Hi, my
name is Billy Lau. I want to share with the public my experiences as a new
member of the Hung Fa Yi Wing Chun School. About myself, I am a hardcore
spiritual cultivator of the
True
Buddha
School
on Tibetan Buddhism for over 10 and half years. I’ve been studying Wing Chun on
and off for the last 12 years pre-maturely for short periods of time. 12 years
ago, I entered the door studying under Sifu David Lott for a short six month
period. Sifu Lott had to leave and relocate to Texas so I stopped for a seven
year period of time. I then had the opportunity to learn from Sifu Kenneth
Chung for a short 3 month period four years ago. Four years later today, I’m
proud to be one of the newest members to join the Hung Fa Yi Wing Chun family.
I’ve been really fortunate to learn the Hung Fa Yi Wing Chun Martial Arts System
under the teachings of Grandmaster Garrett Gee where I find the purest and most
complete Wing Chun system there to exist, incomparable to all of the systems
that I’ve learned in the past and I will explain why in detail.
While
it’s been only a short 2 months of learning Wing Chun from Grandmaster Garrett
Gee, I find that my confidence has increased significantly in identifying my own
time, space and energy where I have not ever found while training in other Wing
Chun Schools. This is the only Wing Chun system in my experience that traces
directly to the Shaolin Temple with many parallel Buddhist teachings in it’s
martial arts forms similar to my cultivation experience in Tibetan Buddhism.
In short
comparison, I will be summarizing my experiences with each school that I’ve
learned in the past:
Under
the teachings of Sifu David Lott, I learned many forms and techniques that
lacked a true sense of structure. Though at the time, it didn’t appear to be so
since I could compensate my poor structure with some muscle and speed training.
Six months of training but yet nothing more than many drills of punches and
kicks. While facing amateurs, I could really take advantage of them since many
what I call “San Sao” techniques were introduced and taught. However, when
faced against a more experienced fighter, I could not even stand long enough to
apply such techniques. This taught me that I didn’t really want to learn
traditional Karate, Taikwondo, or other forms of martial arts, even Kung Fu,
that relied on training strictly punching, kicking, forms and San Sao. Why?
Because I realized that no-matter how much I train for power and no-matter how
much I train for speed, given my size at only standing 5 feet 4 inches, someone
will always be stronger and faster than I am.
I then
followed Sifu Kenneth Chung for a short 3 month period of time and I focused
primarily in these three months on my horse-stance and nothing more than the
first form of the “Sew Nim Tao”. Though I was doing a lot of “Chi Sao” (sticky
hands), I didn’t feel that I had all of the tools to Chi Sao, with the senior
students at the short period of time of learning from Sifu Kenneth Chung. I
thank Sifu Kenneth Chung because during these three months, I did however start
to build my horse stance and realized how significantly this will become later
in my training. However, by comparing the horse stance I learned from Kenneth
Chung to my current “Learng Yi Ma” stance, my current stance is far more
superior and stable. I started getting frustrated with the fact that our class
did fourty five minute Sew Nim Tao’s and the overall style of relaxation to
build sensitivity didn’t really work for me. I felt I was not in a Wing Chun
class, but rather a Tai Chi fighting class. Maybe I wanted something with more
flare into my martial arts.
I
finally had a chance to learn under the teachings of Sifu Garrett Gee, I finally
realized what martial arts means to “ME”. One example of such is it’s teachings
of “Sup Jeet Sim Fung”. Most Martial Arts and Kung Fu today focus on training
muscle energy and power through “leen kroon”. Leen Kroon is nothing more than
training for punches and kicks through repetition and building power through
muscle and speed. However, Hung Fa Yi teaches us “Sow Kroon”, it is far more
superior then leen kroon which is just ordinary punching and kicking. It is to
cultivate our every move to consist of the proper structure and proper energy
with our mind. Ordinary Kung Fu and other Wing Chun systems today lack this
energy and mind focus. In the short period of time learning with Grandmaster
Garrett Gee, I can deeply relate to the teachings of this martial arts with my
Tibetan Buddhist cultivations. Just this phase resembles greatly with my 10
years of training “Gow Jeet Fut Fung”, the nine section breathing meditation.
This is truly an intelligent and most complete martial arts system where we
utilize our mind to control chi energy and a true sense of cultivating our
punches with a mind behind our every move.
Coming
from a background of experiencing three different schools, I see many
differences to the way Sifu Garrett Gee teaches. Many schools offer teachings
by their senior students and interactions with the Master are minimal, however,
in this school, each student has individualized progressions of teachings from
Sifu Gee. Sifu Gee has a way of explaining every little integrate detail on
every specific move and answers “WHY” we do it the way it’s taught. Every move
in our “Sew Nim Tao” is truly significant and our wooden dummy form teaches us
how to leverage our positioning of the proper structure. We not only learn the
art of the Hung Fa Yi Wing Chun System but we also learn the application, the
form, the proper energy and the philosophy behind each teaching. There are also
many forms, structures, techniques and drills that are completely missing in
other Wing Chun Systems today. Such missing links include “Kew Sao”, “Sup Jeet
Sim Fung”, and many others that I still have not yet been taught. But even
such, our teachings of “Gong Sao”, “Gor Sao”, “Kew Sao”, “Chi Sao”, “Da Sao” and
many others are quite different than the prior schools that I’ve been with.
I’ve witnessed many differences in just the “Sew Nim Tao” and “Chum Kew” forms
as performed by my si hings compared to other wing chun schools and realized
that there are lots of forms and movements missing from outside modified Wing
Chun Schools. Though other schools may teach many techniques of San Sao dealing
with specific punches and kicks, which offer immediate gratification, however,
it is completely useless during the time of application if the proper structure
and energy isn’t there to apply it with, especially if another counter move is
introduced to go against your San Sao from a more experienced fighter. While in
our Hung Fa Yi school, we do not teach you how to go against just a few specific
punches and kicks, it teaches us how to deal with “ALL” punches and kicks
through “Sow Kroon” and the concepts of “Centerline”, “Five Lines”, and “Six
Gates”.
I
strongly recommend that if you are serious about learning Kung Fu or any kind of
significant martial arts system, that you check out Grandmaster Sifu Garrett
Gee’s Hung Fa Yi Wing Chun School. Come check us out and I’ll guarantee you’ll
see the difference.
Billy
Lau
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