- Jerry Beasley
- 21 hours ago
- 3 min read
Joe Lewis first met Bruce Lee in 1967. “He wanted to convince me that I should use my strong side forward (when fighting),” Lewis recalls. But Lewis, who had successfully employed strategies of his own without Lee’s help, didn’t believe in changing his fighting stance at the time.
By 1970, however, Lewis had become a full-time Lee protégé and was “road-testing” Lee’s jeet kune do theories in tournament competition.
According to Lewis, the primary theme Lee stressed was simplicity. Although Lee maintained his own wing chun style, which was of little interest to Lewis, the former had integrated contact training and fighting strategies into his practice. The end result was often more important than the origin of the style.
Lee explained to Lewis that jeet kune do was the “Way of the Intercepting Fist.” Lee conjectured that an opponent’s attack dictated the potential counters. One simply performs a skill based on the “energy” of the attack. After all, fighting, according to Lee, was simply “a game of quick reactions.” Jeet kune do, then, was “a philosophical concept applied to fighting principles,” Lewis says.
Lewis believed that Lee could do exactly what he said he could do. “Bruce could make JKD work because he had the right attitude, the physical ability, the mentality, and philosophy,” Lewis recalls. “He could put it all together.”
Lee had two types of students: his special students, whom he taught privately, and those who comprised his group lessons. Lewis trained privately with Lee on Wednesdays during the late 1960s and early ’70s. According to Lewis, “We would begin each lesson with a general discussion of philosophy, and we would review fight films of Jack Dempsey or Muhammad Ali.”
When studying the films, Lee and Lewis would try to incorporate two principles: “closing the gap” and “mobility.” The method was to view the films repeatedly in order to get the image of the perfect technique into their minds. “Lee could convince you that you could do what he was telling you you could do,” Lewis claims.
While some of Lee’s original students focus on jeet kune do concepts, others maintain that a modified form of wing chun best exemplifies JKD. Lewis, however, concentrated on the Jun Fan kickboxing aspect of jeet kune do, which was by far the most contact-oriented (and thus most realistic) training in the JKD program.
The Lewis/Lee workout routines varied from learning independent motion in front of a mirror to focus-glove training. Within the first year of training with Lee, Lewis had become virtually unbeatable in tournament competition, winning 11 consecutive sparring titles.
Lee was a gifted teacher, as evidenced by his ability to focus on an individual’s attributes and develop a program specifically tailored to that individual’s skills. In essence, each student received a personalized version of jeet kune do.
Lee practiced a sort of empty-hand fencing or “intercepting fist” method (often referred to as “original” JKD) based on his personal attributes of speed, sensitivity and power. Dan Inosanto, arguably the most influential of the jeet kune do exponents, has promoted a method focusing on the concepts of JKD. This method has been widely taught and primarily emphasizes Filipino, Thai and Indonesian arts.
Lewis, on the other hand, has focused on JKD strategies and kickboxing methods. For one to conclude that either the original form, the concepts method, or the kickboxing approach constitutes the entirety of JKD is to greatly shortchange Lee and his art. Or, as Lee might have said, it is a mistake in essence of JKD philosophy.
Lewis has been successful in absorbing what is useful and creating something uniquely his own. Moreover, he has been successful in ridding himself of the JKD label.
Lee envisioned jeet kune do simply as a vehicle—a boat in which to cross the river. Once you reach the other side, the boat was to be discarded. Unfortunately, many individuals have chosen to remain in the boat, refusing to discard it as they attach and limit themselves to a particular style or group. Perhaps the highest level of jeet kune do is in fact to gain freedom from JKD — to return to the nucleus, as it were.
For Joe Lewis, the ascent through the JKD cycle has been complete.
