Bruce Lee and Jeet Kune Do

One of the most famous practitioners of this art was Bruce Lee, who studied directly under Grandmaster Yip Man and Master Wong Shun Leung.

Bruce Lee was responsible for bringing the martial arts into the mainstream spotlight. As a result of his influence, millions of people studied the martial arts.

As a student of Ving Tsun Kung Fu, he was also directly responsible for the popularity and growth of the system beyond the walls of Yip Man’s kwoon in Hong Kong. Most people who study this art have discovered it as a direct result of their interest in Bruce Lee’s life. Even though he went on to develop a more free-flowing concept of the martial arts known as Jeet Kune Do, he was still a Ving Tsun student at heart.

Throughout his various books, and especially his Tao of Jeet Kune Do, you can see the influence his early instruction had, with many references to economy of motion, the centreline, simultaneous defence and attack, etc. Indeed, many make the mistake of thinking that Jeet Kune Do is a style. This is the farthest thing from the truth. In reality, Jeet Kune Do is a concept. It is a philosophy of combat which holds that you should not be limited by the dogma or the restrictions of any particular martial art. Instead, you should see combat for what it truly is, a dynamic flow of energy, and use whatever works best to win.

Ving Tsun and Jeet Ma Do

As Explained above, Jeet Kune Do is a fundamentally a concept of fighting rather than a stand alone style. The words Jeet (Jit – Intercept) Kune (Kyùn – Fist) Do (Dou — Way of) literally translates to mean Way of the Intercepting Fist.

In Ving Tsun the word Ma means the Stance, and it is this stance that forms the foundation of the Ving Tsun system. In all the various styles of Wing Chun that have developed around the world, it is the Wong Shun Leung Stance that makes Ving Tsun so devastatingly effective in combat above all others. After understanding the physics behind it, the truth is revealed that the fist is just an extension of the stance itself. Thus the term Jeet Ma Do — Way of the Intercepting Stance has become the hallmark of this style of Ving Tsun which has been tried and tested across Australia and internationally in Hong Kong, the birthplace of Wing Chun.