Bruce Lee's Whole Shtick

He was a real kung fu master, he was trying to teach you something.

He didn't just make kung fu movies and become known as a handsome Chinese American actor.  He never actually sparred or competed in any combat sport, but that doesn't matter.  What he did was invent a theory, a philosophy, and a method of self realization.

What he did in the movies was Tae Kwon Do.  But that is garbage.  In real life, he invented a martial art called 'Jeet Kune Do' which means 'The Way of the Intercepting Fist'.  It is also called Jun Fan Gong Fu after his actual Chinese name, Jun Fan.  Bruce Lee was the anglicized name a nurse gave him in the hospital he was born in.

What Jeet Kune Do was about was, that boxing has a more realistic training methodology than Karate, Judo, and Kung Fu.  Martial Arts is largely an exercise about zen culture and ethics and not how to knock a man out.  Bruce Lee was about reality self defense, not theories or philosophies. 

But he also had morality, and saw things from a wholistic viewpoint like most Chinese people.  Jeet Kune Do is not just punching.  It is not just punching and kicking.  It is a complete karate with an answer for everything.  It involves punching, kicking, trapping, and weapons grappling.  It is a lot like other Chinese martial arts like Wing Chun and Tai Chi.

But one thing he was trying to teach humanity was, that if you are too dangerous to spar, you are delusional and just talking out of pride.  A boxer gets in the ring and he fights.  He doesn't overthink it.  A boxer is conditioned, experienced, spars, competes, wins, loses, and doesn't complain.

But boxing alone is not a streetfight.  It is a fight with gloves on.  Without the gloves and the rules, you can do a lot more.  Bruce Lee once said, 'If Jeet Kune Do was a sport, it would be similar to Muay Thai.' 

Muay Thai means Thai Kickboxing.  It is not just punching with gloves on.  It involves kicks, knees, elbows, and clinch wrestling too.  The Thai fighters are extremely conditioned and spar and compete regularly.  Most will live and die poor, but some will be rich celebrities.  Muay Thai is the eastern concept of 'boxing'.

Even punching and muay thai is not a complete system.  A real martial artist can do more than punch and kick.  He also knows how to wrestle standing up and grapple with weapons.  In Chinese, wrestling is called 'Shuai' and weapons grappling is called 'Chin Na'.  A complete martial artist knows all four elements of hand to hand combat, not just one or two. 

So whether you are doing  Tai Chi or Chin Na or San Da or Wing Chun or Dragon Boxing, you must have answer for everything or you are not a real martial artist.  There is wholistic martial arts like there is wholistic medicine.  That is the Chinese worldview.  Having a comprehensive view not a partial vew.  The Chinese are not stupid.

So Bruce Lee was a great innovator and his movies were just stupid kung fu flicks.  He invented a new martial art, coached many kickboxers in the USA, married a white woman, had biracial children, and ultimately, he died because a doctor gave him the wrong meds.  What a tragedy.

Bruce Lee had more merit than most actors.  He wasn't just some guy on a movie screen.  He could do what he said.  In my life, I trained Muay Thai and JKD principles in a gym near my house and this empowered my to do sparring and Combat Sambo.  I am not just a judoka and grappler.  Jeet Kune Do principles work in any combat sport you do, as long as it involves striking with gloves on.  That includes boxing, muay thai, Combat Sambo, and MMA.  There are even Jeet Kune Do principles in wrestling and aikido.

So he wasn't a fake.  Even now, over 40 years after his death, people still honor him as a hero.  There are no Bruce Lee jokes, because he wasn't a joke.  He was telling you the truth.

A real master of kung fu can punch, kick, trap, and grapple.  Chinese martial arts don't teach groundfighting because groundfighting is an exercise.  In the end, Chinese martial arts are better than Japanese martial arts.  But China despises the west and Japan loves fooling the west.  They sell us all their crap, like sushi and karate and Sony and Toyota and manga comics.  Japanese are more sneaky, the Chinese just call us barbarians. 

So to understand martial arts is to understand zen.  To be a man who can knock a man out, you must understand the nature of reality and morality first.  It is not just about sparring and competing and anger and aggression.  We do east Asian martial arts not African martial arts.  Black people are the most strong and fast and invent the worst martial arts, and Asians are the smallest and weakest and invent the best martial arts.  It is counter-intuitive.  The soft overcome the hard.  If you are soft and weak and slow, then you must learn to survive by being more efficient, having better timing, and understanding human anatomy and psychology.  A small, weak, slow man can still fight if he knows what he is doing.  Only a punk shoots right away or jumps right in with the right cross.

So Bruce Lee invented something of lasting benefit to society.  I think Jeet Kune Do is better than Judo.  Judo is physical education, Jeet Kune Do is self realization through Budo.  Both have potential to help.  Easy going but tough and humble people do judo.  People into what works in a streetfight and how to become the best version of yourself do Jeet Kune Do.  It is so much more than Olympic combat sports or karate and MMA.  Jeet Kune Do is like a religion and a lifestyle. 

So I might go back to my old instructor and ask him for guidance.  I don't want to stop training all together.  As a martial artist, you are never done training.  You could be black belt and world champion and still have something to learn.  Martial arts is not a gang, it is a form of exercise with a functional use 

So Bruce Lee's whole shtick was self realization through karate.  He was saying boxers actually spar and aren't delusional or overly-confident.  They actually do it while you sit around talking about it.

In my life, I gave up on boxing and switched to takedown sports like Greco and Judo and Sambo.  I am more of a wrestler than a boxer or grappler.  But western people tend to have a limited, partial view of things because they are less intelligent and only believe in tangible results.  There is more to a confrontation than punching and choking.  Some fights end with a takedown or a pin or an armbar.  Some fights involve weapons.  And ultimately, criminals don't fight fair or else they would lose.  Most criminals are weak, slow, have no training, and only want to hurt and destroy you.  So training any martial art or combat sport is about being the better man and not having to prove it. 

I started grappling in 1998 and haven't stopped since.  After 22 years of training, I am not a beginner.  Shootfighting led to Judo and Judo led to Sambo.  Sambo was the best experience of my life.  What I am trying to say in this post is, martial arts is about self realization not self defense.  The whole concept of self defense is stupid.  If you beat someone up in a streetfight, you go to jail for doing the right thing, and if you walk away, they assume you are afraid.  So there is no way to win a confrontation.  The only real way to win is not to get into conflict to begin with.  Combat means stealth and weapons, that is a crime.  Self Defense is for children.  If you are too dangerous to spar, you are delusional.  God is Love.  Love conquers all.

I know I am a great martial artist and I will never stop training and teaching.  I don't care if I am not popular in my part of the world, I am popular somewhere else.  The USA seems to be the most distorted, wicked country on earth.  They got rich by deceiving the world and deceiving their own people.  I am not trying to deceive you. I am trying to help you.

So keep training your style and become yourself.