Author: Zhao Zilong (China Sanda King/National MMA Champion)
Bruce Lee, this name is very familiar to everyone, he is a famous international film and television superstar and kung fu superstar. But how did he become my idol?
It all started with a movie called Dragon Fight and a book Bruce Lee Technique.
A difficult and winding road to Sanda
Looking back at the cold winter more than 20 years ago, I was recommended by the high school physical education teacher to the Inner Mongolia Sports Team to learn the martial arts sanda major, at that time I was young and ignorant, and my understanding of the martial arts sanda was also half-understood, so with the strict training and guidance of the coach, I insisted on it day after day and year after year for two years.
Through my own efforts and the hard work of my coaches, I qualified to represent Inner Mongolia in the National Wushu Sanda Championship through the selection competition. At that time, I was both excited and nervous, excited that I finally had the qualification to represent my hometown autonomous region, quite a bit of excitement about charging into the battlefield to fight, and nervous that my level still needed to be improved. If you can't achieve good results in the first competition, you feel sorry for the cultivation of the coach and the Inner Mongolia Sports Team, and you are quite stressed, so you entered the preparation stage of the tournament in such a state of anxiety.
During this period, in order to relieve our pressure, Brother Shi specially played bruce Lee movie "Dragon Fight Tiger Fight" for everyone in the activity room. The action and storyline in the movie deeply touched me, and it was the first time I saw such an exciting action movie, and the adoration secretly arose in my heart. Since then, I have consciously or unconsciously learned the movements and strange screams in the movie, which have been passed on as a laughing stock by my brothers, but I did not think so and continued my imitation.
In the blink of an eye, it was time for the tournament, my match match table had come out, the first time the lottery coach actually gave me the seed of the previous year, the coach encouraged me to dare to fight and fight the champion, I am the champion! With the encouragement of my coach, I fought the first inning with all my might, but due to the tension, my physical strength was quickly exhausted, and my mind was blank in the ring. Two minutes passed quickly, but I felt that the time was long, I was punched and kicked by my opponent and knocked out of the ring, so I lost my first game and lost the opportunity to qualify. After a week of fierce competition, our Inner Mongolia Sanda team ranked in the top five in the country with an excellent result of one gold and one silver and two thirds.
After returning to the sports team, I felt that the results were not ideal, sorry for the cultivation of the organization, did not want to train, and was ready to go home. At this time, the coach talked to me and criticized me, saying that I was not responsible and that I was afraid of failure. In short, I was still not convinced, and the brothers also advised me, their first game was worse than me, and so on, until a master brother gave me a book "Bruce Lee Techniques". This original boxing classic by Bruce Lee, the master of boxing, not only opened my martial arts horizons, but also opened my heart knots. From theory to technical tactics, the whole book is completely close to actual combat, full of reasonable quotes, including how an athlete carries out combat psychological construction and self-motivation, which touched me a lot at that time, such as "If you want to become a champion, you must establish the right attitude to training in your thinking, and you should be willing to do the most difficult and tedious long-term training." The more prepared you are for any challenge, the more satisfactory the results will be. "The frustration of being defeated is only a temporary state of mind, and as long as you haven't given up, then you haven't failed." Man's greatest enemy is not your opponent, but yourself. ”
Since then, every time I encounter difficulties and confusion, I have used this to motivate myself, and I have slowly come out of the shadow of failure. In the next training, in addition to careful training and mastering the sanda techniques and tactics taught by the coach, I also secretly taught myself the theory of boxing in "Bruce Lee Technique", practical techniques and tactics, and related martial arts psychological guidance principles, and integrated them into my own sanda training. After a year of hard practice, I finished third in this class in my second tournament and was closer to the championship in my mind.
In 2002, I participated in the Chinese martial arts "Sanda King" Championship, under the leadership of the teacher, carefully prepared for the battle, and targeted the development of a detailed competition technical and tactical plan, as a result, I played well all the way, through five levels and six generals, won the heavyweight championship for the first time, became the king of Sanda, and won the honorary title of "King of Divine Legs". Here, I would like to give special thanks to Sanda For his vigorous cultivation and extremely professional and timely guidance on the field, as well as the various support and help given by my brothers on the road of my professional growth, as well as Bruce Lee's real kung fu movie (for me, it is equivalent to a teaching film and an inspirational film) and the Bruce Lee Technique for giving me inspiration, as well as spiritual encouragement and guidance.
I thought that the "Sanda King" event soared into the sky, can always undertake the promotion and development of the martial arts Sanda mission and responsibility, has been continued to hold, unfortunately, because of special reasons, Sanda King event was eventually interrupted, for a time, many domestic Sanda team members did not have the help of Sanda professional events, could not find the way forward, and began to transform into mixed martial arts (MMA) events.
At that time, mixed martial arts competitions had just emerged in China, and many martial arts players did not know much about mixed martial arts, and their hearts were very confused. Influenced by Bruce Lee's martial arts spirit and his advanced and open martial arts philosophy of unlimited all-round scientific fighting, I felt "cordial" about mixed martial arts pros, not only naturally acceptable, but also always paying attention to them, and later when I had the opportunity, I actively participated in MMA events, transforming from a sanda athlete to a professional mixed martial arts player.
Inherit and promote Bruce Lee's martial arts ideas
Mixed martial arts (MMA) is developing rapidly in China and around the world, and is gradually being accepted by people in the martial arts community. It is the rise of mixed martial arts that makes everyone understand and know that the real father of mixed martial arts is Bruce Lee.
Bruce Lee was the first to revolutionarily put forward the advanced martial arts concept of modern mixed martial arts without sects, unlimited, and cross-training, and at the same time fully practiced it in the Zhenfan GuoshuGuan through boxing, and through his true kung fu films in the early 1970s, he also showed the ultimate form of modern mixed martial arts competition protective gear (finger gloves) and kicking and wrestling that are fully integrated (see the movie "Dragon Fight Tiger Fight"). The mainstream recognition and admiration of Bruce Lee's father MMA in the international mixed martial arts community has made my admiration and admiration for Bruce Lee more intense, and my understanding of his martial arts practice is also more profound.
One day, suddenly I remembered the book that had been accompanying me in training and competition, the front cover and back cover had been turned over by me in the process of repeated reading, and now it seemed to have yellowed Bruce Lee Martial Arts Secret Book, "Bruce Lee Technique", and I inexplicably had a wish in my heart - I hoped that I would have the opportunity to really associate with The Cut Boxing And the Bruce Lee Master.
Probably because my fate with Trunct Boxing really arrived, I met Mr. Zhong Haiming, the translator of Bruce Lee Technique, at a martial arts forum in Beijing in 2010, which made me ecstatic. After the meeting, I carried the book "Bruce Lee Techniques" that was carefully wrapped in many layers, and went to visit Teacher Zhong.
The erudite Teacher Zhong is also a veteran martial arts master and inheritor. He told me about many unknown ups and downs in the early days of reform and opening up, and introduced the relevant background situation.
In order to promote Chinese martial arts and promote the spread of cutting boxing and Bruce Lee's advanced martial arts and practical combat ideas in China, Teacher Zhong also selflessly spent his life's energy and painstaking efforts. I was deeply touched by Teacher Zhong's efforts and efforts to promote the positive energy of martial arts, to spread the scientific system of boxing in China, and the achievements he had made, and I had the intention of worshiping the teacher in my heart.
Later, through the introduction of Teacher Zhong, I met Mr. Hao Gang and Mr. Zhu Jianhua, the inheritors of Trunct Boxing In China. In order to inherit Bruce Lee's original practice of truncated boxing and carry forward Bruce Lee's martial arts philosophy and martial arts ideas, the two teachers have been studying systematically with Bruce Lee's personal disciple Master Li Kai, and at the same time actively connect with the international boxing community, go out and introduce them, do their best, train a large number of truncated boxing disciples in China, and also translate and publish many new Chinese Bruce Lee classic original works. To this end, I formally proposed to the three teachers that I would like to visit the teacher.
After a period of testing and professional experience, the teachers recognized my personality and achievements, and decided to accept me as an apprentice, hoping that I could inherit the kung fu culture of cut boxing and Bruce Lee in China as a disciple of cut boxing. In that year, I began to represent the Chinese Trukwondo International Federation in a number of mixed martial arts competitions in China, becoming the first Sanda King to represent Truncated Boxing in China, and won multiple championships and a golden belt.
Probably, there will be a lot of Sanda athletes wondering what techniques and tactics are worth learning in the boxing ring that makes me so obsessed. All I can say is that it may be because you still lack a correct, in-depth understanding of the martial arts history of Bruce Lee and Kickboxing, or because of the preconceived "Bruce Lee is just an actor" bias.
If you really have an open mind, you can open your heart, "empty your cup", really in-depth understanding of Bruce Lee's ten years of professional development in the American martial arts industry from 1960 to 1970, as well as the original cut boxing, personally transform and cultivate the "father of American kickboxing" Joe Lewis, indirectly promote the American professional fighting competition, from the traditional semi-contact competition, successfully transformed into a full-contact modern kick boxing (the so-called free fighting) historical facts, and then, on this basis, If you can really sink your heart, from the perspective of actual combat and competition, not from the perspective of Bruce Lee's film performance, carefully read Bruce Lee's classic monographs, contact the real boxing practitioners, deeply understand and learn Bruce Lee's martial arts theory, compare and analyze his fighting techniques and tactics and training methods, and actual combat strategies, I believe you will benefit a lot.
In fact, the world's top UFC legendary champions Spider-Man, Mouth Cannon, and Bones have all said that they are hardcore fans of Bruce Lee, and have been studying and borrowing bruce Lee's martial arts, Spider-Man even claimed that he has been changing his own techniques and tactics into Bruce Lee's all-round scientific fighting style of control flow movement warfare, and also went to Bruce Lee's disciple Master Iru Shandu to ask for advice on boxing.
Perhaps, this is a strange situation that exists at present, many young domestic professional players only have UFC champions such as Spider-Man, Bones, etc., and there is no Bruce Lee, and on the contrary, the Chinese that can be seen in the eyes of these foreign champions is only Bruce Lee.
Why? Because they can truly understand the history of Bruce Lee's professional martial arts development in the United States through the historical witnesses of Bruce Lee's contemporaries in the American martial arts community, they themselves are really studying, learning from Bruce Lee, and truly benefiting from Bruce Lee's martial arts. So, they know that Bruce Lee was first and foremost a great martial artist, and secondly, he became an actor in order to spread martial arts to the whole world, so they don't have the self-obsession of some people in China.
As a professional fighter with similar experiences, I am also a learner and witness of Bruce Lee martial arts. The Bruce Lee spirit is the light of my heart, and it often guides me out of the confusion of life.
Perhaps, for athletes, training and competition are just an important and memorable stage in life, but it cannot represent the whole of a person, but Bruce Lee and his martial arts, his spirit and philosophy, have always been with me. Now, whether in life or work, as long as I am confused or feel difficult, I can't help but think of Bruce Lee, guided by the spirit of the dragon, it can be said that Bruce Lee's martial arts and his philosophical ideas will continue to run through my entire life, and it will definitely affect my life.
Finally, I sincerely hope that Bruce Lee's spirit and martial arts philosophy, and the "simple, direct, non-traditional" scientific martial arts principles of truncation, can be understood, applied and passed on in the broader field of humanities.
The enemy is stronger and stronger, and I will meet every challenge with the attitude of a champion! Like a statuer, remove the extra part of every action flashy and unreal, make yourself more streamlined, more hidden, more deceptive, more effective in actual combat, and strive to use the shortest time, in the shortest distance, with the least consumption to achieve the greatest effect, simply and directly knock down your opponent! Bruce Lee advocated that the practitioner should be like water, stop like a mirror, move like a wild wave, and stimulate his own strength from the inside out; he also admonished us to always have an empty cup of thought, not to be complacent, not to be conservative, to keep forging ahead, and to be full of national feelings and patriotic feelings...
"If you look dust in your eyes, the world will become a narrow path. Don't cling to any foreign object, life can be broad and boundless", such an open and broad Bruce Lee spirit is always worth learning from every young Chinese, whether you are a martial arts practitioner, a professional fighter, or just someone who is interested in Bruce Lee philosophy.
November 3, 2021 in Foshan