Crescent Street Films produced this interview at my school last year.  Grandmaster Leung Ting talks about his role as the fight choreographer for the iconic kung fu cult film "Five Deadly Venoms".  Enjoy!

During my last visit to Hong Kong this past August, I had the chance to visit the WingTsun class at the Hong Kong Baptist University (HKBU).  This class is taught by my elder kung-fu brother Sifu Robin Tsang under the supervision of Sifu Leung Koon (brother of grandmaster Leung Ting).  The WT class at the HKBU has particular historical importance for us in the IWTA as it was the first open kung fu class ever taught at an educational institution in Hong Kong.  Back in those days it was a common misbelief among many Hong Kong Chinese that kung fu was for lower class people or just for thugs.  The young Sifu Leung Ting wanted to change that and thus opened this WT class in his university.  It wasn't easy at first, he encountered resistance from the faculty - but once he got the green light his WT class became one of the most successful

extracurricular classes ever taught at HKBU.  Within a few

months there were over 120 students learning WingTsun at HKBU!

Eventually the young Sifu Leung Ting would focus on promoting his own school and later his international association.  The WT class at the HKBU has been a tradition in our association, being passed from one WT instructor to the next.  Now Sifu Robin is the instructor for this very nostalgic WingTsun class!

It's with a bit of sadness that I say goodbye to two of my most senior instructors - Fabian Rivera and Mary Austria.  Both have been with me since I began teaching only a few students back in the day.  Mary and Fabian are two of my first batch of direct students (to-dai's) to earn the primary level technician.  I'm very proud of both of them and grateful for their contribution to my school.  Both of them are moving to the Houston area and we here at City WingTsun wish them all the best!

About Tactile Training in Goju-Karate

I recently received an enquiry about "Chi-Sao in Karate". Perhaps my answer may be of some interest to you too.

1st question:
"Is Chi-Sao not a WingTsun invention after all? I always thought it was only practiced in WT. And yet the Goju Karate style also has pushing hands known as "Kakie".
2nd question:
"When you are doing Chi-Sao demonstrations in the EWTO, why do you always makes everything so confusing that nobody understands it? At WC demonstrations you at least see a few techniques as well."

My answers:
Question 1:
"Chi-Sao" (sticking arms) is the name given to "sensitivity" or "contact flow" training in Chinese WingTsun Kung-Fu (Ving Tsun, Wing Chun). Most of the other "internal" Chinese styles (e.g. Tai-Chi, Hsing-I, Pakua etc.) have some kind of "tactile training" under another name and in a different form. In my personal view, some form of tactile/kinaesthetic trainingis no less than indispensable for internal styles (as I understand them), as it is only in this way that complexity can be reduced and timing defined and practiced as a function of the inter-relationship between the limbs in space and time. While Japanese Goju-Ryu Karate is not necessarily an internal style, I think it has obvious "internal aspects" and is the Karate style that comes closest to its Chinese roots. I studied Kempo and Karate myself for over 15 years from 1959 to 1974 (Shotokan, Wado and also Goju) and hold it in high regard, particularly because of its great body work! I became acquainted with the tactile training "Kakie" in England under the name "Rubbing Arms", and this description is very apt if one e.g. watches the very nice video of Higaonna Sensei and his son. (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=armFVxujWjc&feature=related)
Some of my best students – one now has his 6th Master Level in WingTsun – came to me as holders of high Goju Dan grades, with the express permission of their generous-minded Japanese master, in order to learn more about this aspect. Even though it has – unfortunately – only now become public knowledge that the Goju style at least has some rudimentary form of tactile/kinaesthetic training (= Rubbing Arms), this by no means implies that it has been in possession of this method for longer than the much, much older Kung-Fu. As is well-known, Karate came via Okinawa and takes it origins from Chinese Kung-Fu.

Question 2:
Learning Chi-Sao from videos on a DIY basis is unfortunately quite impossible. Accordingly I have always refrained from pretending this is not the case in the past, even though it might well be lucrative from a commercial point of view. Hundreds or, in my case, thousands of hours under the guidance of a skilled teacher are necessary to learn to "feel" to the extent that the tactile sense makes all our decisions for us, without involving the distractive effects of the conscious mind. Anybody looking for visible "techniques" is still prone to erroneous wishful thinking: he wants to find safety and order in prearranged ("dead") arm and leg movements in the "chaos of a fight". He expects "clean" individual attacks that have a beginning and an end, attacks that suit the responses he has learned and assimilated by heart. As if an attacker whaling into him with a flurry of hardly recognisable punches will suit his attack to the defences his would-be victim has learned… In WT – as in the other "internal" styles - we therefore do not practice memorised, prefabricated techniques, but rather the psycho-physical principles of anteperception, adaptation, manipulation, separation and elimination. If you wish to learn more about this at some time in the future, I would be pleased to help.

Yours sincerely,
Keith R. Kernspecht
10th Master Level Leung Ting WT
3rd Dan Karate

It was my honor to have the great Dr. Mark Cheng at my school last week for two brief visits. “Doc Cheng” as he is often known, is not only a fantastic martial artist with an impressive resume, but also an expert instructor in Russian kettlebells. Kettlebell training is an all-encompassing methodology that trains strength, flexibility, conditioning with emphasis on proper body mechanics. These body mechanics are not only vital to correct athletic movement patterns, but also for health and combating the ills of a modern lifestyle. I initially became interested in kettlebells when I was looking for supplementary training to improve my accuracy and conditioning with the WingTsun long pole.

Like everything I decide to pursue, I always want the best instructors to learn from right from the start. I have been very lucky to start kettlebells right from the start with the great Rolando Garcia (www.badfactory.net). Now having had a solid set of fundamentals, I got to take my training to the next level with some incredible corrections and instruction from Doc Cheng himself. Doc Cheng is a phenomenal instructor who teaches with clarity, patience and dedication to perfection. I’m looking forward to integrating the kettlebell training into our special fighter classes very shortly. Anybody interested in finding out more about Doc Cheng’s kettlebell instruction, please visit http://kettlebellslosangeles.blogspot.com/. To find out more about Doc himself, please visit www.chung-hua.com