Why is Bruce Lee so relevent on this forum?

Question

If you see video of him, it is not at all impressive. Besides, he died before most of you were even born.

There are so many TRUE Martial Artists with great lineage out there.

Answer 1

Because most of the people on here are kids who watch movies and don't have a tremendous amount of exposure to the practice of a MA. So Bruce Lee, Chuck Norris, Jackie Chan, Jet Li, etc, get alot of airtime because that is what people are familiar with. This is the same phenomenon with all the "whos the best MMA fighter" or "who would win a fight between..." questions. I doubt many of the MA practitioners are asking those questions...mostly kids. And he, I guess I was interested in stuff like that when I was a kid too, so ...no biggie I guess.

Answer 2

I think it's because there was such a verbal legend of him built up. He was one of the top men to beat in his day and something like that just doesn't go away when the person dies.

I think it to be something similar to if you were a swordsman you'd hold Miyamoto Musashi in high esteem.

I do agree with you, however, that there are plenty of incredible living martial artists out there and plenty that, given they all lived at the same time, are likely better than Bruce -- unfortunately there's no way to test that. You just can't knock what he did for the martial arts community of his time.

At the same time, it also says something about the man when he only studied a piece of a style under a great master then went off and assumed he could not only finish his martial education but make something that's even better. (not to crack on JKD at all because it certainly is a commendable style.)

-- amendment --

In response to Shootersway, lineage does have great meaning to a true martial artist. The art can certainly forge the man; a real martial artist should not only be exercising his body in the techniques of his sensei, sifu, instructor, etc, but also be exercising and expanding his mind. Each art has a history to it and each lesson from those histories can affect the student in a profound way if they are open enough.

If you are only practicing your art in physicality, I'd suggest you strive to add a mental aspect as well because otherwise...you're just an athlete and not an artist.

Answer 3

The real answer is most people believe the hype. I would venture a guess that most individuals that post to this site are considered beginner students. This covers everyone who has ten years of training or less in one style. There is also a great amount of misinformation or lack of correct information that fuels this topic.
The three most discussed on-line martial arts topics are:

1. Bruce Lee, how great he was and how he would beat
every opponent he faced
2. The UFC and how brazilian jujitsu is the only art worth
learning.
3. The Magic Bullet: the one mistical technique that will
stop every foe in his tracks.

A true martial artist knows no one is perfect, its the person's understanding of the style not the style they study that matters, and most of all focused repetitive training is the only way to get better.

Answer 4

You recognize, I generally tend to make use of Yahoo Answers as a useful resource to get expertise on desktops, automobiles, diy and martial arts. As a former scholar of Jeet Kune Do (and I could nonetheless be a scholar if I didnt have moved) I alwasy learn the BL or JKD posts. Why is it that the equal men and women like Katana, Sensei, regularly try to knock Bruce or JKD? If you dislike him such a lot why now not forget about the posts? Someone as soon as mentioned if you happen to cant say some thing positve approximately any individual, say not anything in any respect. I believe document, pugpaws and ksnake. So a lot of what we see in these days as being martial arts would not have been round if it wasn't for Bruce. As for Joe Lwis, hasn't he written a guide and performed a few vid's approximately his tackle JKD? Talk approximately biting the hand that feeds you. I simplest iwsh I would nonetheless coach in JKD alternatively of the vanilla crap in the market now.

Answer 5

Bruce Lee is relevant because of his accomplishments. When the average person thinks of martial arts, who is the person they most often think of? Bruce Lee. Of course, most of this is due to of his films. But we know for a fact, guys like Sylvester Styllone won't win a real Heavyweight Championship bout, but many people would bet money that Bruce Lee could compete in a real match and win. Why? Because he was a true martial artist. For example, If you read his writings, you'd see an amazing amount of insight he put into his philosophy. Martial artists know that philosophy is a major component of any martial art. Not only that, he was completely dedicated to his physical conditioning and training. Just take a look at some of his demonstrations :

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZqtPkqLomDI -This one shows the impressive speed of his punches.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fCqktKKPJAA&mode=related&search=) - This one shows his strength.

There are countless people who can tell of the effectiveness of his training. Bruce Lee had done more in 10 years than any martial arts expert could accomplish in a lifetime, even several. I'm not saying he was a god, but he was a TRUE martial artist. With all of his accomplishments supporting him, Bruce Lee is relevant in this forum.

Answer 6

Stop hating. Bruce is one of the reasons people got into martial arts. He is the biggest martial arts movie star of all time. Maybe he was not the best fighter in the world like everybody claims but this guy was articulate and wise, not just some punch drunk pit fighter. I think a lot of it is that this guy was 150lbs. at the most but could easily take on 5 guys at a time, people respect stuff like that. He trained like a mad man and was just a good role model for aspiring martial artist.

Answer 7

Bruce LEE also had great lineage if you want to trace WING CHUN back to it's begginings.
It's the unbeatable bull that gets me because he wasn't and basing his true abilitys on his movies.He was once asked how he would handle a stree attacker which technique he replied "none of the stuff I have done in movies".He is to be valued for the fresh ideas he brought to the arts not some juvenile belief in being "unbeatable".

Lineage dont mean a thing other than you practice as your sensei and his sensei on down the line did.It is not a automatic guarqntee you will be effective.The art doesn't make the man// the man makes the art.

Answer 8

Bruce Lee is very important to martial arts in America for a number of reasons. 1. He was a big movie star, the first martial arts movie stars in America. 2. He taught good, traditional Kung fu in America at a time when very few people did. 3. He was a proponent of mixing martial arts, taking the best observable movies from many martial arts, very similar to how MMA is run today.

Answer 9

# Lee's striking speed from three feet with his hands down by his side reached five hundredths of a second.[47]
# Lee could spring a 235lb opponent 15 feet away with a 1 inch punch.[46]
# Lee's combat movements were at times too fast to be captured on film at 24fps, so many scenes were shot in 32fps to put Lee in slow motion. Normally martial arts films are sped up.[48][49][50]
# In a speed demonstration, Lee could snatch a dime off a person's open palm before they could close it, and leave a penny behind.[51]
# Lee could perform push ups using only his thumbs[39][46]

Answer 10

Because of philosopy, to discard what's useless, and to keep what works, was pretty much the genesis of modern MMA.

MMA is very popular in this forum.