Official Blog of City WingTsun Kung Fu & Sifu Alex

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

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

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

It is with such a heavy heart and such incredible sadness that I have to deal with the loss of my dear friend, student and brother, Klaus Niedermeyer. Klaus left us last Tuesday, the 12^th of February after more than a week of being in a coma as the result of a motorcycle accident.

I was planning on writing the follow-up to my last blog article, but it seems impossible for me to concentrate on anything else while dealing with this incredible loss in my life. For everyone who knew Klaus, it went without saying that a man of his caliber in every aspect of his character was so rare. Klaus had the ability to make everyone feel loved and special, and not just in the trite way that most people mean when they write of someone’s passing, but truly. Klaus made everyone feel incredible. Or as Klaus would always enthusiastically say, “fantastic!”

I will be writing a more complete posting about Klaus when I can muster the strength to not cry every five minutes just thinking about him. For now I want to share the last email I received from him exactly two weeks before he passed:

From Klaus Niedermeyer
To City WingTsun
Date Tue, Jan 29, 2008 at 5:29 PM

Subject FW: some inspiring video for you...

Mein Lieber Sifu,

Bin wieder zurueck aus Greece/Nevada/California/NYC/Germany, uff, dat
war ja was.

Hoffe dir gehts gut. Ich werde anfangen, dieses Wochenende zu chillen,
vielleicht treffen wir uns auf ein Fruehstueck?

Bis dahin moechte ich dir dieses BMW video nicht vorenthalten :))))

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oFt6IYG1vZA

Bis bald mein Lieber Alex

klausN

Translation:

My Dear Sifu

I’m finally back from Greece/Nevada/California/NYC/Germany, oh, that was quite something.

I hope you are doing well. I will finally start to chill this weekend, maybe we could meet for breakfast?

Until then I would like to not keep this BMW video away from you :))))

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oFt6IYG1vZA

See you soon my dear Alex

klausN

Dear Klaus - you owe me breakfast...

Si-fu 

 The first page of a 3-page interview the late great grandmaster Yip Man originally published in February 1972 issue of New Martial Hero.  The interview was arranged by Sifu Leung Ting.

I was in Chinatown the other day as I often am and I came across this find at Bok Lei Po martial arts store on Mott St.  It is from an anniversary edition of "New Martial Hero" magazine which was published last year.  New Martial Hero is basically the main kung fu magazine from Hong Kong since the late 60's.  It has survived even until this day, with new issues coming out every 2-3 months.  In this special anniversary edition they reprinted many famous articles from some of there really old issues.   I bought the magazine because it has significant historical worth for WingTsun (and wing chun) followers.  It is the only interview the late great grandmaster Yip Man ever gave during his lifetime!

As most of my students know, I am also a student of Chinese language and script.  I love finding these articles as it gives me something new to practice reading.  I'm going to work on a translation so that descendants of our great art can read what great grandmaster Yip Man himself had to say.

For now I will translate the second to last paragraph which has extra value for Leung Ting WingTsun practitioners. It was the time that great grandmaster Yip Man openly announced that the WingTsun instructor Leung Ting was his "closed door student" (the student accepted after the grandmaster retired).  Contrary to popular rumors, grandmaster Leung Ting never gave himself the title of "closed door student", it was great grandmaster Yip Man himself.  Here is the paragraph (if the following looks like a bunch of boxes, switch the encoding on your browser for tradtional Chinese characters):

 葉問現年七十六歲﹐ 十三歲即開始練拳﹐ 於一九四九年﹐ 從大陸來港。  當時﹐香港人對詠春所知有限﹐ 經葉問二十三年來之努力耕耘﹐ 成就漸見﹐ 葉師傅已於多年前 “封門”﹐ 刻在浸會學院﹐ 珠海書院﹐ 中華傳道會學生中心等各處詠春訓練班之主持教師粱挺﹐ 系其一位封門弟子。

This year Yip man is seventy-six years old.  At the age of 13 he began studying martial arts, and in 1949 he left mainland China for Hong Kong.  At that time, the Hong Kong people had really limited knowledge of the Wing Tsun style, and after 23 years of hard work and promotion his efforts can now finally be felt.  Sifu Yip "closed his door" (retired) many years ago already.  Now Wing Tsun classes are being carried out at the Baptist University Student's Union.  These classes are being run by the instructor Leung Ting, who is now Sifu Yip's closed door student. 

When I get the rest translated, I'll post it!

Enjoy...