So it came to my attention today, looking online, as you do, at all the locally listed wing chun clubs in Bromley, Sidcup and Kent and the surrounding areas, that many of these clubs are run by instructors who are possibly in their 20s or most early 30s.
It’s important to know that in order to adequately learn the wing chun system, even if you are fortunate enough to meet or locate a genuinely qualified instructor, would take the best part of 10 years or more certainly would require in my opinion approximately a decades knowledge before warranting the ability and acumen to teach.
It is therefore laughable to read on some of these websites they suggestions regarding qualify. Many of these people are simply running a franchise for a national organisation and where the head instructors themselves have no access to Chinese or Hong Kong teachers that would have learnt the system.
An example of this I spoke with somebody on the phone yesterday who is 64 years of age and who had himself trained with Chinese sifu in the mid 1980s in London Chinatown. This was the period of the wing chun wars when people would attend the local club and there would be challenge matches the often resulted in people sustaining serious injury and hospitalisation. Those days are thankfully long ago, however, the point is people like this and including myself I’ve been training in Wing chun for 30 or 40 years.
Plus, we had the good luck, fortune and resourcefulness to train with those who truly knew the martial art. unfortunately, today many of the so-called experts and self promoted grandmasters are simply charlatans who have little or no background in Wang and have simply made up or copied their material from watching online videos in places like YouTube. Unfortunately, this type of behaviour, supported by the power and algorithms of social media such as Instagram and Facebook has promoted these self proclaimed experts, into the public domain where they have succeeded commercially despite the fact that they are not genuine and have no lineage, knowledge or understanding.
It’s important to trace back and instructors for lineage and certification to see the origins from where the water flows, (look at the last article on this website for more information regarding this and our grandmaster Lee Shing).
Hi myself had been training from the age of 17 until 24 when I went to Hong Kong and trained with both the sons of Mann. Up until that point I trained with various UK based Sifu many of them are now incredibly famous and even more so in the 1990s when wing chun exploded across the UK.
However, it wasn’t until later years I was fortunate enough to meet with my current instructors and whom I’ve been with now for many many years, both Hong Kong Chinese and both are from the generation yip man. They know kung fu as it was said in the Hollywood movie the matrix, there really is a difference between the Mcdojo style of wing chun that we see on every street corner and the closed door Chinese cultural associations that have retained the secrets of this fascinating and deeply misunderstood martial art.
Unfortunately, there is no way before the average individual to ascertain what is good and what is bad until they have had the opportunity to try other schools and systems. Indeed, at 108 we are proud that most of our students have already had a background with other wing Chun schools and they are testament to the complete difference in the way in which we teach, the knowledge available through myself and my teachers.
So, do not be fooled by a glittering and shiny website that appears attractive and both all kinds of amazing opportunities but take a closer look, do some research making enquiries, look behind the scenes and avoid the paper tigers.
There is often a "cult of personality" or a "this will do" approach where a school is local or convincing. You should really reach out to where the knowledge and experience is and go find it for yourself. I'm positive if people tried 108 they would see the difference for themselves.
Well said Sifu. It was always difficult to find the "right" local club and teacher. Nowadays it is an absolute minefield with so many of these "paper tigers" and "wannabes" springing up.