Larry Hartsell: The Grappler of Jeet Kune Do

"Some say Bruce didn't do any grappling, but that is not true. He had quite a bit of it." — Larry Hartsell This is the story of Sifu Larry Hartsell (born August 15, 1942 — died August 20, 2007): the Charlotte, North Carolina judo kid and high school wrestler who chased the teachers to California, met Bruce Lee in 1964, served as a military policeman in Vietnam, and became an original student of Lee's Los Angeles Chinatown school — then spent more than thirty-five years as Guru Dan Inosanto's student and senior man at the Inosanto Academy, charged with researching and expanding the thirty-three grappling techniques Lee left behind into the grappling heart of Jeet Kune Do. We trace the Charlotte judo years, the Wingate football scholarship, Kenpo under Ed Parker, the Chinatown years and private lessons at Bruce Lee's Bel Air home, the academy research years — shoot wrestling, sambo, catch wrestling, Filipino dumog — the Jun Fan Jeet Kune Do Grappling Association, the books with Tim Tackett, and the student who carried it all into modern MMA: Erik Paulson — down a line that reaches our listener: Hartsell to Bruce Lee and Guru Dan, the academy to Sifu Bill, and Bill to twenty-five years on the mat. Chapters: 0:00 — Intro: the grappler of Jeet Kune Do 2:01 — Charlotte: judo, football, and the books 2:57 — California: Parker, Guru Dan, and meeting Bruce Lee 3:35 — Vietnam: the soldier 3:51 — Chinatown: an original student 4:27 — The thirty-three techniques 5:48 — The assignment: forty years of research 7:58 — The Association and the books 9:06 — Legacy: Erik Paulson and the ground game 9:55 — August 2007: the tribute "Masters of Fighting" is a series on the great martial artists and the ideas they left behind — told by people who live in their lineage. #LarryHartsell #GuruDan #JeetKuneDo #BruceLee #Grappling #JunFan #ErikPaulson #IpMan #FrancisFong #ChaiSirisute #SalemAssli #JesseGlover #WongShunLeung #TakyKimura #TedWong #RichardBustillo #JamesLee #GeneLeBell #WallyJay #MiyamotoMusashi #MasOyama #HelioGracie #ChuckNorris #MastersOfFighting