The Jesse Glover Interview
Conducted By Paul Bax

When Bruce Lee was first asked to teach a fellow by the name of Jesse Glover he probably didn't think his first student would be his best. From the many conversations I have had with people over the years, I'm constantly hearing the same thing. Jesse Glover is the one man they would put their money on in a fight when it came down to who had the most practical fighting abilities, and killer instinct. In Glover's first interview ever in a martial arts publication, he talks about the Seattle years, and his training under his Sifu and friend, Bruce Lee.

YOU WERE LEE'S FIRST STUDENT AND TRAINING PARTNER. HOW DID YOUR TRAINING DIFFER FROM WHEN YOU WERE TRAINING PRIVATELY AS OPPOSED TO WHEN HE OPENED HIS FIRST SCHOOL?
JESSE GLOVER: Well after he opened his school he started to get pretty formal. When he first opened his school he was teaching each individual guy a different form of martial arts. He wanted to show the wide range of gung fu styles. When I learned from him it was one on one in the street, at school or in my living room. He taught me the Wing Chun forms, and we did Chi Sao right from the beginning. The people that came around later didn't learn like that, nor did they learn the same things either. Taky once told me that Bruce told him that he and I were the only ones who ever learned anything from him from the Seattle school. In class he didn't teach Chi Sao. He didn't teach a lot of things.

AT THE SEATTLE SCHOOL WAS IT A CONGLOMERATION OF ARTS?
JG: Well when Bruce first decided he wanted to open a school he was busy teaching each of his first members a different form of Gung Fu. We were going to put on different demonstrations, and that's how he was going to popularize it. They weren't (Bruce's students) particularly performing what Bruce did.

WAS BRUCE DISAPPOINTED YOU STOPPED COMING TO THE REGULAR CLASSES?
JG: I don't know. Every time I went around he was always friendly. He always told me where he was at, and what he was doing.

IF YOU COULD PICK THE MOST IMPORTANT PRINCIPLE ABOUT
FIGHTING THAT BRUCE TAUGHT YOU, WHAT DO YOU THINK IT WOULD BE?

Bruce Lee, Jeet Kune Do, james demile, jeet kune do, jkd, doug palmer, jim demile, bruce lee
skip ellsworth, bob bremer, howard williams, taky kimura, jesse glover, leo fong, james lee jun fan gung fu, richard bustillo, jerry poteet, joe cowles, dan inosanto