Bruce was crazy and a manic to learn and know more about martial arts. He was a one step ahead from his rivalries of his time and used to dedicate his self more in improvements and tactics. It’s been said that during Bruce’s learning periods he used to spread false bulletin about the absent of his master to his class mates, so that he could enjoy full privacy while learning the art.
Bruce was adamant and was a sturdy person during his juvenile stage. He used to bully his friends and usually took up a scuffle on the road side. At the age of 13 he was introduced to Yip Man a notable Wing Chun martial artist. During the 40s Hong Kong was mostly noted as an illicit place where black market and thugs thrived the nation. It was because of this Bruce wanted to learn Kung Fu so that he could get out of the problems that he used to confront them on daily bases.
Bruce was excellent and picked up every lesson off his master with ease; he threw his self to learn new techniques, and expanded his knowledge during different situations. By the age of 18 Bruce transferred his knowledge to the extreme limits. By now he started to manufacture his own way of fighting, but as the improvements worked for him so did he gained confidents and will-fully had street brawls.
The changes in Bruce, made his father to worry a lot for his son. So, it was a fine day when Bruce’s father encouraged him to sail to Seattle where he could pursue his higher education and could lead a normal life.
But as habits and nature die hard, though Bruce migrated to United States he was still the same. By now he was working in a family restaurant and on the other side he was enthusiastic to show his feats and spread his knowledge to the world. Bruce used to attend martial arts tournaments and gave his life’s best demo by showing the world the strength of his 1 inch punch.
The demonstration was performed in Long Beach International Karate Championships in 1964; Bruce also performed the two finger push up which was an amazing art for the Americans to witness. America flooded in the sport of baseball and boxing where images of great boxers such as Jack Johnson, Jack Dumsey, Joe Lewis, Rocky Marciano and Casius Clay, reigned the American’s hearts. But no-one ever imagined that an Asian man will soon become the notable among the best.
By now the Americans started to whisper about the incredible strength and the new art form, that Bruce had bought it from Asia. Some were enthusiastic to know about it while others wanted to learn about the sport. People from all over the place started to swell at Bruce’s courtyard and he was ready to build his class and status.
With the raising name and recognition on the ground of Uncle Sam, Bruce was already a well recognised celeb in the field of martial arts. But it is said “with the rise of the ladder, there is always someone to chop the wood”. Bruce started to get death threats and he was challenged by his own client, to stop teaching martial arts to the outside world.
But as he was thin steel that is hard to break, Bruce was determined and adamant to teach the sport. The group challenged Bruce for a fight with their finest fighter and kept a clause, if Bruce was able to defeat this guy then he would be let free. But if he fails then he needs to stop teaching to the outside world and should leave to his hometown.
Bruce was up and he accepted the challenge, he along with his student entered the auditorium where the fight was supposed to be held. The fight began with a bow and lasted for 10 minutes, the fighter showed no match in front of Bruce’s whiplash. At last Bruce knocked him down and pulling his clinched fist at the fighter’s face he cried loud “do you give up”, the opponent with bleeding face told “Matte" in Chinese means "uncle".
But this was not the end for Bruce, he was succumbed to the trauma, though he won the fight but he didn’t enjoy it. This was from here where he needed a change; Bruce thought that he was not ready for any fight and he needed to develop his skills. It was from here when Bruce started to take up for western boxing, he liked the hand techniques a lot.
Bruce started to refer some of the old footage of the great boxers, he started to learn western boxing, and improved his footwork. He moved as a boxer and punched like a whip, it was not over he introduced many exercise that developed his methods and improved his techniques.
Bruce slowly started to develop his skills and introduced his unique style of fight, which he termed it as “Jeet Kune Do, The Way of the Intercepting Fist”. When Bruce started to sprout out with this technique, people considered it much of the boxing tricks with addition of leg techniques. But this art was much more than western boxing.
It is said that Bruce was able to defeat his opponent in just 10 seconds with his unique technique that he introduced and named it as “Jeet Kune do”.
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