My sifu went back to Shanghai to visit and had recently hurt his back. He spent some time getting his back worked on by this female therapist during his stay. One day he took this attractive, younger therapist out to lunch and some younger guys were teasing him in the restaurant. Apparently, something was said to sifu and he replied, “I am old enough to be your father.” Now, keep in mind that sifu had been in America for years and years and he roughly translated the American phrase into Chinese. Apparently, the youths were unfamiliar with the phrase and interpreted it as, “I am old enough to have slept with your mother, and could be your father.” At least in retrospect thats what he thinks. Anyways, these five guys proceeded to attack him but his back was too injured to use My Jhong. He then whipped out some good ole Tai Chi and started tossing them around until the police arrived. Would have been a sight to see.
BTW Owen, that story was pretty good. =p
“If you and I agree all the time, then one of us is unnecessary.”
An old sifu of mine (meaning i have since changed schools) was at a bar with some friends. Anyway, he spotted a group sitting across the room and saw one of the guys slap this chick across the face pretty hard. So he stands up, walks over to them and tell the guy “Hey mate, you dont hit girls…now appolagise”.
This guy wasnt too impressed and took a swing at him. 3 seconds later ‘Mr ***** slap’ was on the floor… and 3 big friends of his decide to take a stab at some revenge. …mistake; he wipped the floor with them too. That week our school gained ALOT of new students.
ahhhh!!! So you DO have some relation to Yip Man??? WCFighter got a rise out of you didn’t he? Otherwise, if Yip Man was not part of your lineage then you wouldn’t know jack about him now would you??? And if he IS part of your lineage, then all the stuff you say is trash Because the advice and opinions you give are not Yip Man’s Wing Chun concepts
Anyways, Yip Man wasn’t a saint you know. He didn’t always fight for a just cause. What do you call his fight with Leung Bik and then losing his temper when he lost?
And not disrespecting my Si-Gung but realistically, he wasn’t a moral teacher either. He told his students to go out and fight to see if their Wing Chun worked. Examples: Bruce Lee, Wong Shun Leung, William Cheung, Hawkins Cheung, the VERY PEOPLE YOU SAID WERE PUNKS were all told by Yip Man HIMSELF at one time or another, to go out and start fights. ALOT of our Wing Chun was improved by Yip Man with the aid of Wong Seung Leung’s exploits in “bei mo” fights. Yip Man never told Wong to stop, but rather, he encouraged it because it placed Wing Chun on the map.
He did. He taught very few people the whole system. Most only learned less than 1/4 of it. The Wooden Dummy, 8 Chop Knives, 6 1/2 point pole, Biu Tze were almost never taught openly.
He taught only for money because the Japanese took it all in WWII. Even when you look at Chum Kiu, Biu Tze and the Knife sets of various teachers who learned under him today, they are all different. The footwork is all different.
What happened to styles like Bak Mei happened with Wing Chun too. There is no consistency or standards now in Wing Chun (at least from the Yip Man line).
That’s why even though I don’t believe that say, William Cheung’s claims are true, I don’t doubt that Yip Man let him believe that he was inheriting secrets withheld from other disciples.
The people who learned everything had to do more than just pay. They had to basically brownnose and get on his good side to learn extra stuff. Nowadays we take it for granted that Martial Arts is a business transaction where you pay and you get taught. In the past, you had to be allowed to pay, and your teacher had to like you to teach you the “real” stuff.
I believe is was simply a matter of the Hong Kong people, being too stupid to handle the real stuff. Like Chin Na, for example, you would have had all the people listed in the prior post, going out into the street, picking fights, and hurting people unnecessarily, just to feed their ego. Who would it have fall upon? Yip Man.
And if you think about Hong Kong mentality, it’s very fast-paced, “what’s next”, “don’t waste time”, “what’s the next technique”, “what do I use it against”, “what’s the counter for that”. Would you teach these people dangerous techniques?
my sifu fought in hong kong back in the days when the likes of his friends bruce lee, duncan leung & others fought in the streets(not for bragging, jus chronological) anyway, he once defeated every member of a popular gang back then (don’t ask me who). the gang was so embarass and enraged that they chased him all over hong kong that day with clubs, chains, knives, etc.(damn, i wonder what the hell he did to those guys?) when he first came to washington,d.c. in the 60’s and 70’s, he said that when he first opened up his school, he got challenged about every single day by the likes of many different martial artists: boxers, thai boxers, karate, TKD, judo, other KF stlyes. he said all of the sudden people stopped challenging him! ;o) there was also a simple funny little incident(a common occurence) where a guy attempted to mug him with a knife. (sifu was known for his lightning fast and thunder strong kicks back then.) before thet guy could even blink, sifu nonchalantly kicked the knife out of the guys hand and said,“you want to try and pick it up?” i jus get a chuckle when i think about the story. hope this was interesting and i hope noone thinks i’m gloating. good luck!
In a fight you should never stick to principles; they should stick to you!
“Anyways, Yip Man wasn’t a saint you know. He didn’t always fight for a just cause. What do you call his fight with Leung Bik and then losing his temper when he lost?”
Even though I wasn’t like that at 15, I wouldn’t expect anything different from a 15 year old. Most of the 15 year olds I’ve come across, seem to think they know everything. Why would Yip Man be any different.?
My school is in a seedy part of town, and I watch tuffguys coming into the kwoon all the time. Many times, we get local gangbangers who are just curious or bored. They watch us practice, think it’s bullsh!t, start talking trash. Every now and then, teacher will go up to them and say, ok, show me what you got. These guys will get all puffed up, take a swing. Teacher drops them. Tuffguys get ticked off, come up mad, really swinging. Teacher drops 'em. Sometimes they sign up for training, mostly they mutter and grumble and slink away. Never seen a single one land anything on teacher. Only thing landing is their butts on the mat.
So, a person gets jumped and manages to walk away because he is trained in wing chun. one shouldn’t be proud to have the skills needed to defened themself?
it is one thing to boast about your fight, but its wholly different to tell someone about a fight you had as a response to their question.
if you don’t study wing chun in order to proficient in the art, why study it at all? it is, last i checked, a fighting system.
that’s funny to me. have you ever had to drop anyone who came into the school yourself? or have you ever been in a situation where someone doubted your ability and you fought them? just curious.
In a fight you should never stick to principles; they should stick to you!
look back to your first post in this thread. I apologize for not quoting you initially, but I figured you would have remembered what you posted, seeing how little you typically offer in the way of typing. Please accept my abject apologies.
Anyhow, here is a recap of what you said, just in case.
street fight success?
A street fight is by no means a success. Why insult your sifu by advertising it on the net?
Because the advice and opinions you give are not Yip Man’s Wing Chun concepts