Bruce Lee’s Fighting and Training Skill Listing by Badger Johnson

Bruce Lee’s Fighting and Training Skill Listing:

1. Stage fighting, including semi-acrobatic kicks and leaps, fast strikes and some grappling.

Look at the vertical height Bruce Lee gets with his semi-acrobatic kick!

2. Quick Kill Methods, including eye jabs and throat attacks and neck snaps.

Blindingly fast eye jab (pun intended :) 

3. Wing Chun static pre-arranged sparring, including trapping drills, Chi Sao drills and various trips and leg attacks.

4. Created JKD to show his athletic fighting skills, including fast close, fast trap and strikes and powerful body attacks. It was also a way to showcase his speed, reflexes, and other attributes in a way that did not require actual fighting with an opponent. It was a ‘vanity art’.

Fast close!

5. Secret ‘X-Rated’ attacks which are not disclosed, which might include foul tactics, groin attacks, bites, small joint manipulations, eye attacks, ear attacks, neck attacks.

6. Weapons drills, whip, ‘chucks, single and double sticks, pole and spear routines.

7. Weight training and lifting. Barbells, and physical feats like the dragon flag.

8. Bag work, pad work, and other kicking drills like the large hand-held pad.

9. Stationary bike, running and other aerobic drills, not including swimming which he didn’t do.

10. Muscle posing, stretching and other muscle isolation work.

11. Wrist and tendon work, grippers and specialized equipment. Making areas strong that are weak even in strong persons.

Bruce Lee using a homemade gripper to work his forearms.

12. Isometrics and static holds, for example strengthening the bridge arm.

13. Demonstration skills including the one and three inch punch, thumb pushups and ‘sparring’ with equipment.

How many 2-finger pushups did Bruce Lee do here?

14. Acting skills showing charisma, charm, disguises (the dorky phone repairman), camera work, fight choreography and camera angles.

Bruce Lee knew disguises doesn't always need props like wigs and moustaches. Sometimes it is posture and demeanor. Just before he enters the dojo, he slouches and puts on a dorky grin.

15. Breaking skills, including hanging boards, short power breaking.

16. Analysis of martial thought, theories, doctrines and adoption of concepts by people like Krishnamurti, and others.


One thing that has always puzzled me is why would BL develop JKD when he knew his real skill was in eye-jab to killing blow and at the other end of the spectrum his stage fighting.

I think it was more of a vanity project where he would have something he could teach openly without having to fear giving away skills, methods and abilities to those who might defeat him, and it was also a way to showcase his speed and movement skill on larger opponents while not needing to ‘spar’ with them.

Another thing he did that lends to his 'vanity' is the stange magic he did, stealing a coin out of people's hand and leaving a dime for a nickel.

Also, another example of BL leaning toward vanity is his use of the nunchucks in his movies. The nunchuck is not a viable weapon but just a flashy one.

He could show demonstrations which were pretty mind-blowing like his two-thumbs pushups and one-inch punch and his long range kicking and his trapping skills which no one could duplicate at the time. He would thus gain notoriety as a super martial artist without ever having to step into a ring.

I think he knew or suspected that he dare not take any hard blows to the head being so small-boned and rather ‘delicate’ structure, so he had to find ways to show superiority without testing his ‘jaw’. If no one could hit him, the he could say no need to ‘get hit’.

So, JKD was a method to have students study under him (at first) which he did abandon later, and a way to show his prowess maybe as a way to impress movie directors but it was never meant to be his ‘fighting style’ as many seem to think now.

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Please check out Badger Johnson's other essays:

• A Martial Framework
• How To Exceed Your Plateaus
• Adding to Arnold's Six Principles of Success
• 10 Tips on how to analyze a martial art for effectiveness
• "To be a master is very different from being an expert."
• Addendum, Clarification and Expansion of Paul Vunak's Fighting Secrets
• Expanded Ways of Attack
• "Fifty Important Elements in Martial Arts"
• Can Trapping Work?
• The Genesis and Development of Zone Theory
• A few aspects of self-defense training
• Some of the important ten things…
• Over-speed Training - Accessing the Subconscious and the Power of Threes
• Coaching, self-coaching, talent, experience, genetics, opportunity, motivation
• Thresholding
• "I'd Like to Teach the World to Dance"
• Some thoughts today
• "Ah, but a man's reach should exceed his grasp, Or what's a heaven for?" 
• Beyond Martial Skills
• Some of the Major Misconceptions or Fallacies of JKD 
• How Bruce Lee may have improved skill using biofeedback 
• The Art of Fighting Without Fighting   
• Not Martial Trained, But Fighting Fit
• Against One Who Scares Us
• What Bruce Lee Taught Us 
• What is Mobile Kicking? 
• Fighting Fit Part 2 - The Seven Essentials 
• How Bruce Lee Trained His Quick Kill 
• Seeing Deeply - the Method and Intangibles 
• Big Picture - Training Martial Arts and Self-Defense 
• Understanding Rhythm and Broken Rhythm in Sparring
• Venues of Fighting