Comments on: Reflections on Bruce Lee’s Water: Does Skill Actually Matter?

By: WiserThanThemAll

WiserThanThemAll — Fri, 09 Sep 2011 20:14:02 +0000

What is it so hard to understand what bruce lee is saying here? the proverbs says that the turning away of the simple shall slay them and the prosperity of fools shall destroy them. if your some boxer trying to go pro and have a bunch of self glorified goons around you wearing bling bling telling you go champ kick em out but have no idea what a true fighter needs that is like the prosperity of fools destroying you. and the turning away of the simple slaying you is as a champion boxer getting into a ring without having kept in mind the vital things such as drinking water. now this is it. if you drink water as you ought to, then when you are in the ring, you can have that empty mind of which bruce lee spoke of, for your mind will be at peace because it is prepared, because nothing was left undone, is it so hard to understand? he said it himself if you put water into a cup it becomes the cup, where do u honestly think that thought sprouted out of his mouth from? from realizing that you need to put water into your body so that you can be a healthy clean good strong fighter. now if you want to “flow” like a fighter he has other sayings for that such as when your opponent comes towards you, step back and when he steps back go towards him and at the very right moment you do not punch, it punches all by its self. its called timing. if you become frustrated as a fighter it is not because these are untrue it is because you have set them at naught and have not been faithful and diligent in doing that which was from the very beginning and the kingdoms of this world have prevailed upon you!

By: WiserThanThemAll

WiserThanThemAll — Fri, 09 Sep 2011 20:05:40 +0000

Oh yeah and of course water can flow or it can crash. Just try drinking water, it can flow down your throat but if you drink too much your body usually knows when to stop and thus your throat chokes and it is like the water is crashing. now… be water my friend just think of it.. drinking water is so important to not just a fighter, an athlete, but to humans. After all, our bodies are more than half percent water. The prepared fighter is one who has made the drinking of water his life; one who understands life is endless and to yield to temptations like soda or lemonaide or even orange juice is to be a kid again but to be a mature adult that wants to be successful at overcoming and conquering then drinking water daily for several months for several years along with good exercise is that simple strength that champions are made out of or should be made out of.

By: WiserThanThemAll

WiserThanThemAll — Fri, 09 Sep 2011 19:47:24 +0000

Hello. Bruce lee said empty your mind, now hear me, listen to these words, empty your mind so you can understand what i am about to say. be formless, be shapeless, like water.. in other words he is saying be formless, shapeless, like truth. for the truth is already in you just listen to it. do things that are good for you like drinking water. now you put water into a bottle it becomes the bottle, so put the water into you and it will become you or in other words you will become water. be water my friend dumbasses!

By: House

House — Sun, 07 Nov 2010 18:45:47 +0000

99% av Bruce Lee:s sayings and quotes are taken from Krishnamurti, Zen and Taoism. For example, the mind like water concept were videly discussed by samurai and zen monks in feudal Japan, not to mention another Zen saying that Bruce Lee took credit for “the art of fighting without fighting”.

By: not telling you

not telling you — Sun, 07 Nov 2010 17:15:49 +0000

honestly, I believe bruce never did actually have JKD or anything, let me explain how he beats people up, you know when yu play MW2 and you get a huge killstreak and its like you just can’t be stopped and are flowing with it, that is how bruce lee beat people, there was no style or art, he just knew how to win.

By: FreddyLiang

FreddyLiang — Mon, 26 Oct 2009 06:38:08 +0000

and what u see in Pierre Hartmann
its almost the same to Bruce lee phlosiphy
needed the shortest mount of time to take down ur oppent
u see machine guns like what Pierre Hartmann
was trying to do the most dmg in a short amount of time and take down ur oopent.

By: FreddyLiang

FreddyLiang — Mon, 26 Oct 2009 06:35:20 +0000

Flowing like Water . u guys got that wrong.
what bruce really mean by flowing like water its Ur Mind.
Morden Fighting thinks To much.
what i meant to said its Like Boxing.
u always need to remember Combination or W/e Combo 1,2 ish.
Bruce wanted u to use all Skills without a sec of thinking and just Do it with ur Body. its like returning urself in the nature.

By: Human to God

Human to God — Thu, 16 Oct 2008 07:23:22 +0000

I agree with Wayne.
To flow like water means to adapt.
Which means use peace if needed and deadly force if needed.

I study JKD. And it is not the style but the fighter. And plenty of other factors. The point Lee was making is why use a kick when a grapple or punch is more efficient.

Look at the UFC. They use what works. And I have seen the dasted knockouts and forced submissions when one person overcompensates or misses an attack and the other capitalizes.

Like Kimbo Slice vs. Seth Petruzi(sp?) Kimbo overstepped on the punch and got dropped. Seth took advantage quickly and decisively won.

Thats why I respect fighting arts more than anything else.
Because unlike civilized society, one actually has to skill to win a real fight. Even the old west gunslingers had to be fast on the draw with good aim as well.

By: B from Aus

B from Aus — Fri, 12 Sep 2008 05:50:03 +0000

Hi,
This is a pretty old posting but I thought I’d put my 2cents in this. I agree with what Marks said (the first post) in relation to what Bruce Lee meant by water. I don’t think he meant it in the way a person should move but more like in the sense that you should be able to adapt to different types of situations/scenarios so you can fight different types of people who use different fighting styles. As Marks stated, if you are a Judo guy it does not mean you should have to try and throw the person if the circumstance calls for something more effective.

And yes, there have been some interviews where the interviewee (forgot who it was) stated that the way Bruce does his fighting sequence on the silver screen is not the same as what he would do in real life. He exagerrates all his movements for the audience.

By: Chris

Chris — Sat, 23 Aug 2008 20:05:12 +0000

Yes, the second link is correct. And if I remember correctly, Mike Stone tells the same story as Joe Lewis.