The Man With the Iron Fists comes to City Wing Tsun!

I just want to give a big thanks to our friends at Universal Pictures for sending us a promo kit for the new film The Man With the Iron Fists.  The folks at Universal Pictures were kind enough to send us some swag in the form of movie posters, bandanas, and coasters.  All of these are available at the school for free to our students and friends.

The Man With the Iron Fists is a crazy martial arts actioner that is also the directorial debut of Wu-Tang ringleader the RZA.  It's starring Russell Crowe, Lucy Liu and UFC fighter Cung Le.  Cung even retweeted me, apparently Universal forgot to send him the swag, and he is starring in the movie!

The movie premiers Friday, Nov. 2nd nationwide.

With the craziness of this week's hurricane and the school being closed for most of that time, I hope to get a moment this weekend to check out the movie.

What a weekend in Georgia!!

The group shot from this past weekend's workshopIn addition to all the hype from hurricane Sandy, this past weekend's seminar in Augusta turned out to be quite the exciting event.  Casper Fagerberg, head of the Southeastern Wing Tsun Center, moved the school to a permanent location recently.  The student base is growing and the facilities at the new location are really fantastic.

The Southeastern WT Center is the fourth brick and mortar (permanent) location in the City Wing Tsun Network.  The CWT Network has more brick and mortar schools than any other North American WT association.

I arrived in Georgia on Friday night and we pretty much hit the ground running from there.  Saturday morning began with a one-hour self-defense class that was open to the public.  I taught the participants the basic WT strategy in a one-on-one confrontation.  This is based of the very intelligent Blitz Defence program that was created by my Si-Fu many years ago.  This is a vital program as it covers aspects not normally covered in the classical WT.  Self-defense encounters in the modern day and age rarely, if ever begin with the participants able to even set up their hands in a martial arts 'ready position'.  With de-escalation tactics available, it is in fact a bit primitive to simply draw up a man sau/wu sau (WT's ready position) when other smarter tactics are available.  The participants trained hard and seemed to enjoy themselves.  Ribbon cutting for the grand opening

Right after the self-defense workshop was my four-hour workshop.  The workshop covered similar material to my recent CT and San Antonio workshops.  When I do a seminar tour like this past one I generally teach the same topics so that all schools are up on the same standard.  I went into details about the plum flower step and how it allows the students to achieve the "stance inserting" technique to occupy space.  The students practiced this both against punching attacks and kicking attacks.  I also worked with the senior students on their chi sau techniques from the fourth section, particularly how to attack with the essential "po jung lok" (hacking down from the center).

After the workshop were the intense student examinations.  I had to do 25 examinations for the beginning and intermediate levels.  I'm very happy to see that the standard of the students is raising higher and higher every time.  Casper originally learned from another instructor and as such I had a lot of work to get him up to the CWT standard.  With regular visits to the HQ in NYC and regular seminars, Casper has quickly adapted quite a bit of WT game already.  I'm very proud of his ever-increasing abilities as an instructor, school-owner and as a WT trainee.

The facilities at the Southeastern Wing Tsun Center are really top-notch.  The facilities have a fitness center with a variety of equipment, lockers, showers, an office and all the toys one expects in a proper WT school.  Once the student examinations were finished, we celebrated the official grand opening of the school with a ribbon cutting ceremony and with a party.  It was a very memorable night!

In front of the road sign for the SEWTCOn Sunday came the unfortunate news that my flight back to NYC on Monday would be cancelled.  This put me in a dilemma as this week is a very busy week with visitors coming from everywhere, technician test prep and a number of vital meetings.  In an absolute act of pure kindness, Casper volunteered to drive me back to NYC!  We did just that!  In 14 hours we drove from Augusta to NYC.  Casper napped at my school for a few hours and then drove straight back!  

That act of dedication, kindness and thoughtfulness has left me very grateful.  Thanks Casper!

I just want to say that I'm very happy with the direction and growth of CWT and its Partner Schools.  The next year will bring a number of new programs and policies that will help us grow even further.  To the future!

Congrats to SIFU Elliot Leung!

Elliot has both the 2nd TG & the Sifu Qualification - both earned separately!I'm very proud of my senior student Elliot Leung for passing the test for 2nd TG and for earning his sifu qualification.  Elliot has a very busy schedule teaching at his Club Kung Fu school in Stamford yet he still manages to do regular private training with me in NYC.  Coordinating schedules for his test was a bit difficult so I decided to give him a slightly untraditional private test.  Instead of having to fight off other WT brothers, he would have to go against me for his test :)

Elliot is now the 5th qualified Sifu that started directly under me.  The CWT Network now has a total of 7 qualified sifu-level instructors.

For the exam I checked Elliot's forms (SNT, CK, BT), reviewed the chi sau programs, tested him in very intense kuo sau exchanges and I attacked him freely using non-WT attacks.  Although the test severly taxed his conditioning (which was the point), he did very well and fought through it.

At the end of his grueling test was a theoretical exam for his sifu qualification.  At CWT simply showing up to a seminar does NOT qualify one to be a sifu, nor does simply paying a test fee.  All CWT-qualified sifu have years of successful teaching experience, have brought up a student to Assistant Trainer level and have passed a theoretical exam on teaching methods and WT concepts.  Elliot fulfilled all of these requirements and is now thusly qualified as a "Sifu of Wing Tsun"

On a side note, don't be fooled by claims of "authorized" sifu.  Ask these so-called sifu what kind of test and teacher qualifications were required for them to become a sifu. Ask them how many instructors or trainers they have personally brought up. The title of sifu is not for seminar certificate chasers but for truly accomplished and qualified instructors.  Beware of "authorized" frauds!

Congrats to SIFU Elliot Leung!  Your Sifu is proud!

Standardized Chi Sau Curriculum

Don't try blowing it up to find out what we teach, the photo is not high enough RES :)It's been a long time coming, but there were a number of necessary updates and standardization that was required to make the chi sau curriculum more workable for the students.  Chi sau "programs" themselves are in fact a bit of an oxymoron as the entire point of chi sau is to operate freely and spontaneously according to principles, not form.  The very nature of the word "program" seems to go in direct contrast with the goal, however a progression is necessary to bring students to this "free" level.  One can't simply begin "free" when there is nothing to work with.  Musicians must learn notes and scales and start with simple song arrangements before they can go on to create individual masterpieces.  While there will always be prodigies and outliers, a good program should fit the largest number of people (read "average").

The three-phase format in WT of teaching sequence, chasing program and finally sparring is a beautifully intelligent way of teaching techniques and progressing to "feeling".  The problem is that in most WT schools they either don't have a standardized sequence or they are missing the chasing program and sparring altogether.  This leaves the unfortunate by-product of thinking the section is chi sau itself rather than just a teaching program.  It was time to codify the program completely, progressively and simply for all to understand.

I think I did just that!  In one of my typical insomnia-driven work marathons I codified the entire first section chi sau program, the chasing program and then the sparring program progression.  In addition I added some vital skill drills I recently learned in Hong Kong from my Si-bak that have help our students tremendously.  With all this solid curriculum I had to make a wall chart for the students to be up on all the changes and for the instructors to teach everything properly.

Also based on my latest research with the "old timers" in WT I reinstated a number of important puzzle pieces to the first section.  I also removed a number of techniques that are completely useless in fighting.  The result is a streamlined SKILL based first section.  This lays a solid foundation for the rest of the WT chi sau program.  A house in only as strong as the foundation and I have repaved a much more solid foundation for our students. 

The results in the last month are extremely encouraging!

Beware the seminar-trained Sifu!

It has come to our attention that an extremely unqualified individual was recently given the 2nd TG and a Sifu title in another association.  While the politics and nonsense of that association are widely known throughout the world, it is saddening that they have not chosen to step up there game and implement quality.  But as long as they promote in this fashion they will never be a threat to any one in the greater WT community besides the fact that they cheapen the name and quality of the art in general.

For decades now the growth of WT in the US has suffered under their hands for this reason.  There is simply no way to "condense" WT knowledge, whether technical or theoretical into a few easy lessons in order to bestow rank.  One can easily see the level of quality from those who earned their ranks quickly in the 80's under the so-called condensed courses.  Look at them 30 years later and one can see the result in the quality of their Wing Tsun (now at 1/4 speed!), their lack of success as instructors, and there covetous attitude towards the certificate hanging on their wall.  The problem is, they didn't learn from this and they still do it.  

Buyer beware!  Not all WT is taught and promoted equally and CWT has nothing to do with the downward spiral of quality (and of members) found by those who believe they are authorized.  They are seemingly only authorized in destroying a brand and authorized in cheapening quality.  Our level of outrage about this is only due to the fact that THEY make Wing Tsun look cheap and stupid.  With the higher skill level of martial artists these days due to the advent of MMA, can they really continue to make Wing Tsun a matter of showing up for the certificate?  A true embarrassment! 

From my travels and teaching direct students of these so-called masters I can only shake my head at the glaring gaps of knowledge and misunderstanding of proper Wing Tsun.  In many cases these so-called masters don't even teach the basic stuff shown in the seminars either!  I suppose that is why they must push the word "humility" in an attempt to pretend to take the high road.  While we all have something to learn (my training has only improved since leaving the NASties), what is to be said of a 20 or 30+ year seminar veteran still not sure about the programs and still unable to perform the wooden dummy form?  Yes, they must be really humble! 

"Sifu Certificates" and technician ranks are NOT given out by simply showing up to seminars at CWT! We personally test every instructor in fighting skills, chi sau, forms, theory and conditioning. Every technician receives a REAL test and every Sifu is competent and experienced in teaching. Beware those who had a 2nd TG and Sifu title given to them because they showed up to a seminar! CWT will never cheapen the standards and qualifications of instructors.

One of my duties as head of CWT is to raise the standard of Wing Tsun and make it consistent in all of the schools.  Unfortunately some other WT sifus believe “raising the standard” means dumping a bunch of advanced stuff (sections and abstract applications) and handing out rank like candy.   I need to make sure that the students all have an “operating system” based on the principles and a working knowledge of the concepts and tactics of WT.  With an “operating system” it is very easy to teach and build advanced skills.  Without an operating systems “programs” are useless because there is nothing to run the programs off of.  My focus is to build high level WT practitioners from the inside out and not simply dump sections and forms and serial rank promotions which only further degenerate the integrity of the art.

This is the last time I will rant about this.  I love the art of Wing Tsun and it pains me to seeing it die at the hands of these old hacks holding on to their imaginary positions of "respect".  Step up your game guys, your Sifu needs you to build something not destroy his work.  Now at 1/4 speed!