Originally Posted by fenwick99

Opinions seemed to vary about the role of wing chun in Bruce's development.
Many think that although Bruce abandoned wing chun, he needed wing chun to get as good as he was. Others seem to view jun fan gung fu, tao of chinese gung fu, non-classical gung fu, and jeet kune do to be "lateral" developments of wing chun. Still others see jkd as superceding wing chun.
Some believe that Bruce would have become the best even w/o wing chun, that his fast-twitch muscle fibers and raw determination would have made him the best. I read once that Sijo DeMile was asked why, if the Seattle material was so wonderful, did Bruce change his art after the Wong Jak Man fight? His answer: Bruce's Seattle approach had nothing to do with Wong's ability to run backwards as fast or faster than Bruce could run forwards. My own take on this is that Bruce's four arts were lateral developments of both wing chun and each other, just as Leung Ting wing tsun, Moy Yat ving tsun, ling wood chuan, Holder wing chun,
and many other systems took off from the original Yip wing chun and other variations as well. Nothing is intrinsically "better" than anything else, just as you have yang, wu, sun, chang, and other tai chi styles. It is up to the individual to maximize his own potential, with Lee's original techniques or with other techniques. If you could become the world's best fighter using Tae Kwon Do, Bruce would encourage you in your training!