The smartest living martial artist.

[rogue]

Bruce Lee was, of course, an intellectual. He had special insight into life and the martial arts, and the talent to explain and demostrate his ideas in a unique way. The way he gave new life to dead arts was nothing short of amazing. Ed Parker ran a not so close second but is still one of the most important thinkers in martial arts. After that I'd say Rorian Gracie who I think is an underestimated genius.
So with Lee and Parker dead who besides Rorion would you say is the smartest living martial artist?

Of course I'm The Real Original Lucky Louie. Accept no substitutes.

[Wong Fei Hong]

I would say albert einstein cause he could go back in time and whoop your ass. But we all know that gene ching taught him that so my vote for smartest.
Gene Ching

[David Jamieson]

Bruce Lee was, of course, an intellectual

Compared to a cabbage maybe. Mostly he was a movie star, I wouldn't classify him as intellectual though. Mind you, he did cop a lot of stuff out of confucian, taoist and buddhist teachings and drop them into the western lap as we were all starting to be interested in it.

I think narrowing to a 'smartest' thing is too terminilogical. The smartest martial artists probably changes by the moment.

[rogue]

Come on KL, name someone whose writings and thoughts have changed martial arts more than Bruce Lee. Funukoshi, Yip Mann, Wallid Ismael?

BL had some very serious brain power. The man was a diamond in the rough, but still a diamond.

[David Jamieson]

Come on KL, name someone whose writings and thoughts have changed martial arts more than Bruce Lee. Funukoshi, Yip Mann, Wallid Ismael?

As martial artists discover the various sources that inspired Bruce, one could look at him as more of a reiterator as opposed to innovator.

If I take a gun to a place that never had guns, will they view me as the inventor of the gun?

[SPJ]

Let me derail the smart thing a bit.

Inspiration in MA.

A punch is just a puch (in the beginning). A punch is not just a punch (in the middle). A punch is just a punch (in the end). BL

war. war. what it is good for? absolutely nothing. y'all. song quote in the movie by J Chan.

whatever that is you do so well is your style. Chow Xing Chi in German TV interview 2005.

The difference between Ba Ji and Tai Chi is in the horse riding stance. Liu Yun Qiao.

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[Lohanhero]

do you know all living martial artists?

[Wong Fei Hong]

Tbh i never read bruce lee's writings , but what i did see go through at a friends house like tao of jeet kune do and things like the movie silent flute that he "wrote" its a rip off of zen and taoist stories that i read elsewhere with one guy going through all the stories.

However If you read that jesus and buddah wrote the same things who copied who ? Neither remember gene ching taught them

But you get the gist of what i mean, these things have been around for longer than we can remember.

About being a smart martial artist, i reckon that ashida kim is smart cause he makes lots ofpeople to talk about him. I think wong kiew kit is smart cause he gets people to pay him 1500$ for a couple of days. If that counts
There isnt really a definition for smart i dont think because the above 2 people fought the least and yet made the most cash.
Or maybe tyson is the smartest, that guy fough,t had a good rep and got paid such a phenomenal amount of money for what other people do for free or for 100 times what other people got paid.
Gracie are super smart i mean look what they did, they took an art modified it created their own and then they put it in the right place at the right time and made a whole new genre of martial arts and artists. It could have been pure greco roman wrestling that made that boom.
Funakoshi could be granted smartest he gave a whole series of generations martial arts ... up to 28th in the lineage of funakoshi are teaching now adays , and how did he do this , by turning a trad okinawan art only 100 years ago into the very first mcdojo.

Bruce lee acted and i dont really see what you mean by his writings changing martial arts more than anyone else. All he did was adhered by the principal first you learn then you adapt.

[rogue]

As martial artists discover the various sources that inspired Bruce, one could look at him as more of a reiterator as opposed to innovator.

If I take a gun to a place that never had guns, will they view me as the inventor of the gun?

And Einstein stood on the shoulders of Newton. BL saw truth in what those others said and took it light years further along. Just because someone invented the Blunderbuss doesn't mean that Winchester wasn't a genius with his rifle. Many today forget what a sorry state martial arts were in during the 60's and 70's. Bruce Lee saved the martial arts from self destructing by being an iconclast. If master (fill in name here) knew what BL knew then why doesn't anybody know who master (fill in name here) is? Even the WC people and old kickboxers have to grab onto BL's coat tails.



Of course I'm The Real Original Lucky Louie. Accept no substitutes. Ask for it by name.

[Wong Fei Hong]

I have to admit about the wc bruce lee comment but i think most of the wing chun guys used it as a marketing tool and nothing more, about the kickboxing which evolved from point karate i dont think this really has much to do with bruce lee if he even competed once or hosted an event i would say ok... Bruce lee used to invite black belts to train with him, so the foundations were already in place.
But in all honesty I dont think bruce lee had that much to do with the spread of martial arts or the evolution for that matter, ok a lot of people felt the kung foo and karate craze but, even if bruce lee wasnt there delegates from japan were in europe and america from all the head japanese styles anyhow for about 20 years before bruce lee. People had so much give n take with martial arts due to the whole japan america ww2 thing.
I mean i can honestly say gracie was responsible for mma to boom with ufc but i cant say that bruce lee did anything near that.

[SPJ]

there are many and many smart and innovative practitioners of MA all the time.

Sun Lu Tang studied Xing Yi first. He stressed Kai He in Tai Chi-> Sun style Tai Chi.

Zhang Zhao Dong incorporated Xing Yi into Ba Gua. his student Jiang Rong Qiao in Kuo Shu Guan in the 1930's promoted Ba Gua thruout China. Jiang's Ba Gua Zhang book was the most read about the style.

BL may be well known. WC was widely taught by Leung Ting. Just about every southern style will teach WC. WC was the most known and practiced Kung Fu in the world. I believed that BL has something to do with WC propagation.

Chen Chang Xing summaried boxing methods from Chen Wang Ting. Lao Jia Yi Lu and Pao Chui Er Lu. Yang Lu Chan propagated it in Beijing.

Ma Yin Tu in Kuo Shu Guan and Liu Yun Qiao in Wu Tan. They both propagated Ba Ji fist. Their teacher is Li Shu Wen.

Ding Zi Cheng with Liu He mantis (Liu He Mantis is short fist or Duan Chui and mantis together). Zhang Xian San propagated the style in Taiwan. Dang Xian Ling propagated it in China.

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And yes, they are no longer with us.

But the contributions and influences are still with us or live on.

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[GeneChing]

If I was the smartest, I'd be making more money....

I think it's pretty hard to judge 'smarts.' It's too loose of a definition. You could say who has had the most impact and who is having the most impact, which seems to be the direction everyone is going with the Bruce Lee discussion here. Surely Bruce had the biggest impact because he is the most recognizable to the general population. I'm guessing that worldwide, the only person who might be in that ballpark would be Jackie Chan. Here in America, it would probably go to Chuck Norris, but Jackie is so huge in Asia and no one knows Chuck there. They know Seagal more than they know Chuck, at least in Thailand because he hawks Singha beer, or at least he used to. However, general popularity is no barometer of smarts - case and point - Paris Hilton. I'm not sure how you measure smarts. Care to rephrase the question?

[Chief Fox]

Steven Segal is the smartest living martial artist.

[JamesC]

Steven Segal is the smartest living martial artist.

He can't be that smart, he's still making crappy movies. AND, his hair is falling out.

[SPJ]

Actually, people like him because of his pony tail.

His words are short. His "justice" or fist is fast.

He is loved in the east Asia from Japan down to indonesia etc.

Sort of "John Wayne" with Kung Fu or Qin Na without using gun at all.

The thing is that he is way tall for any female leading character.

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I like his movies and so do many others.