As a life long MA practitioner including jkd, Bruce Lee represents everything good and bad about the arts to me. Here is an argument I put forth on a website debating his greatness, I was simply playing devils advocate but its factual and got the fanboys riled. Sorry it's so long....
I would have liked to have seen how Bruce lee developed as a martial artist as he aged. When the reflexes had slowed and he couldn't fight like a young man anymore. Forget beasts like Duran, I'm not sure he could have competed with the martial artists of his day. I wonder if he'd have revised his opinion on traditional MA that dont rely so much on athleticism.
I've had countless debates about him with people. His history's been totally rewritten. His one 'fight' that's actually been documented was much more competitive than has been recorded. Here's a good article on what went down
http://www.kungfu.net/brucelee.html
Interesting that the one impartial observer says how it wasn't a one sided drubbing. If he won so handily, then why the need to a) completely re- evaluate a successful style b) close his schools down c) leave the city.
I also think he gets too much credit as a trainer. The fighters he took on were all established on the world scene anyway, he didn't train one from scratch. Fighters like joe Lewis got no end of grief for daring to suggest they might have had something to do with their own success.
Also, he wasn't the first man ever to cross train. They were all pretty much on the ball back then, particularly the Americans that had collegiate wrestling backgrounds and knew of its effectiveness. Bill wallace had a judo and wrestling background. Benny urquidez had a very mixed style, as did lewis.
He criticised traditional martial arts without ever actually learning a system to its completion which annoys me. Learn about your subject before gobbing off at least. When he returned for his fathers funeral, he refused to complete his wing chun training as yip man was too old and he wouldn't learn from a student he had previously been considered on a par with, that indicates a massive ego to me.
There are lots of stories about him being a bully as well, apparently he leathered his student taky kimura when he landed a punch on him in training. He met up with one teacher (William Chen) who would show him stuff, gain an advantageous combative position, only for Bruce to go ape poo and try to batter him when he released him from a hold or whatever. Eventually the teacher just realised it was pointless trying to show him anything.
In terms of being 'too fit' I totally agree there's such a thing. The stress of overtraining will catch up to the body. Lee trained through injuries and refused to break routine and let his body repair. I read an article about marijuana not being very good for people with a low percentage of body fat and how this habit may have lead to Bruce's demise. It was a convincing read.
Saying all that, I'm a massive fan. He opened the doors for westerners. And enter the dragons the most quotable film ever.
Some interesting quotes from Showdown in Oakland:
Bruce Lee’s friend, Michael Lai, said, “Bruce hated to lose. If he lost, he would have some excuse and never admitted that he had been beaten fairly. He had ‘nga tsat,’ which is to say he was very cheeky and strutted like a peac0ck. He always acted very superior.”
Lee's sihing, Wong Shun Leung, said, "Bruce Lee was a good fighter, but not as good as movies have portrayed him - almost invincible. People used to see Bruce Lee and have kung fu dreams. They wanted to do the same things he did and duplicate his methods. Unfortunately, it seems nobody wants to wake up."
In 2005 The Contra Costa Times interviewed Lee's friend, George Lee, who was at the fight:
"George offered a little more about the infamous battle that Bruce fought to keep the right to teach martial arts to non-Chinese. He was actually on the scene. As Linda was pregnant, Bruce told her to stay outside because he didn't know what could happen and George stayed outside with Linda."
That last one's interesting. Bill Chen, who was there, said someone kept peeking through the door that led to the back room of the studio. George Lee was supposed to be there to back Lee up should the situation escalate. If we are to assume that Linda stayed with George in the next room, then she couldn't have seen anything in detail since George was trying not to overtly make his presence known and was opening and closing the door slightly just to make sure everything was OK.
