Customer Reviews

The World's Greatest Fighter Teaches You: How to Master Bruce Lee's Fighting System (The World's Greatest Fighter Teaches You, 1)

5 star:		(11)
4 star:		(2)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(2)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

Bruce Lee is still the leading hero of martial arts, and rightly so as its chief innovator and practitioner. But Joe Lewis could rightfully claim to be the number two guy. I have deep respect for both, and to have a book that contains the thoughts, teachings and wisdom of both men is more than I could have hoped. And the book lives up to the greatness of the men it covers. (I just ordered a second copy for a martial arts friend.)

If you only order one martial arts book, this MUST be the one. It covers the fundamental tactics and techniques that must be in place to be a great fighter -- teachings not often found in most corner traditional martial arts schools.

Thanks, Joe. You've done Bruce proud.

Joe Lewis, considered by many to be the greatest karate fighter of all time, has written, with the help of some friends, a nice martial arts text about fighting with an emphasis on Bruce Lee's fighting system known as Jeet Kune Do. This book succeeds where his early work, also reviewed by me, failed. His other book was a sequential photo book with very little written information. Relying primarily on the visual approach, it did not get into the serious thoughts on fighting application.

Further, the biographical section of the latter book also was a little disappointing. This book helps redeems Joe Lewis' efforts. First, the books primary objective is established in the titled and the text gives the reader the information necessary to understand many of the most important fighting concepts. Although the information presented has been presented elsewhere, Joe succeeds in communicating the ideas to where the novice to intermediate fighter can easily understand the material and should be able, with the help of a partner, learn and develop the advice into their own martial repertoire. While there are some photographs displaying some of the concepts the material strength is in the writing and it surpasses other books that have tried to deal with some of Bruce Lee's concepts. The strongest chapters are "The Science of Movement", The Art of Distancing", "The Explosive Initial Move," and "Angular Attack."

The extras in this book are a nice surprise in that they give one a break from the study of fighting material and allow the reader to get an understanding of Bruce Lee and Joe Lewis from the perspective of others, most of whom are great martial artist in their own right. Chapters I particularly enjoyed were by Dan Inosanto, John Korab, Gene Lebell, and Bob Wall. Even some of the contributions I did not necessarily like (Mike Stones' piece) I did think it was honest and fair to put the essay in the book.

This is a good book and achieves what it sets out to do; which is to simply explain some of the innovations and ideas pioneered by Bruce Lee and Joe Lewis.

I was in the book store at the mall killing time when I saw this on the shelf. I was amazed at how pretentious the title was. However, as I flipped through it and read a little, it turned out to be so good I ended up buying it. Rather than being a book showing lots of techniques, it focuses more on the theories and conceptual parts of JKD. Things like timing, distance, speed, broken rhythm, and gives lots of the training methods Bruce Lee created for Joe Lewis to develop these attributes. It was also very interesting to see Lewis' interpretation of what Bruce Lee taught him. It was interesting because he was already an accomplished fighter and he also got to put what he learned into use in the ring. I have been training Jeet Kune Do for 8 years under one of Dan Inosanto's associate instructor's and I honestly think that this is one of the best JKD books I've ever read.

History tells us that Joe Lewis was the very best fighter that ever trained under Bruce Lee. During 1968-1969 Joe Lewis won 11 straight titles as he was training with Bruce Lee. Mr.Lewis was the first person to use jeet kune do in full contact, anything goes combat in 1970 when he won the title of US Kickboxing Champion. He defended his title 10 times with 10 knockouts. Does jeet kune do work. Lewis' record proves that Bruce Lee developed an unbeatable system! This book explains how Lee and Lewis did it. Easy to read and very interesting.

I agree with some of the other reviewers that Joe Lewis could be called arrogant, especially if you use a title for a book beginning with "The World's Greatest Fighter". Joe Lewis was a great champion in semi-contact karate before he moved on to full contact karate (kickboxing minus kicking to the legs) and became world champion in this martial arts form too. The problem I have with the titles he won is that a "world champion" in semi-contact Karate in the US could better be termed a "Champion of North America". Contrary to an organisation like the WUKO, the foreign participation of these tournaments was limited to Canada. The same argument applies to his world title in full-contact Karate. Lewis only fought Americans in a time that only a tiny segment of the Martial Arts community was engaged in Full Contact. Lewis never fought a single match in which leg kicking, elbowing, kneeing or grappling was allowed.

The good thing about this book is that it does deliver what is says it will: it lifts up the veil of secrecy about what Bruce Lee actually taught Joe Lewis. This information wasn't available to the public before. The chapters by fellow martial artists are also very insightful. The book's real value is more historical then than practical. Most kickboxing coaches of today would find the techniques and methods expounded in the book outdated.

Conclusion: a worthwhile purchase for Bruce Lee enthusiasts.

This book is nothing more than Lewis repeatedly referring himself as the greatest of everything, he even goes on to describe events like bruce was a great artist an i told him i won an art contest without even being taking an art class and he used my famous perfect side kick an my famous stance in his movies blah, blah, blah.I dont know the man personally but in this book he comes off an arrogant and for some reason he constantly needs to reinforce the fact that he is the greatest of this of that , that he hits people too hard blah, blah, blah.

I totally disagree with his views on philosophy and strategy, about him saying in a real fight you cant think about philosophy or you could get hit or miss, if your brain can only do one thing at a time.. then yea thats true but without philosophy and strategy its just mindless streetfighting and all streetfighting is, is a learned response like a rat in a maze, its martial ART joe not just martial.

Their really is no payoff here the techniques are nothing new basic karate techniques passed off as jeet kune do. If you want a good book on jun fan gung fu get Kevin Seaman's jun fan gung fu seeking the path of jeet kune do, it gives basic to intermediate techniques a good introduction on trapping the 5 ways of attack strategies some philosophy and most importantly NO IM THE BEST AT EVERYTHING crap.

Come on Joe as someone who claimed to be Bruces friend,cut the crap and stop trying to capitolize on the man let him rest in peace.

The book is factual in some sense and adlibbed in others. Bruce Lee is a legend, a true martial artist and was a good human being. Joe Lewis is non of these. I know because I have been around Lewis for many years in the tournament and seminar circuit where I witnessed his is arrogance, his rudeness, his disrespect for women and his total lack for professionalism.

See if you are in the public eye and you represent the 'Bushido Code' then lead from example. Unfortunately he, nor his book, does any justice for the martial arts in my humble opinion. He is not a Bruce Lee and he will never be a Chuck Norris!

A wonderful book. Joe Lewis gives insights into his training with Bruce Lee in a unique perspective ... Joe was already a world champ before meeting Lee and was the perfect vehicle to use to try out Lee's advanced theories of Jeet Kune Do .

I feel that Joe was already a very tough fighter before training with Bruce Lee but Lee gave Joe the tools to become a master of strategy and finesse as well, Thus adding attributes to Joe not possessed by other Karate fighters of that time period , Joe subsequently dominated the field.

In addition to getting Joe's insights into training with Bruce Lee you also see how those seeds Lee planted years ago have helped Joe evolve into a world class teacher as well. In easy to follow photos you learn the essentials of Joe Lewis Fighting System as well as get the warrior philosophy of Joe Lewis . Finally you will get strategic insights and concepts which are of great use to martial artists of any style. Whether you are a Bruce Lee / Joe Lewis fan , a serious martial artist Or casual enthuisiast this book is rich and offers something for everyone.

"How to Master Bruce Lee's Fighting System" by Joe Lewis is a surprisingly substantive book that belongs in any Bruce Lee fan's book collection. Not simply a book on martial art technique, "How to Master Bruce Lee's Fighting System" contains bonus chapters written by some of the greatest martial arts contemporaries of Bruce Lee, all of whom knew Lee intimately and many whose stories about Lee have never been told. This book will definitely help Bruce Lee's fans to understand him better and aid the martial artist in perfecting his Jeet Kune Do skills.

This book was somewhat interesting but also a bit of a disappointment (was I really expecting to master Bruce Lee's Jeet kune do). First off there is no way in the universe you are going to master Bruce Lee's art in a book 208 pages long. You would do well to order "The Tao of Jeet Kune Do" written by the man himself, Bruce lee.

This book should have been titled "The Friends Of Bruce Lee remember him". The book had many chapters written by people who knew Bruce Lee and had nothing to do with mastering Jeet Kune Do. I will say some of the stories were interesting and funny, as when Bruce was shopping for clothes with Mr. Lewis and a sales clerk kept bugging Bruce. He (Bruce) ending up knocking the guy on his rear end with his famous one-inch punch. Serves the guy right because he kept asking Bruce "What do you do for a livin man?".

I felt the book was one big advertisement for Joe Lewis's video's and a ploy to get people to buy those at his various websites.

He even has martial arts domain names for sale at the end of the book. I have no doubt Joe lewis is a superb martial artist but I feel he is using Bruce Lee's popularity to sell his products. That's not such a bad thing maybe but I'll say it again I was misled a bit by the book's title. Definitely buy Bruce's "The Tao of Jeet Kune Do" because it will keep you thinking for years about his various methods of defense and attack. One thing Mr. Lewis did elaborate on that I liked was having "oneness of mind" when in combat or competition. When you want to punch or kick, go ahead and do it without a second thought.

This requires much training and novices will have to devote lots of time to master it.Also putting your best weapons forward and not telegraghing your strikes. This also requires much practice but well worth the effort.

All of these concepts were taught by Bruce. In closing I will probably end up buying some of Joe Lewis's dvd's so I guess the book had it's intended purpose. We all miss Bruce and Brandon, maybe they are somewhere in the universe sparring with some funny-looking aliens. Oh no Bruce, they have 4 arms and 3 legs!