Bruce Lee’s Centerline Theory

Excerpt from the Book
A Study in the Way of Chinese Martial Art
The Tao of Gung Fu
Edited by John Little

One aspect of Bruce Lee’s mastery was his ability to defend and attack at the same time, this can be attributed to his Wing Chun training and the understanding of the centerline theory, this excerpt explains a portion of this theory.

Bruce Lee’s Centerline Theory can be viewed as Imagining that your body is divided by a line that runs from between your legs through the top of your head. In gung fu this is called joan sien, or the centerline theory. It is the base from which all defense and attack are deployed. You must always have your centerline guarded with one of your hands at all times, and whenever you change the position of your hands, regardless of your position, you must always endeavor to protect the centerline.

It has been determined that the ideal distance your lead elbow should be from the centerline is three inches. This allows you to employ the immovable- elbow theory (see the following section), which is fundamental for attack and defense in many styles of gung fu.

Additionally, the centerline theory allows you to generate more power in your techniques as it serves to coordinate both arm and body, enabling a gung fu man to employ his entire body weight with each strike. Using arm force alone is indeed a characteristic of the untrained person (in
fact, a lot of instructors are practitioners of that), and since striking is mainly used in gung fu, I’ll discuss the relationship of arm power and body power (waist or hip movement) in landing a punch. In order to facilitate comprehension of what is involved in combining the waist with the arm.

From this centerline I was able to construct a nucleus and, later on, able to jump away from the nucleus and establish such things as out- of-line and broken rhythm counterattack. Thus, my theory states:
1. Learn the center.

2. Keep the center.

3. Dissolve the center.

Or, it can be stated more generally:

1. Learn the rules

2. Keep to the rules.

3. Dissolve the rules.

Emphasis must be made to students of gung fu to strike with their entire body behind their technique because, in terms of force and power, the arms have but one quarter of the force of the body when set in motion. Secondly, the movements of the waist are long and free, while those of the arms are short. You can say that one turning of a large axis is equivalent to many turnings of a small axis. Also, the arms can only exert their maximum strength toward the end of the movement— therefore, the arms are the vehicle of force that is released by the body through this centerline idea. Boxing also makes use of this centerline theory but expresses it in too big a motion. It is all right at first, but later on it should be guided by the principle of simplicity—to express the utmost in the minimum of movements and
energy.

The Immovable-Elbow Theory

It is important when assuming the by-jong that the elbow of your lead arm remain immovable. With your elbow in a fixed position approximately three inches in front of your body, you’ll note that your hand and forearm are free to move in any direction. If you envision a rectangle that has
been stood on its end, with its bottom boundary being your groin area, its top boundary being your eyebrows, and its remaining two sides being each of your respective shoulders, you will understand the parameters of movement—up and down and sideways—that your arms can travel. Further imagine
that there is an invisible perpendicular line that intersects your elbow. If your lead arm is pressed, hold to the core or centerline. Do not give it up, even if it means your entire body must move, and never allow your elbow to dip below your navel.

In gung fu, the immovable elbow is called but doan jiang and is one of the cornerstones of the Wing Chun system. In theory, it is likened to a hurricane of which the eye is always still, but its periphery is tremendously forceful and constantly moving. In other words, the motionless center of vortices appears in manifestation as motion, which increases in velocity in the manner of a whirlpool or tornado (whose epicenter is still) from nucleus to periphery. The nucleus is in reality, whereas the vortex is a phenomenon in the form of a multidimensional force field.
Concentrate your energy at the immovable instead of dispersing in scattered activities. In other words, hold to the core.

The Four Gates

The immovable-elbow position is fundamental to all parrying, deflecting, and blocking in gung fu (particularly in the art of Wing Chun). Defense in gung fu takes place along the four boundaries through the application of the four corner parries.The four corner parries take place within the four parameters of the rectangle described in the section on the immovable elbow; the groin area at the bottom, the eyebrow area at the top, and the area just past the shoulders on both sides. The corners are divided into four equal regions, or gates: the top portion of the forward hand side (the upper outside gate), the top portion of the rear-hand side (the upper inner gate), the lower portion of the forward-hand side (the lower outside gate), and the lower portion of the rear-hand side (the lower inner gate).

to learn more about Bruce Lee’s centerline theory please read the book: A Study in the Way of Chinese Martial Art
The Tao of Gung Fu
Edited by John Little