How Bruce Lee Gave Rise To Cross Training

It's no secret that Bruce Lee was a martial artist. Some people say he was all Hollywood, and you can find videos or articles trying to discredit him as a martial artist from his lack of fight record or active competing. Which is all total BS. Some of the greatest fighters in the world have sparred and trained with Lee, you can take their word for it.

What many people don't know is culturally Chinese martial arts are a very safeguarded knowledge. Often families stick to their own styles and don't teach others what they know. So when you find someone willing to train you, it's a huge honor. While this has changed over the years. Bruce Lee was the first to come out and imply we shouldn't try to stick to one style, we should adapt or "Be water." Lee got a lot of heat in even the American community over this. Still today many gyms want you training only with them.

Bruce Lee was the first main combat sports person to suggest we should train and learn as much as possible regardless of loyalty to one distinct style. That the individual makes the fight, not the style. He would get into many arguments over this. A lot of people in the martial arts community acted as if Lee was speaking heresy.

So next time you travel to another camp or attend a certain instructors seminar. Remember that this hasn't always been so widely accepted in martial arts, at one time it was considered this biggest disrespect to your instructor. Give Bruce Lee a praise and a thanks for leading the path to remove stigmas around sticking to one distinct style.