Bruce Lee the ultimate Martial Artist

I remember many years ago when I was studying traditional martial arts.     I was going through the belt system of Taekwondo under a very serious Korean master. He demanded absolute perfect form; every position of the body had to be in the correct place. If a thumb were so much as slightly out of place while holding a stance, he would quickly come over and correct you. In fact, it seemed a lot of his time was spent going around correcting the form of each student.  This kind of drilling makes a lot of sense early on and I can see it having a lot of value when you are teaching a large military group. Actually, this concept of making everyone adhere to the same pattern has made Japan a great country for manufacturing cars. They have the perfect reference and everyone must hold to it and no deviation is allowed.  However, would you call someone in a car factory an artist?

The problem develops when we call ourselves artists.  The term artist has always had the connotation of someone who is creative. Forcing someone to never deviate from the ideal form in Martial Arts is like forcing someone to paint by the numbers.  Bruce Lee was a true martial artist because he was able to be so creative in the development of his personal martial art system.  He was able to honestly express himself and encouraged everyone else to do likewise.  We are all different people with different body types and attributes.  As Bruce once said, trying to force everyone to blindly fit in one form is like trying to force everyone to fit in the same size suit!  A core philosophical idea in JKD is, know the principle, follow the principle, and dissolve the principle. Yes, its important to learn the form at the beginning, but latter you should creatively adapt it to fit you. Then you are a true martial artist.