Jesse Raymond Glover (October 15, 1935 – June 27, 2012) was an African-American martial artist. He was Bruce Lee's first student. He met Lee in 1959, as they both attended Edison Technical College[1] and practiced judo with Lee.[2] Glover was a psychology major[citation needed] and a champion judoka.[3] The character Jerome Sprout in the 1993 film Dragon: The Bruce Lee Story was based on Glover.

Jesse Glover
Born(1935-10-15)October 15, 1935
Seattle, Washington
DiedJune 27, 2012(2012-06-27) (aged 76)
Seattle, Washington
Cancer
StyleNon-Classical Kung-Fu and Judo
Teacher(s)Bruce Lee

Jesse started a Gung Fu class of his own and Leroy Garcia and James DeMile came along and assisted him, which was the first ever independent Jun Fan arts related class. Jesse Glover was not authorized to teach, though he did ask, but Bruce refused (Kung Fu Magazine, 1994, Jesse Glover interview). He has developed his own method which he calls Non-Classical GungFu.

Bruce Lee had his punching and closing speed measured with an electric timer at Glover's house. In the book "Bruce Lee - Between Wing Chun and JKD", Glover states, Lee could land a punch in around 5 hundredths of a second (0.05 second) from 3 feet away, and could close from 5 feet away in around 8 hundredths of a second (0.08 second). While Glover's own times from 3 feet were between 11 and 18 hundredths of a second (0.11 and 0.18 second). Closing from a distance like 5 feet they were in the low twenties (0.21–0.23).[4]

Glover lived in Seattle, Washington, and worked as an author and private martial arts instructor.

He died of cancer in June 2012.[5]

Written works edit

  • Bruce Lee: Between Wing Chun and Jeet Kune Do
  • Bruce Lee's Non-Classical Gung Fu
  • Non-Classical Gung Fu [6]

References edit

  1. ^ Tackett, Tim (2004). "Observing The Differences Between Stages In The Evolution Of Bruce Lee's Martial Art". The Jeet Kune Do Wednesday Night Group. Retrieved 2006-08-27.
  2. ^ Campbell, Sid; Greglon Lee (2005). The Dragon And The Tiger: Bruce Lee, The Oakland Years: The Untold Story of Jun Fan Gung-fu and James Yimm Lee. Frog Books. p. 69. ISBN 978-1-58394-118-8.
  3. ^ Thomas, Bruce (2008). Bruce Lee: Fighting Spirit. Pan Macmillan. p. 41. ISBN 978-0-283-07066-2.
  4. ^ Glover, Jesse R. (1976). Bruce Lee Between Win Chun and Jeet Kune Do. (pp. 53–54)
  5. ^ Vaughn, Alexa (June 29, 2012), "Jesse Glover, Bruce Lee's first student, dies at 77", Seattle Times
  6. ^ "Non-Classical Gung Fu". Archived from the original on 2018-08-16. Retrieved 2018-08-16.