Every Fighting Style Practiced By Bruce Lee (& Where He Learned Them) (2024)

Bruce Lee practiced several martial arts styles over the years. Having acquired an interest in martial arts at a very young age, Lee spent most of his life developing his skills as a fighter. While most martial artists tend to devote their time to mastering a single way of fighting, Lee always evolved, picking up moves, stances, and ideas from other styles. Unlike the biggest actors in the martial arts genre, Lee never had a black belt and only spent a very short period as a student in a martial arts school.

Despite that, Bruce Lee is still renowned as a kung-fu legend and one of film's greatest martial arts actors. The intense fight scenes Lee filmed for Enter the Dragon, Way of the Dragon, and Game of Death show his talent. Bruce Lee trained diligently and always added to his arsenal, and was well-versed in diverse martial arts disciplines beyond just kung-fu. The impact of Bruce Lee martial arts scenes on both cinema and martial arts itself cannot be denied, and it's partly due to the incredible number of fighting styles he perfected.

8 Tai Chi

Bruce Lee Learned From His Father Lee Hoi-chuen

Used primarily by its practitioners to maintain a healthy life, Tai Chi is usually recognized for its smooth techniques normally practiced in slow-motion. Since it lacks the fast pace of most martial arts forms, it’s not a popular choice for street fighting and has a better reputation with those looking to improve their overall health. Bruce Lee’s father, Lee Hoi-chuen, practiced Tai Chi daily and taught his son the fundamentals when Lee was still a child.

According to Bruce Lee: A Life by Matthew Polly, as an adult, Lee admitted that he found Tai Chi techniques “useless”. So, while it may have been the first martial art he ever learned, it didn't impact his development as a kung-fu fighter. While not the most prominent martial arts style Bruce Lee utilized, even by the actor's own admission, it did lay the groundwork for his future prowess.

7 Wing Chun

Lee Was A Student Of Wing Chun Grandmaster Ip Man

As a youth, Bruce Lee disliked Tai Chi, but quickly took to Wing Chun, a “soft” form of kung-fu built around reflexive moments, speed, and timing. Instead of concentrating on developing raw strength, Wing Chun fighters are taught to redirect their opponents’ attacks and disrupt their balance. During the 1950s, Lee was a student of Wing Chun grandmaster, Ip Man, the most famous practitioner and the focus of the Ip Man movies starring Donnie Yen.

Although Ip is credited as Lee’s kung-fu master, most of what Lee knew about Wing Chun came from someone else. Following Lee’s enrollment, Ip assigned Wong Shun Leung — one of his senior students (and a future Wing Chun grandmaster) — to work as Lee’s primary instructor. Bruce Lee later acknowledged in a letter that he regarded Wong as his true kung-fu teacher.

6 Boxing

Bruce Lee Trained In Western Boxing In High School

Boxing may not be a sport many associate with the Bruce Lee martial arts legacy, but it was among the many fighting styles he mastered. While still a Wing Chun student, Lee gained an appreciation for a completely different kind of fighting when he discovered Western boxing at his high school, St. Francis Xavier. The school sports master was an experienced boxer who saw potential in Lee and decided to train him personally.

By combining his guidance with his experience in Wing Chun, Bruce Lee competed in a high school boxing tournament and won his first and only official match. This marked the beginning (and end) of Lee’s days as a boxer, but his interest in the sport remained. Years later, Lee studied the fights of Muhammad Ali and incorporated the heavyweight boxing champion’s famous footwork techniques into his fighting style.

5 Karate

Chuck Norris Helped Bruce Lee Learn Karate

Although Bruce Lee had no formal training in karate, he was quite skilled in the martial arts technique and made use of the moves while playing Kato in ABC’s The Green Hornet show. Bruce Lee’s knowledge of karate stemmed from sparring sessions with some of his fellow martial artists in the 1960s. Among them were karate world champions Ed Parker and Chuck Norris. Training together allowed them to learn a great deal from each other. Chuck Norris, for instance, taught Lee how to perform high kicks.

4 Judo

Bruce Lee Learned Judo From Gene LeBell

An incident on the set of The Green Hornet exposed Lee to yet another fighting style — judo. Reportedly frustrated with Bruce Lee’s roughness during filming, a group of stuntmen asked Gene LeBell to intervene on their behalf and teach Lee a lesson. LeBell, a distinguished professional wrestler and a judo champion, attacked Lee by surprise and successfully managed to carry the actor around on his back. Lee was unable to break free from his grip on his own.

Lee was naturally angry about the situation, but couldn’t deny the practicality of LeBell’s approach. In response, Bruce Lee took lessons from LeBell and subsequently complemented his fighting style with several of the wrestler’s grappling techniques. Gene LeBell has claimed the holds used by Lee in Enter the Dragon came directly from his judo lessons.

3 Escrima

Bruce Lee Learned Escrima From Dan Inosanto

Escrima is a well-known style of weapon-based fighting from the Philippines. One of its most famous practitioners was Dan Inosanto, a longtime friend and training partner of Bruce Lee. Using his knowledge of Escrima, Inosanto further deepened Lee’s range by teaching him Filipino stick fighting, including the iconic nunchuck techniques Lee later utilized in Fist of Fury, Game of Death, and Enter the Dragon.

2 Taekwondo

Bruce Lee Learned Taekwondo By Sparring With Jhoon Rhee

One of Bruce Lee’s friends in the 1960s was Jhoon Rhee, a grandmaster in Taekwondo. One of the world's most respected fighting styles, Taekwondo emphasizes powerful, high-kicking moves. Sparring with Rhee allowed Lee to gain a great understanding of Korean martial arts and also better his kicking techniques. But, one of the most notable moves he picked up from Rhee wasn’t a kick. It was from Rhee that he learned the AccuPunch, a fast attack described by Muhammad Ali himself as unblockable.

1 Jeet Kune Do

The Bruce Lee Martial Art Created By The Star Himself

For years, Wing Chun was Bruce Lee’s go-to way of fighting, but that changed when he struggled to win a fight with Chinese martial artist Wong Jack Man. Due to his struggles with making the most out of Wing Chun, Lee believed it was a flawed system. In the interest of becoming a better fighter, Lee replaced Wing Chun by creating a new fighting style. Combining every form of fighting he learned until this point, along with the footwork associated with fencing, Bruce Lee created “the way of the intercepting fist.”

Known today as Jeet Kune Do, the martial arts discipline is more of a collection of ideas than a style, as it doesn’t require the practitioner to use particular stances or moves. Instead, the goal of Jeet Kune Do is to grant the fighters the freedom they need to respond to any given situation without being limited to a specific set of moves. Bruce Lee purposely designed Jeet Kune Do to be practical and effective in street-fighting situations.