London Coffee Shop Makes Baristas Learn Bruce Lee’s Martial Arts To Make Them Better Workers

A London fast food chain is employing some of Bruce Lee’s martial arts inspiration to speed up the serving time of its drinks.

Some baristas of the coffee shop Leon have been sent to train in the martial art of Wing Chun in order to improve on their hand speed. The employees were sent on a six week intensive course in the martial art made famous by Bruce Lee.

John Vincent, Co-founder of Leon, initiated the project that had six baristas undergo extensive training in March this year.

The initiative has reportedly resulted in faster service and even better quality of their coffee, the company claims. Coffee now takes 30 seconds less to prepare. The sessions have also relieved the participants of work-related stress, according to the Evening Standard.

The baristas seemed to enjoy the experience as some of them chose to continue with the Wing Chun training during their free hours.

“We noticed that the baristas, some of them were feeling quite stressed. It’s quite a stressful job,” Orla Delargy of Leon was quoted as saying. “We tested their heart rate and their confidence levels then we did six weeks’ intensive Wing Tsun (Chun) training.”

“We found the quality had gone up and heart rates had gone down,” he said.

Wing Chun is an ancient Chinese form of self-defense that utilizes both striking and grappling while specializing in close-range combat. The combat style also helps increase spatial awareness and helps to develop a better relationship between mind and body.