Bruce Lee is looked upon as one of the greatest martial artists who ever lived, and for good reason. However, it’s interesting to note that Lee never had a belt or possessed a ranking in any martial art style or system. He never had a certificate proclaiming him to be a master or grandmaster in any martial art. Yet people from all walks of life including world champion martial artists, top Hollywood celebrities and executives, and elite professional athletes all sought him ou

The following excerpts were drawn from my daughter, Sarah Leliani’s essay “Becoming Leilani” that she wrote for her college creative non-fiction class. I chose it because I believe it clearly illustrates the joy to be found in liberating ourselves from anything that might hold us back and truly experiencing life at its fullest. Sarah had made up her mind that she wanted to try surfing, and the opportunity presented itself when she took a trip to Hawaii in order to take her Tu

In the film, Enter the Dragon, as Bruce Lee’s character faces off against his opponent, a really tough and brutal man named Ohara, the man tosses a board he has been carrying into the air and smashes it in two with a single punch. Lee maintains his detached cool, looks at Ohara and, with a slight smile, informs him, “Boards don’t hit back.” Immediately afterward, Lee annihilates Ohara in the fight. Unfortunately for Ohara, his attempt to “psych-out” Lee failed miserably. Perh

The phrase “Walk On” was an immensely important in Bruce Lee’s overarching philosophy of living. So important, in fact, that he even had it written on the back of one of his business cards which he displayed on his desk to remind himself to keep moving forward and to flow on in the current of life. For each of us, our life is an ever-flowing process, and that somewhere on the path unpleasant things can and will pop up. The odds that only good things will ever happen to us are

When I was a kid, on the outside back cover of a lot of comic books you would see advertisements proclaiming such things as “I’ll make you into the world’s deadliest fighter in seven days!” or “Defeat any attacker in 10 seconds or less with karate secrets!” Often the guy making such proclamations wore a mask to conceal his face so he couldn’t be recognized for giving away such deadly secrets. If you shelled out your hard-earned allowance to buy the book you’d get some cheap-

In 1989 I was offered the opportunity to travel to Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, to work on a movie entitled “Exposure”, which involved knife-fighting. The opportunity arose because my friend and martial art training partner, Jeff Imada, who is one of the top stunt action coordinators in the business, was offered the job but had to turn it down due to other film commitments. When the producers asked him to find someone to take his place, he called me because he felt I could handle

Bruce Lee was committed in his quest to express the full potential of his body and mind and strove to improve himself both physically and mentally. In addition to his daily martial art training, Lee also engaged in supplemental training to improve such things as his strength, power, endurance, flexibility, coordination, mental attitude, etc. Regardless what you do, whether you are a martial artist, a writer, a tennis player, a doctor, a computer programmer, or whatever, your

Bruce Lee was never orthodox, but in sharp contrast, always the innovator. Lee defied convention and challenged the status quo in the martial art world. He set his face against the typical ranking system of various colored belts and sashes that existed in karate and gung fu. He got rid of traditional exotic uniforms and moved to modern athletic training attire. Disdaining the rote memorization and practice of esoteric martial art "forms" which he felt were useless and a wast