Bruce Lee

[silveraw]

I must admit I do think of Lee as largely if not completely untested as a fighter,

I'm by no means an expert, but didn't Lee win some high school boxing tournament and was involved in street fighting to a degree that the fallout prompted his move to the USA?
I would say he at least fought at the high school level, ignoring the sparring matches he reportedly had with more well respected martial artists in the states.

But it is almost impossible to know since nearly everyone involved is dead and many of the accounts of his later sparring matches don't match up hardly at all.

 

[North Coast Miller]

I'm by no means an expert, but didn't Lee win some high school boxing tournament and was involved in street fighting to a degree that the fallout prompted his move to the USA?
I would say he at least fought at the high school level, ignoring the sparring matches he reportedly had with more well respected martial artists in the states.

But it is almost impossible to know since nearly everyone involved is dead and many of the accounts of his later sparring matches don't match up hardly at all.

His amateur boxing record is 1 win, no losses. Accounts of his many streetfights are never very detailed, his manhandling of Sammy Davis Jr's bodyguard, easily besting Inosanto etc etc all lack detail.

According to Inosanto, Bruce welcomed other martial artists to take a shot at him, some of whom did. These being informal meetings.

He frequently pointed out that the sport fighting of his day had too many rules, even though he was a huge fan of boxing.

It is impossible to say anything definitive about his actual fighting ability, only about his qualities, technical skill, and observations of those who knew him.

 

[silveraw]

His amateur boxing record is 1 win, no losses.

I was under the impression that it was a actual inter school tournament.

I'm sure the source of that is a fan book though if I dug deeper.

But personally, coming from an art with Michael Echanis as the poster boy, Bruce's stuff seems way more legit.

 

[North Coast Miller]

I was under the impression that it was a actual inter school tournament.

I'm sure the source of that is a fan book though if I dug deeper.

But personally, coming from an art with Michael Echanis as the poster boy, Bruce's stuff seems way more legit.

You are correct, age of 18 vs the reigning "Inter-School Individual Boxing Champion", Gary Elms.

If Bruce hadn't passed away, his stuff likely would have morphed more and more toward a stripped down Silat and FMA. He was very impressed by Inosanto.

 

[Nate]

Per John Saxon who trained with Pavel, Bruce Lee did train with (and owned) kettlebells. Dan Inosanto, one of Bruce's most senior students, also trained with Pavel and Dr. Mark Cheng.

Russian Kettlebell Training – Inosanto Academy

I am pretty certain Bruce would have loved the StrongFirst system.

I got to train with Inosanto during a JKD seminar (I was from escrima). He was awesome.

 

[the hansenator]

One thing people seem to forget is, what Bruce was doing and his general attitude was unusual at the time. Especially among the traditional groups.

People weren’t doing some of the things that seem obvious to us now. There were no MMA schools and there wasn’t the easy access to information we now enjoy so he was kind of figuring it out on his own.

 

[North Coast Miller]

I got to train with Inosanto during a JKD seminar (I was from escrima). He was awesome.

I bought his book and had the entire video collection. Since a lot of my training was informal basements and backyards, my ability to trap or jam was almost nonexistant. A lot of work with his materials and double stick improved these aspects exponentially when I did get actual sparring time.

 

[Nate]

I bought his book and had the entire video collection. Since a lot of my training was informal basements and backyards, my ability to trap or jam was almost nonexistant. A lot of work with his materials and double stick improved these aspects exponentially when I did get actual sparring time.

I ejected a knife disarm there & the practice knife hit Danny in the leg. I was glad he didnt kill me... he was so cool.

 

[Xcal]

Imma claim Mandela Effect...its not there

Firstly, there is no kettlebell mention in Tao of Jeet Kune Do. The closest I found is this in section: "Some Weapons from KJD". It mentions: "strength...Special apparatus".




Secondly, I have been privileged on a few occassions to be in the crowd with Nelson Mandela present: a few political events and 2 of his music events, the 46664 concert in RSA. His Madiba Magic was there and notable!

 

[North Coast Miller]

Firstly, there is no kettlebell mention in Tao of Jeet Kune Do. The closest I found is this in section: "Some Weapons from KJD". It mentions: "strength...Special apparatus".

View attachment 22605


Secondly, I have been privileged on a few occassions to be in the crowd with Nelson Mandela present: a few political events and 2 of his music events, the 46664 concert in RSA. His Madiba Magic was there and notable!

For some reason in my memory the sketch of the muscular guy with X's on prime targets had a KB in his hand...

 

[the hansenator]

According to google, John Saxon noted that Bruce had kettlebells in his gym setup in Hong Kong. I couldn't find any actual photos online though.

 

[Period]

Kettlebells are at least mentioned (not sure if depicted) in John Little's "Bruce Lee - The Art of Expressing the Human Body", in the context of the one arm row (pg. 106-107). Little notes the kettlebell allows "to perform an exercise without undue wrist strain, and also to increase the effective range of motion in most conventional dumbbell exercises". I think he picked an odd exercise to demonstrate the advantages of the kettlebell - in fact, you could argue that the kettlebell decreases the range of motion here rather than increasing it (unless you stand on blocks), and wrist strain isn't a big factor in it either, but then again, maybe that's just me.