Jeet Kune Do and Chi Kung

[xingyiman]

I know that Bruce Lee had a habit a bashing certain aspects of traditional martial arts, but what were his views on Chi Kung, martial or otherwise?? Did Bruce himself practice any forms of Chi Kung in addition to his other forms of physical training. What were his impressions of the internal concepts in styles like Tai Chi, Hsing Yi, or Baguazhang, and/or his views on the issue of "Chi" in general. Do any of you JKD practitioners practice any traditional forms of Chi kung, and are they taught in your classes? Thanks.

[Sensei Kunz]

From the readings of Bruce Lee's words in many articles and books, I do not believe he personally bashed any one art. His point was not to limit yourself to a style. He wanted people to realize that not any one style or system had all the answers. He wanted each individual to have their own freedom of expression. That's all Bruce Lee did, was discover himself and expressed it in a scientific way. His main purpose was for the student in the arts to examine themselves and not imitate thier instructors, which of course would only make you a mechanical fighter. Robots have thier purpose , however, they do not have thier own minds!

Just remember this, "Use what is useful and discard what it not!"

Don't imitate Bruce just express yourself!

[xingyiman]

:rolleyes: :rolleyes: :rolleyes: :rolleyes: :rolleyes: :rolleyes: :rolleyes:


That's not an answer to my question. I said that Bruce criticized certain ASPECTS of traditional training. Never said that he bashed any one art

[NafAnal]

I heard he often would say one thing but do the opposite. I think Dan inosanto said he bashed chi but the first thing he did before training was meditation (not sure what form this was in). Don't know how much he did or for how long, or if this involved any chi gung but there you go....

[stumpydee]

When Bruce Lee was growing up in Hong Kong, before he began training in Wing Chun with Yip Man, he studied tai chi with his father.

He always liked the internal arts and many say that it was the foundation in tai chi that gave Bruce the great structure he had.

Damian

[Spectre]

I tend to think that Bruce Lee considered Chi to be more of the correct biomechanics in a technique.

His strenuous workouts always seemed to condition the proper muscles for the techniques he used.

Meditation could simply be used to clear the mind.

Just my opinion of course.

Kevin

[NafAnal]

True, that's what i always thought, but most people said Bruce kept a lot to himself, he always kept a few "gems" to give him the advantage, maybe internal development and chi gung was one.... but it's all speculation....

[CannonFist]

JKD qigong is not common. I don't think Bruce paid too much emphasis on qigong but more a fanatic of fitness and conditioning. Dan has mentioned that Bruce has often verbally disregarded qigong/meditation but actually does himself practise meditation. I agree with Spectre that Bruce used meditation to calm his mind and not to develop his qi. I think Bruce doesn't believe in directly developing qi but has the idea that qi flow had to be regulated by movement and exercise as he said that "running water does not stagnate". This in fact is actually one school of thought in qigong where the idea of building or moving qi is not focused on but instead a set of movements are practise with looseness with no focus on qi but should be as natural and calm as possible so that the qi flow can run its most efficient and natural course. When the qi flow runs its most efficient and natural couse than one can say that one is truly "expressing oneself" as Bruce puts it. This is when your techniques are so automatic where you actually become the technique so Bruce would say "I did not hit him, IT hit him".