Description:

Lee Bruce

Pair of focus mitts, each approximately 9.5" diameter, 1.5" thick, accompanied by images of Bruce Lee using these focus mitts and two signed typed letters of provenance, each one page, 8.5” x 11”, each dated September 2011.

(1) “My name is David Tadman and I am a writer and producer and Bruce Lee historian. This letter concerns a right and left-handed pair of brown leather Focus Mitts that were owned and used by Bruce Lee, the legendary martial arts action superstar. These Focus Mitts are documented in many photographs and martial arts pictorial magazines that have been circulated from 1967 until present day. Bruce Lee used these Focus Mitts as a training aid to develop his physicality within the martial arts. These very Focus Mitts were a staple in his training when practicing his punching and kicking techniques within his Jeet June Do training. I have written many books on Bruce Lee and am well qualified to opine on such items. I have, through photo investigation and research, identified this pair as his personally owned and used equipment. These Focus Mitts represent a place in time for Bruce Lee when he was just rising to fame. Blood, sweat, and tears, I am sure have touched this historic pair. He is a true LEGEND and these are a particularly meaningful and cherishable piece of Bruce Lee’s story.

“PROVENANCE AND EXHIBITIONS: These Focus Mitts over the years have been displayed at many functions, including the famous ‘World of Bruce Lee,’ run by Norman Borine, one of the first American Bruce Lee historians. These Focus Mitts were given directly to Herb Jackson from Bruce Lee. Herb Jackson was a close friend, student and confidant of Bruce Lee. Herb Jackson handed these Focus Mitts down to his son, Mark Ashton.

“CONDITION: Heavy natural wear especially to strike surface. Some leather malformation and cracking. As logic and oral tradition would have it, Bruce Lee’s unorthodox and incredible punching and kicking power , and brutal strength caused the leather stitching to be changed on one occasion. These are in my opinion authentic beyond any question of a doubt. I, David Tadman, state the above to be true and accurate: 9/26/2011.”

(2) “9/19/2011 I, Mark Ashton, state that these two focus mitts were owned and used by Bruce Lee, the legendary martial arts and action film star. These focus mitts were given to my father Herb Jackson as a gift from Bruce Lee in and around 1968. My father Herb Jackson was a very close friend and confidant of Bruce Lee and was also one of his private backyard students in Los Angeles in the mid to late 1960’s. These focus mitts were used by Bruce Lee and are documented in many photos and magazines. These focus mitts were a big part of Bruce Lee’s training regime and helped better his physicality. These focus mitts are historical in nature and marks a point in time when Bruce Lee was seeking international fame for his martial arts / film career. I, Mark Ashton , state the above to be true and accurate.”

Herb Jackson designed equipment for Bruce Lee. Jackson is quoted on one of the many Bruce Lee tribute websites: “Bruce was interested in becoming as strong as possible … The biggest problem in designing equipment for Bruce was that he'd go through it so damn fast. I had to reinforce his wooden dummy with automobile parts so he could train on it without breaking it. I had started to build him a mobile dummy that could actually attack and retreat to better simulate ‘Live’ combat, sadly Bruce died before the machine was built. It would have been strung up by big high-tension cables that I was going to connect between two posts, one on either side of his backyard … Bruce was very interested in strength training, you could say that he was obsessed with it.”

Accompanied by fourteen 8.5” x 11” black & white and color photographs including six different photographs depicting Bruce Lee and these focus mitts in various poses; many with his wife Linda and son Brandon.

“As early as the 1960’s, Bruce Lee was using focus mitts as part of his daily training program,” wrote Arthur Ligopantis, founder of Progressive Combat Systems, in his article “Bruce Lee’s Jeet-Kune-Do Fitness For Life” on combatsystems.com.au. “Although most people view Bruce Lee as a movie star,” continued Ligopantis, “the reality is, he was a martial artist & pioneer of expressing the human body. Bruce Lee realized very early, that in order to get his body in top fighting condition, he had to research many areas of human development. His thirst for knowledge in the areas of physiology, kinesiology, fitness, nutrition and of course combat was evident by his personal library consisting of more than two thousand books. Through Bruce Lee’s personal fighting style of Jeet-Kune-Do, he developed many combative drills for the use of the focus mitts. In addition to their combat application, the focus mitts also served as an avenue for total body conditioning in the areas of upper and lower body strength, cardiovascular conditioning and proper bio-mechanical execution of all techniques.”

This item comes with a Certificate from John Reznikoff, a premier authenticator for both major 3rd party authentication services, PSA and JSA (James Spence Authentications), as well as numerous auction houses.

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