A list of the martial arts weapons used by Bruce Lee

Throughout history, there have been few martial artists who have impacted the world like Bruce Lee. He needs no introduction and his background says it all. During his later years, Bruce Lee created Jeet Kune Do which was a broader system compared to Wing Chun. Within this system, Lee used a number of different weapons that he trained with. According to his thinking at the time, Bruce Lee believed weapons could be successfully used in self defense situations.

Ultimately, this is what Jeet Kune Do was about – compared to Wing Chun. That’s not to say that Wing Chun isn’t good for street fighting either. It’s not to say that Wing Chun doesn’t use weapons either. In this article, we shall look at the weapons that Bruce Lee used. Here, we have taken weapons that he used in his movies where he fought without his fists. Unsurprisingly, Bruce Lee was very skilled with weapons, but you probably knew that already.

Weapons that Bruce Lee trained with

Nunchucks

Undoubtedly, the most commonly sighted weapon that Bruce Lee was photographed with was nunchucks. Over the years, Lee used nunchucks countless times both on and off-screen. Sometimes, these would have three parts, as opposed to just the two. Sometimes, they would also have handles like a nightstick. Overall, it’s no secret that Bruce Lee was a master with nunchucks and practiced with them for countless hours.

The outcome of this is that Bruce Lee could generate great speed with his nunchucks which could be used as deadly weapons. With the right timing and speed, a hit to the head with nunchucks could potentially kill. This acts as yet another example of how dangerous Bruce Lee is and how versatile he was as a martial artist. These were used in films such as Game Of Death and others.

Bo Staff

Another weapon often used by Bruce Lee was the Bo staff. He famously bought attention to this weapon in Enter The Dragon where he used it in a fight scene. This took place in a basement that had lots of bad henchmen attacking him with weapons of their own. The Bo staff is a long, wooden pole that is light enough to hold and long and strong enough to do damage from a distance.

Interestingly, the history of the Bo dates back to Okinawan Kobudo. In other words, the bo also comes from the same school of thought that bought us the nunchucks and certain other martial arts weapons. Like the nunchucks, Bruce Lee was also very handy with the bo and certainly didn’t lack any speed or prowess when using it.

Escrima Sticks

In the same movie, Bruce Lee also uses Escrima sticks. These come from Kali which is a Filipino self defense art. Here, people are taught how to brandish these weapons, whereby they also train with knives and similar blades. This involves holding too medium-sized wooden sticks in either hand. They can be used offensively by easily striking over the head, but they can also be used defensively.

Here, you can cross the sticks over each other to create a powerful shield. Undoubtedly, Bruce Lee would have picked up the use of Escrima sticks pretty quickly. The reason for this is down to his past use of nunchucks which work in a similar fashion. Physically, both weapons have a lot in common. With this said, it’s not too unusual that Bruce Lee used stick fighting given his past history.

Swords

Over the years, Bruce Lee was pictured with a few different sword types. For instance, he was once seen brandishing jade daggers, a katana, and even an axe. These weapons are all rooted in ancient Kung Fu, so they probably trickled down into the hands of Bruce Lee at some point. Whilst Bruce Lee mostly favored nunchucks, he was still a high level practitioner when it came to using blades. The jade dagger also commonly features in Wing Chun which Bruce Lee trained for years – so he would have been pretty competent at using it.

Obviously, using a katana differs massively compared to using a jade dagger. Nonetheless, it proves that Bruce Lee was versatile and always open to trying different stuff. Typically though, you could find Bruce Lee using other weapons before turning to swords and outside of the film industry, he didn’t really use them when training martial arts.

Conclusion

Although Bruce Lee is best remembered for using nunchucks, he could also use other weapons too. Arguably, this is why he’s widely regarded as one of the greatest martial artists ever. Whilst many fighters are good in their own arena or without weapons, they may fall apart when knives and other dangerous weapons are involved.

This is just another example of how Bruce Lee thought outside the box and was open-minded. The result saw him become world-famous and known as a top martial artist.

If you’d like to learn more about Bruce Lee’s fighting methods then check out his book on combat. It was actually written by himself and shows great insight into his mind and best techniques.