C: Questions & Answers:

Interested in learning innovative kungfu?

Maybe, but I want something more fun and aerobic.

Perfect, because I don’t teach forms. Everything is interactive. I stress fun and physical fitness, just like boxing and kickboxing do. Plus, by teaching new practical skills each day, you’re never bored. The only truly effective way to learn kungfu is to combine the fun of learning with the health and readiness of fitness.

I just want to learn self-defense.

Perfect, because that’s what I teach. During the learning process, you don’t have to get hit or kicked or bruised. You hone technique with partners; you train power with a punching bag. You don’t have to get in a ring and take a beating to learn interactive self-defense.

I want to study MMA combat.

Excellent, because MMA combat is the true test of whether something works. At the same time, if all you study is standard MMA, you don’t have an advantage. Since my kung fu is designed to be MMA-ready, it fits in perfectly with standard MMA techniques and will give you the advantage you need to conquer all.

I want to learn traditional kung fu.

Great! But remember that traditional kung fu doesn’t perform well in real fighting. If it did, it would already be a standard part of MMA training and UFC competition. Traditional kung fu has many great things going for it, but it needs to be tweaked from head to toe. I am presently upgrading a traditional kung fu style with the goal of replacing kickboxing as the preferred style for stand-up fighting in MMA. Join me and be part of the evolution of traditional kung fu.

Traditional kung fu is best. It's the competition rules that stifle the best techniques.

Yes and no. Mostly no. The rules apply to every style. They're there for safety's-sake. I can do traditional push hands just fine wearing MMA gloves. Even full-blown boxing gloves aren't a problem. Competition rules don't stifle as much as you think. Everyone needs to innovate. But many in traditional kung fu are too stubborn. After studying my innovative kungfu, you will see that complaints about competition rules are just an excuse for failing to adapt.

MMA is just a sport. Traditional kung fu is lethal.

Yes and no. Mostly no. Even professional boxers wearing thick gloves routinely knock each other out. They even occasionally kill each other. Bareknuckle boxing is so dangerous it’s banned outright. MMA is easily lethal too, which is why competitors wear gloves. Anything and everything is both sport and lethal.

Do you have time?

Much of my schedule is already booked up.

No problem, because learning doesn’t take a lot of time. I’ve innovated a speed learning system. You can learn useful kung fu skills even if you only come once a week.

I guess, but I'm still not sure.

Would you feel more confident and be more popular around men and/or women if everyone knew you could defend them against bad guys?

Do you want to break the ice in a hostile encounter by whimpering, "Don't hurt me please!"

Or would you rather look the person in the eye and state forcefully: "I don't want to have to hurt you!"

And mean it with your every fiber!

Innovative kungfu is great for everyday self-defense.

What if somebody has a gun?

No martial art will save you against someone with a gun who keeps their distance.

What if the bad guy has a knife?

Perfect! 90% of my empty hand technique is identical to what you use defending against or fighting with a knife in one hand. Wing Chun kung fu "sticky-hands", when done properly is ambidextrous knife-fighting without the knives.

Consider the advantages over other schools.

1. I am currently integrating the best of wing chun kung fu with some of the best of boxing and kickboxing, which will soon make for an awesome mix of traditional MMA combined with the best of innovative kung fu.

2. I teach assertive self-defense that you can apply right away on the first day.

3. Other kungfu schools take years to teach you everything. With me you learn everything you need in 3 to 6 months.

But fighting is violence.

Actually, kungfu can be self-defense. And the confidence it gives you can help you avoid fighting. When bad guys sense that confidence, they look for a softer target. Radiating confidence makes others expect you to be better at everything. People trust you more, like your friends, coworkers, boss or customers. With confidence, everybody is happy but the bad guys.

But you’re not Chinese. You don’t teach directly from a lineage.

That’s true, I’m even better. Not teaching directly from a lineage means I am free to innovate. Some key kung fu lineages went extinct during China’s multiple civil wars. Southeast China wing chun kung fu is only one lineage. It was adapted to fight on small boats with no space for moving forward. So it discarded unnecessary forward motion fighting skills. This is why Southeast China wing chun does not do well in MMA or UFC scenarios. I have reinvented the original form, Southwestern wing chun kung fu, designed for fighting on land and moving constantly forward. Always willing to innovate, I am dedicated to ensuring my style works easily and intuitively in MMA.

Why don't you teach Yip Man style Wing Chun?

Because I eventually realized there are two radically different types of Wing Chun. One for fighting on boats (Yip Man's Pearl River delta style) with the other for fighting on land (the original Wing Chun from Yunnan Province which seems to be virtually extinct). I teach the latter.

Here’s how the journey into kung fu heresy began: The final weapon taught in contemporary wing chun kung fu is the long pole, a barge pole, the same enormous staff wielded by Venetian gondoliers. The gondoliers in China were Tanka boat people who lived full-time on the water by the tens of thousands in the Pearl River delta during the Ming and Qing dynasties. They lived on overgrown dinghies with a partial roof and the whole family and property was all crowded aboard. So not much open space for fighting. They adapted Wing Chun kung fu from an MMA type scenario on land where you have lots of space and adjusted it to work in their tiny cramped dinghies. Hence the boat pole is a Yip Man Wing Chun weapon. Hence Yip Man Wing Chun, which was adapted for standing room only boats, has not been found to work in MMA or the UFC, both of which presume ample space for bobbing and weaving, pacing, running, leaping, wrestling, and other space-hungry body movement.

Back when I was helping John Kang open a school in California, I realized the Wing Chun I was taught was not working for me in fight situations. (Ignore all the excuses about MMA competition limitations and how wearing gloves impedes Wing Chun in MMA competition. The solutions lie in body movement training). I’ve spent several years rebuilding Wing Chun around new ideas and along the way realized I must have inadvertently recreated the original Yunnan version because now everything in Wing Chun works the way it is supposed to, without requiring superior speed or strength or getting timing right.