The end of my Hong Kong journey...

Well this trip to Hong Kong was certainly quite an enlightening one.  I had the chance to spend even more time with my Si-Kung, grandmaster Leung Ting.  I feel that on this trip I got to know him much differently than I have in the past, perhaps because this time it was on his own turf and not in some foreign place.  My Si-Kung really showed me his heart during this trip and it made me so proud to be under him and his association.

As most of my students know, I went to Hong Kong to be part of the Fight Quest TV episode on WingTsun.  The Discovery Channel unfortunately did not want any "non-Chinese" to be part of the episode (besides the two stars of course).  It was a funny turn of events, but at least the producers promised to leave my demonstration in.  We'll see I guess.  I will be posting about the whole reality TV thing shortly.  At least Doug and Jimmy were really cool!  

It was a great feeling as always to have the big kung fu family together.  My Si-Hing, Sifu Robin Tsang (the most overworked man in the IWTA) did such an amazing job as always of coordinating everything. Meeting my other Si-Hing, Sifu Jung Su Park was also one of the highlights of the trip.  I always heard a lot of amazing stories about him but never had the chance to meet him personally until now.  Sifu Park is the pioneer of WingTsun in Korea.  I hope I will have the chance to visit him someday soon.  Sifu Paul from Italy was also present for the final day of shooting.  He is a really cool guy, just search for "fighterman" on YouTube and you will see this monster of a WT man with the kind heart.

 This trip also made me realize that I am in a really good place.  The school is starting to grow enough that I will be able to take more trips to Hong Kong to increase my own level of training and instruction.  This is a very exciting time for me as I feel that I have never had such access to the real WingTsun as I do now.  I want to be able to provide the best WingTsun instruction to my students, which includes continually improving my own skill and understanding.  I have never felt more able to do that then now.  I dare say my students at City WingTsun are in a really good place!

 More to come soon about Fight Quest!

 -Sifu

Greetings from Hong Kong!

I just wanted to check in with everybody.  It's been a busy past few days here in Hong Kong preparing for the episode of Fight Quest featuring Leung Ting WingTsun (and myself as one of the trainers).  It has been an amazing experience as always to be with the big kung fu family in it's point of origin, Hong Kong.  Since arriving a couple days ago I have already enjoyed a number of meals with Grandmaster Leung Ting and the rest of the WT family here.  It's truly an honor and a priviledge for me to have the chance to continually experience WingTsun culture on such a firsthand basis.

Of course, it has already been an adventure!  The first day we could not find my student Mike anywhere and we were unable to get in contact with him. That almost meant that we had to scrap our portion of the demo.  But alas, we found Mike and our portion of the demo will go on.

Last night we were up quite late preparing for the demo and opening ceremonies of the show.  We are now off to one more rehearsal before we go to HK island and meet the fighter Jimmy Smith and put on the show for him.

Stay tuned!  I will be keeping you all posted!!  In the meantime, here is a photo of Mike and myself in the office of the IWTA headquarters.

-Sifu 

Dedicated to Sifu Bernd Wagner

It's seems to have been a tough year for me losing people who have influenced me greatly and mean a lot to me.  It is with great sadness that I announce that my si-hing (elder kung fu brother) and former trainer, Sifu Bernd Wagner has passed away.  There are no details available to me as of now, but this is a great tragedy as he was still a man in his prime.

Sifu Bernd will always have a special place in my heart.  For three years I visited his classes on Mondays and Wednesdays at Langenzell Castle in Germany.  Each class was six hours, meaning I spent on the average 12 hours a week with Sifu Bernd.  Despite the fact that I have changed many things about how I approach WingTsun since those days, Sifu Bernd's influence is without a doubt still in my WingTsun to this day.  I will never forget my very first day training at the Castle as a 2nd student grade.  Sifu Bernd was the teaching that day, a Monday I'm sure.  I had already read up on all my trainers and heard many stories about their skills.  A friend of mine from Hamburg named Nico told me how incredible Sifu Bernd was so I was actually quite nervous my first day.  Nico told me some pretty amazing stories of things that Sifu Bernd was able to do.

When I walked into the training room, Sifu Bernd popped his head in and said in English "Where is the American?".  I raised my hand and he introduced himself.   He was wearing a WT cap and had a very friendly smile.  When he demonstrated his techniques I remember having a huge grin on my face. I was so in awe of his speed and his very dynamic use of WingTsun techniques. I also distinctly remember him seeing my big grin and I felt like he was very motivate to show me what he could do.  Not in a showing off kind of way, but in a way he knew I appreciated the amazing stuff he was showing.  Perhaps the other Germans just don't show a lot of expression and I was the one with the giddy look everytime he did something.  In any case it seemed to motivate him to always show really amazing WingTsun.  It was a feeling that never left for the whole three years I was there.  And while this might just be my emotional recollection now, I remember that everytime he showed something in a dynamic way, he would always look to me first to see my grin of awe.

It was also from Sifu Bernd that I learned a lot about how to be a good trainer and teacher.  He would often take this as his theoretical topic.  I still have pages of notes and handouts from my many theoretical lessons with him.  I still refer to them to this day and have done my best to ingrain this in the instructors that I am teaching.  Sifu Bernd's legacy lives on even in my own students who never met him or heard of him.

I am saddened by the fact that, despite being with him so much I do not have any photos with him.  Before I came back to the USA to start my WingTsun teaching career, I will never forget what he told me.  The words of advice he gave me were absolutely true and I think about it very often.  I choose to keep those words he gave me private.  I never did have the chance to say thank you to him for everything he taught me.  I'm sure he would just consider it "doing his job".

This was on his website: „Viele Menschen kommen in unser Leben und verlassen es wieder spurlos, andere bleiben für eine Weile und hinterlassen Abdrücke auf unseren Herzen und wir sind nie wieder wie zuvor.“  Translation: Many people come and go in our lives without leaving a mark or trace, but others stay a while and leave a mark on our hearts and we are not the same as before.

Thank you Sifu Bernd.  You were certainly one of those who left their mark on my heart.

Sifu Alex Richter

City WingTsun in April's Harper's Bazaar!

I'm very happy to announce that the premier fashion magazine Harper's Bazaar wrote a blurb about us in "the List" (April edition, page 83.  Check it out!  The issue has Demi Moore on the cover:

 http://www.harpersbazaar.com/promotions/products/

 Thanks Valerie!!

 Si-fu

Greetings from Berlin!

It is Si-fu saying hello from Berlin and trying to get used to this European style keyboard :-)  It has been years since I used "QWERTZ" instead of a "QWERTY"...lol. Also, please excuse my lack of apostrophe use as well as it does not seem to be working on this laptop.

I am having a great time here in Berlin with my brother Kenan as always.  He has taken me out everyday and shown me a really good time.  Tomorrow we are off to go-cart racing and bowling.  Yesterday we saw a Vegas style show with celebrity imitators which was a riot.  It is really nice to finally have a vacation, but I do miss all of my students a lot.

I had a very interesting experience here in Berlin today and I hope one day I will be able to write freely about it.  I just need to process it first so that I can distill it in a way that will hopefully be a good lesson for all of my students and readers of my blog.

All I can say now is this:  No matter how good one is in anything (wingtsun for example), it is of ultimate importance to stay humble and open and aware of your own fallibility.  Often times people who are self-styled gurus lose touch with reality and believe their own hype.  So much so in fact, that they can not even listen anymore - they can only lead monologues.  Full of anger and rage they do not "self-style" a life of self-realization and discovery (though they may claim to be doing just that), they just promote a teaching based in anger, resentment and ultimately fear.  I learned tonight that I am in a really good place, surrounded by truly incredible people and that which is in the past is in the past.  I move forward with more confidence and determination!

Before I check out of here tonight from my Si-hings little laptop here in the "dangerous section" of Berlin (Kreuzberg...lol) I want to leave you all with something I have been thinking about a lot lately.  It comes from a book called "The Four Agreements" and I read it because my late friend Klaus was a subscriber of this philosophy.  To honor my dear friend and student Klaus I wanted to read it to perhaps understand better how he was such an incredible person.  The four agreements are:

1. Be impeccable with your word.
2. Dont take anything personally.
3. Dont make assumptions.
4. Always do your best.

What I saw tonight was the antithesis of this.  It taught me a lot.  That is your legacy for me Klaus.  Thank you.

Si-fu