Long before founding Jeet Kune Do, Bruce Lee first became skilled in kung fu. It wasn’t until after his move to the United States that Bruce Lee started to think more about coming up with his own system.
In 1967, Bruce Lee was not yet a movie star but was already an accomplished and respected martial artist in the Hollywood area. He officially created June Kune Do and taught it in kung fu schools that he operated in California. During this time, he instructed his pupils in the principles and guidelines associated with his new style, and its fame eventually grew to an international level. Jeet Kune Do is famous today not just because it came from Lee, but also due to its uniqueness. Considered to be more of a philosophy than it is a style, Jeet Kune Do is built around the idea that a fighter has to be “formless” in combat and able to respond to any given situation.
Of course, in order for Bruce Lee to reach a point where he could create his own style, he needed to be a well-trained kung fu expert. That experience came from his training in Wing Chun, a “soft” style of kung fu that relies less on heavy, powerful blows and more on timing and reflexes. Wing Chun practitioners train their bodies and minds so that they can properly redirect attacks, disrupt the opponent’s balance, and remain relaxed. Primarily, Wing Chun fighters engage in close-quarters combat in order to severely limit the amount of force the opponent can use. As for what Wing Chun actually looks like in action, arguably the best example can be found in the four Ip Man movies starring Donnie Yen, which were filmed with real Wing Chun moves and stances. However, despite Lee's proficiency in the style, he decided to expand his repertoire in order to avoid its limitations. It was this that led him to create Jeet Kune Do.
Ip Man, the legendary Wing Chun grandmaster, is the person who receives the most credit for popularizing the style. He was also the kung fu master of Bruce Lee himself. When Lee was 15 years old, he enrolled at Ip Man’s school, where Wing Chun expert Wong Shun Leung was assigned to be his primary instructor. The many lessons given to Lee by Wong and the guidance provided by Ip Man helped Lee transform into a capable martial artist in his own right.
As important as Wing Chun is to what Lee ultimately became, there came a point where Lee stopped using the style, opting to make his own instead. That decision was set off by a fight with Chinese martial artist Wong Jack Man. The difficulties that Lee had in fighting Wong caused him to determine that Wing Chun had a major flaw. According to Bruce Lee: A Life by Matthew Polly, Lee felt that Wing Chun was “insufficient” in combat because it restricted him to certain techniques. He came to understood that the close-quarters approach of Wing Chun wasn’t good for every situation. This realization is what led Bruce Lee to reject traditional kung fu and become more open to new ideas and moves, thus laying the groundwork for the birth of Jeet Kune Do.
