The Bruce Lee TRAINING SECRET
by Grandmaster William Cheung (Australasian Blitz Magazine)
Every martial artist would like to know how and what made Bruce Lee such a devastating fighter. Even though a lot of people associated with Bruce Lee or many claime d to have trained him or trained with him, I can safely say that not many of them were privileged to his secret training method.
Bruce and I grew up together. We were friends since we were young boys. It was I who introduced Bruce Lee to Wing Chun School in the summer of 1954. In the old days, the master would never teach the new students. It was up to the senior students to pass on the Wing Chun lessons to Bruce. As I was his Kung Fu Senior of many years, I was instructed by Grandmaster Yip man to train him. By 1995, one year into his Wing Chun training, Bruce progressed very fast, and already became a threat to most of the Wing Chun seniors as the majority of them were armchair martial artists. They discovered that Bruce was not a full blooded Chinese b ecause his mother was half German and half Chinese. The seniors got together and put pressure on Professor Yip Man and tried to get Bruce kicked out of the Wing Chun School. Because racism was widely practised in Martial Arts School in Hong Kong, the art was not allowed to be taught to foreigners. Professor Yip Man had no other choice but to bow to their pressure, but he told Bruce that he could train with me and Sihing Wong Shun Leung. But most of the time we trained together.
The following is Bruce's recollection of one of many training experiences with Professor Yip Man: "About four years of hard training in the art of gung fu, I began to understand and felt the principle of
gentleness - the art of neutralizing the effect of the opponent's effort and minimizing expenditure of one's
energy. All these must be done in calmness and without striving. It sounded simple, but in actual application it was difficult. The moment I engaged in combat with an opponent, my mind was completely perturbed and unstable. Especially after a series of exchanging blows and kicks, all my theory of gentleness was gone. My only one thought left was somehow or another I must beat him and win.
My instructor Professor Yip Man, head of the Wing Chun School, would come up to me and say, "Loong (Bruce's Chinese name), relax and calm your mind. Forget about yourself and follow the opponent's movement. Let your mind, the basic reality, do the counter-movement without any interfering deliberation. Above all, learn the art of detachment."
That was it! I must relax. However, right there I had already done something contradictory, against my will. That was when I said I must relax, the demand for effort in "must" was already inconsistent with the effortless in "relax". When my acute self-consciousness grew to what the psychologists called
"double -blind" type, my instructor would again approach me and say, "Loong, preserve yourself by
following the natural bends of things and don't interfere.
Remember never to assert yourself against nature: never be in frontal opposition to any problem, but control it by swinging with it. Don't practice this week. Go home and think about it."
hahaha I already posted that video bsrizpac! It is quite funny man.
MR. Combatively
^^^^^ SNAP, BUT TRUE
Bruce Lee was an actor.
Bruce Lee was a martial artist.
Bruce Lee was not a professional fighter.
Bruce Lee could fight.
Bruce Lee's technique wasn't always the best.
Bruce Lee was an innovator.
Bruce Lee borrowed and copied and lot of material from other people.
None of those statements are mutually exclusive.
JudOWNED - Bruce Lee was an actor.Well put.
Bruce Lee was a martial artist.
Bruce Lee was not a professional fighter.
Bruce Lee could fight.
Bruce Lee's technique wasn't always the best.
Bruce Lee was an innovator.
Bruce Lee borrowed and copied and lot of material from other people.
None of those statements are mutually exclusive.
The myth is larger than the man, but the myth swings both ways. The idea that his skills and contributions were entirely movie magic is as much a myth as the suggestion that he owned legions in actual combat. I doubt his detractors, though, will scrutinize their own assumptions as intently as when they challenge the positive mythology.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BluUhcEvPtI
if a modern day mma fighter had hands like this he would get laffed at,bruce lee couldnt box eggs...the evidence is glaring!yet these romantasists still harp on
LMFAO - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BluUhcEvPtI
if a modern day mma fighter had hands like this he would get laffed at,bruce lee couldnt box eggs...the evidence is glaring!yet these romantasists still harp on
Out of the infinite amount of names to choose, you picked LMFAO. You will be ignored from now on, thank you.
<blockquote>DakenTattoo - <blockquote>LMFAO - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BluUhcEvPtI<br /><br />if a modern day mma fighter had hands like this he would get laffed at,bruce lee couldnt box eggs...the evidence is glaring!yet these romantasists still harp on</blockquote><br /><br /><br />Out of the infinite amount of names to choose, you picked LMFAO. You will be ignored from now on, thank you.</blockquote><br />the truth hurts,he COULD NOT BOX,he had awful hands
i saw the vid, i would say he would loose a boxing match for sure, also......but fighting isnt boxing now is it
bsrizpac - lol@sidestepping the issue.Lotsa that in this thread. I'd suggest you've done some of it yourself.
I find it strangely humourous that we have an actual modern myth within a generation, for some of us, part of our generation, and folks would rather disagree over the things that cannot be verified than agree on those that can.
Imagine how stupid the rhetoric will be in a few more generations.
I think what can be objectively claimed about the man makes for a better legacy, without any need to add or detract based on the mythology surrounding him even while he was alive.
Then again, I have a foundness for the truth.
bsrizpac -WidespreadPanic - I wonder if many of the posters on this thread really know the truth about BL?
GOOD POINT. This is some SCARY SHIT RIGHT HERE:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BluUhcEvPtI
I asked Jesse Glover about the horrid backyard videos and he said regardless of those, it was scary to him to be in the receiving end of BL's punches and kicks.
I agree the backyard stuff with Coburn is pretty bad, amateur and even sloppy.
Only saving grace is that this is from the 70s when the majority of MA was pretty lame.
bsrizpac - ^^
Claimant is responsible for the truth.
Not having the burden of proof does not provide license to avoid all burdens of proof. I commend you for healthy skepticism. Too frequently do readers see and hear what they already pressume and allow it to pass unchallenged. Counter claims, however, carry their own burdens. Objectivity requires they be subject to similar scrutiny.
Now, what does that have to do with the topic? Most of the claims regarding Bruce Lee actually fighting lack authenticity at some level. They are mostly heresay or uncorrobated or even conflicting statements. On the other hand, many or most of the claims presented here of his contributions to TMAs and moreso MMA and even general fitness pass a prima facia burden. It seems hard to argue that he was not an innovator worthy of note.
Good thread.
bsrizpac - My only caveat is with him as a fighter and a badass. There's a difference. I respect his contributions to the martial arts.
Let's have a little fun with this.....
Whom would you say there is more credible evidence of being a "fighter?"
Bruce or Dana?
"Neither" is not an acceptable option. I'm curious as to your opionin. I really don't know which way I would answer it.
I can go with that answer. It certainly feels better, intuitively.
"Boxing is fighting though."
Boxing is the worst form of single MA to bring into a "fight" today, sans crap like Akido and TKD.
And professional boxing is a fucking joke, dudes "fight" with pillows, cowboy boots and very limited rules. LOL@the sport ever legitimately coining who the baddest man on the planet was.
bryanand - "Boxing is fighting though."
Boxing is the worst form of single MA to bring into a "fight" today, sans crap like Akido and TKD.
And professional boxing is a fucking joke, dudes "fight" with pillows, cowboy boots and very limited rules. LOL@the sport ever legitimately coining who the baddest man on the planet was.
Yep. Nothing less relevant in your average fight than the ability to give and receive punches!
Wait.....
and LOL at pillows. Dumbass
Anyone thats ever been tagged with a boxing glove knows its far from a pillow. I caught one in the nose tuesday and it hurt like a motherfucker.
so we have the allegedly best fighter on the planet who had awful hands..yes hands are a BIG part of fighting,he wasnt a very accomplished grappler{grappling is a big part of fighting} and was just learning...he was super fast??offcourse he was he was very light!he could kick??!!!wowzer!every single fighter on the lightweight ufc roster and wec roster would maul him as he was then,and maul him badly.
his legend as a fighter was based on film,and hearsay,word of mouth, and peoples respect for him as old freinds.....bruce did nothing for martial arts apart from spawn a generation of mystical kung fu and karate burks who collect nunchucks and have posters of him on there bedroom wall...ufc,dana white,fertitas,gracies,have did ALOT more for martial arts than the mystical bullshit bruces fans still spout ot this day,even when the evidence is as plain to see that he had piss poor hands which are an integral part of fighting and was a poor grappler!!!!!!!!!!!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tVVGZEFQusM&feature=related
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mJd0_CngKYY
the best martial artist on the planet above of all time
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=J90TetwXZow
a martial arts burk above........the difference?if it wasnt bruce lee everyone would be very unimpressed