Does anyone have any personal experience with Jow Gar (fighting style, opinions on the system, noteworthy instructors in the US, etc.)?
I am looking for a new school – recommendations are especially welcome. I live near DC and have noticed a number of Jow Ga schools.
Thanks.
Jow Ga
I’m curious to see what the “Community” thinks about Jow Ga (taken from www.jowtigers.com)
The History of Jow Ga (taken from www.jowtigers.com)
The system of Kung Fu known as Jow Ga (Jow Family) is also referred to as Chow Gar, Zhou Jia, and Chau Ka depending on the dialect or translation. Jow Ga has also been referred to as Hung Tao Choy Mei, which translates "head of Hung and tail of Choy.
It was labeled Hung Tao Choy Mei because the system incorporated Hung Ga kung fu’s powerful upper-body techniques and Choy Ga kung fu’s swift footwork and complex kicking techniques.
The founder of the system was Jow Lung. Jow Lung was born during 1891, in the Canton Province, Hsin-Hui Sheng Sha Fu village, China, an agricultural village for many generations. The people in his village adored martial arts, so Jow Lung starting learning Hung Ga from his Uncle Jow Hung at an early age. Jow Lung’s training began with basic stances and stepping. Regardless of age, those who practice Hung Ga, suffer the most from basic stance and step training. Jow Lung never complained about the training and his uncle took a special liking to him.
One day Jow Hung told Jow Lung that he didn’t think he would live much longer due to symptoms of an old illness. Jow Hung told Jow Lung that he knew a unique set of Pa Kua staff techniques that he wanted to pass on to Jow Lung before he died. Uncle Hung told Jow Lung that his kung fu technique had come to the point that if he learns the Pa Kua staff techniques, he will be one of the best in the martial arts field. Within one month Jow Lung learned the Pa Kua staff techniques. Shortly after Jow Lung learned the Pa Kua staff techniques, his Uncle Jow Hung died. After the death of his uncle, Jow Lung followed Master Choy Kau (Chi Ching Tsai Kong) and learned Choy Ga Kung Fu. It took Jow Lung only a few years to master the Choy Ga Kung fu because of his basics in Hung Ga kung fu.
At the age of 18, Jow Lung had a difficult time finding a job in his hometown through the introduction of his townspeople, so he traveled to Malaysia (Singapore and Malaysia were one country at that time). In 1910, Jow Lung and many others went to find work as miners in Kuala Lumpur. The bosses, who were described as gangsters, would often beat the workers. One day Jow Lung got into a fight with one of his bosses and fatally wounded him. Jow Lung fled to the mountains and found a temple named “Gi Leu”. Because he hadn’t eaten for many days and was exhausted, he asked an apprentice at the temple for help. The master of the temple Chian Yi, agreed to provide shelter for Jow Lung in the temple. Chian knew that Jow Lung had a natural talent for Kung Fu from the moment he saw him. Chian Yi taught Jow Lung northern Shaolin Kung Fu and medicine.
One day, Master Chian Yi called Jow Lung and told him, “I have passed on to you the north Shaolin Martial Arts and medicine, and now your skills are good enough to hold a special place in the martial arts field”. Master Chian Yi then ordered Jow Lung to leave the temple. When Jow Lung went back to Kuala Lumpur, he felt like centuries had gone by, but he never stopped practicing kung fu. From continuous practice, Jow Lung realized the uniqueness of the three styles of kung fu he learned and decided to combine them into one, thereby developing Jow Ga Kung Fu. Jow Lung felt that he would not be able to spread his family’s kung fu in Kuala Lumpur, so he went back to his hometown in China. From then on he vowed to spread his families kung fu. In his hometown, Jow Lung taught his brothers Jow Hip, Jow Biu, Jow Hoy, and Jow Tien the system of kung fu he created. The brothers would diligently practice.
They discussed setting up the first family kung fu school in Canton “Zhou Ren Yi Tang”. Jow Lung would be in charge of teaching, while Jow Hip, Jow Biu, Jow Hoy, and Jow Tien would assist in the teaching. Eventually their family kung fu spread. In 1911, a commander of the military ordered General Fu-Lin Li to hire a martial arts expert to be the coach of the military by holding a public competition. Whoever won the competition would get the job. Jow Lung signed up for the competition. The competition was divided into 10 groups, and used elimination’s to decide the winner. Jow Lung passed each elimination, and reached the final competition against one of the best martial arts practitioners Guan Gin Sze. Jow Lung defeated Guan Gin Sze and became the military martial arts coach. Because of Jow Lung’s success, his brothers assisted him in teaching the military. It was around this time that the brothers became known as “The Five Tigers of Jow Ga”.
At that time Jow Lung made it his job to solve problems and dissolve dissentions. The four brothers followed in Jow Lung’s footsteps. In 1919, Jow Lung became so busy teaching that he hardly got rest. When Jow Lung caught a cold at times, he would dismiss it casually because he considered himself to be strong. Unfortunately Jow Lung’s cold became so severe that it turned into pneumonia and rendered him incurable. Just as other heroes who have died young, Jow Lung died when he was 29. His death shocked the martial arts community. His students mourned him as if they would for their own parents and the society as a whole was at loss.
Jow Hip, Jow Biu, Jow Hoy, and Jow Tien mourned deeply for the loss of their brother. On the day of Jow Lung’s funeral, they vowed that they would continue to carry out their brother’s dying wish to spread Jow Ga Kung Fu, so that it would be noted in history. The brothers worked hard and opened up the 4th branch in Canton and Hunan. In 1927, they set up the 5th branch in Chen Tsun, 6th branch in Fo Shan, 7th and 8th branch in Nan Hi Shi Giao, and Guin Shan.
In 1928 Jow Biu returned to his hometown to set up the 9th branch in Jiang Men, 10th branch in Tai Shan Hsin Chan, 11th in Gio-Gian, students Zhu Hua and Lee Ngou (Li Niu) in charge. In 1929 Jow Tien went to Shi-Gian to develop and set up branches in Yu -Tsen, Du-Tsen, Nan Fu and Guan-Shi, widely setting up to 20 or more branches. By 1930, 80 branches were set up in Shanghai and led by students of the Five Tigers. Setting up so many branches in a few years is unprecedented in the martial arts field. This was achievable due to the Jow family leadership.
China experienced great political upheaval. Lee Ngou immigrated to Hong Kong’s Yuan Lan head branch. Jow Biu followed and set up branches. Many other students of the Five Tigers arrived in Hong Kong later to help with the branches.
The Jow Ga lion dance techniques were even better known. Before World War II, Hong Kong held a huge parade during the inauguration for the King of England George II. The Hong Kong government sent people to Canton to ask a group from Jow Ga to perform for Queen Elizabeth’s inauguration ceremony. Jow Biu led the group to accept Hong Kong’s invitation. Since the war, Jow Ga’s lion team has performed during any large scale parades in Hong Kong. When Queen Elizabeth celebrated her 25th silver anniversary of ruling, the Jow Lung Branch sent out a huge Lion Dance team of 300 people for the parade.
On March 14th 1961, Jow Biu passed away after a short illness.
*** My apologies for such a long opening Topic, but as I was copying directly from the site, I did not want to edit words that were not my own.
I only studied JowGa for 2 years before I moved and found another sifu who taught me N. Shaolin which was suprisingly an easy transition considering JowGa is considered a southern style.
After several more years training in N Shaolin I became interested in Sanshou and began to train ferverously. Many of those powerful movements of JowGa came back into my regemen once again.
and of course the love of the lion dance..
Many publications (kungfu magazine, etc.)have done articles on Jowga and my sifu Hoy Lee especially, but I have not heard of it mentioned in this forum.
There is much more info available but I’ve already made this post far too long…
A strong man controls others. A man who controls himself is truly powerful. -Lao Tzu
i trained Jow Ga in my early days of kung fu and think it’s a great style.as i understand it though, it’s a mixture of both southern and northern kung fu.
i studied under Sifu Randy Bennet.don’t know if he was related to the school in that link, but the logo looks the same so i’d guess he may be.
_________________________“I never drive faster than i can see…other than that…it’s all in the reflexes” Jack Burton
Jow Gar = Chow Gar?
Now I’m confused.
I’m supposedly doing Chow Gar Tong Long!? 
And it’s not what you describe it as.
Probably transcription difficulties…
From what I understand, Chow Gar Tong Long is a branch of the mantis style. Jow Gar is a different style.
Guns don’t kill people, I kill people
Ah Chinese Surnames
Chow Gar Tong Long (Part of the Hakka Fists tradtition Chu Gar, Chow Gar, Jook Lum…that were disguised in name as Nan Tong Long).
Jow Gar - of the five brothers surnamed Jow as described in the first post here.
Both relatively different in approach
Regards
Shi Chan Long
Jow Ga is a very strong system. I studied it for 3 yrs under Andy Troung & previously for a year under Randy Bennett. It is a combination of Southern & Northern Kung Fu as stated by others.
Fish of Death,
how long since you studied with randy and which school? Was it Surry Hills.
I must admit his method of teaching wasn’t to my liking. I used to have 5 different seniors teach me the same form 5 different ways.
Randy’s kung fu was very good from what i saw. The above paragraph was in no means an insult to him or his school. Just my opinion.
i was with Neil Elliott (one of Randys’ instructors)…probably almost ten years ago.
i only ever went to the Surry hills branch for grading
_________________________“I never drive faster than i can see…other than that…it’s all in the reflexes” Jack Burton
I also started kung fu with Jow Ga and Hung Ga. Very strong systems, well known for their strong bridges (if trained properly,) I saw someone recently who claims to be well versed in Hung Ga but certainly didn’t have the bridge in fact was hard pressed not to fall off his horse .
Has anyone trained both Jow Ga and Hung Ga’s Tiger Crane form, is there alot of difference between them? I found Randy bennets Jow Ga is influenced heavy with Wu shu. I learnt under Andy Truong, a vietnamese linage if I remember correctly. 
BIU JI
While I do not know First hand knowledge of Hung Gar, I do know that Many of the forms and techiniques Sifu Hoy Lee taught were Tiger/Crane, and it was implied there were from the Hung Gar base of the system.
A strong man controls others. A man who controls himself is truly powerful. -Lao Tzu
I trained in Jow Ga with Bob Stannells, my instructor used to visit and vice versa often when he lived in London. He learnt in Malaysia, and was married to the daughter of one of his teachers I believe.
He taught us Lion Dance many years ago, and I learnt two fist sets and a staff set. My instructor learnt much more. One of those sets is fairly similar to the Hung Ga Tiger and Crane set from what I have seen of it.
Mark
I learnt both hung ga and jow ga but they were taught at the same time, they were so similar that it didn’t matter. It’s been awhile since I trained that I forget all execpt the first form(practiesed the most), though I still have them on tape, I’m glad I did. Always a good refernce point to have, seeing the mistakes you do.
I can’t remember if I learnt the jow ga or hung ga tiger/crane form as I know I only learnt one, as students were given different forms at times. Mostly I started to focus on hung ga out of the two until I started dragon and went in another direction. Still think they’re good systems, I respect all systems, trained properly they all work well(only some more then others).
PEACE
Fish of Death,
I used to practice with Neil Elliot on saturdays at Randy’s school. We used to spar abit. Powerful guy had strong legs.
What do you train in now?
Biu Ji,
having trained in both Jow Ga & Hung Ga at the same time time I learnt both HG & JG tiger/crane sets and they were very similar.
Same angles, very similar techniques yet at either higher or lower angles.
The main difference is with HG you block with the 1 finger salute & JG the block was open palm & usually followed by a circle grab.
jow ga..
i’m currently studying jow ga with sifu hoy lee in VA Beach. though i’ve only been there for a little over two years now, i have found that there is GREAT potential and much to be learned through this system. sifu lee specializes in combat and i feel very fortunate to be training in such an atmosphere where it’s emphasized. i agree (with no disrespect) that randy bennets kung fu must be influenced by wu shu in order to make it more attractive. though i would hope that though he may choose to deviate from the style in terms of form that he may remain true in passing on the many applications of these fairly simple, yet most devastating and lethal techniques. the forms i have learned are also most authentic because of the lineage. ie. jow lung–>jow biu–>chan man cheung–>hoy lee
Mysteri
You forgot to add Dean Chin to that list…Dean Chin was also one of CMC top students.. who came the US ending up in Washington DC on instruction from Chen Man Cheung to introduce Jow Ga. sadly he passed away in 1985 if my knowlege serves me right from a swimming accident.. I’m not sure if Hoy K Lee came to the US at the same time as Dean Chin or not, ask your sifu about Dean Chin …I would like to correspond with on your training if you have the time
ShaolinTiger00
If you don’t mind me asking you don’t have to post it here just email me, where in dc do you live. The reason I ask is there is a Jow Ga school
here is dc. named Wong’s Chinese Boxing Association. Raymond Wong is one of Dean Chin’s top students that studied along with Derek Johnson, Deric Mimms, there are a few others, Most of the prominent Jow ga instructors are located here in the Wash Dc, Va , Md area…there’s also the Hung Tao Choy Mei academy in NW DC …the instructors name is Abdur-Rahim Muhammad he was a student of Dean Chin, Raymond Wong, and Deric Mimms…There’s also Ronald Wheeler one of Sifu Wongs students, put out a set of instructional videos on Jow Ga produced by ESPY. Mysteri is correct when he said the techniques are authentic due to the lineage you can’t ask for a stronger and recent family tree than that. Mysteri are you familiar with Sigung Chin, and Raymond Wong does your school communicate Sifu Wong, and the others besides Derec Johnson.
BIU JI hows it goin
[This message was edited by RENEGADE_MONK on 05-16-01 at 06:49 PM.]
my apologies..
renegade_monk,
sifu dean chin and my sifu hoy lee were best of friends. it was actually dean chin who introduced jow ga to the U.S. in 1960’s. this is where sifu lee first encountered jow ga. he then became work partners with sifu chin and became a disciple of grandmaster chan man cheung in hong kong. he is still recognized as a 3rd gen master, which is why i drew the lineage the way i did. were i to go in to detail with the tree from the first genereation(which i couldn’t BEGIN to do), it would far exceed the necessity to post it in the forum. again, my apologies for leaving out dean chin on the lineage tree. in response to your inquiry about my training, it is very limited. so i hope to prove somewhat knowledgable to you should you be hy si hing. yes, i am familiar with raymond wong and all of the jow ga sifu in the d.c./maryland area. we are going to be attending raymond wongs tournement in a few weeks. hopefully i will be able to make it because my funds are restraining me from competing. maybe i will see you there. i’m looking foward to your reply.
Mysteri
Good day my friend
no need to apologise, I will try to make the Tourney if not I would like to correspond with you
I’m quite sure we can learn from on another. I will be visiting Sifu Wong’s school this evening. its time for my son to get involved, and start his training. feel free to drop me an email
train hard my friend
ShaolinTiger00
have you made a decision on studying Jow ga. if you need contact info I’ll see if I can help you
a little of what i know..
renegade_monk-
thank you for your reply. i joined jow ga in april '99. since then, i have learned in this order under the request of sifu lee: sei ping kuen, small tiger two man set, plum blossom spear, SPEAR vs broadsword & dagger, small tiger, and tiger-tail broadsword. i am currently(well, when i can get back into my training schedule in the summer) trying to work hard on my broadsword because that takes the most strength for me to perform. so that will take some time. i am also working on a northern plum flower fist set(not the southern one) and staff. but my focus right now(or will be) to perfect broadsword and finish flower fist. then i will worry about finishing staff. what about you? good luck w/ your son…
“dum spiro, spero…” (while i breathe, i hope)
I know nothing
I orginally started training in Jow back in 86-87
for a brief period learning Sui Fok Fu- Small Tiger, or Small Subduing Tiger, and Tit Jin Kuen,
but basically I’m a novice when it comes to what i learned… sei ping kuen is that “Small Hung Fist”, how do you like the Plum Blossom spear sets? Moi Fa Cheung?? …I just came from the school but Sifu Wong had an engagement today so the school was closed. But I’ll be talking with him about 7:00pm tommorrow.
Peace