Take a look at Wing Chun and you quickly notice differences in each lineage’s particular style of the method. It’s the same with every methodology and certainly true of boxing too. This brings us to the issue of Bruce Lee’s use and study of boxing. What was it that he was looking for and by what standard did he judge material? Applying Occam’s Razor and the principle of parsimony, we believe that Sijo Lee already knew from his Wing Chun training that straight hitting and simplicity was reliable under pressure and, therefore, true. It’s also clear from his study of Jack Dempsey and Jim Driscoll, as well as his deep appreciation of Ali, that he saw the jolt/straight left/jab of those men consistent with what he already knew to be true.
On any search, it’s the questions one asks that are most important.
You see, outside of thinking that Lee rejected Wing Chun completely in developing Jeet Kune Do, the next greatest misconception is that he began to nail together disparate systems from across the globe, using only the best, of course, and then zapping it with his inimitable genius and yelling, “It’s alive!” So, in this rendering, Jeet Kune Do is kind of a martial Frankenstein…an unseemly hodgepodge of many different things. However, there’s absolutely no evidence of Lee ever tinkering around with all of the world’s fighting systems.
How could he have done that in such a short period of time anyway—especially without the help of Wikipedia?
Seriously, though, watching him spar during the Long Beach demonstrations we see a curious approach to combat, which is the same thing he literally taught in the world’s first and largest Jeet Kune Do lesson ever on the Longstreet TV show episode. It’s also the same thing he taught to Ted Wong and even to Joe Lewis. What was it? It was his own modified Wing Chun system! What did he modify it with? Certainly not with the “everything under the sun” stew of arts but with classic, old school Boxing that was itself derived from fencing.
To read the Tao of Jeet Kune Do is to take a tour through the old Boxing manuals, fistic generals, and fencing masters that Lee was studying. Yes, he was studying Boxing but not just any style of Boxing-he was studying the all-but-forgotten Straight Hitting, counter-attack, make them miss and make them pay, style. Bruce Lee was certainly no martial Dr. Frankenstein, fervently trying to give life to what was dead by sewing things together and hoping for the best. No, he brilliantly realized that the old Boxing methods, which used the vertical fist and were designed to be used for self-defence rather than sport— fit rather nicely into the Wing Chun structure he had already developed.
It’s a terrible mistake to simply say that Lee studied Boxing because without narrowing down exactly the style of Boxing he found compelling leads one, invariably, to misunderstand the connection between Wing Chun, fencing and Jeet Kune Do. For example, there’s not too much similarity between Mike Tyson’s peek-a-boo style and Floyd Mayweather Jr.’s more upright, counterattack style called the “Philly Shell.” They’re both obviously still Boxing, but each utilises different techniques and concepts in unique ways adapted to their respective physical attributes, temperament, and goals (Tyson wants to knock you out, kill your family, insult your mama, and take your women whereas Floyd just wanted to win a decision).
Think about it: Tyson would certainly know how to use a shoulder roll and “pull counter” against a cross. But his “Cus style,” the peekaboo as it’s called, would rarely, if ever, put him in a position to use that particular technique. Tyson’s style of boxing required that he face his opponent squarely, which is a rare stance in boxing, by the way. Floyd’s stance was the more common. He had his left side forward and that allowed him to make himself small by blading off, putting his right glove up to block left hooks, and using his left shoulder and arm to defend crosses to the head and body.
Again, the point must be clear, both men were champion boxers but used vastly dissimilar tactics in their approach. Occam’s Razor comes into view with a vengeance: our basic goal determines the techniques and tactics we choose downstream of it. But note carefully the unifying principle even within the diversity of Mayweather and Tyson: both men placed a high premium on defense.
Bruce Lee obviously wasn’t interested in sport-orientated boxing so adapting the more current incarnation of the noble art of self-defence would have been illogical. For example, adapting a style of boxing that relied on the glove for defense would be nonsensical for a self-defender. Furthermore, assuming a style that limited his options against multiple opponents or a possible weapon would also be contradictory. Lee, being a careful and logical thinker, sought integration of the diverse elements. This is an area where many get overwhelmed. Think about it, if you add blueberries to your pancake mix you’ll get blueberry pancakes. You’re free to use or not use the blueberries, but once you do you aren’t free to call them ordinary pancakes anymore.
Let us be done with the philosophical gibberish of saying that JKD is whatever we want it to be and that it’s beyond style or some such rubbish. In all, we’re free to make decisions but not free to change the nature of reality. To say that Tyson did the Philly Shell is obviously contradictory. Just the same, to say that JKD is Muay Thai or BJJ is irrational, not to mention an insult to those other systems which require great study and practice of their core principles, techniques and tactics.
Sijo Lee noticed, after studying the works of the past masters-especially the great Welsh boxer, Peerless Jim Driscoll—that people had already been getting the results that he was looking for. Thus, no need to go on a global quest for fighting truth—he had already found it.
According to Ted Wong, it was Driscoll in particular that influenced Lee the most with his emphasis on using the Straight Lead (as the Jab was called in those days because they saw it as a power punch) as a stopping or intercepting weapon. Driscoll, nearly 60 years before Bruce Lee, and having never attended a Jeet Kune Do seminar, called the long, vertical fist lead punch against an on-rushing opponent, the “stop-policy.” Not much film remains of Peerless Jim’s fights but watch him, read his book, and then compare it to Lee sparring in Long Beach and you’d have to be a political activist not to see the similarity. Lee’s genius was that he saw the structural and tactical connections, and carefully adapted them into his Wing Chun foundation. You’ll see the pak-sao, for example, kicks, and even a takedown.
Using the long-range interception tactics and footwork of Driscoll, Bruce Lee transformed the sweet-science into the sweeter-science of Jeet Kune Do.
Today, virtually no boxer realizes the self-defence origins of his method, nor the fact that the old-style was very much influenced by fencing. Driscoll points this out in his book, which was keenly understood by Lee. This is, in fact, where the fencing connection comes into Jeet Kune Do—through boxing. It’s true that Sijo Lee’s brother, Peter, was a fencer. But the ability and framework of fencing-style boxing was already there before Jeet Kune Do. The work of the great masters of old-school boxing, going back hundred of years, in fact, to men like Figg, preceded even Driscoll and Dempsey.
Thus, many tactics spill over from fencing in the old school, straight lead style and Lee happily incorporated them into his own method.
By giving boxing a scientific clinch game for all-out fighting, derived from Wing Chun, and using the long-range interception tactics and footwork of Driscoll, Bruce Lee transformed the sweet-science into the sweeter-science of Jeet Kune Do. He saw the long side kick and eye jab as versions of a fencer’s attack as described by Driscoll and the other past masters of pugilism.
In all, it’s true that there’s no new thing under the sun (to quote another old source). Lee’s brilliance was that he sought out the root, the foundation of things, and stayed true to his principles.
So, in doing this, rather than creating something new, he reordered the old that had been forgotten. When we understand this, we see how much treasure awaits us when we look deeply at the systems that developed Lee, Wing Chun and old-school Boxing. By doing this, we steer clear of simply copying him and can use the principles, techniques, and strategies in our own unique ways.