Bruce Lee at 80: the martial arts legend and his legacy jeet kune do, the unique way of fighting he developed
- The martial arts superstar, who would have turned 80 on Friday, refused to stick to one fighting technique as was the norm, and looked to mix styles
- Lee developed a mix called jeet kune do, and wanted its practitioners to continually adapt their fighting style – an idea summed up in his ‘be water’ philosophy
The best-known legacy of Bruce Lee, who would have turned 80 this Friday is of course his movies. But the martial arts legend also developed a unique way of fighting called jeet kune do, a Cantonese term which translates as something like “the way of the stopping fist” or more poetically, “the way of the intercepting fist.”
There are many distinct styles of fighting in kung fu – hung gar, wing chun, and tai chi to name a few of the more famous ones. But the best starting point for understanding jeet kune do is realising that Lee never wanted it to be a style.
Lee’s intention was quite the opposite, in fact. He developed jeet kune do because he thought that the idea of a rigid fighting style was too limiting.
Way before mixed martial arts, martial arts styles had rules and traditions that could not be broken, even if success in combat mandated otherwise.
