Speed in striking all comes from 2 things in your arm or leg

Joint
Twitch Muscle Fibers

During punching, the shoulder joint and elbow joint are working. During kicking,
the knee joint and hip joint is working. It is very important (and im sure you
already know this since almost every martial art school teaches this) that you snap
out your arm or leg during an attack. For example, during a punch, you snap your
shoulder joint forwards, then you snap your elbow joint towards your target, then
back to your guard. Iike the motion of a whip, or if you imagine the snapping of a
towel. During kicks, you snap out your knee joint while aiming your lower leg at
your target. That is one way to make your punches and kicks faster without any
training. But there is a way to make your snaps even faster, but this requires
training, and this is what Bruce Lee did.

i own a book called Bruce Lee: The Art of Expressing the Human Body. The book was
wrote by John Little, once of Bruce Lees closest friends. The book is basically
about Bruce Lee's training and workout routines, what he did, how much he did, how
many days per week he did them, and how to actually do them. Everything from
flexibility to push up's to weight lifting to hitting the heavy bag. It shows you
Lee's workouts from when he was not famous during the 1960's, too when he was more
busy with films during the early 1970's, and finally too his death in 1973

Bruce Lee did three things to increase his speed

1. Train the twitch fibers in his muscles (this makes your arm move overall faster
without the help of joint snapping)
2. Train his joint snaps
3. Various knowledge of things and methods which automatically make you faster
without training (such as snapping the joint into the punch or kick and been
relaxed)

the way he trained his twitch fibers was through wegiht training and plyometric
exercises. Plyometric exercises are exercises which are done at an explosive phase.
For example, Jumping Squats for the legs, Clap Push Up's for the arms, fast and
short motion dips for the arm. Bruce Lee also had a pole stuck into the ground
which could move around when you pushed it in a certain direction, when you pushed
it, it would snap straight back. He would push that alot, including with his legs.
Also bruce lee's weight training was essential in creating his speed.

He trained his joints to snap faster by simply punching and kicking the air while
snapping out from the joint, fist he would do it while holding a light dumbbell for
a number of reps on a certain punch, then he would do it without nothing straight
after. This trains you are to snap against tougher forces (the dumbbell) making the
joints naturally faster. One of his favorite drills was called the "candle drill"
where he would extinguish a candle by constantly kicking or punching near it while
snapping out

He also incorporated various methods in his technique during punching and kicking
which made him naturally faster without training. This includes snapping out from
the joint which i have already discussed, and been relaxed and flexible instead of
tense. If you notice, bruce lee never actually clenches his fist in a fight, his
hand is always half open and dangling. This makes his arm relax, making his punches
faster, he closes his fist and clenches tightly at the moment of impact to create
power. It takes training to get used to this though. He always kept his arm loose
too, making him more relaxed. The more relaxed you are, the faster you will be.

his wife frequently said that he was not born genetically superior. Infact when
bruce was a kid, according to his biography, he got picked on alot, was frail, and
weak. He was just extremely determined when he started to train in martial arts

Also Bruce Lee was a small guy too, he was 5 ft 7 and a half inches tall. The
lightest he weighed was 130 lbs (enter the dragon/during his death), the most he
weighed was 160 lbs (when he was not famous). He was 140 lbs during way of the
dragon/return of the dragon

As for weight training. It does NOT slow you down. Just because you have muscles
does not mean it slows you. Look at bruce lee himself or one of the MMA/UFC
fighters for poof. Like i said, it builds quick twitch fiber muscles.
Source(s):
http://www.amazon.co.uk/Expressing-Human-Body-Bruce-Library/dp/0804831297