Who is the Taekwondo master John lee that Joe Rogan talks about?

Martial arts has often been filled with mythical characters and stories – especially from times before the internet. In short, these were times without less information so the truth was not always known. Regarding Taekwondo stories, one name that often crops up is John Lee who has been mentioned by Joe Rogan on several occasions. It’s no secret that Rogan is one of the most influential TKD practitioners ever. Due to his popular podcast and personality, he’s shone a light on Taekwondo and helped spread it to a wider audience.

Over the years, Rogan has casually mentioned John Lee and sung his praises. According to Rogan, John Lee was one of the reasons that he started training at Lee’s gym and was incredibly impressed by his kicking technique. As is known, Joe Rogan’s TKD kicks are no joke and can easily knock people out. According to Rogan however, John Lee was even more powerful than himself which is staggering to believe.

On a martial arts forum post made back in October 2010, Joe Rogan actually mentioned John Lee after being asked about him. This was his response, “He was the guy that taught me the turning side kick. When I first went to Jae Kim’s Tae Kwon Do I was dropping in to check out the school and he was working out. He was training for the National championship at the time. He went on to take the Gold in the Nationals and represented the US at that world championships in Denmark and took a bronze there.

That dude was kicking the bag so hard that I was immediately hooked on training there. I had never seen anything like it. I fought on the same team as him in many tournaments, and regardless of what was going on when John Lee was fighting everyone came over to watch. He was tricky as hell, and he kicked like a wild horse. I saw many a man get hit by his turning side kick and sent sailing through the air, collapsing in a heap of agony. Dude was a bad mother”

Sadly, since then little is known about John Lee and what he was like as a martial artist or as a person. However, as seen about it looks like Joe Rogan was a massive fan. On the forum, Rogan was also asked if John Lee was from Chelsea, and he confirmed this was the case. There are 19 cities in USA called Chelsea with most being on the east coast. This makes sense, as Rogan lived on the east coast until aged 27 which is when he moved to California. Here, he left Taekwondo behind to persue acting and eventually took up Brazilian Jiu Jitsu.

There is little else known about the legend of John Lee, other than internet gossip. Having said this, most people that mention him all claim how good he was and are shocked at how powerful and impressive he was at Taekwondo. Regarding Lee’s features he is said to have had jheri curls but that is as far as his features are known. If he competed alongside Joe Rogan as he mentioned, then this means that John Lee is probably aged around late 50s or early 60s.

Unlike some crazy internet tales about secret kumite tournaments taking place in mysterious forests, it looks like the legend of John Lee the Taekwondo master is genuine. Thinking about it logically, there’s no reason for Joe Rogan to lie as it wouldn’t serve him any purpose. Secondly, the fact there are others that have validated his claims also makes his story more concrete.

This acts as a key story and example in showing that life before the internet was very different compared to the life we now live in. Had John Lee been around in this era, he would have undoubtedly be known on a much higher level. Hopefully one day, more information will be revealed on John Lee. Whilst this isn’t a certainty, until then we’ll have to get by on the information provided above.

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