Bruce Lee - Amazing Feats
Bruce Lee's feats have been well and truly documented by his friends and admirers alike, amazed by his superhuman qualities which belied his small frame. Bruce, standing at only five feet, seven-and-a-half inches tall and weighing a modest 135 pounds performed legendary feats of strength, agility and speed, those of which have never been matched up to this day. So I bring to you quotes and anecdotes from Bruce Lee's friends, students and training partners who all bear witness to 'Bruce Lee's Amazing Feats'
Herb Jackson
(Friend and training partner of Bruce Lee - also commissioned by Bruce to build equipment and training apparatus for him)
"Bruce was interested in becoming as strong as possible."
"The biggest problem in designing equipment for Bruce, is that he'd go through it so damn fast! I had to reinforce his wooden dummy with automobile parts so he could train on it without breaking it. "
"...The reason for the machine was simply because no one could stand up to his full-force punches and kicks - Bruce's strength and skill had evolved to the point where he had to fight machines!"
Danny Inosanto
(Best Friend, student and training partner of Bruce Lee - only person authorised to teach Bruce's Jeet Kune Do)
"I remember once Bruce and I were walking along the beach in Santa Monica, all of a sudden this huge bodybuilder came walking by, and I said to Bruce, 'man, look at the arms on that guy!' I'll never forget his reaction - he said, yeah, he's big - but is he powerful?"
"Bruce had tremendous strength in holding a weight out horizontally in a standing position. I know because I've seen it. He'd take a 125-pound barbell and hold it straight out."
Chuck Norris
(World Karate Champion, actor and student of Bruce Lee - appeared opposite to Bruce in 'Way of the Dragon')
"Bruce Lee, pound for pound, might well have been one of the strongest men in the world - and certainly one of the quickest."
Jhoon Rhee
(American tae kwon do grandmaster, friend and training partner of Bruce Lee)
"Bruce was really gifted. Pound for pound, I've never seen anyone as strong as he was. He used to do push-ups with one finger - on one hand! I can't even do it with four fingers!"
Joe Lewis
(World Karate Champion and student of Bruce Lee)
"Bruce was incredibly strong for his size. He could take a 75-pound barbell and, from a standing position with the barbell held flush against his chest, he could slowly stick his arms out straight out, lock them and hold the barbell there for 20 seconds - that's pretty damn good for a guy who at the time weighed only 138 pounds! I know 200-pound weightlifters who can't do that!"
Jesse Glover
(First student of Bruce Lee in the United States)
"Bruce would take a 70-pound dumbbell with one arm and raise it to a lateral position - level with his shoulder - and then he'd hold the contraction for a few seconds. Nobody else I knew could even get it up there, let alone hold it up there!"
"He was very, very quick, we timed him with an electric timer once and Bruce's quickest movements were around five-hundredths of a second; his slowest were around eight-hundredths, and this was punching from a relaxed position with his hands down at his sides from a distance between 18-24 inches. Not only was he amazingly quick, but he could read you too. He could pick up on small subtle things that you were getting ready to do and then he'd just shut you down."
Wally Jay
(Premier jujitsu performer in the United States)
"Bruce had a big heavy bag hanging out on this patio. It weighed 300 pounds. I could hardly move it at all. Bruce said to me 'Hey, wally, watch this!' and this monster of a heavy bag went up to the ceiling - thump! - and came back down. I still can't believe the power that guy had."
Hayward Nishioka
(Pan American Gold medal winner in judo)
Talking about Bruce's trademark "one-inch" punch - "I got knocked up against the wall by that punch. I didn't think it was possible that he could generate that much power in his punch, especially when he was just laying his hand against my chest - he just twitched a bit and - wham! - I went flying backward and bounced off a wall! I took him very seriously after that."
One stunt Bruce liked doing was thrusting his fingers through unopened cans of Coca-Cola - this was before cans were made with aluminium, which is a much softer material than what the cans were made of back in the days.
Bruce use to explode 100-pound heavybags with a simple side kick as witnessed by James Coburn.
For a party trick Bruce would place a dime in a participant's upturned palm and told them that he would try to pick the dime out of their palm before they could close their hand. So with the unsuspecting participant ready Bruce's fingers were poised above the upturned palm, then within a flash Bruce would snatch - it would seem Bruce was too slow with the smiling participant with closed hand thinking that they still had the dime within it. But to the participant's amazement Bruce was successful - upon opening their hand they were stunned to find Bruce had grabbed the dime, but even more amazing was that he left a penny in it's place.
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