Bruce Lee and lakeland florida Jeet Kune Do

The Bruce Lee Jeet Kune Do style didn’t start anywhere near Lakeland, Florida. But although it began in China, the heart and soul of Jeet Kune Do, or Wing Chun Gung Fu (Wing Chun Kung Fu to us Westerners) is alive and kicking. Without the full understanding of Wing Chun Kung Fu, practitioners of Jeet Kune Do-like Bruce Lee-only have a piece of the puzzle. Bruce Lee was constantly improving his understanding of a system he believed and trained in, Wing Chun. But there’s more to the story. While Wing Chun is the engine by which Jeet Kune Do and all other techniques within its system follow within principle and technique.   Bruce Lee as a teen without full understanding of the Wing Chun system work to fill in the gaps of what he missed when he moved to the USA.  Bruce Lee worked hard, trained hard and fought hard.  Bruce Lee was a warrior for Wing Chun and for himself in Jeet Kune Do.

With all of the techniques within Jeet Kune Do, Bruce Lee himself only ever had two instructors. The first was Grandmaster of Wing Chun Ip Man, and the other was Master of Wing Chun Wong Shun Leung who learned Wing Chun Gung Fu under Grandmaster Ip Man.

Both of these amazing fighters and teachers brought Bruce Lee up in the Wing Chun arts. At the beginning of his life he learned under Ip Man and then moved to America. As he developed his fighting prowess, he created Jeet Kune Do for his students. Then, as Bruce Lee’s movie career skyrocketed, he traveled to China once more-supposedly asking Wong Shun Leung to be in his movie The Game of Death. Wong Shun Leung said Wing Chun did not look good for movies as it was a fighting martial art. Though he declined, Wong Shun Leung would go on to teach Bruce Lee the remaining system of Wing Chun Kung Fu.

Until the very turn of the twentieth century, Wing Chun was almost unknown to the western world. Bruce Lee helped with this by letting others know of its power and combative fighting capabilities. At Sifu Och Wing Chun’s Lakeland Florida martial arts, Wing Chun Kung Fu is practiced, and training can reach the highest levels. The concepts of Jeet Kune Do that were instilled are as true today as they were when Bruce Lee was alive. Though many of the concepts of Wing Chun Kung Fu were lost from one instructor of Jeet Kune Do to the next, even without the complete understanding of the only system, Bruce Lee came back to Wing Chun Kung Fu…twice.

Wing Chun… Bruce Lee approved!  ;-)