Jesse Raymond Glover (October 15, 1935 – June 27, 2012) was an American martial artist. He was Bruce Lee's first student and first assistant instructor in the United States. He met Lee in 1959, as they both attended Edison Technical College and practiced

judo is an unarmed gendai budō, modern Japanese martial art, Olympic sport (since 1964), and the most prominent form of jacket wrestling competed internationally.『日本大百科全書』電子版【柔道】(CD-ROM version of Encyclopedia Nipponi ...

with Lee. Glover was a psychology major and a champion

judoka is an unarmed modern Japanese martial art, Olympic sport (since 1964), and the most prominent form of jacket wrestling competed internationally.『日本大百科全書』電子版【柔道】(CD-ROM version of Encyclopedia Nipponica, "Judo"). ...

. The character Jerome Sprout in the 1993 film '' Dragon: The Bruce Lee Story'' was based on Glover. 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 the first authorized martial arts instructor to be trained by Bruce Lee. 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 Wing Chun (Chinese: 詠春 or 咏春, lit. "singing spring"), sometimes spelled Ving Tsun, is a concept-based fighting art, form of Nanquan (martial art), Southern Chinese kung fu and close-quarters system of self-defense. In Mandarin, it is ...

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). (pp. 53–54) Glover lived in

Seattle Seattle ( ) is a seaport city on the West Coast of the United States. It is the seat of King County, Washington. With a 2020 population of 737,015, it is the largest city in both the state of Washington and the Pacific Northwest regio ...

, Washington, and worked as an author and private martial arts instructor. He died of cancer in June 2012.

Written works

* ''Bruce Lee: Between Wing Chun and Jeet Kune Do'' * ''Bruce Lee's Non-Classical Gung Fu'' *''Non-Classical Gung Fu''

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Glover, Jesse 1935 births 2012 deaths American male judoka People from Seattle