This article will look at a specific Bruce Lee footwork session that he himself did and wrote down.
The influence of Bruce Lee on modern culture is obvious today if you are able to visit another country or several others, chances are everyone knows who Bruce Lee is.
Bruce Lee’s impact on martial arts movies and the martial arts in general have led to him being referred to as the God Father of MMA.
MMA is today’s most popular style of martial arts and the influence Bruce Lee had on MMA stems mainly from his view of no style being the ultimate style.
Conversely however, the UFC and today’s MMA also made a huge leap forward for the specific reason to show that Grace Jiu Jitsu was the best style and to showcase Gracie Jiu Jitsu to the world.
Following UFC 1 and the victory of Royce Gracie, martial arts evolved to today’s MMA.
There is a common understanding that no one style is the best.
Also Bruce Lee’s philosophy to take the best from each martial art and adapt it for you, fits well with today’s MMA superior coaches, teams and fighters.
So while the influence of Bruce Lee on today’s martial arts is well understood and appreciated, traditional fighting arts each made a large contribution to Bruce Lees philosophy and style.
One common aspect across all martial arts is footwork.
Bruce Lee drew a lot from disciplines such as Western boxing, Chinese kung fu and even fencing and the footwork that these arts incorporated.
These influences he used to work on his own footwork.
In this post we will take a look at a specific Bruce Lee footwork routine that Bruce Lee himself wrote down and John Little found and compiled.
In this post we can look at a Bruce Lee footwork routine, the man practiced himself. This routine is taken from “Bruce Lee The Art of Expressing the Human Body” which was compiled and edited by John Little.
If you are interested in different views of training and also want to take into the training of a martial artist way ahead of his time, then I would suggest you purchase this book.
Will this routine make you move like Bruce Lee?
Probably not.
Bruce Lee had incredible balance, speed and coordination.
A lot he trained and built himself.
But I think most of it was natural for him.
In fact Bruce Lee was so well balanced and coordinated in 1958 he won the Crown Colony Cha Cha dancing champion of Hong Kong.
Check out the video of Bruce Lee practicing his Cha Cha skills.
Footwork fundamentals
The Bruce Lee footwork routine is part of the last section of the book where John Little has compiled a “compendium of Bruce Lee’s personal training routines”, which is also the title of this section of the book.
There are 18 footwork training techniques or moves I guess you could call them.
In this routine Bruce Lee wrote down what he called a “freelance set 1 – shadow boxing”. The first 2 movements of the 18 Bruce Lee footwork routine consist of :
- step and slide shuffle advance
- step and slide shuffle retreat
In John Little’s book there is no instruction on how to actually perform the 18 techniques that Bruce Lee captured.
However the point I am trying to make in writing this article is that for virtually all fighting arts – the footwork foundation is the same.
They may look different but they consist of a set of super important principles to lay the foundation. I believe these are captured in the 2 moves above.
So let’s break them down.
1. Step and slide shuffle advance
This to me means basic advancing footwork from your ready/fighting stance.
I wont get too much into stance here, but basic fighting stance and movement is pretty much the same across most fighting styles, though the muay thai stance does have distinct features.
From fighting stance – your lead foot (closest to your imaginary opponent/partner) steps forward.
Your rear foot shuffles after your lead.
Back to fighting stance.
- important – distance between heels from fighting stance should be the same when you finish your advancing step and shuffle
2. Step and slide shuffle retreat
Stepping backwards from fighting stance
From fighting stance – your back foot steps back
Your front foot shuffles after your rear
Back to fighting stance
- important distance between heels from fighting stance should be the same when you finish your advancing step and shuffle.
You can see this actual movement in the footage below from a Bruce Lee exhibition in Long Beach California at a 1967 Karate tournament.
You can clearly see the retreating movement used by Bruce in this footage.
This is a more realistic movement than what Bruce Lee showed in films.
He understood well the realities of fighting and what looks good on the movie screen.
Appreciate that this is probably the only footage we will see of Bruce Lee expressing himself in a realistic fight situation.
So the important principle is to keep your stable fighting stance which you only lose for a brief second in the actual act of stepping and shiffling. Step and shiffle. Step and shuffle. This is the movement.
The principle is applied to moving to the left or right.
To move to the lead (left from Orthodox stance) side. Lead foot steps, rear foot (right foot in Orthodox stance) shuffles. Back to fighting stance.
To move to the right (in Orthodox stance) side. Rear foot steps, lead foot shuffles. Back to fighting stance.
Step and shuffle back to fighting stance.
This is the basic movement and the foundation you should practice for a long long time.
The good thing is you can practice this almost anywhere, anytime.
In Bruce lees footwork routine, the workout was part of a larger routine that cinluded heavy bag work, wooden dummy and more shadow boxing.
The movement’s 1 and 2 of the routine form the foundation for most martial arts footwork.
Muay thai is the same.
Moving forward, retreating and moving to either side involves keeping the distance between your feet constant from your fighting stance and moving position into your stance again.
See the video below about Muay thai footwork and stepping.
Again this is the foundation of your footwork.
As you develop more your style it can adapt and change for specific situations.
But you need to master this type of movement first.
This aspect seems simple but should be practiced a lot as it is mostly an unnatural human movement that needs to be practiced and ingrained into your movement.
What can we learn from Bruce Lee’s footwork routine?
I think most importantly is that footwork is the foundation and together with your stance should be practiced the most as a beginner.
From the footwork and stance come your techniques as well as defense and attack.
It’s important to note that Bruce Lee continued to practice his basic footwork and importantly he wrote it down as well and kept pretty good records which we can also look at today.
Overall fighting arts have the same basic movement pattern that forms the foundation of their arts and techniques.
And it is through consistent practicing and mastering of the basics that will lead to continual improvement and mastery of your chosen art.
