I am a child of the 70s, yes.For Cortina's. Showing your age a little?
Bruce Lee wasn't a God
- Thread starter Bill Mattocks
- Start date
So did pat morita and Ralph macchio that doesn’t make them great martial artists
Grand father of martial arts? no where near in fact his contribution to REAL martial arts is very small.his style is really not that popular. His main contribution is he got some people to sign up for classes and that’s about it. He didnt train anyone who become anything and by that I certainly do not people like Joe Lewis or Dan innosanto those guys were already very talented martial artists long before they met Lee and sure maybe he showed them a few extra bits here and there but those training arrangements benefited Lee much more than it did them. He hung around with the top names of the time to try and get himself out there same with all his teaching he was doing that so HE could train with bigger people he wasn’t interested in building up students and from what I’ve heard he was a terrible teacher and jf someone didn’t understand something he wouldnt help them and he’d just move on. He also broke one of his students jaws in purpose because they landed a hit on him in sparring. From all the things I’ve heard from him if he was still alive I wouldn’t go anywhere near him for training
Sounds like you've been listening to different sources than a lot of other people. Care to elaborate?
Bujingodai
Black Belt
No doubt inspired a lot of people to hit the mats. Angered a lot of traditionalists and in the end a bunch of schools with a watered down idea.
He was a physically talented person, very gymnastic and looked good. Not the greatest human by many accounts, fortunate to rub shoulders and put feathers in his hat at the famous people he taught at mini seminars. Do you actually think Kareem Abdul spent years in his dojo?
What he was a master at, was being a marketer. At that time, good time to grab. Martial arts were not popular in media. He knew to get on that train and ride it fast.
That said, he'd re arrange me. I feel like he was the Elvis of the arts. Elvis was not particularly talented. Just out at the right time, with the right look and the right marketing.
He was a physically talented person, very gymnastic and looked good. Not the greatest human by many accounts, fortunate to rub shoulders and put feathers in his hat at the famous people he taught at mini seminars. Do you actually think Kareem Abdul spent years in his dojo?
What he was a master at, was being a marketer. At that time, good time to grab. Martial arts were not popular in media. He knew to get on that train and ride it fast.
That said, he'd re arrange me. I feel like he was the Elvis of the arts. Elvis was not particularly talented. Just out at the right time, with the right look and the right marketing.
That is a brilliant analogy!
Bujingodai
Black Belt
Well I feel like I have to say thank you, thank you very much. In that mentioned voice
That will be my default description of Lee if ever I’m asked about him; “Well… he was the Elvis of martial arts”
Not really the informations out there if you want it
Wing Woo Gar
Senior Master
In the end it’s better to speak kindly of the dead, we beat enough dead horses around here.
Xue Sheng
All weight is underside
Your point being? We know Lee appropriated bits from many systems, but that means his art wasn’t innovative but rather a mongrel that only he could make could make work. Not system is born from a vacuum and they all borrow some aspects of other arts, so Lee wasn’t even unique in his ideology!
Perhaps his premature death prevented the evolution of JKD into something truly amazing, but up to that point, he was too busy spreading himself rather thinly to try and become rich and famous and that was his decision as he assumed, as we all do, that he had plenty of time ahead of him. It would’ve been really interesting to see what he would’ve done with JKD. I suspect he would devised something completely new based upon modern systems and he would’ve abandoned JKD in favour of it, but that’s pure speculation.
"Your point being? "
If you don't see that as ahead of its time, I got nothing else. We're speaking different languages.
Wing Woo Gar
Senior Master
We can’t because everyone is face palming.
With both hands?
Wing Woo Gar
Senior Master
Yeah that might be appropriate.
I don’t think you understood my previous post. I’ll try and make it more understandable.
Lee was not unique in taking the best bits of other arts and amalgamating them into JKD. Every new art does this because there’s nothing new under the sun. For example, something I’m very familiar with, Wado Ryu Karate = Okinawan Karate + Shindō Yōshin-ryū Jujutsu…and this was well before Lee was even born. I’m sure there are many other examples.
Lee was not unique in taking the best bits of other arts and amalgamating them into JKD. Every new art does this because there’s nothing new under the sun. For example, something I’m very familiar with, Wado Ryu Karate = Okinawan Karate + Shindō Yōshin-ryū Jujutsu…and this was well before Lee was even born. I’m sure there are many other examples.
isshinryuronin
Senior Master
I think there is a popular misconception that many have about the JKD "style" - It wasn't a style! It was a concept. Lee expressed a disdain for styles in the traditional sense as he felt they limited possibilities. He was open to using "the best bits" of other systems as Gyakuto noted above but did not codify them thru kata or, as far as I know, curriculum into his Wing Chun based JKD. His was the "formless" form.
Lee practiced bits of some other systems, and academically studied many others. I believe he was more interested in their concepts of timing, distance and tactics. His book is NOT a text of JKD, but a scattered collection of his intellectual investigations, martial and philosophical. Rather than being a style, JKD represents an approach to MA.
IMO, JKD wasn't a packaged product designed to be taught and passed on (that would make it a style). But it was a packaged product to be marketed. This in no way a criticism of him as a martial artist. He was remarkable and the depth of his study into MA (as shown in his book) was amazing and fascinating.
Bruce Lee was a maverick, inspiring, had tremendous drive and confidence (along with a girlfriend or two like many celebrities) but his overall lasting effect on the MA world places him several steps short of godhood. But no doubt his standing as a unique personality will live on.
Lee practiced bits of some other systems, and academically studied many others. I believe he was more interested in their concepts of timing, distance and tactics. His book is NOT a text of JKD, but a scattered collection of his intellectual investigations, martial and philosophical. Rather than being a style, JKD represents an approach to MA.
IMO, JKD wasn't a packaged product designed to be taught and passed on (that would make it a style). But it was a packaged product to be marketed. This in no way a criticism of him as a martial artist. He was remarkable and the depth of his study into MA (as shown in his book) was amazing and fascinating.
Bruce Lee was a maverick, inspiring, had tremendous drive and confidence (along with a girlfriend or two like many celebrities) but his overall lasting effect on the MA world places him several steps short of godhood. But no doubt his standing as a unique personality will live on.
