3 Things Bruce Lee Can Teach Us About Basketball
Liberate yourself from classical basketball.
A learned man once approached a Zen teacher to inquire about Zen. As the teacher was imparting his wisdom onto the learned man, the man would constantly interrupt, interjecting his own thoughts as the teacher was speaking. After becoming frustrated with the learned man, the teacher stopped talking and began to serve him tea.
As he was pouring him his cup of tea, the teacher allowed the man’s cup to overflow with tea until it was pouring off the sides.
“Enough,” the learned man exclaimed, “no more can go into the cup!”
“Indeed, I see.” said the Zen teacher. “If you do not empty your cup first, how then can you taste my cup of tea?”
In the September 1971 issue of Black Belt Magazine, the ahead-of-his-time martial artist Bruce Lee wrote an article entitled, “Liberate Yourself from Classical Karate,” in which he detailed the art of Jeet Kune Do — his unique view on the practice of martial arts. The story above is how he opened his article.
Jeet Kune Do as a concept is difficult to explain as many think it is just another form of martial arts (like Karate or Wing Chun) that Lee invented, but it is actually much more than that. Lee himself even admitted that it was difficult to explain. In fact, he wrote eight prior drafts of the article before he was able to arrive at his finished piece. Explaining JKD is no easy task.
Jeet Kune Do translated means, the way of the intercepting fist. He was of the belief that it was better to intercept an attack than it was to try and block it. For Bruce Lee martial arts were about efficiency.
Bruce Lee did not believe in adhering to one particular form of martial arts when it came to combat. The reason he didn’t believe in styles, was because he realized that combat “is always fresh, alive, and constantly changing.” He thought styles — be it Kung-fu, Karate, street fighting or whatever — were limiting.
The reason he believed so was for the simple fact that combat is unpredictable. When you’re in a fight, if your response becomes dependent upon a particular fighting style, then, as he put it, “you will react in terms of what ‘should be’, rather than to the reality of the ever-changing ‘what is.’”
He spent the entire article trying to emphasis that JKD was not a new style of fighting, but rather it was the idea of freeing yourself “from the bondages to styles, patterns, and doctrines.”
Unlike classical martial arts, there are no rules or techniques that constitute a distinct JKD fighting style. Instead, it looks at combat “not from a single angle, but from all possible angles.” It’s about stripping away anything that’s inefficient and adding what is beneficial until you create something that is uniquely your own.
Martial Arts and Basketball
What does this have to do with basketball? Well, it has everything to do with basketball. Much like combat, basketball is dynamic, fluid, and unpredictable.
I couldn’t help but think that while reading his article, much of what he was saying could be applied to basketball. The similarities between the two sports are striking. If you read the article with basketball in mind, it still makes complete and total sense.
Isn’t basketball “always fresh, alive, and constantly changing” much like combat? Therefore, wouldn’t adhering to a particular style of basketball be limiting, both to the individual and to the team as a whole?
When you become solely reliant on a particular offense, whatever that offense may be, won’t you “react in terms of what should be rather than to the reality of the ever-changing what is?” Basketball players are not robots. If they were, every possession would end in an open shot.
The best teams have players, who can not only play the game, but understand it as well. In other words, they’re fundamentally sound. They are not thinking, but rather reacting. Teams that have those types of players tend to find success. Teams that have players who rely purely on the “offense” to succeed are often times mediocre.
I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again, I think that’s the reason why college basketball isn’t as entertaining as the NBA. Sure, you can use the “love of the game” argument when talking about college versus the pros, but that argument has nothing to do with the quality of play.
One of the reasons why college basketball is suffering is because of over-coaching. Coaches dictate too much of what’s happening on the court. Coaches that try to micromanage their team—in a game that’s meant to be free-flowing—end up only hindering them.
It’s because basketball wasn’t meant to be played like other sports. There are just too many variables to account for. You can’t say, this is how it’s going to work, because you just don’t know. You have to be able to adapt and change on a moment’s notice — much like in combat.
When you rely on a certain style of basketball you become predictable. You don’t want to be predictable in an unpredictable sport.
Don’t get me wrong, I’m not against certain styles of offense in basketball. All I’m saying is that if you become reliant on them, they become your crutch. So that when they get taken away from you, you are unable to function.
Bruce Lee didn’t dismiss all styles of martial arts entirely. In fact, he borrowed the best things from all of them to form his own fighting style that was unique to him. He was heavily influenced by Wing Chun, boxing, and even fencing. I say let your influences be wide, so that your style can be distinct.
Bruce Lee made the observation that there is a difference between “having no form” and “having no-form.” He said the former is ignorance, but the latter is transcendence. Do you see the difference between the two? When you do you’ll understand what JKD is.
It would be wise if we approached basketball in the same way Bruce Lee approached combat. We shouldn’t get caught up in the structure, but rather embrace the randomness of the game.
3 Things We Can Learn From Bruce Lee
Here are the 3 things Bruce Lee can teach us about basketball.
- Structure can be a hindrance in a sport that is naturally unpredictable.
- Styles can restrict us.
- Self-knowledge is the key to growth.
1. Structure can be a hindrance in a sport that is naturally unpredictable.
A key takeaway from his article:
Prolonged repetitious drillings will certainly yield mechanical precision and security of the kind that comes from any routine. However, it is exactly this kind of “selective” security or “crutch” which limits or blocks the total growth of a martial artist. In fact, quite a few practitioners develop such a liking for and dependence on their “crutch” that they can no longer walk without it. Thus, any one special technique, however cleverly designed, is actually a hindrance.
2. Styles can restrict us.
We are all unique. And that’s no different when we step on the basketball court. Here’s a great excerpt from his article regarding this idea.
One cannot express himself fully when imprisoned by a confining style. Combat “as is” is total, and it includes all the “is” as well as “is not”, without favorite lines or angles. Lacking boundaries, combat is always fresh, alive and constantly changing. Your particular style, your personal inclinations and your physical makeup are all parts of combat, but they do not constitute the whole of combat. Should your responses become dependent upon any single part, you will react in terms of what “should be”, rather than to the reality of the ever-changing “what is”. Remember that while the whole is evidenced in all its parts, an isolated part, efficient or not, does not constitute the whole.
3. Self-knowledge is the key to growth.
Bruce Lee has stated that, when it comes to martial arts, all knowledge is ultimately self-knowledge. Isn’t that true of basketball as well?
A teacher, a really good sensei, is never a giver of “truth”; he is a guide, a pointer to the truth that the student must discover for himself. A good teacher, therefore, studies each student individually and encourages the student to explore himself, both internally and externally, until, ultimately, the student is integrated with his being.
Here’s an example of this type of teaching being put into practice. The video below contains a clip from an episode of Longstreet, a TV show from the 70s. It’s about an insurance investigator named Mike Longstreet who survived an explosion that killed his wife and took his eye sight. The premise of the series revolves around him continuing as an insurance investigator while being blind and also seeking to find those responsible for his wife’s death.
In the series Bruce Lee plays the part of Li Tsung, Longstreet’s martial arts instructor. In this particular episode we get a glimpse into Lee’s real life philosophy on martial arts. I particularly enjoyed his views on teaching.
Mike Longstreet: Yeah, Li’s going to teach me all this.
Li Tsung: I cannot teach you, only help you to explore yourself. Nothing more.
Great teachers help their students explore.
Basketball as a Form of Expression
Bruce Lee ultimately believed that martial arts were about the expression of the human body. He truly put the “art” in martial arts. He stated that “one cannot express himself fully when imprisoned by a confining style.”
Basketball is the same way. It is a way to express yourself and when we adhere to a single style, we limit ourselves.
Lee believed JKD was different for each individual and that’s why it was so difficult to explain. How do you explain something that is different for every person?
Practitioners of JKD are free to add/modify elements to create something that is uniquely their own. Ultimately JKD is about self discovery and self expression.
Shouldn’t basketball be the same way? Shouldn’t the “style” of basketball be different for every team — one that takes advantage of each player’s unique skills and strengths? Isn’t that how a sport as dynamic as basketball should be played?
I say liberate yourself from classical basketball.
My name is scott smoker and I write about basketball and other stuff every week on my website roundballsupply.co. You can also find me on Twitter.
