[QUOTE=anerlich;1098565]My first instructor taught a mixture of WC, CLF and Northern Sil Lum, and bits and pieces of other things he picked up along the way. He was a Nidan in Goju Ryu Karate and a Shodan in JJJ before he took up TCMA, so he was pretty knowedgable for a Gwailo in the 60’s/70’s.
He instilled in me the attitude that the lineage, style or system are far less important than the instructor and your ability to relate to him. “Find an instructor that suits you” was his advice. Also, that it’s foolish to remain in a stylistic black hole without at least considering what’s outside. He cultivated friendships and joint training with other local instructors of all styles of MA for his students and himself.
I had to stop training with him due to employment and geographical reasons.
When I find something I generally stick with it. Sometimes way past the point where I should have left, with a Xingyi/Bagua instructor I spend five years with and a couple of jobs I had.
I’ve been where I am now coming up to 22 years. I enrolled at another BJJ school as well as training BJJ under my WC instructor because IMO the new school’s instructor is the best in my city and state, and my personal goals required me to seek more tuition than I could get at the WC academy.[/QUOTE]
Yeh, nice one Andrew
Where do you do your BJJ? Im sort of tossing the idea up at starting it
GlennR
He instilled in me the attitude that the lineage, style or system are far less important than the instructor and your ability to relate to him. “Find an instructor that suits you” was his advice. Also, that it’s foolish to remain in a stylistic black hole without at least considering what’s outside. He cultivated friendships and joint training with other local instructors of all styles of MA for his students and himself.
And id say thats my attitude now after my years of training, meeting other people, testing my skills and just getting out there.
Pride in lineage is fine but theres 2 points i now adhere to.
if your getting no better or not learning anymore where you are… leave, it will only be a positive. If not to another lineage, another style.
even if you are 100% happy where you are, continuing to learn and seeing it as long term… still “get out there”, meet your local people from other gyms, have some cross training sessions, put on some gloves and spar a boxer… whatever
All of these things are positive and id think that any of our greats, Yip Man, WSL, Sum Nung etc would all think the same thing
A father told his son that an old man who lived few blocks away had a special move but won’t teach anybody outside of his own family. The young boy went to that old man’s house, kicked on his door, cursed on his whole family included his 8 generation ancestor. The old man ran outside, extreamly mad, and beated that young boy up badly by his special move. The boy ran like hell, turned his head, and said, “Thank you for showing me your move.”
You don’t have to change your lineage in order to learn something new.
[QUOTE=YouKnowWho;1098661]A father told his son that an old man few blocka away had some special skill but won’t teach anybody outside of his own family. The young boy went to that old man’s house, kicked on his door, cursed on his whole family included his 8 generation ancestor. The old man came outside. extreamly mad, and beated that young boy up badly. The boy ran like hell, turned his head, and said, “Thank you for shown me your favor move.”
You don’t have to change your lineage in order to learn something new.[/QUOTE]
[QUOTE=anerlich;1098814]A few guys I used to train with at Rick Spain’s go to Gracie Oceania at Marrickville. They speak highly of it, as do their skills.[/QUOTE]
So, needless to say, theres been a bit of inter-lineage squabbling lately (thanks KG & GH, all good fun) but im interested in how many have changed lineage, why they did it, and if its been of benefit to them. And if anyone has regretted the change also. . . . . .
GlennR[/QUOTE]
I was into fighting when I was younger. I didn’t care about a Sifu’s name, or lineage. Back in the day Kung fu people had a rep for having pretty forms but not being able to fight. I was about to give up on Wing Chun until I met Duncan Leung. His guys competed using Wing Chun. Duncan always spoke highly of William Cheung as a fighter. So after Duncan left for Virginia I found out the William Cheung was doing a seminar in 1983 in L.A. I went and liked what i saw. My fighting got better so I stuck with him. Here’s a pic of some of Duncan’s fighters after a fight at Madison Square Garden.
You can all laugh a my 70’s Afro if you like. :eek:
hi all when i first started in it was at a school which olny taught , up till chum kill always excuse made for not teaching dummy and bill jee , the sifu not knowing them was the real reason for not teaching . so i left in 89 went walkabout and found sifu williams thank god for inside kung fu giveing me ideas what to look for in real wing chun . s chan was unreal with kicks as wel and meeting guro roland dantes was god sent
I’m firmly of the belief that its good to have an open mind and exchange ideas but I have never changed lineage and almost certainly never will as my seniors, my sifu and my si gung continue to humble me with skill levels that I can only dream of. I may never be the very best in the world but if I can be even half as good as they are I will be a very happy man.
[QUOTE=wingchunIan;1100494]I’m firmly of the belief that its good to have an open mind and exchange ideas but I have never changed lineage and almost certainly never will as my seniors, my sifu and my si gung continue to humble me with skill levels that I can only dream of. I may never be the very best in the world but if I can be even half as good as they are I will be a very happy man.[/QUOTE]
Honorable ian… but in the long term its all about whats best fo you
After all, it appears Yip Man learnt of more that one
got nothing against having multiple sources of info, my point was really more that there is still so much for me to learn within my current lineage and whilst i still have access to such an abundance of knowledge, and am still improving there is no need for me to look elsewhere. Still got full respect for others that have followed a different route though.
[QUOTE=GlennR;1100495]Honorable ian… but in the long term its all about whats best fo you
After all, it appears Yip Man learnt of more that one
That is true but per the tradition he followed he listed his first teacher as his sifu. Then he learned from a sihing and later from a kung fu “uncle”.
[QUOTE=Vajramusti;1100510][QUOTE=GlennR;1100495]Honorable ian… but in the long term its all about whats best fo you
After all, it appears Yip Man learnt of more that one
That is true but per the tradition he followed he listed his first teacher as his sifu. Then he learned from a sihing and later from a kung fu “uncle”.
joy chaudhuri[/QUOTE]
Tradition may have listed one thing.
But reality, as you say, is a different thing.
I cant help but think that all the greats have learnt of multiple teachers yet so may people frown on this.
Yips legacy is from more than one teacher. Persoanally, i think we could all learn something from that
Tradition may have listed one thing.
But reality, as you say, is a different thing.
I cant help but think that all the greats have learnt of multiple teachers yet so may people frown on this.
Yips legacy is from more than one teacher. Persoanally, i think we could all learn something from that
Possibly you missed part of my point. perhaps our values could be also somehwhat different. That’s ok.Sure we can learn from different people- Ip Man did and said so. But when listing a sifu- the old way was you list one sifu- your original one in a style.
But one of the pluses of the old way that is often lost is that you were thankful to the teachers along the way., i,e you thank those who were upstream before you.
Possibly you missed part of my point. perhaps our values could be also somehwhat different. That’s ok.Sure we can learn from different people- Ip Man did and said so. But when listing a sifu- the old way was you list one sifu- your original one in a style.
But one of the pluses of the old way that is often lost is that you were thankful to the teachers along the way., i,e you thank those who were upstream before you.
joy chaudhuri[/QUOTE]
No, i got your point.
But if you learnt of one guy… for say 8 years… and another for 8 are you saying that if you drew a lineage chart you’d not put down your second teacher?
[QUOTE=GlennR;1100814]--------------------------------------------------------------------
Possibly you missed part of my point. perhaps our values could be also somehwhat different. That’s ok.Sure we can learn from different people- Ip Man did and said so. But when listing a sifu- the old way was you list one sifu- your original one in a style.
But one of the pluses of the old way that is often lost is that you were thankful to the teachers along the way., i,e you thank those who were upstream before you.
joy chaudhuri[/QUOTE]
No, i got your point.
But if you learnt of one guy… for say 8 years… and another for 8 are you saying that if you drew a lineage chart you’d not put down your second teacher?
glennR[
In the the traditional way that would be correct. You can learn from many but traditionally you would have one sifu in your style. Even when you learn from your sigung later your sifu is your sifu. But people don’t always follow that these days so the older pre Mao Chinese
meaning of lineage is replaced often by name dropping.
Often-A few seminars . long distance learning and DVDs-presto- you have sifus running all over the place.
OTOH- you know what you know-it shows…
In the the traditional way that would be correct. You can learn from many but traditionally you would have one sifu in your style. Even when you learn from your sigung later your sifu is your sifu. But people don’t always follow that these days so the older pre Mao Chinese
meaning of lineage is replaced often by name dropping.
Often-A few seminars . long distance learning and DVDs-presto- you have sifus running all over the place.
OTOH- you know what you know-it shows…
sort of my story. Bill will always be my teacher. but I have been lucky to also be able to learn off Barry’s other top guys and Barry himself. Have learnt stuff of other guy from Australia, HK, china but Bill will always be my teacher.
