I don’t know about you but the two biggest martial arts influences on me were the TV series The Green Hornet and the movie Enter the Dragon! I was picked on as a kid and started reading everything I could about marital arts. I saw karate/kung fu as a way to even up the odds against bigger, stronger boys. I had some success in defending myself in the sixth grade but later after moving into a rough neighborhood – I was mugged while going to the store.

Then while I was 16 years old, I knew that Bruce Lee was the real deal! While unlike many of my friends, I was not into hero worship but respected martial artists like Bruce Lee because if a light Asian man could overcome weight and strength advantages of his foes – there was hope for a skinny wannabe martial artist (me)!

Sylvia “Sly” Zimmer worte a nice, informative piece over at ParanormalAnd.com (scroll down to the Hollywood Ghosts and Curses section or click the next link) entitled “Bruce Lee Was There Really A Curse?” I will have to admit here and now that Sly is the writer of the family. Sure I work at writing interesting content for my blogs but she (Sylvia) really researches her topics and brings a fresh perspective for paranormal, mysteries, and sci fi type of topics like the old TV show, “One Step Beyond” did.

In this post I will review a bit of Sly’s story and add some of my prespective on Bruce Lee. Here is one of the opening paragraphs introducing Bruce Lee:

 His trademark cocky confidence, feral stalking gait, mesmerizing glower, predatory wildcat screams and lightening-fast movements, put him in a class all his own and a force to be reckoned with. He didn’t quite fit the stereotypical, 20th century image of the mild mannered Asian that many mindsets of a Western world recognized. This lethal powerhouse, encased in a steely sinewy sweat drenched body, sized up his opponents and with his palm outstretched, in a fighter’s stance, let loose an unexpected ferocity that left us speechless.

Here are some of the feats Bruce Lee accomplished.

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As a well traveled woman, you feel safe at your beach front resort in one of Mexico’s beach cities. After a while you decide to take a walk to the cantina for some cervesas! The sun warms you in your bikini as you think about that gentleman that said he would meet you at the cantina today.

All of a sudden you notice some unsavory characters in your path through the alley shortcut. Being a worldly woman you realize that the time to act is before you are attacked. You warn them off as you take another path. The guys move quickly to intercept!

In this post I will examine self-defense as a concept in its own right! I mean many enlightened people will take kung fu or karate for the goal of self-defense, but really – how good are the martial arts for self-defense? I will explore one kung fu master, Bruce Lee, with his views about martial arts as they apply to fighting and oh yes – I will finish the story about this soon to be accosted woman in a foreign country.

Here is part of an interview with Bruce Lee to set the stage for this conversation. Martial arts are discussed at about 3:11 of this interview.

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