People around the world tried to find martial arts schools after seeing him wipe the floor with villain after villain in his films. He also contributed a great philosophical and practical work in martial arts, “The Tao of Jeet Kune Do”.
What Mister Lee suggested was an answer to what he called “the classic mess”.
All different people in the world have developed their own styles from hand to hand and armed struggle, since self-defense has always been a necessity. And all of these styles and forms had some deadly effective techniques. The problem, he saw, was their tendency to isolate themselves in their own schools.
How Bruce Lee and street fighting
In this way, his Jeet Kune Do was a philosophical forerunner of what we now call MMA, or mixed martial arts, which is both a sport and a constant quest for the ultimate fighting style. The underlying philosophy was and remains that things should be taken from every discipline that they were able to do that were most effective for them.
Depending on your body type, strengths and weaknesses, you may find elements of Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu and Muay Thai that are very free styles of struggle with the additional reach of Thai footwork. Or maybe you’re a boxer and you need to add some basic work to your arsenal, time to study Jiu-Jitsu.
The goal of mixed martial arts is to produce a functional, evolving and, above all, well-rounded style that can be used effectively and consistently in a variety of situations. This is a great experiment that has ridden on the back of very popular No Holds Barred tournaments like the iconic “UFC”, which probably had more than anything to do with waking the nation up to the potential of a mix of martial arts disciplines to get the to develop ultimate fighting style, and it in turn has increased the popularity of the games.
Bruce Lee, the grandfather of MMA
Very few serious martial artists fence themselves in by studying only one style of martial arts; my sensei studied Kenpo, Jiu-jitsu and Tai Chi. Tai Chi improved his block ability because his light stature made Kenpo and Jiu-jitsu’s hard blocks less effective.
The two styles that have proven to be most consistently effective in MMA are Muay Thai and Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu. These styles complement each other perfectly.
Both are very effective fighting styles; with jiu-jitsu it brilliant gripping techniques and throws and Muay Thais knees and elbows, either on the floor or standing. Muay Thai also gives additional range with strong kicks and some long-range attacks. Together they give the fighter full cover, something to slip through every opening and counter every attack.
Thanks to the boom in popularity that martial arts experienced with the release of Bruce Lee’s films, we now have many highly skilled, local martial artists with schools with mixed disciplines such as Peak Performance Martial Arts in Keller, Texas, where you will begin your MMA or your existing one Round off training with lessons in some new styles.