point is endemic to the martial arts as a whole. On a small scale, every person who has ever studied a martial art has had to take what they learned and adapt it to their own needs. For instance, I am a large and powerful individual with little need for much of the finesse found in some arts. Noting this, I have to fight the urge not to "cheat" when practicing traditionally but when I have to actually defend myself I don't really hold back. In so doing, I have adapted a self defensive style that is traditional but makes maximum use of my natural physical gifts.

On a more macroscopic level, the creation of new martial arts is no simple undertaking. Citing the examples stated above, the hours that Jun Fan Gung Fu and Kosho Shorei Ryu Kempo's founders must have put in to train and then modify their disciplines to found entirely new schools of thought must have been staggering. I cite the example of Morihei Ueshiba, founder of Aikido who went through decades of training in several different martial arts before deciding that he wanted a different approach. He then distilled the techniques he thought he needed from those other martial arts, applied his personal experience and philosophy and *POOF* aikido was born. Likewise for that matter Muay Thai, TKD, and for that matter MMA.

The point I'm rather inefficiently trying to reach with this rant is that it is extremely hard at this point to generate a new martial art due to the lack of need. As a rule, new martial arts at this point address less the martial aspect of self defense and more the personal philosophy of those who created it. Case in point, again, is aikido. Morihei Ueshiba wanted a martial art that was gentle, where the point was to defend yourself without harm coming to yourself or your attacker. Imi Lichtenfeld (the founder of Krav Maga) was looking for an effective system that could quickly and efficiently be taught to anyone so that they could defend themselves in the rough and tumble streets of Germany and later Israel. The founder of Muay Thai wanted to beat the crumbcake out of the Burmese. And the people who developed the MMA system were looking for a fighting format that could serve not only as self defense but an effective and safe form of entertainment similar to gladiatorial combat. Anymore, nobody is really inventing anything new, they're simply rehashing old ground to service their own needs, which is fine but doesn't necessarily mean creating a whole new martial art. That could change drastically, however.

Man is really really good at many things, but the best seems to be finding new and exciting ways to kill other men. The creation of the knife meant finding ways to defend against it, likewise the spear, likewise the sword, the gun, and so on and so forth. To take the nerdy route on this one, suppose someone were to invent the lightsaber. Someone would have to invent a martial art to utilize the new tool, and likewise someone would have to invent a way to defend against it unarmed, with other weapons, and with a lightsaber. Basically, the evolution of the martial arts is predicated upon the need to thwart other martial arts.

Okay, I'm done ranting now. New styles can happen, but they're not tremendously likely to and the necessity for them lies in a questionable gray area.

-bump- please help meh

Thanks, i appreciate the input smile Im going to start working hard, and training harder

That's one of the greatest things about martial arts. The actual fact that they vary, and are evolving/appearing so abbundantly

Well said.

I think I should rephrase that part. What I meant is that, "claiming a certain technique as fully being yours, when what you've done is modified something you got elsewhere with the view of making it more effective/efficient/to suit your physique, without giving credit to its source" is being disrespectful.

It's like writing a report for a course at university. If you don't reference, you're making it seem as if something has become fact due to your own research. That is what I meant; sorry for the lack of clarity.

I would almost have gone on a minor rant myself, but the core of my belief has already been stated. I believe that someone dedicated enough could potentially find and teach their own Way. But it had better damn be something unique (or mostly so) or else you're just putting yourself on an undeserved pedestal.