Bruce Lee, classical WC and Judo Gene Lebell.

**RealManOfSteel** · Posted On: 6/27/2010 9:51pm

Can anyone out there give me some links and history behind Bruce Lees training with Gene Lebell? I understand that Bruce trained with him for a while and 'ate it up' but what was the full story there?

Also I hear that he disowned the traditional methods of training Wing Chun, and refined the ideas into JKD or something. My knowledge is riddled with fail, but I would love to hear the nutrider free backstory of Bruce, WC, JKD and Judo.

Basically this is to try and persuade a friend that Bruce really was not the ultimate fighter. He is into MA as a whole, but is just a bit brainwashed into the Bruce Lee myths. He is quite reasonable however so there is hope.

**DKJr** · Posted On: 6/27/2010 9:54pm

Paging Mark Tripp! He's got the lowdown on the whole shtick. There's a thread around where he's already talked about it.

**It is Fake** · Posted On: 6/27/2010 10:00pm

On Gene and Bruce grappling not the other questions he asked.

**RealManOfSteel** · Posted On: 6/27/2010 10:24pm

Sweet is there a link? Sometimes the search is annoying.

**RealManOfSteel** · Posted On: 6/27/2010 10:31pm

And the fact that he apparently disowned the more traditional methods of the chun is also interesting to me, since if he really wants to nutride t3h Bruce than following in his footsteps might me a good idea.

**Mackan** · Posted On: 6/28/2010 4:21am

Originally Posted by RealManOfSteel

Also I hear that he disowned the traditional methods of training Wing Chun, and refined the ideas into JKD or something.

There is a pretty good (imho) book comparing JKD and WC called - yep - "Wing Chun Kung Fu / Jeet Kune Do: A Comparison", written by William Cheung and Ted Wong.

I am in no way a specialist, but here at least you can see some JKD criticism of some common WC concepts. Not so much about training methodology though.

There are some points about keeping stuff simple and such in "Tao of Jeet Kune Do" by Lee. The book is a compilation of notes, more than a comprehensive system or anything like that. Some of it can surely be read as critique of Wing Chun. However, people that love WC will weed out the quotes complying with their own world view, ignoring the rest.

(Since this is the "JKD Bible", one can certainly see why there are so many flavors of JKD and politics and such. Simply because these are "training notes", not a description of a system.)

Anyway - again - I am in no way a Martial Arts historian, especially knowledgeable about JKD or WC, but check out the books since they are at least written accounts on the differencies. JKD is more than just bastardised WC, the way I see it. Especially the footwork.

**RealManOfSteel** · Posted On: 6/28/2010 5:58am

Thanks for the great links, I'll be sure to get both of those books, I hope more links follow, although if I am not mistaken, MTripp has left the site over the Cy/WW debacle.

Can someone at least give me the name of the thread he started to aid in my search of the forum?

**Yoj** · Posted On: 6/28/2010 6:30am

Bruce Lee counters Uki-Goshi with Tomoe-Nage - No BS MMA and Martial Arts

**chainpunch** · Posted On: 6/28/2010 7:50am

Most Bruce Lee fans agree this is the best bio on him:

http://www.amazon.com/Bruce-Lee-Figh...owViewpoints=1

In it Inosanto tells of the moment the "doors of Wing Chun were closed to him". If you ask in YMAS maybe I can say what he did exactly to get the doors shut on him.

As Wing Chun was taught and propagated in public there were/ are some serious problems but Lee himself is responsible for losing the opportunity to complete his Wing Chun training.