Was he really that good???

[Drunken Monkey]

well i'd believe him to be the greatest

 

well, that's just it.

 

he presented himself as 'the best' in the public eye,

 

mainly cos he had a product to sell

 

but in private,

 

he knew who the better people were.

 

it's a shame that there are too many worshippers of bruce lee

 

but too little simple recognition of those that bruce lee himself looked up to.

 

you can say that the defeats of bruce lee are unverifiable

 

but then again,

 

where are the records of his wins?

 

you can't say that just cos you can't prove he lost, then he must be the best.

 

* * * * *

 

when i typed them words

 

i was really talking about bruce lee worshippers.

 

i'm being very general here but a lot of them have never trained seriously in a martial art before.

 

a lot of them only read the books and copy the pics and say they do jkd.

 

bruce was good in that he actively went out and trained with the best.

 

what bugs me about his worshippers is that they just read the books.

 

you have no idea how many kids i have met who say they know 'jkd' and can spout the quotes

 

but couldn't even step forward to meet properly because they've never faced someone in a training environment who isn't their little brother

 

and the only 'practice' they've had is posing in front of a mirror.

 

granted this doesn't just happen with jkd cos you get it a lot with wing chun too,

 

mainly cos the forms are so easy to 'copy'

 

but the sentiment is the same for them too.

 

i just don't get it.

 

if they can spend so much money and so much time getting and reading the books

 

why not spend the time and money and get themselves into a class?

 

anyway.

 

back to an earlier statement about jkd being a grappling style.

 

should just point out that YOU see it as a grappling style cos you trained with larry hartsell,

 

who has concerntrated on TRAPPING and GRAPPLING.

 

if you trained with dan inosanto, you will be learning different things.

 

if you trained with chris kent, you will be learning different things.

 

jkd is different things to different people.

[Ravencroft]

and that is whats so great about it...and i dont know if u are mistaking me for one of those "posers" but yes i have read his book and watched his movies and yes i think ive even posed in front of the mirror before(haha)but i know that everything he said wasnt his own statement but im pretty sure that everything ive said is true. no one has made MA more famous than him or revolutionized training as he has. he was also probably the first to train in so many arts like that constantly driving himself to be the best, throwing traditional barriers away. yes there are too many bruce lee worshippers out there and many of them are ignorant but that just proves my point even further about how famous he made the MA and what he did with it. there will never be a best because somewhere out there, there is always someone better. but what i am sick of(and im not directing this at anyone)is people always trying to criticize him trying to prove just because he was the greatest that there was someone else better. it would be the same way jackie chan were revered as the greatest. people would constantly compare everyone to him trying to doubt or criticize what he could or couldnt do and its fricken annoying. and then the best part is how all of those naysaying critics with nothing better to do than try to dig up dirt to see if they cant injure his reputation or tear down the legend to satisfy their opinion. yet i bet all of those people who criticize bruce would have just a little more respect if they were to step foot in the ring with him for 1 minute. me for example, im a guitarist. i dont look at jimi hendrix and be like, "nope he wasnt the best there was like this concert back in 65 and this other guy was better than him and was actually the one who wrote purple haze so jimi isnt the greatest." i dont walk around doing that because i have respect and i know that i cant do what jimi could which leaves me little to no room to criticize. anyway thats just me going off on a heated little rant so take it as you will.

[Drunken Monkey]

...see, now you're missing the point.

 

in fact you are so hard up on defending bruce lee that you are no different to those who are

 

always trying to criticize him trying to prove just because he was the greatest .

 

y'see

 

what i do is try to counter common misconceptions.

 

people go on about how bruce lee was a good philospher citing his studies.

 

BUT

 

anyone who knows what he was like knows that he was hardly the ideal student and as you pointed out, most of what he said, wasn't his....

 

people go on about how he was the first to train/expose himself to many styles.

 

well, should i point out that dan inosanto was a master of various filipino styles as well as judo and karate.

 

and this was before he met bruce lee.

 

people say he was undefeated but again, i cite his main wing chun teacher wong shun leung as the man bruce lee couldn't beat

 

(but then wong shun leung was just another martial art freak of nature....)

 

people say he was the one to spread martial art to the masses.

 

but c'mon

 

is this really a good thing?

 

this is my opinion

 

but i think the state of affairs in the martial arts world would be better if he hadn't shown the world martial arts the way he did.

 

people like to say that he was the 'perfect' martial artist, a hero, someone to look up to.

 

BUT

 

conveniently forget that he was far from being a good man.

 

yes he has done things for the benefit or martial arts.

 

yes he was a very focussed individual.

 

yes he trained like no one else did at the time.

 

he certainly was/is the most famous martial artist (mainly for the wrong reasons) but that doesn't make him the best.

 

too many people confuse what they see on the screen with who the man really was.

[Ravencroft]

I didnt say he was the best...i said he was the greatest. WW helped me clear that one up earlier. who was the best? we will never know. but whether he was the greatest or not is all an opinion when it gets right down to it. yes i will defend him because i do believe that he was the greatest and so far ive been given no reason to change my opinoin. what you say is true but i dont think a lot of what i am saying is too far from the truth either.

[manuelito]

bruce lee, a topic that will never come to a close. who in hear would want to fight him? assuming he was alive and 30 years old. i agree he is the most famous as for the greatest warrior or fighter...go read some history books.

[aefibird]

bruce lee, a topic that will never come to a close. who in hear would want to fight him? assuming he was alive and 30 years old.

 

lol, certainly not me. heck I wouldn't want to fight him if he was 80! I'm sure he could kick my posterior....

 

I don't believe that he was 'the best' or 'the greatest' martial artist, but I have a lot of respect for him and his MA.

[mkultra]

Here is some good stuff by a guy who knew BL better than most

 

]

 

http://www.cityonfire.com/unknown/interviews/lewis/[/url]

[mkultra]

http://

 

http://www.cityonfire.com/unknown/interviews/lewis/

[mkultra]

http://www.cityonfire.com/unknown/interviews/lewis/