Bruce Lee: why did he use southpaw?
Bruce Lee, whose Chinese name was Li Jun Fan, was an American-born film actor known for his martial arts prowess and for popularising martial arts films in the 1970s. He was born November 27, 1940, in San Francisco, California, and died July 20, 1973, in Hong Kong. Lee grew up in Hong Kong, although being born in San Francisco. He was also known for adopting southpaw even as a right-handed. So, why did he use southpaw?
Bruce Lee used southpaw because he sees it as an effective fighting stance. The reason for his adoption to a southpaw is he is searching for effective martial art techniques. Southpaw is a stance that is quite rare thus making it hard for enemies to predict the user’s movements which made it ideal in matches.
Bruce Lee was a right-handed fighter who also happened to be a southpaw. As a streetfighter, he believed that the powerful side should be in front because he believes that you need to give your all at the start of every match, and the fight will usually be finished in seconds.
Why did Bruce Lee fight with southpaw?
Bruce Lee fought with the southpaw because he has seen it as something very effective. Only a few people know how to properly respond to the southpaw stance simply because most use the orthodox stance. Furthermore, putting his dominant arm in front made Bruce Lee faster in blocking and striking.
Despite being right-handed, Bruce Lee fought in a southpaw stance because he believed that because self-defense is so fast and unpredictable, you should have your strongest arm in front, where it can react the fastest.
Because in the majority of matches, speed is more important than power, it makes sense to put the faster hand in the closest position as well.
In short, it would also mean that strikes would land faster since it is nearer.
Because of Bruce Lee’s focus on the effectiveness of moves, he is quite concerned about making his moves towards sports.
That’s why he always has real battles such as street fighting in mind.
That’s where southpaw came to play.
As Bruce Lee Quoted: “My right leg is almost one inch shorter than my left. That fact dictated the best stance for me-my left foot leading.”
“My right leg is almost one inch shorter than my left. That fact dictated the best stance for me-my left foot leading.”
Bruce Lee
Is being a southpaw an advantage?
To point more things, let’s talk about the advantage of the southpaw and why Bruce Lee’s goal of finding the mos effective moves came down to adapting thing stance.
Left-handed athletes (also known as southpaws in boxing) have a significant edge over right-handed orthodox fighters in numerous sports because everything they do originates from the other side.
Simply, southpaws have far more experience fighting orthodox boxers than the other way around.
In short, the majority of his opponents are used to fighting the orthodox stance which is what right-handed people used.
That’s why it became a high advantage compared to other stances.
If enemies are not familiar with the moves, it will be hard to predict what they’ll do next.
That’s why being a southpaw is an advantage.
Why does nobody want to fight a southpaw?
The main reason why nobody wants to fight a southpaw is that it is just rare. Most fighters use the orthodox style simply because it’s made for right-handed people. That means they are more familiar with fighting against the orthodox style and fighting a southpaw feels different in terms of timing, blocking, and dodging.
The most of fighters are orthodox, which means they have little experience training against excellent and natural southpaws.
Another reason is that it changes the nature of the striking game in terms of how you build up your offense; jabs no longer have an easy path to the opponent’s face and instead, collide.
Furthermore, if a right-handed person uses a southpaw stance, their usual jabs would feel like a straight since they’re using their dominant arm in striking.
So, what is the deal with a southpaw user? Southpaws make up a small percentage of professional boxers, orthodox fighters may not face them on a regular basis.
As a result, southpaws will be familiar with the angles from which orthodox fighters fire their shots, but the opposite may not be true.
Because most fighters are orthodox, fighting southpaws can be difficult due to fighters’ lack of expertise with them.
Everything is quite different on a southpaw. Different timing, different angles, and many more.
That is the benefit. It’s not a bad idea to learn to fight in both directions; many fighters have done it successfully.
When facing a southpaw, their hand gets in the way.
This disrupts the distance and timing, making it difficult to line up the counter.
Because a southpaw’s jab is rarely solid because of how it is aimed, they learn to judge distance differently.
Clashes due to the southpaw coming in from different angles could also be a concern (for both fighters) in a southpaw/orthodox match-up.
Why did Bruce Lee change his fighting style?
So why did Bruce Lee changed his fighting style?
Let’s start with his story.
The story goes on when Bruce Lee was teaching Chinese martial arts to Westerners which was not allowed.
He was challenged to a battle, and if he lost, he would be forced to retire from teaching.
Both Bruce Lee and his opponent employed their martial arts sparingly.
They generally danced around each other and chased each other around the ring, according to Bruce Lee’s wife Linda, both warriors were exhausted by the end of the bout and resorted to ordinary and unskilled fighting.
It looked like they were in a street brawl.
Bruce was devastated to learn that his Chinese Martial Arts, which he cherished, were practically useless in real combat.
And that’s where he finally decided to adopt and make new martial art for himself.
Bruce Lee was a truth seeker who spent the remainder of his life developing a true martial arts technique that works and is authentic.
He invented Jeet Kune Do after realizing that a true style lies not in style but in the concept of combat.
This is not a combat style, but rather a fighting philosophy.
He also understood that he needed a medium to teach it with the inherited Jeet Kune Do ideology, thus he founded Jun Fan Gung Fu.
Jun Fan Gung Fu is frequently confused with Jeet Kune Do.
Jun Fan Gung Fu is his fighting technique, which teaches the Jeet Kune Do philosophy.
Essentially, if you master Jun Fan Gung Fu, you will no longer require it and will be able to develop your own unique style that is both functional and adheres to the Jeet Kune Do concept.
Then he just made up his own style, which he dubbed “the style of no style.”
Jeet Kune Do was created out of his desire for a more practical and efficient manner of fighting. Millions of people have seen this style over the last 50 years, as the legend of Bruce Lee lives on in films like “Entering the Dragon.”
Bruce Lee didn’t like traditional fighting styles due to the limitations on what he can and can’t do, one of his quotes on this topic, “I don’t teach karate because I don’t believe in styles anymore; I don’t believe there is a Chinese way of fighting, a Japanese way of fighting, or any other way of fighting because unless We shall have a distinct style of fighting since humans have four arms and four legs, but we only have two arms and two feet,” he claimed in a 1971 interview.
“I don’t teach karate because I don’t believe in styles anymore; I don’t believe there is a Chinese way of fighting, a Japanese way of fighting, or any other way of fighting because unless We shall have a distinct style of fighting since humans have four arms and four legs, but we only have two arms and two feet,”
Bruce Lee, 1971 interview
