Bruce Lee is arguably the most influential martial artist in history because he essentially introduced Chinese martial arts to the world. Within a short span of time, he inspired millions to practice martial arts.
“Little Dragon” Bruce Lee (aka Cantonese, Lee Jun-fan; Mandarin, Lee Xiao-lung) was born in San Francisco during the Chinese Year of the Dragon (November 27, 1940). When he was a child actor in Hong Kong, he would run around the set with a praying mantis on his shoulder, thus his interest in the praying mantis fist form of kung fu. After practicing choy lay fut, Bruce Lee began studying wing chun under Ip Man in 1954. (The film Ip Man 2 says 1956).
To avoid gang fights in Hong Kong and get his U.S. citizenship, Bruce Lee moved back to the United States in 1959 and began teaching wing chun at his newly opened Jun Fan Gung Fu Institute. Recognizing the weaknesses of traditional kung fu training, Bruce Lee created his own martial way, jeet kune do (way of the intercepting fist). He believed one’s movements and mind should flow like water, which is why his school motto was “using no way as way; having no limitation as limitation.”
– January 2, 2012
The call came while I was out. When I got home, my wife said someone had phoned from China. They wanted me to teach a martial arts seminar. At first, I didn’t believe her. Then an e-mail came from Xiaoxiang Vocational School, which was trying to establish a jeet kune
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– November 17, 2011
Bruce Lee was a specimen of health. He trained every day and consumed only the proper food. He was a martinet who never let his work interfere with his training. Even when he was sent to India to find suitable locations for filming, he took along his running shoes. The
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– November 16, 2011
In TWO exclusive videos shot by Black Belt Magazine’s executive editor at Paul Vunak’s yearly “Bruce Lee Bash at the Beach” in Dana Point, CA, Vunak and Descendants of the Masters Vice President of Operations Thomas Cruse discuss the Bash at the Beach as a vehicle for training martial artists
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– November 16, 2011
Shannon Lee, the daughter of martial arts icon and jeet kune do founder Bruce Lee, recently granted Black Belt an exclusive interview regarding the production of Tao of Jeet Kune Do: Expanded Edition — a refurbished, augmented and enhanced update of her father’s most famous book. She touches on what
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– November 3, 2011
Bak mei (white eyebrow) kung fu master Leung Sheung proudly demonstrated another self-defense technique to his class: side kick, grab, punch. Leung executed the movements with as much fluency and precision as would be expected from any 20-year veteran of the fighting arts. The students then imitated the perfection of
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– October 31, 2011
Linda Lee Cadwell, the widow of jeet kune do creator and martial arts icon Bruce Lee, recently sat down with Black Belt for an extensive exclusive video interview about Tao of Jeet Kune Do: Expanded Edition. During this portion of the interview, she discusses the genesis of the seminal martial
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– October 21, 2011
“When you say, ‘Tao of Jeet Kune Do,’ it’s like training with Bruce Lee,” says Richard Bustillo, who studied jeet kune do under Bruce Lee at the Jun Fan Gung Fu Institute in Los Angeles in the 1960s. And so kicks off Black Belt’s most recent installment of interview clips
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– October 5, 2011
In the book Chinatown Jeet Kune Do: Essential Elements of Bruce Lee’s Martial Art, authors Tim Tackett and Bob Bremer (who studied directly under Bruce Lee) delineate the technical details of an array of jeet kune do techniques — including the JKD backfist, which Tackett demonstrates in this excerpt from
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– September 28, 2011
Second-generation Bruce Lee student Lamar M. Davis II studied under five of Bruce Lee’s original students (Joseph Cowles, Patrick Strong, Leo Fong, Jerry Poteet and Steve Golden). Through this jeet kune do technique video demonstrating Lee’s one-inch punch, Davis brings the concept of economy of motion through efficiency, directness and
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– September 27, 2011
With the release of the newly refurbished and expanded Tao of Jeet Kune Do coming up in October 2011, Black Belt sat down with three members of Bruce Lee’s jeet kune do lineage to get their thoughts on the nature of Lee’s iconic martial arts book in this second interview
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