Customer Reviews

Jeet Kune Do: Bruce Lee's Commentaries on the Martial Way (Bruce Lee Library)

5 star:		(27)
4 star:		(6)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

"JEET KUNE DO: Bruce Lee's Commentaries on the Martial Way" is THE definitive book on Bruce Lee's martial art. John Little has done a superlative job of locating, formatting, editing and presenting Bruce Lee's writings in a manner that is comprehensible, informative and inspiring. In many ways this book far surpasses "The Tao of Jeet Kune Do" which, in comparison, looks to be so many of Bruce's notes simply tossed into a stew. This book presents Bruce Lee's writings and sketches on his art of Jeet Kune Do in an organized and comprehensive manner -- much like Bruce Lee presented it himself when he created his art in 1967. This book is, quite simply, the best book on Jeet Kune Do ever written. But then, that shouldn't be suprising -- it was written by Bruce Lee.

Speaking as a student and teacher of martial arts myself for almost 40 years, this is a very detailed and thorough discussion of Lee's ideas. There's so much detail here that one problem is organizing it successfully so it can be presented in a coherent and structured way, but Little does an excellent job of that too. This book will be of interest too all those interested in Lee and his ideas on martial arts.

I won't try to go into too many of Lee's ideas about fighting, which wouldn't be practical in such a short review, anyway, but I would like to make one comment. One thing you'll notice in this book is that Lee spends a lot of time discussing strategy and principles rather than techniques. He comes back again and again to such notions as timing, distance, interval, gauging your opponent, knowing when and how to attack, creating your own openings, etc., rather than discussing the technical details of technique per se. This is because the book pretty much assumes you've already achieved the necessary physical and mechanical skills and attributes--speed, power, coordination, and so--and are looking for how to progress from there, having already built a solid foundation. This book will help you do that by focusing on the more advanced principles and tactics.

I picked up this book with extremely high expectations. I was not disappointed in any way whatsoever. To say the least, I was impressed. John Little has shown great respect for Bruce Lee in presenting his material in just the way that Lee would of wanted it.

Lee didn't want any of his teachings to be the only way to do it. He wanted to teach the student the concepts behind it and then allow him to create something that follows those concepts. Little did this perfectly in the way that he left the material vague so that the reader must study and truly understand the intracicies in it.

I have had this book for about 2 years now. The cover has raggedy edges, and the center is splitting open. I still don't think I have gotten out of it all that I can.

I don't like reading too much, but I read this over and over. Either get this one or the Tao of Jeet Kune Do. There is much overlap, and you can probably do almost as well with one or the other. The difference is that Tao of JKD is written by Lee, and this was compiled from Lee's notes. In addition I recommend Art of Expressing the Human Body, which I think is volume 4 in this series. While this book gives you the techniques themselves, The Art of Expressing... tells you how to train your strength and power and speed, etc. in order to make the techniques more effective.

Commentaries of Bruce Lee is one of the most comprehensive collections of quotes, diagrams, and theories on the market today. Integration of Jeet Kune Do in Movies adds an element of excitement, to the book. I found the book very well organized. The five elements of Jeet Kune Do were describe in comprehesive detail. Narrative was easy to read supported by a series of thoughts, techniques, and insights that kept my attention for hours. One of the best Martial Art Books, I've read this year.

I see that a lot of reviewers that gave this book low ratings seem to think that you can learn martial arts from a book. I will give you this warning now, you can't and never will be able to learn a martial art from a book, but this is a good starting place for beginners to see some of the techniques and ideas put forward in Jeet Kune Do. If you're someone with martial training as I am you can learn a number of things from this book. Most martial arts that are taught today are for exercise, fun, or competition, rarely are they taught for safety or other more historical reasons. This book can help you get back to those roots of your art.

I have studied various forms of martial arts for around ten years now and would consider this book an invaluable edition to my library, which is always growing and always changing and I still rank this book as one of the better ones in my collection. Inside you will find sections of philosophy and sections on technical work. The reason I gave this only four stars is that if you are not a martial artist or if you don't at least have some basic training, the technical section of the book is worthless and will do you no good. However, if you have practiced, you can learn a lot from the technical section of this book as Bruce goes over individual moves and how to use them to their best in a fight. He also explains how to close space between yourself and an opponent, how to mix up the rhythms of a fight, and how to make your attack and defense more effective.

If you haven't studied martial arts then you will find some sections of this book to be quite interesting while others are utterly worthless. If you have, however, this is one of the better technical manuals that can be purchased that is also veined with the philosophies behind this physical and mental art. It is a wonderful resource and a useful tool for any martial artist.

Jeet Kune Do is a book full of insight into the martial arts through the eyes of Bruce Lee. It does contain many important aspects of martial arts. It appears to attempt to address very important topics which many martial art styles tend to ignore. Martial arts are more than lists of techniques and pre arranged kata. They are about developing fighting skill, and about how to train in order to perfect your agility, balance, power and timing. Volume three does address these concepts and more.

The down side to this book is that it isn't very much more than the brain storming sessions of Bruce Lee committed to paper. One statement after another is made with very little logical connection. What this book needed was to be ordered such that related statements and concepts were grouped together. In places there are simple lists of various techniques without little or no explanation of the context. Rather than clear explanations of concepts we are treated to short unrelated sentenences.

The job of trying to extract from these notes the real meaning of what Bruce was trying to convey was very difficult indeed. The book is full of photos of Bruce in action, however these photos are generally not related to the content. Drawn illustrations are in somewhat better context, but they are obviously the original illustrations Bruce had drawn himself.

For those who are interested in the original notes from Bruce Lee there may be some interest. However, for a general reader the presentation of his ideas is confusing and incomplete. This isn't to say that the book does not have value. There is quite a bit of good advice. My issue with the book is that the editors could have substantially reorganised it in such a way as to make it more comprehensible. It would also have been an advantage to redraw the illustrations professionally so that we don't have to strain to read the notes.

Bruce was a great Martial Artist, but that doesn't mean we should expect him to be the best writer. In this case his ideas should have been extended and examined. Where there were incomplete sections the context should have been filled in for people. Also the order of ideas should have been changed so that similar ideas were not repeated throughout the book.

I've read this book 4 times and each time I get something new out of it. I really think that this will help the serious martial artist out there or anyone that is thinking about joining a martial art.

This is about the late Bruce Lee's art, Jeet Kune Do (Way of the Intercepting Fist). To many martial artists who want to take up Jeet Kune Do or just want to study the martial way, this is great book.

Many first time martial artists might be bored with the many philosophical parts but when read through and through again will come to learn and master not only JKD, but also the way of life and living day by day as it happens.

Jeet Kune Do teaches us to not look at the outside of things (and that means everything), but to look at the inside. Now I'll talk like Bruce Lee talked. You don't drink dilluted wine do you?
The martial arts that are Americanized to a point of digust is diluted wine. Jeet Kune Do teaches not to look at the flower but to look at the roots.

This has to be the definitive book on Bruce Lee's martial art. If you own this you do not need "The Tao of Jeet Kune Do". John Little has done a great job of locating, formatting, editing and presenting Bruce Lee's writings in a manner that is easy to read, espcially when compared to "The Tao of Jeet Kune Do" which, in comparison, looks to be so many of Bruce's notes just randomly written. This book presents Bruce Lee's writings and sketches on his art of Jeet Kune Do in an organized and comprehensive manner.This book is, quite simply, the best book on Jeet Kune Do ever written.