Bruce Lee Did Us A Disservice When He Said "Boards Don't Hit Back"

Bruce Lee did all of us a disservice but I don't think it was intentional. He said, "Boards don't hit back," but he said it in the context of a movie, when O'Hara arrogantly broke a board just before he was to fight Bruce.

When Bruce said, "Boards don't hit back," it wasn't a put-down of board-breaking as a training tool. It was a threat that he was going to kick O'Hara's ass in a movie.

Now, 43 years after "Enter the Dragon," when you put a video up showing breaks, a few guys who troll the internet as keyboard warriors love to say, "Boards don't hit back."

Here is my answer. Neither do heavybags. Neither do speedbags. Neither do focus mitts. Air doesn't hit back when you shadowbox.

And Bruce Lee understood what board-breaking was -- a demo of focused power. If you hit a board wrong, it lets you know. It doesn't break, and with some boards, like the black one that I use, which is the strongest, it can cause a little pain.

Let all the intelligent martial artists put this old cliche to rest, because it is just a line from a movie that has no context in training. After all, as this video shows, Bruce was not opposed to using boards as a tool.


1969 Video of Bruce Lee Breaking A Board With... by videobash

Also remember that when Bruce Lee demonstrated his One-Inch Punch, his partner was not hitting back.

 
A board is a training tool. It is just one tool that provides a little feedback. Lighten up and use every tool you can. When keyboard warriors try to make themselves feel like tough guys by making these comments, I ban them from my page. They aren't smart enough to deserve the information I try to provide.

173 Board Breaks in the Chen Tai Chi Laojia Yilu Form

Tai Chi (Taiji) is performed slowly so students can learn the internal body mechanics that make it a powerful fighting art.

Every movement in Taiji has several self-defense applications. In my DVDs on fighting applications, I show more than 400 strikes, kicks, joint locks, sweeps, and takedowns in the Laojia Yilu form.

Recently, I decided to go through the 75 movements of Laojia Yilu -- also known as "Old Frame First Form" -- and do as many board breaks as I could find, without repeating any of the movements (several movements are repeated in the form). This video focuses only on striking possibilities in the form -- not chin-na or sweeps or throws. Just strikes and some kicks.

I came up with 144 board breaks in a little over two hours, then, after first posting the video a week ago, I saw 29 breaks that I wanted to add, so we shot those yesterday. My thanks to Colin Frye for holding the boards and my wife, Nancy, for being the ace videographer.

Now for some Breaking News -- 173 board breaks in one Taiji form. If you want to learn the body mechanics behind the movements, join my website at www.internalfightingarts.com, or check out my DVDs on this blog.

Chen Xiaowang says fajin ("issuing power") is the same as the slow movements of Tai Chi. The only difference is when you want to do fajin, you "step on the gas." In this video, I step on the gas.

One more thing about board-breaking. Bruce Lee said "boards don't hit back." Well, neither do heavybags, speedbags, or makiwara boards. These are all tools to develop power, technique, and to get a little instant feedback. Anyone who dismisses board-breaking because of something Bruce Lee said in a movie needs to think a little deeper.

 

 


Boards Don't Hit Back -- Bruce Lee's Famous Line is Only Entertainment

Last Saturday at our practice, we took a few minutes to have fun with board-breaking. We tried different breaks from short range, the idea being if you are in close, can you generate enough power to do some damage to an opponent.

Here is the video that resulted.

When you put a video like this online, you will inevitably have someone reply with "Boards don't hit back." Sometimes a friend will say it in jest, but sometimes it is said by someone who is serious.

"Boards don't hit back" is a line that Bruce Lee said in "Enter the Dragon," when Bob Wall broke a board at the beginning of a fight with Bruce. 

 

Since 1973, some Bruce Lee "purists" and "Real Fighting" macho guys have pretended that board breaking is stupid.

They would be wrong.

Yes, boards don't hit back. Neither do heavy bags. Neither do makiwara boards. And neither does paper.

Did you know that Punching Paper was one of Bruce Lee's training techniques?

Here is a video I shot in 2006, showing my cute wife Nancy holding a newspaper page up very lightly with two fingers as I try to punch my fist through the paper. It doesn't count if you rip the paper. You must put your fist through the paper. Try this sometime.

When I first put the paper punching video on YouTube, a troll made the comment, "That's great if I'm ever attacked by a newspaper."

He didn't get it. And I'll bet he couldn't punch through a newspaper. It's harder than you think.

Of course, Bruce Lee also used a lot of tools extensively, including heavybags and wooden dummies. The last time I checked, heavybags and wooden dummies don't hit back.

Bruce even broke boards occasionally to demonstrate power.

This is one of the problems when people take an entertaining line from a movie and try to turn it into Holy Scripture. 

Heavybags, makiwara boards, board breaking, Bob bags -- it's all good for focusing your technique and your power. I can't break my training partner's face tonight, and I can't break his ribs. So how do I train to focus and test my striking power and my ability to break an opponent? I use the right tools.

So the next time someone tries to be an Online Know-It-All and says, "Boards don't hit back," tell them to come closer and let you use their face instead of a board.

As a Taiji teacher I respect -- Michael Chritton said, "The air doesn't hit back, either, and I punch it all the time."

Now THAT is a good line worth repeating.

Here is another board-breaking video my students and I shot last winter. Fun with a purpose.

Self-defense is serious business, but you can't take yourself so seriously. It takes all the fun out of the arts. And even at age 62, I want to have the power to break an opponent's face, but I'm still in it to have fun.


John Little and the Legacy of Bruce Lee -- Internal Fighting Arts Podcast Interview

Bruce Lee Dan Inosanto
Bruce Lee and Dan Inosanto while filming "Game of Death" in 1972.

This weekend I will meet Dan Inosanto and study for the first time with someone who trained with Bruce Lee. It has been a 41-year old wish that will finally happen.

Dan studied with Bruce and also taught Bruce a few things about Kali. He appeared in Bruce's film "Game of Death," and he has the reputation of being a very nice man and a great teacher.

All the people who once trained with Bruce Lee are getting older now. Most are in their Seventies. Some have passed away. Bruce Lee would have turned 75 later this year. I can't imagine having the experience of actually training with Bruce as part of my martial background.

I also can't imagine having complete access to all of Bruce's notes, letters, photos and drawings.

This week's Internal Fighting Arts podcast features an interview with John Little, who took Bruce's personal papers and photos and created some of the best books that document Bruce's legacy. His books include:

  • Jeet Kune Do
  • Letters of the Dragon
  • The Art of Expressing the Human Body
  • Words of the Dragon
  • Artist of Life
  • The Warrior Within
  • Bruce Lee: The Celebrated Life of the Golden Dragon
  • Striking Thoughts: Bruce Lee's Wisdom for Daily Living

Bruce 1In 2011, John Little heard an interview I did on The Infidel Guy podcast and he sent me an email, telling me how refreshing it was to hear an internal artist who applied critical thinking skills to the subject of "chi powers." We struck up an email conversation and I asked him if I could do an interview.

Since my trip to the Inosanto workshop has backed me up this week, I am running that 2011 interview with John Little as the latest edition of the Internal Fighting Arts podcast.

Follow this link to listen or download the podcast with John Little.

 


Be Water, My Friend - Bruce Lee, Push Hands and Close-Up Self-Defense

One of my favorite quotes from Bruce Lee was not completely original. The concept was already part of Taoism and Zen long before he said it, but Westerners had not heard it in the early Seventies.

"You must empty your mind," he said. "Be formless, shapeless, like water. You put water into a bottle and it becomes the bottle. Put it in a teapot it becomes the teapot. Water can flow or it can crash. Be water, my friend."

Ken Gullette - Colin Frye 1
My partner Colin aims a punch at my chest.

I think of this often when I work with my students on push hands and other close-up self-defense skills. I try to be water, and flow around resistance to find my way to my target.

What happens when you punch water? Bruce Lee talked about an inspiration he had when he was frustrated and punched water one day on a lake. Whether this story is true or not doesn't matter. Bruce said that when he punched into a lake, he was inspired because the water gave in to his punch and yet flowed around his fist.

Taoism says "the softest thing cannot be snapped." It discusses a blade of grass or a reed, bending as a strong wind blows. The wind might knock down a large tree if it is old and stiff, but a blade of grass is soft and flexible, and lives through the storm.

Ken Gullette - Colin Frye 2
I flow around the punch, removing the target and setting up an elbow strike.

When you are practicing push hands or any close-up fighting drill with a partner, you should become that soft blade of grass, giving way to force but surviving.

Be water, my friend.

Flow around the force that your partner or opponent directs at you. Relax, intercept it and find your way around, just as water in a stream does when it encounters a large rock in the river bed.

When I do push hands with someone who is too stiff, they are very easy to defeat. It is easy to find their center and move it, because a stiff arm connects directly to their center. Push the arm and the center follows.

Ken Gullette - Colin Frye 3
He stiffens his right arm but loses focus on his left, so my right hand finds his face.

Likewise, someone who is focused on the force they are trying to give you has often lost their center. Their focus can have too much purpose and too much intent. If you are able to remain relaxed and flow around that force, you can find your target and strike effectively.

This type of training should be started very slowly. You and your partner should look for openings and move very slowly for a while as you learn how your body should best respond. You will find yourself tied up, twisted, and off-balance, but you must respond as slowly as your partner moves (if either partner moves too fast, they must be called on it). Both partners should attack and defend whenever they feel an opening.

It is okay to do poorly at first. If you find yourself in a double-weighted position -- in a position where you cannot defend -- ask your partner to do it again, slowly, so you can figure out how best to deal with an attack. This is "investing in loss." If all you are interested in is getting a shot in on your partner, your skill will not progress as it will if you understand that your goal is to find your own weaknesses and make improvement in your skill.

Over time, you speed it up, but for a while, it is best to go very slowly, learning to walk before you run.

It doesn't take water very much work to be relaxed -- only a temperature above 32 degrees. For you and me, being relaxed and learning to flow like water takes a lot of hard work.

So how do you apply this to your life outside of self-defense? I'll talk about that in my next post.

 


Dropping Power in Taiji Xingyi and Bagua - Generating Power Over a Short Distance Like Bruce Lee's One Inch Punch

Have you ever heard of the "Teacher Test" in Taiji? When you meet a Taiji instructor, ask if they can do the Teacher Test.

Most often, they will stare at you with a blank expression, but if they actually know what you are asking, and demonstrate the Teacher Test, you have found a good teacher and you should sign up for instruction.

The Teacher Test was demonstrated to me by my first Chen Taiji instructor, Jim Criscimagna, the day I met him in early 1998. I had been in martial arts for 25 years at that point, and I had read about the Teacher Test in an online forum but had never seen it. When I asked Jim about it, he asked me to stand next to him and put my hand on his shoulder.

Dropping-Power-3
Dropping Power is part of many techniques, including the self-defense application of the Opening movement in a Tai Chi form.

"Now, without cocking your arm and shoulder -- without using local arm and shoulder muscle -- and without changing your stance -- knock me off balance," he said.

I was paralyzed. I had no idea what to do.

He laughed and asked me to stand there while he demonstrated. He put his hand on my shoulder and, without using "arm and shoulder" muscle, and without changing his stance, he knocked me off my spot.

I knew that I had to start over and re-learn Taijiquan, Xingyiquan and Baguazhang.

I just recorded a video for my online internal arts school demonstrating how the Teacher Test is done. It uses Dropping Power -- a close relative of Borrowing Energy and utilizes a Bouncing Energy that pushes down into the ground and then rebounds through the body and out the hand (or whatever body part is attacking).

It is very similar to Bruce Lee's One-Inch Punch, and it can knock someone off his spot, but its power is amplified if an opponent is bringing force to you and you combine Dropping Power with your opponent's incoming mass and velocity (Borrowing Energy). Recently, one of my good friends demonstrated this concept and he did not learn it from a traditional Taiji instructor -- he learned it (and very well, too) as a student in the Guided Chaos system. So the knowledge is out there, just not very often in the typical internal arts classes that you sign up for.

Dropping-Power-2
Knock your partner back, not by pushing, but by dropping your energy and letting it rebound through the body.

We've all heard stories of the little Chinese man who can knock a big guy away and not appear to move very much at all. It is one of the stories that gives rise to the mythology of "chi." But it is not mystical. It is completely physical, like everything else in the internal arts. It depends upon proper body mechanics.

To do Dropping Power, you drop your weight (some like to say "drop your energy" but it is your weight) into your feet -- catch the ground path and let it rebound up through the body and out your hand. You can use a forward motion -- you do not have to stand perfectly straight, but you do NOT want to use localized arm and shoulder muscle to cock the arm or bring it back before the punch. 

It is a whole-body strike, and it is perfectly internal. In fact, it is an internal principle that everyone involved in the internal arts should know and be able to demonstrate. Especially your teacher. If your teacher has not shown you this, I would suggest supplementing your teacher's instruction with the material on my website, or else find a teacher who can demonstrate (and teach) this skill without making it seem mysterious and metaphysical.

Learn how to do Dropping Power and have complete access to more than 600 other internal arts instructional videos for two full weeks free -- just visit www.internalfightingarts.com and sign up. No charge for two weeks -- no contracts -- cancel anytime. There is nothing to lose and a lot of insight to gain.


Tom Laughlin Was Trailblazer for Martial Arts Explosion 2 Years Before Bruce Lee

When I was 18, in 1971, all my buddies were excited over the movie, "Billy Jack."

Tom Laughlin gave us our first exposure to "karate" and we LOVED it.

Until this time, Asian martial arts were joked about. Characters like James Bond used the "Judo chop," which looked pretty ridiculous. At the same time, the arts were presented as "deadly" and mysterious.

Billy Jack (Tom Laughlin wrote the script and starred in the movie) gave us the first glimpse of what was to be an explosion of martial arts within two years.

This is the video clip that started the craze. Billy Jack takes his right foot and wops Posner on the right side of his face. My buddies and I nearly jumped out of our seats when this happened.

Within a year or so, the Kung Fu TV show debuted. Then, in 1973, Bruce Lee movies hit our theaters and the rest is history. 

Tom Laughlin died this past weekend at age 81. We all owe him a big "thank you" for the work he did to prime the martial arts pump in the United States and get us all ready for what was to come.

This scene started it all. 


Bruce Lee Was Right -- We Need Emotional Content -- and We Need Shen (Spirit)

Bruce-Lee-Emotional-ContentOne of my favorite scenes in a Bruce Lee movie is when he lectures a young student about what he perceives as a lack of "emotional content" in the young man's movements.

When I was a younger student, practicing techniques with fellow students, one of my teachers would occasionally warn us to maintain our "spirit." When we received a certificate of rank, the certificate mentioned the "spiritual discipline" involved in achieving the rank.

In Tai Chi, the Chinese term "shen" means spirit. It is not a supernatural spirit -- it is an awareness of your action and a physical fullness that means you are giving it 100%. You are in the moment. 

Shen is also translated to mean "heart," but it is the same thing. You are emotionally connected (the heart is often associated with emotion) to the intent of the movement or activity.

It applies to any martial art and it also applies to other aspects of your life, from relationships to work and other activities and endeavors.

How many times have you seen a student in any martial art perform weakly -- no real spark of energy or excitement? Sometimes, you'll see a student stepping through the motions of a form without peng, with no connection in their movements. A fighting application will be performed half-heartedly, with "chi in the chest" and a lack of proper body mechanics or stance work.

How many times have you seen someone come to work listless and uninterested? Or perhaps you've been in a relationship where the person you cared about was emotionally unavailable -- not in sync with you.

Sometimes we say, "His heart wasn't in it." 

We need emotional content.

We all have days when we don't feel 100% -- we're tired, we have deadlines for school or work, we're having problems with a relationship or the family -- there are always excuses to slack off.

That's when the spiritual discipline sets in, and you focus your mind on your practice. What is the true intent of this movement? How can I perform it the best of my ability?

In each movement of the internal arts, whether it's Taiji, Xingyi or Bagua, you should have a whole-body connection through each movement. This also includes a connection of Mind and Heart (Yi and Shen), which leads the Chi and the Li (strength).

If you do not have spirit for your martial art, your relationship, your work -- what are you doing here?

When you perform your movement with shen, then I would ask "How did it feel to you?" Your answer might get you a slap on the head. Without spirit, you may be missing out on all that heavenly glory. :)

 


Focus on the Moon, Not the Teacher -- Taiji, Xingyi, Bagua Advice

There is a Zen proverb -- When a master points at the moon, many people never

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Grandmaster Chen Xiaoxing during a break at the Chicago workshop. Photo courtesy of Khiang Seow.
see the moon, they only look at the master.

Bruce Lee said it in a slightly different way, when he told the student, "It is like a finger pointing a way to the moon." When the student gazes at his hand, Bruce slaps his head and says, "Don't concentrate on the finger or you will miss all that heavenly glory."

I've been very busy since the Chen Xiaoxing workshop on Xinjia Yilu two weeks ago and haven't written much about it since that time. Instead of writing, I've been practicing the movements we went through in Chicago. It has been on my mind a lot.

The workshop was a great experience, and it was organized in a way that promoted learning. In workshops past, I would scribble as many notes as possible during breaks or at the end of the day, trying to remember the little details. In this workshop, remembering wasn't a problem.

Chen Xiaoxing would demonstrate a sequence of movements several times -- slowly -- and then he would include fajing where appropriate. Then he led the students through the sequence several times. Occasionally he would pause and go through one part slowly to show the correct way. Then we would work on the sequence individually and he would go around, watch people and make corrections where necessary. There were moments when I thought, "Okay, we've practiced this long enough, let's move to the next sequence," but I told myself to stop thinking that way and use the opportunity to really drill it into the mind. In the end, it was one of the better workshops I've attended as far as learning a form.

If you watch Chen Xiaoxing do a movement from Xinjia Yilu, it may look different than the same movement performed by his older brother and the Chen Family Standard-Bearer for the 19th Generation, Chen Xiaowang. I took a private lesson on Xinjia Yilu from Chen Xiaoxing's son, Chen Ziqiang, and he taught the opening sequences a little differently than Chen Xiaoxing does. Chen Bing's version of Xinjia Yilu will look different from Chen Ziqiang's.

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I am second from left during one of the times we were practicing a sequence individually at the Chen Xiaoxing workshop.
So when I was in the workshop, watching the Grandmaster as he went through each movement, I thought about the differences in the way different Chen masters do the movements and I remembered the Zen proverb. I reminded myself not to focus on the teacher, but rather, I tried to see through the particular movement and gaze on the moon. In this case, the moon would be the body mechanics and internal principles at work in this particular sequence.

When I first began studying Chen Taiji back in 1998, I remember thinking it strange that the masters often varied from one to the other in the way they performed. Later, I realized that they were each artists. They learned the basic strokes and then added their own personality, strengths and their own artistic flair to the movements. Now, I think it's fun to look at the differences. Sometimes, I uncover new ways of doing things and I can see concepts in action that I didn't see in a different master.

I've been remaining faithful to the way Chen Xiaoxing taught the movements two weeks ago. But I don't necessarily expect that to last forever.

At a workshop that I conducted last year, a couple of my karate black belt friends attended. They would occasionally want specifics. Exactly where is the hand supposed to be on this movement? Exactly what is the stance supposed to be here? They are accustomed to everything being exactly the same, and all black belts expected to perform exactly the same way, and they weren't prepared for a situation where I wasn't moving their hand a millimeter this way or that way to "correct" them. Instead, I tried to talk about the internal body mechanics they were trying to achieve. Whether your foot is pointed at 45 degrees or 40 degrees doesn't really matter if you have the body mechanics and structure that you need.

Obsessing on little details like that is like focusing on the finger and missing the moon. You can hold your hand in one particular spot, but if you don't have the ground or peng, and if you don't have the mechanics you need when you begin to move, it doesn't matter where your hand is.

And so, I tried to see deeper as I watched Chen Xiaoxing perform the movements repeatedly. How is he shifting the weight, how is he using the kua, how is he rotating dan tien, and can I see the relaxed strength unfolding through the body?

That's the moon, and as I practice the movements over and over, I may add my own little artistic flair here and there. When my own students learn it, and they do it in a slightly different way than I do, I won't care as long as they see the moon.


Two Great Photos 40 Years after Enter the Dragon - John Saxon, Bob Wall and Jim Kelly

A couple of weeks ago, the Bruce Lee Foundation held a fundraiser in Seattle -- an exclusive dinner with Bruce's widow Linda, daughter Shannon, and others involved in and supporting the Bruce Lee Foundation.  

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John Saxon looking great at 78.
My brother, Myles attended this event. He described it in a blog post a couple of weeks ago. 

The following evening, there was another event. Among the guests were co-stars of "Enter the Dragon," which was released 40 years ago this summer -- a movie that changed my life and many others.

Here are photos of John Saxon, who played "Mr. Roper," and standing together are Bob Wall ("Ohara") and Jim Kelly ("Williams"). 

Bob-Wall-Jim-Kelly-webIt's wonderful to see them, but a little sobering to think how old they -- and all of us -- are getting. Saxon is still looking great for a 78-year old. Jim Kelly was born in 1946 so he will be 67 this year. Bob Wall was born in 1939, making him 74 this year.

I'm glad they are still here.