Bruce Lee never did any flashy techniques and acrobatics, did he even know how?

Question

In all his movies, all the moves were furious clean techniques but there was none of this Summer saults, backflips, kip-ups, or flashy spin kicks like you see in today's Jet Li martial arts films, or other Chinese movies today.

Was Bruce Lee intentionally only showing things that could work in reality, or did he not know how to do any flashy acrobatic moves?

Answer 1

Bruec was serious and showed many moves that would work, he also believed that flashy moves were just that and you could easily loose balance and expose yourself to your opponent. He also thought that a kick higher than the waist was only asking for trouble by loosing your center of balance.He could though from a standing croutch jump up 8 ft. so I think he could have done these types of acrobats but they were not his style.He created Jeet Keen Do, then the art of intercepting fist then he regarded to the fact that the best style of fighting was no style but to be as water ready to conform to do whatever was neccessary to win a fight.

Answer 2

Bruce Lee never trained in long fist (the acrobatic wushu you see Jet Li and Jackie Chan doing). He was more interested in making a fight look good but realistic.

If you watch a choreographed fight in a Jet Li film, you'll notice that there's little to no confusion between the fighters. That's not because they're trained better, it's because you'll never see that in real life. Even between competing gongfu masters, you'll at some point see nothing but a blur of arms and legs. Bruce Lee didn't see the point in studying long fist; that was why he created Jeet Kune Do.

Answer 3

Bruce Lee could have easily done any of those flashy acrobatic moves, but he wanted to portray the Martial Arts as they should be, not over-hype them just for show.

Answer 4

the acrobatic stuff is only for the movies.that is why i only like a few of the martial art movies of today(fearless is great)but how often can you show a side kick before everyone gets bored .remember they make movies for the money also.lets face it unless your opponent is already unconscious you are not going to be able to fly 30 feet across the room and kick him 20 times before he knew what hit him.when Bruce lee came out this thing we call martial arts was new to us.it was far from the bare knuckle western saloon fights so Bruce did not need all the c.g.or cables to entertain the fans.i could go on but i think you get the point

Answer 5

my friend, Bruce Lee did no acrobatics. In the beginning of Enter the Dragon he performed a double back flip and did so by jumping over two of his fellow combattents I think if he were alive today with the belives he had he would not use special effects and trick wire to inhanse his fighiting . I am a big Bruce Lee fanatic (not fan) fanatic. So I guess you could say he showed us things that could work in reality.

Answer 6

He did know some of the basic "flashy" moves, but chose to keep things simple once he developed his own fighting style. Jet Li and Jackie Chan were in other activities (gymnastics, circus, etc), which helped them learn how to do choreographed fights with more flourish. Bruce didn't have the same kind of background and training.

Answer 7

Read a bio. He didn't make a mystery of what he did. Some are funny anecdotes. Like him and the high kick and Chuck Norris. Films are meant to be looked at. So he gave the public what he knew it would go ape for.

Interestingly, there's a corellary: World War One fighter aces. The very best avoided fancy aerobatics. It came down to shooting well, and personal courage.

Did he know how? There isn't ever going to be anybody that good at that kind of thing again. It's that obvious, and everybody knows it.

Answer 8

well, he had always said the he never wanted to do any of that stuff. i saw in an T.V. special about Kung-fu that said that when he was asked to do a fight scene, the director would get angry, calling him "three kicks bruce" cause he would only do the same 3 kicks on everybody. when he was asked about it, he simply said "why should i do anything else? i know that when i kick them, that they won't be getting up again."

anyway, bruce lee was straight to the point. he based it on how he would really fight. He wanted to truly express himself on film, not do some flashy moves that don't represent him at all.

Answer 9

Well I think Bruce Lee was the best ever in martial arts techniques, Jet Lee, Jackie Chan etc are just copykats and yes I think he knew how its just that it was another time and period.

Answer 10

Bruce Lee had different stages in his training. He tried to portray that in his films during his short career. Later on when he was researching different systems and came up with a name for it Jeet Kune Do, he emphasized more in simplicity. This was for his own research. Later students that studied/trained with him had to find their own "path". What you would see in any of his movies that if he did any type of flips, etc. was for show (beginning of Enter the Dragon). But most of the techniques he showed in his film was trying to show us that simplicity works. He was trying to show another side of film-making other than the traditional "flying and kicking" Chinese movies during that time era. If you read any of his books, you can see that he emphasizes simplicity and "economy of movement" more and more and time goes by. This all, of course roots from his Wing Chun training and progressed as he was doing his research before his tragic death. Rest In Peace...Bruce and Brandon Lee.