No B.S. - just Wing Tsun!

This blog is not about whose wing tsun (wing chun, ving tsun, wing tzun, wing tjun, etc., etc., blah, blah) is "better." Maybe your teacher's is better than my teachers'. Who knows.

Frankly my dear, I don't give a damn.

I only care about what I can learn, who I can learn it from, who I can practice it with, how much I can practice, and who might want to learn it from me. That's all that matters. If you have an axe to grind that doesn't fit into these parameters, please go grind it somewhere else and spare us the noise and the shavings.

If you feel the same way, this might be the place for you, on the other hand.

As for me, I started learning and practicing WT (yes, the Leung Ting system) in Germany in 1981, emigrated to the US (Florida) a few months later, then continued learned from my first Sihing, Curtis Dittrich when he came to Florida in 1982. I was on my own ever since he returned to Germany, less than a year later. Learning from him was like pulling teeth. His ideal was to sit on a couch, have his disciples bring him cups of tea, and dole out pearls of second-hand wisdom. Not my style - but I hung in there.

In 1984 I lucked into a chance to put on a 5-day Seminar with GGM Leung Ting, and then a 10-day Seminar with him the following year. After that, I moved to Houston and learned only through seminars in places like San Antonio, Houston, L.A., Chicago, Heppenheim (Germany), etc. GM Kernspecht, the EWTO founder, was my sifu because my first teacher was not a sifu yet so he was my Sihing and Kernspecht became my sifu by default. I only saw him twice in my life.

Another Sihing of mine from Germany, Sifu Thomas Dolnitzki, came by occasionally. He actually taught me a lot during those times. Sifu Emin Boztepe was the US chief instructor of the American Leung Ting organization for a while. Then he was kicked out, Sigung Leung Ting took over in the US, and things went downhill from there. Why? In one word:

Politics.

I have no use for it. After tolerating it for two decades, I quit the organization. I have never felt better. Now, I am learning whatever used to potentially cost hundreds, if not thousands of dollars extra per form (or set of movements) for free, paying nothing more than the private lesson fee. On top of that, I learned that the whole system of Wing Tsun (sp.), including wooden dummy, long pole and bart cham dao, should be taught (and digested) in three to five years - not ten to twenty year, as is (and has been) the case in the Leung Ting (and many other) organizations.

What a liberating idea!

But this blog isn't about me. It is about you and what you can learn, when, and where, why, and how well.

I'll tell you right now that despite my twenty-plus years in WT, I only know the Biu Tze form, but not the Chi Sao that goes along with it. I am only now learning the wooden dummy and the long pole forms, and I haven't started the bart cham dao, yet. Totally my fault. I didn't want to spend all those extra dollars for it - but I am learning all of those now, or at least very soon, in the case of bart cham dao. I also have good people to practice the movements and principles with. What more could a man ask for?

Do you wan to know what "level" I am? If you care, this is the wrong place for you. There are many other places you will like better.

Do you want to earn student grade certificates in return for your training fee? I might hand those out after testings, but then again, I might not. They do you no good unless you are a traveling wing tsun salesman. In that case they might tell your next instructor where you are in the system - but then again, he will find out very soon anyway if he pays attention to you like, say in the first hour of your training or so.

It really doesn't matter.

I will use this blog to share some information, videos, and insights I find valuable. If you want to "prove" something to anyone by arguing that this or that is "better" or "worse" than something or someone else - again, please go somewhere else. I' m so tired of it.

Other than that, my blog and front porch (where I teach) are open to anyone who doesn't want to waste my time.

Welcome to 'Wally's Whacky World of Wing Tsun.'

Alex Wallenwein
Houston, TX
awallenwein@gmail.com