I had already studied Tae Kwon Do for three years at this point and had achieved a brown belt at the age of twelve but never bothered to try for my black belt. I used to spar with big Italian bouncers and much of what I learned of the structured punching and blocking techniques didn’t really work when these big guys would come at you with fast boxing combinations.
My friend that I was with that day in Adelaide had a Bruce Lee poster on his wall and one of his books that I use to flick through all the time but I never really knew much about him.
It was around the release of Dragon : The Bruce Lee Story that I started showing a real interest in Bruce Lee…and I wasn’t a big fan of this movie either
It was my experience with Tae Kwon Do and sparring big bouncers, and having my tooth chipped in the street that made me realize that what I had practiced for three years didn’t really help me technically or psychologically in a real confrontation.
Bruce’s art of Jeet Kune Do really exposed me to the creativity of the human body and how certain arts may be better for certain body types (and even personalities).
A couple of my favourite quotes from Bruce are “The original founder of a style started out with an hypothesis, but now it has become the gospel truth”.
And that each style is only based on a a certain principle and that “There is no such thing as an effective segment of a totality” .
All the martial arts have a certain spirituality and philosophy behind them but I found Bruce wholistic and scientific approach very refreshing.
Another point that I’d like to make is being able to control your emotional state which is so important not just in combat but in every aspect of life.
Another trick that I found very valuable when translating your dojo training to the street is being able to control your adrenaline whilst hitting the bag, sparring or rolling on the mat. To become used to that nautious feeling when fear grips you…as it did to me that day in Adelaide.
As with modern day MMA fighters today saying that it is 90% a mental game as opposed to just technique, skill and conditioning, though these are important components aswell.
And I’m sure that many of you MMA fans and fighters can think of numerous occassions when either fighting yourself or watching your favourite fighter in the octagon not having their mind on the job and getting wiped out!
Well that’s my two cents worth.
Please leave a comment and let me know what you think about this post!
Cheers 
