Bruce Lee wasn't a God

[MuayJitsu]

"Your point being? "

If you don't see that as ahead of its time, I got nothing else. We're speaking different languages.

it wasn’t ahead of its time at all. People had been cross training LONG before Bruce lee turned up. gene lebell for one. Also chuck norris combined Multiple martial arts into his own style. Joe Lewis (before he met lee) had wrestled as a kid, boxed, done karate and judo.

dan innosanto (before he met him) was a black belt in Kenpo who had also trained in Philippino martial arts.

so yeah lee may have been the loudest but he certainly was not the one who invented the idea

 

[MuayJitsu]

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.

Yeah and frankly who showed him all this other stuff….his only real training was a few months of wing chun before he got kicked out who was his boxing coach? Who was his Muay Thai coach…..no one he just read some books and pretended he knew that stuff….i mean go look at the video of him hitting the heavy bag….ive seen kids who’ve trained boxing for a week with better hands than what he was doing

 

[Wing Woo Gar]

Yeah and frankly who showed him all this other stuff….his only real training was a few months of wing chun before he got kicked out who was his boxing coach? Who was his Muay Thai coach…..no one he just read some books and pretended he knew that stuff….i mean go look at the video of him hitting the heavy bag….ive seen kids who’ve trained boxing for a week with better hands than what he was doing

Ok Im going in on this one. He had a VERY large heavy bag. I’ve seen film of him rocking that bag above his weight class. For 135lbs. The guy could really punch from what I saw. But, I don’t know much…

 

[Steve]

This thread is getting ridiculous. i love it. I still wonder what those snooker players in the Ford Cortinas did to @Gyakuto, though, to generate such strong feelings 50 years later.

 

[Xue Sheng]

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.

Something I see is misunderstood here by non-Chinese style martial artists.....I don't think anyone in CMA thinks Bruce Lee was unique, just highly skilled, and possibly naturally gifted. Most CMA styles come from conglomerate of other styles or take bits and pieces from other styles. Some style keep the same name but make it a family style, other change to a different name. Or the evolve with the same base but are different Shanxi Henan and Hebei Xingyiquan

Yiquan/Dachengquan is a conglomerate. Taijiquan is likely Long Fist + some Chen family style and some Taoist theory. Sun taijiquan is Taijiquan + Xingyiqua + Baguazhang. Even the Wing Chun we see today is not the same as the original and there are different versions. And if you beleive the origin story comes from someone who studied at Shaolin.

 

[Wing Woo Gar]

This thread is getting ridiculous. i love it. I still wonder what those snooker players in the Ford Cortinas did to @Gyakuto, though, to generate such strong feelings 50 years later.

Yeah. What you said.

 

[Wing Woo Gar]

This thread is getting ridiculous. i love it. I still wonder what those snooker players in the Ford Cortinas did to @Gyakuto, though, to generate such strong feelings 50 years later.

Arguing about dead celebrities…

 

[Buka]

Lee dying twenty years before some people were born yet he still angers and stays stuck in their head.

Feel the power.

 

[Gyakuto]

And here we are, still talking about him.

 

[MuayJitsu]

Ok Im going in on this one. He had a VERY large heavy bag. I’ve seen film of him rocking that bag above his weight class. For 135lbs. The guy could really punch from what I saw. But, I don’t know much…

VERY large heavy bag? lol no that book looks light as hell besides no matter how heavy the bag is that’s no excuse for poor technique

 

[Bujingodai]

Lee dying twenty years before some people were born yet he still angers and stays stuck in their head.

Feel the power.

Well we still discuss Elvis, the Beatles etc. The Stones, wait they are still touring.

Now the real discussion, was Hendrix over rated? Was he a phenom more due to his time than his technique. Another one that died before most were alive.

 

[Gyakuto]

was Hendrix over rated? Was he a phenom more due to his time than his technique. Another one that died before most were alive.

Yes, he was…sort of! His style was the basis of many, later talented players, just as banging on hollowed out tree trunks was to Neil Peart (Rush) or Mike Portnoy (Dream Theater), but I wouldn’t want to listen to hollowed out tree trunks being bashed.

 

[HighKick]

it wasn’t ahead of its time at all. People had been cross training LONG before Bruce lee turned up. gene lebell for one. Also chuck norris combined Multiple martial arts into his own style. Joe Lewis (before he met lee) had wrestled as a kid, boxed, done karate and judo.

dan innosanto (before he met him) was a black belt in Kenpo who had also trained in Philippino martial arts.

so yeah lee may have been the loudest but he certainly was not the one who invented the idea

Agree.
More to your point, this is how most all styles evolved. One guy trained with another guy, then went somewhere else and trained with another guy, and so on. The definition of cross-training.

 

[MuayJitsu]

Agree.
More to your point, this is how most all styles evolved. One guy trained with another guy, then went somewhere else and trained with another guy, and so on. The definition of cross-training.

Yep makes me laugh when people say he was the godfather of mma like no he wasn’t first people did it way before him second in mma they started mixing styles based on what actually worked when fighting not whatever they read in a book like lee did

 

[HighKick]

Well we still discuss Elvis, the Beatles etc. The Stones, wait they are still touring.

Now the real discussion, was Hendrix over rated? Was he a phenom more due to his time than his technique. Another one that died before most were alive.

Hendrix. Whether promoted by pharmaceuticals or not, he was doing things (making sounds) on a guitar that no was or doing then or can do today without the assistance of pedals and electronic devices.

 

[Bujingodai]

Hendrix. Whether promoted by pharmaceuticals or not, he was doing things (making sounds) on a guitar that no was or doing then or can do today without the assistance of pedals and electronic devices.

True enough other than fuzz and wah peddles. He was groundbreaking, that is for sure.

 

[Steve]

Hendrix. Whether promoted by pharmaceuticals or not, he was doing things (making sounds) on a guitar that no was or doing then or can do today without the assistance of pedals and electronic devices.

Hendrix was an exceptional talent, as was Bruce Lee. A major difference here is that Hendrix didn’t codify his playing style and try to teach it to others.

 

[Xue Sheng]

Hendrix was an exceptional talent, as was Bruce Lee. A major difference here is that Hendrix didn’t codify his playing style and try to teach it to others.

did Bruce Lee codify JKD?

 

[Wing Woo Gar]

VERY large heavy bag? lol no that book looks light as hell besides no matter how heavy the bag is that’s no excuse for poor technique

Not that one. Doesn’t matter anyway. You don’t dig him. No problem here. I see lots of people with poor technique on film, That includes me.

 

[Steve]

did Bruce Lee codify JKD?

Insofar as he defined a style called JKD and started teaching others.

Perhaps the biggest difference beteeen the two is Bruce Lee appeared more concerned with his legacy than Hendrix.