It isn’t easy losing someone you look up to. When Bruce Lee passed away, that was the sentiment of the entire martial arts community. Fans were distraught, contemporaries were heartbroken and in general, there was a sense of defeat. The world would never be able to experience first-hand, the phenomenon that was Bruce Lee. But lucky for us, his legacy lives on through his family and his students.

One such student is Barney Scollan, raised in Sacramento California, whose first brush with the world of martial arts was the 1962 movie The Manchurian Candidate. From being “one of the smaller kids around” to being tutored by the legendary Lee, Scollan talks about it all in a recent interview.

The Novel Encounter with Bruce Lee

In the interview with Wing Chun Kung Fu EU, Scollan recalls first encountering Bruce Lee at a tournament in Long Beach, California. The tournament was conducted by Ed Parker, founder of American Kenpo Karate.

Scollan remembers Lee displeasing some people in the crowd that day. He said, “Bruce took the floor and demonstrated many of the most popular martial arts styles with great skill. Then he explained why he felt they were impractical for actual fighting, causing more than a little anger among the followers of those styles.”?But what was really ingrained in Scollan’s memories, was the sheer speed demonstrated by Lee.

In the demonstration, the Little Phoenix was a step ahead of everyone present there. Scollan talks about Lee’s speed and agility that left everyone present, dumbstruck. He recollects, “He also showed lightning-fast kicks and punches which had most of us shaking our heads in disbelief. ?Two-fingered, one-armed pushups were also very impressive. The simplicity and directness of his principles and technique made a lot of sense to me. He made a number of believers and enemies that night.”

Read more: ?Showed Him Some Legitimate Finishing Holds?: Legendary Martial Artist?s Secret Moves Helped Bruce Lee During His Iconic Fight With Chuck Norris in 1972

There is no doubt that Lee’s knowledge of martial arts was unprecedented, which is why he opened a prestigious martial arts school.

A Peak into Lee’s Martial Arts Schools

Bruce Lee first opened up a school in Seattle, known as the Jun Fan Gung Fu Institute. He then opened up two more locations in Oakland and Los Angeles. Scollan attended the Oakland school, where he had the chance to learn from, arguably, the best martial artist of that time. He paid $20 for a month which got him 3 lessons a week.

According to Scollan, Lee taught his students theory as well as philosophy, in addition to teaching them martial arts moves. Scollan recalls, “We would work on form, balance, speed, and endurance… It was during one of these times that Bruce demonstrated his now famous 1-inch punch on me.” And Lee was so powerful, Scollan flew through the air and landed in a heap.

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