I’m not sure it’s accurate to say he contributed little to technique. The Tao of Jeet Kune Do is filled with insightful observations on strategy and technique.
Heh, maybe I’m one of the few people on this thread that has ever taken JKD, but we used to find the Lee worshiping funny at times and annoying at other times. To the point that my instructor dropped JKD from the class itself and just changed it to kickboxing.
As much as the Lee-worship by students and movie fans is irritating, it is NOTHING compared to the weird in-fighting by those that are trying to teach JKD. For an art that prides itself on “non-tradition”, these guys are entrenched in doctrine. So-and-so shouldn’t teach because they weren’t trained by so-and-so.
It got to where if you weren’t authorized to teach by a person directly trained by Lee then you couldn’t teach JKD. No matter what your skill level or ability to teach. So much for JKD not being bogged down in a “classical mess”, as Lee used to call traditional martial arts.
I’ve spoken to two guys that actually met and trained with Lee. One guy, Ted Wong, is absolutely the nicest guy you have ever met. Very respectful and quiet type, and had the patience of Job when it came to the 18-year-olds asking the 100th “eight-inch-punch” question.
He said that personally saw Lee pick up a BB with a couple of 45’s on it from the floor with one hand, cheat curl it, and clean it over his head, this impressed me at his bodyweight. He also said the one-finger push ups were real and that Lee would sit on the floor, read a book with one hand, and press baby Brandon while doing crunches at the same time for what seemed like hours…which just seems like retarded multi-tasking to me. I believe Ted because he just seemed like the type of guy that wouldn’t lie about anything. Real man of character.
The other was kickboxer Joe Lewis, who just had a look of intimidation when he entered the room. Let me put it this way…at a seminar, he walked into a room of 30 or so people and asked “who’s here to fight?” (keep in mind he was in his late 50’s I think). About 5 guys raised their hands. He said “okay, get on your gear” and proceeded one at a time to hand their ass to them, knocking two guys out. This was before he even introduced himself or anything. Mega-T man he is.
Funny thing about Lewis is that he said outright he would have handed Lee his ass back in the day. It was funny to see a bunch of Lee-jedis keep their mouth shut at that comment (no e-warriors that day).
He did say that Lee was incredibly fast and that he could hit you at will. Joe joked that although Lee hit hard for his size, all that Joe would have had to do is kick him one time and he would “have snapped Lee in half…he weighed what, 125 lbs??? C’mon I would have killed him”.
Not being a Lee fanatic it was a pleasure to see grown men with Bruce Lee t-shirts on having to sit there and listen reason from a 50 year old that just schooled the lot of them. Joe was awesome.
medevac now why do you have to go and post information from people that knew and trained under Bruce Lee? You should be aware that no logic or facts are allowed in a thread with Bruce Lee in the title, ever. It’s in the forum rules and any more posts like that will get you banned from here most likely 
[quote]bushidobadboy wrote:
medevac wrote:
Joe joked that although Lee hit hard for his size, all that Joe would have had to do is kick him one time and he would “have snapped Lee in half…he weighed what, 125 lbs??? C’mon I would have killed him”.
Nice post, but I disagree with Joe Lewis’s comment here, simply from a physics point of view.
If something is strong and rigid then it doesn’t really matter what its weight. In fact, lightness would be an advantage I suppose, since it provides less polar momentum to be resisted by Lee’s core musculature.
Sure, Lee would likely have been catapaulted into next week, but not ‘snapped in half’. That just doesn’t make sense.
BTW, I’m no Lee-devotee (though I do like Enter the Dragon)and to be honest, I don’t know whay I posted this, but it seemed important to me.
OK, anal point-scoring attempt over.
Bushy[/quote]
Wow. Have you ever heard of hyperbole? I’m sure Joe meant that his kick would have a great impact and disabled Lee. I don’t think that Joe meant he would have actually ripped the man into two pieces.
For future reference:
“He has a brain the size of a pea.”- is not really a small pea sized brain.
“I could eat a horse.”-I am really hungry.
“I nearly died laughing.”-no where near approaching actual death
“I’ll call you tomorrow”-I want to bang you tonight.
You know, hyperbole…
[quote]Scott M wrote:
medevac now why do you have to go and post information from people that knew and trained under Bruce Lee? You should be aware that no logic or facts are allowed in a thread with Bruce Lee in the title, ever. It’s in the forum rules and any more posts like that will get you banned from here most likely ;)[/quote]
With all the crap about what he could and could not do, I guess you can take it or leave it. I just don’t think Ted is capable of lying and even if I thought Joe was lying, I wouldn’t call him on it.
I’ll now share my all-time favorite Bruce Lee story, as told by Joe Lewis. Again I doubt he was lying, but it shows Bruce’s character and it has nothing to do with kicking and punching.
Joe was apparently dating a hair dresser at the time, who in his words, was a “bitch”. So the girl cut Joe’s hair as well as Bruce’s and a few others in the class (this was pre-movie Bruce).
The girl was pissed at Joe about something and told Joe that Bruce was hitting on her and propositioned her. Joe went straight to Bruce’s apartment to confront him. When Bruce came to the door Joe told him what it was about and to come out there and get his ass kicked.
Bruce says “hold on” and goes back inside. So there’s Joe taking off his shirt and starting to stretch and thinking he’s about to fight Lee.
Lee comes back to the door with Linda, his wife. He then says (paraphrased) “Go ahead and tell Linda what you told me”.
Joe realized looking at Linda that Bruce wouldn’t cheat on her and said “yeah, you’re right” and then left. He said later he broke up with the girl.
I love that story, 100% true or not. I personally think Lee probably cheated on her later on, but I like the thought of Joe wanting to kick Bruce’s ass and then realizing the absurdity of the situation.
BL could divide by zero for 6 sets of 50
[quote]medevac wrote:
Scott M wrote:
medevac now why do you have to go and post information from people that knew and trained under Bruce Lee? You should be aware that no logic or facts are allowed in a thread with Bruce Lee in the title, ever. It’s in the forum rules and any more posts like that will get you banned from here most likely
With all the crap about what he could and could not do, I guess you can take it or leave it. I just don’t think Ted is capable of lying and even if I thought Joe was lying, I wouldn’t call him on it.
I’ll now share my all-time favorite Bruce Lee story, as told by Joe Lewis. Again I doubt he was lying, but it shows Bruce’s character and it has nothing to do with kicking and punching.
Joe was apparently dating a hair dresser at the time, who in his words, was a “bitch”. So the girl cut Joe’s hair as well as Bruce’s and a few others in the class (this was pre-movie Bruce).
The girl was pissed at Joe about something and told Joe that Bruce was hitting on her and propositioned her. Joe went straight to Bruce’s apartment to confront him. When Bruce came to the door Joe told him what it was about and to come out there and get his ass kicked.
Bruce says “hold on” and goes back inside. So there’s Joe taking off his shirt and starting to stretch and thinking he’s about to fight Lee.
Lee comes back to the door with Linda, his wife. He then says (paraphrased) “Go ahead and tell Linda what you told me”.
Joe realized looking at Linda that Bruce wouldn’t cheat on her and said “yeah, you’re right” and then left. He said later he broke up with the girl.
I love that story, 100% true or not. I personally think Lee probably cheated on her later on, but I like the thought of Joe wanting to kick Bruce’s ass and then realizing the absurdity of the situation.[/quote]
Well. Believe it if you will. It sounds like total BS to me.