It’s only the beginning…
Wing Chun is a beautiful and profound martial art, and when we do Wing Chun well we vibrate on a special frequency that’s unique in the martial arts.
The key principles of simplicity, economy and directness are the essence of Wing Chun, but one has to “empty one’s cup.”
I consider myself to be a student of Wing Chun and a guide rather than a “Sifu”. That being said, many of my students are in the “A” lane of Wing Chun - they are better than many of today’s self proclaimed “masters.” They have given blood, sweat and tears in their training.
We train an innovated and modern version of Wing Chun. I teach the basics. There is no “advanced” - just fundamentals done exceptionally well. If we don’t train the basics until they are engrained, we are wasting our time.
I teach using the traditional approach. A bond of trust takes time to form. Kung fu can kill - I have to be sure that the person I teach can handle it. I came up the hard way - my Wing Chun was built up, then broken down into dust, only to be rebuilt - time and time again. I’ve given everything up for my Wing Chun - jobs, relationships, even my mental and physical health.
It’s my hope that through my sacrifices Wing Chun can become obtainable and accessible for the next generation.
When I started training in the 1980s, Wing Chun was all hearsay and Chinese whispers. Almost nobody knew anything - including many of the people teaching it.
Today’s students have it relatively easy. They don’t have to move to Hong Kong and go through all kinds of hardship and abuse to get good. They still have to work hard, though, and go through blood sweat and tears and apply their intelligence to get anywhere with Wing Chun.
A couple of years ago I had a dream which took place in the future - I was dead. Some teenage Western boys were doing chi sao. Their Wing Chun was the best I’ve ever seen. The meaning of this dream is that Wing Chun is on a positive trajectory of evolution and development. We haven’t begun to scratch the surface of the beauty and depth of Wing Chun yet.
If we aren’t willing to go through pain, disappointment and hardship and come out the other side, Wing Chun is not the right martial art for us. If we are willing to give ourselves up to the process, our Wing Chun becomes a gift that keeps on giving.