Bruce Lee

[Adam]

   According to ppl that actually knew him  ( ie jesse , ed hart, ted wong, dan inosanto ) whenever bruce was dead serious  , he would close upon intent with very direct and powerful attacks. This strategy did not change throughout his life ; what did change was the tools he use but the strategy itself ( pre emptive close) did not change. The tools earlier on was multiple straight punching and later on he progress to single ko punches and kicks. He was known to be able to pull this off even against experenced and skillful martial artsist/ street fighters. Think about it , if you were facing someone and that  someone can hit you at will before you can blink and had the power to KO you  , what chance do u have? I suppose thats why no one wanted to face him even though after he died, all of a sudden some ppl is suggesting he wasn't that good; its funny how these ppl never said jack when he was alive.
    But with a little thought it is easy to see that the ability to do that ( close and hit SKILLFUL ppl before they can make a simple response) would require a high level of ATTRIBUTES ( no telegraphic ability, explosiveness, speed, accuracy power etc)  I am writing this because recently I am reading about how Bruce's stuff is outdated or how he was not that effective etc. Well I personally think it would be more benefiticial to look at how one can increase atttributes instead of sitting around arguing about superior technique . Its not about technique - there's no magic pill .
  1 Can YOU develope a sudden close that most ppl cant stop?
  2 do you have the timing to go with it to pull it off?
  3 if not , you better learn how to handle a guys blocks and evasiveness , if you suck at that too , the fight would most likely end up on the ground
  4 can you KO the guy with fast combos?   if no better train hard, if yes,  can you progress to:
  5 single KO power?

Asking these questions would be more beneficial than arguing about what he taught to who etc . Or who has the real stuff and other political BS; simply look at what the man actually did when he was serious about a fight and ask some honest question instead. To me looking at what he actually did when he was serious about a fight is more accurate than looking at what he taught because he was known to not like teaching his real stuff to ppl.

   Usually I dont wanna get involve in this kind of stuff but I have high repect for Bruce  and it gets on my nerves with some of the things ppl say about him . I remember one time when I worked at the banquet hall at the hyatt some dude said he did MMA ; he said he quite JKD because bruce was not that good and JKD was outdated... this went on for half an hour , finally I shut him down . When he ask what style this was , I told him it was a useless , outdated , low level stuff inspire by Bruce . He shut his mouth after that  . For the record I am not a JKD man and there are many who knows about JKD more than me. 
  
  

[frito]

Adam - don't get worked up about it.  It is the nature of things.  In general people just repeat what they have heard and now what us popular is MMA. So that is what they hear.

Bruce was phenominal. This won't change ever. 

[Martin JKD]

Adam,occasionally everyone even people that try not to like myself get pissed off and voice an opinion on this stuff. I really hate the politics I've seen in MA, I try not to get involved with it, but it has to be said, it gets in the way of the TRUTH.
Occasionally someone has to speak up with a bit of sense on these subjects
Alot of people feel the same way and try not to discuss and get involved with all the BS that goes on in MA circles,  but occasionally every one gets a bit pissed off with it
so dont sweat it man
Hope your cool bro

[Tyler]

"Well I personally think it would be more benefiticial to look at how one can increase atttributes instead of sitting around arguing about superior technique . Its not about technique - there's no magic pill ."

So true, from my experience with people, i notice that people who sit around arguing, critisizing, and bullshiting about politics generally not very good at what they do. Successful people are the ones who pay attention to what is truley important (what helps them become better at what they do) and the ones who usually leave with the usefull information.

When someone becomes famous,there will be the kinds of people who find out why they are great and try to use that to better themselves, but there will always be people who must pick at their imperfections (real or fake) and people who try to take attention away from what makes that person great. the kind of people that do this are usually sadistics with a low self esteem. This is why bully's do what they do.... to make themselves feel better.

[miguelquijano]

Martin, brother, you are so right. People are more into who logged the most hours with Bruce, who held his hand the longest, etc. To me, it is great but at the same time it does not mean anything when it comes to Bruce Lee like Skills.

I have met a lot of JKD people and honestly, I am depressed, not impressed. People want to argue about who is better than who, etc. but they themselves don't want to train hard themselves (not all). They rather read books on Bruce and his stuff, research, but not train. They figured that whatever was good enough for Bruce that it is good enough for them. To me, that is a sad state when people can not face their own weaknesses and discover for themselves what works for them. Again, I will state this for record: If you are over weight, tall, shorter than Bruce, slower, less powerful, etc. you will not be able to do the things that Bruce himself was able to do, I don't care if you study with any of his original students or not, you must work hard and pay your own dues. People want to push their own agendas: he moves like Bruce, built like Bruce, etc. Don't buy into that nonsense. Be your self, learn, study, work out, work hard. Nobody that I personally knows in the states can do things like Bruce. Maybe I have not met them yet, but nobody. The only person that I will vouch for is Tommy Carruthers. The guy works hard, very hard. He knows the ethics that it takes and the discipline to achieve Bruce Lee like skills.

Please, I am sorry if this offends anyone, I am not trying to do that. I am sure some will get upset. To me, you either can walk the walk or you can't. Talk is cheap.
Thanks

[Tyler]

Martin, brother, you are so right. People are more into who logged the most hours with Bruce, who held his hand the longest, etc. To me, it is great but at the same time it does not mean anything when it comes to Bruce Lee like Skills.

I have met a lot of JKD people and honestly, I am depressed, not impressed. People want to argue about who is better than who, etc. but they themselves don't want to train hard themselves (not all). They rather read books on Bruce and his stuff, research, but not train. They figured that whatever was good enough for Bruce that it is good enough for them. To me, that is a sad state when people can not face their own weaknesses and discover for themselves what works for them. Again, I will state this for record: If you are over weight, tall, shorter than Bruce, slower, less powerful, etc. you will not be able to do the things that Bruce himself was able to do, I don't care if you study with any of his original students or not, you must work hard and pay your own dues. People want to push their own agendas: he moves like Bruce, built like Bruce, etc. Don't buy into that nonsense. Be your self, learn, study, work out, work hard. Nobody that I personally knows in the states can do things like Bruce. Maybe I have not met them yet, but nobody. The only person that I will vouch for is Tommy Carruthers. The guy works hard, very hard. He knows the ethics that it takes and the discipline to achieve Bruce Lee like skills.

Please, I am sorry if this offends anyone, I am not trying to do that. I am sure some will get upset. To me, you either can walk the walk or you can't. Talk is cheap.
Thanks

Great Post! It seems more are interested in arguring about trivial things (who he spent more time with, etc. etc.) than looking for things that could be productive for them. I glad the Adam as moderator and owner of this forum generally doent approve of political B.S.

[gary]

Great points all around, quit bickering about all the little stuff and open your mind to the fact that you can learn from anyone if your willing to put in the time!!!

[Jeff Meadows]

I agree with you Adam. I find it aggravating in general- the state of JKD. I wouldnt give politics and the general BS surrounding JKD not much thought cept in a unique fashion I love/admire Bruce Lee greatly. Due to the inspiration he has played in my life. Tho like Adam I do not practice JKD as it is wildly viewed.

I find it a travesty that JKD has become exactly what Bruce spoke against. A classical mess. Sadly JKD is no different than any other popularized MA. Cept due to his untimely death he left no true successor to his art this fact has created even more chaos. The classical styles had successors...JKD does not.Folks argueing what JKD is and what Bruce was doing in his later days. The truth is JKD never got "finished". I mean come on the man died at 32. And we will never know what he was working on, thinking about and investigating. This fact is such a travesty. Any of you gentlemen that are working on your own skill sets, theory etc. know you will be working on something for even a exstended peroid of time before ya share it with your partners/students. I know one of his students said Bruce would only show ya where he has been not where he is at or where he is going. Didnt make sense to me in the past..sure does today:)

To the people out there that bash Bruce and say he wasnt tough. Are just being haters and fools. Anyone who knows anything about fighting can see he was dangerous. He was a great athlete. And his sets and attributes where phenominal. How tough he was exactly to "street" applications well the truth is we dont know. Only people who have a clue are his partners/students. The saps he did fight know though:) Bruce Lee was decades ahead of his time.Peroid. The fact that a father, husband, and a man with a great spirit died is bad enough. But as martial artist the tragedy for us is we lost 30 plus years of further evolution of his vision. Sometime when I am reading his writing and working on my journey. I see his genius and well... I feel a great sense of lost and anger. We where robbed brothers!

 Yours in Fellowship,
     Jeff

[Adam]

on another forum , ( bax) ppl have imply that bruce is all theory , i have taken my post fr there hoping to provoke a little thinking about ones own training:

"As for rather a system is just theory or if its real, I think is not that important at all. If one look at martial arts , alot of them are so old that the history of the founder's life is lost. The only way is to take responsiblity and test it out for yourself. As Yip Man once said after chum kil " how do you know I am not lying to you?, go out and cross hands"

I think what Yip Man said is important because often founders dont like teaching the real deal. Example : o sensei supported japan's role in ww2 and taught ppl how to break ppl for Japans elite. After he saw what happen after the war he refuse to teach fighting stuff yet when press by skillful people, challengers ended up KO with broken limbs, not exactly what is taught as Aikido is it? Or how abt the founder of Yi quan when ask by the japnese to be taught, he send his best student to japan saying " do not make us look bad by teaching anything stupid , but do not teach the japanese anything real", for this reason japnese Takiken have important pieces of Yi quan taken out .The person that told me this was the founders student. People have to realized that MA was invented by humans - all with the personal motives.Is JKD really diff when bruce said he wasn't interested in teaching ppl how to beat him? Yet after he said this ppl still argue abt the correct curriculum of what he taught and challenging each other on the internet lol? I dont know ....

knowing that in asian culture , real stuff is hidden not just in MA but its just as common when one gets a sifu to be a apprentice in learning how to cook , or be painter etc, my question is how do i learn a martial art fr a traditional asian teacher knowing they like to hide stuff? ( i am not insulting asians , i am chinese) how? do i look at his words or his actions? if its his actions , is it when hes playing or when his ass is on the line. And if one is lucky enough to know what he did when he was press , when he was finally HONESTLY exspressing himself then how does that help ME? what are some honest questions that i have to ask? And how hard do I have to train to answer them?"