Sifu Lee workshop at City Wing Tsun

This past weekend we hosted a workshop with Sifu Timmy Lee from Hong Kong.  Sifu Lee is my si-bak, or elder kung-fu uncle as he one of the few remaining active si-hing (elder brother) of my si-fu (wow, that was a mouthful).  This was the first time he taught a seminar outside of Hong Kong, and I must say that he did a fantastic job - well above expectations.  It was arguably a bit of a hard sell to get my students to go to a seminar with a Chinese instructor as the past experience with a certain Chinese instructor has been mixed.  Although Hong Kong is the source of Wing Tsun, the HK teaching style is sometimes a bit inconsistent and sometimes Chinese instructors don’t teach very exciting workshops, especially for beginners. 

But this seminar was much different.

Sifu Lee broke down the three forms of siu nim tau, chum kiu and biu tze for their respective leveled groups.  Afterwards he went into detail about proper force generation in the forms and how this applies to fighting.  He then started to teach the applications of the forms step by step with special emphasis and practicality and generation of force.  The students were very happy to learn these very practical fighting applications.  The biu tze level instructors were learning how to apply the biu tze sau in both fighting and in chi sau.  Sifu Lee also imparted many details on how to use techniques such as palm strikes to counter chain-punching and many other gems as well.

Sifu Lee took the time to work with all of the students and patiently imparted his knowledge to all.  I’m convinced that based on the fantastic feedback from this year’s workshop, next year's will be much, much bigger.

Howcast video series featuring... me :)

The Howcast video series we filmed back in December is finally available on their website.  For those who don't know, Howcast is a company that produces "how to" videos ranging on topics from cooking, rollerblading and even martial arts.  They produced a series of 53 short videos with us on all sorts of different topics within Wing Tsun like chi sau tips, history, how to do a pak sau and so on.  These videos are meant as basic introductions for beginners to the art and are in no way advanced or comprehensive.  I'm very pleased with the quality of the videos and the response has been very positive.

The video series is called "learn wing chun" only because this is the most commonly searched spelling of the art, not because I am not a "WC guy" (inside joke there).

One note - on the history of Grandmaster Yip Man I mistakenly said he was in his late 60's when he came to Hong Kong when he was in fact in his late 50's.  That was the first video we shot that day and these are the things that happen before I get my morning coffee :) 

Enjoy this video on the side palm technique!

on Howcast

New affiliate school in Puerto Rico!

This has been a couple months in the making, but we are now ready to announce that we have a new affiliate school in San Juan, Puerto Rico.  The school is called the Southern Temple Martial Arts Alliance and is a full martial arts facility.  Although a website is still being finalized, they already have a Facebook page set up.  The head instructor is Rafael Gonzalez, a newly certified Assistant Trainer under the CWT ranking system.  

This new Affliate school is actually not new at all. As a matter of fact it has been in business for a number of years already under another association's banner.  Rafael contacted me after he cut ties with his previous association and then shortly after he came to NYC for a week of intensive training.  I'm happy to say Rafael is a quick study and he was very impressed with our brand of Hong Kong style Wing Tsun.  It's one of the great pleasures of my job to introduce "outsider WT'ers" to the training methods I learned from my Chinese WT teachers.  Many people are a bit shocked on the focus of using WT vs. non-WT that is actually a standard part of how we do things.

We have great plans for Wing Tsun in Puerto Rico now that we have such a fantastic representative with Rafael.  I don't regularly accept instructors from other associations to represent us, but Rafael's work ethic and positive attitude convinced me he would be a good fit.  We highly encourage all those who are interested in learning Wing Tsun in Puerto Rico to go to the Southern Temple Martial Arts Alliance for solid professional training.

Rafael's week in NYC was very productive.  He trained in all of our instructor and regular classes and participated in the workout classes as well.  In addition to this Rafael did a number of private lessons with me and spent many off-hours practicing with my other senior students.  At the culmination of the week we ran him throught the tough SG 9 test for his Assistant Trainer level which included 3-minutes non-stop defending against fresh attackers.   Welcome to the CWT family Rafael!

Bring on 2013!

I'm still buzzing off of the excitement from this past weekend's annual Winter Intensive workshop.  We had students from all over come to join us for this yearly staple of CWT.  I do this workshop every year as a way to get people back into the swing of training after the holiday break.  The outline of the workshop I described in the previous blog post and with the exception of a couple time restraints here and there, I was able to get through most of the material.  Day one focused on chi sau, chi sau sparring and practical fighting whereas day two focused on forms and self-defense on the ground.

It was great as always to see the kung fu family come together and train hard!  Check us out on FB and TUMBLR over the next few days to see more awesome images.

My daughter Maria Isabella also made a surprise appearance in her little Bruce Lee tracksuit :) This year is in for a lot of great events - stay tuned!

A concepts 'myth buster'

"Dear student, no need to learn WT for 16+ years before I teach you concepts. You're safe from tyranny at CWT"As everyone by now knows (or at least should know) Wing Tsun is not a style that is based on techniques.  Rather it is a fighting system that is based on principles which are reinforced by concepts that make the system work.  For years I focused on the proper understanding of the original WT principles as well as the supporting concepts.  To achieve this aim, I began to learn Chinese, both Cantonese and Mandarin in spoken and written form.  This allowed me to understand the theories firsthand, rather than someone else's translated/interpreted perspective*.  The beautiful thing about WT theory is that it is both profound, extremely applicable and not in the slightest mysterious.

In other words, the theory is neither mystical nor esoteric - at least for those who know them AND practice them.

Shockingly however, an authority on WT is now claiming that the theory isn't even taught until the so-called practician level. That would mean 16 years minimum (but much longer is the average duration, think 30 years) BEFORE one STARTS learning concepts.

According to this authority, this is when the practician can finally train "their brain"**.  Anyone who believes it takes almost 30 years before one is 'smart enough' to train their brain is massively underestimating the intelligence of the average human being who learns WT.  Especially when this authority was able to grasp most of the concepts (at least good enough to call himself a 10th level) after 12 years.  Of these 12 years, six of the years was under an admittedly subpar instructor in a very traditional way.  If this authority has an "improved" teaching system, why is it taking them double the time to equal half of his skills?  The answer is this is nothing but propaganda.

When this authority admittedly learned the most profound theory during tea-time chats, why is suddenly the very same theory that was taught openly for years now a 'secret'?  Well, it's not!  Students can't even pass the basic student levels without a modicum of theoretical understanding.  Magnetic zone, fighting principles, force concepts are all 'program minimum' at CWT, even if they are not anymore in other schools.  At CWT all students can learn the original theory without misinterpretation, dumbing down or political revision.  If you think the theory is too mindblowing to learn, consider that not counting high school it takes 12 years to become a brain surgeon.  Is your brain so soft that it takes longer than that for you to begin to think about concepts of a Chinese fighting system?  Don't be a victim of bad propaganda.  Dare to be a rebel, a free thinker and not sheep-follower waiting to learn the secret theory that will finally make you good.

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*For example many westerners WT'ers overly simplify concepts like "gong & yau lik" into terms like "hard & soft".  When one understands the Chinese it's easy to see that "hard & soft" doesn't come close to explaining the subtle differences and nuances of forces used (or not used) in Wing Tsun.

**Is that not the most condescending thing one has ever heard?  One needs permission and authority to use their brain in their martial arts training?