Looking for good Vancouver school

[Mr.Sleazy]

Hello, All:

I am new to MA and am looking for a high-quality school or teacher to train under in Vancouver BC. From internet research I am attracted to Kung Fu (with its many many styles) and possibly Krav Maga. I have a few criteria though to narrow the search:

1. The training must be very combative/self defence focussed with substantial time spent with hard sparring. I am not really interested in the "inner peace" stuff, though I don't mind it.

2. Very professional instructor(s) with good credentials and attitude.

3. Fellow students with a good attitude who are keen on training and not just beating on people.

4. Cost effective.

Any suggestions much appreciated.

Thanks.

Mr.Sleazy

[CLFNole]

I know Sifu Chan Sau Chung and his son Chan Kai Leung opened a Tai Sing Pek Kwar Mun school within the past year. Sifu Chan is known as the monkey king and is well known for producing very good fighters. Not sure where the school is but I would guess you could find it pretty easy.

I know they have a web site but I can't remember the name. Do a search on the internet and you should find it. If you can't post again and I'll see if I can't find it for ya.

I also know there are a few Choy Lay Fut schools in Vancouver, I know Wong Ha and Hilbery Yu have schools plus I think there is a Buk Sing CLF school. As a CLF practioner myself I am a bit partial to this style, however the schools in your area are from different lineages than myself. My late sifu was very close to Chan Sau Chung and this is why I recommended his school first.

Wong Ha is quite old now so I don't think he teaches. Hilbert Yu was a student of Wong Ha who incorporated Wushu into his CLF.

Peace.

[rubthebuddha]

you could come across the border and practice wing tsun with your friendly neighbors in bellingham, too. sisok david brown is ggm leung ting's second-most senior student in the states, and we're all quite wonderful instructors. :)

[PhoenixPangaryk]

If you like Hung Gar and fighting with animals (tiger, snake, dragon, leopard, crane, eagle, mantis, monkey, drunkard etc), contact me off list and I will give you a contact that may be of help. If your looking for an intense partner to do drills with and spar - again, contact me off list and I would be happy to help.

Phoenix

[diego]

uno how lucky we are to have not even legit but the authentic taishing/pekwa in freekin richmond??!:cool:

i study tibetan lion roar style, but i'm thinking of some way affialliting meself with thier school, if my style wasn't as rare as thier style i would quit my style, but i wanna see if i can bring my style out the woodwork by the time i'm 40 or so.

Go now, 4REALL.:mad:

[David Jamieson]

There is lot's of good kung fu in vancouver.

Take a walk down pender and back up hastings :-)

Many of the chinese clubs are not "storefront" and quite a few are invitation only.

Check out the martial arts store on Pender and ask them where the schools are at that you may be able to check out, they are very friendly. The store is called Kuen Way and it's at 28 E pender street. Theres a wing chun school two doors down.

http://www.chinesekungfuonline.com has information regarding the Tai Shing Pek Kwar school that has been mentioned. Good reputation.

peace

[diego]

The wing chun schools right behind the busstop to kooteny loop,
****it if you go striaght from kuen way down hastings to the other store mikado wich just closed down; in the summer like 2pm that whole strip smells like ****, it's nasty, all the garbage from the stores, mixed with all the industrial warehouse stenches,
BLOODY HELL....

see i live on a mountain near the canyon, i feel sorry for the townfolk in that more how they say, ghettoeish/area.:)

[diego]

It's a oldhouse and thiers this tattered darkblue door in the front that reads something like wingchun, says the teacher's name, and says come around back written in what looks like chalk, you definatly wouldnt see it driving, Kung lek is it a private club?, you seem to know of the class.

looked curious

[kungfulover]

you should go to meet the Mokey King GM chan and his son Master Chan in vancouver. Their kung fu is excellent and they teach very professional too.


They were even featured on many local big newspapers like Vancouver Sun, Vancouver courier, Richmond news, the reviews and were featured on the shaw cable too.


I know there are many kung fu schools in Vancouver but their "quality" kind of suck. Most of them teach kung fu in community centre plus they are not really serious at kung fu too.


try to reach them at here:

http://www.taishingpekkwar.com


good kung fu + good reputation + professional and more :)

[diego]

I recently found out thier is quite abit of my style tibet lion roar
in vancouver, is thier anyway you could get some inside knowledge, in wich schools has the most professional" not commercial, hehe" Atmosphere, it would be greatly appreciated.
Am only asking because of what you just wrote about community centre's.
perhaps you could ask your teacher's opinion's on what they have seen in van's tibet gung-fu community.
Peace

[Mr.Sleazy]

Hey thanks for the great suggestions from everyone above I will definitely check them out.

If anyone has more suggestions I would love to put them on my list to look at.

Also, are there schools best avoided in Vancouver and not worth looking at?

Thanks in advance.

Mr.Sleazy

[diego]

but if were talking about kungfu, we have a huge chinatown so it's not a problem, but definatly as has been overly stated, the taishing/pekwa-emperor's longfist and traditional monkey gungfu combination, i'm guessing that would be within the top 5 kungfu schools in north america, agian i have know idea what i'm talking about, but i look at my style and i look at thier style, and i seriously wish i didnt love my style, or i would travel the halfhour drive and signup tommorrow, after my free lesson of course"hehe"

[firepalm]

With over sixty active instructors in Vancouver there are a lot of Kung Fu clubs to chose from. In spite of what KFL said the fact that some are within community centers should not factor strongly into your judgement as several such clubs still produce good students (and as they don't have huge rents to pay you actually will pay less then say in a Tae Kwon Do studio). And while the Tai Shing Pek Kwar people certainly have a good club, I would not necessarily say they are top five or anything like that, further the fact that they have recieved some media coverage should also not be a factor in your decision making of a school to chose. No insult intended to their club as GM Chan is certainly a high level master & had in his time in HK produced many good people, however realistically they are still new in Canada & it remains to be seen if their club can achieve the same results as they had in HK, much less survive.

As to avoiding any clubs, stay as far away from Temple Kung Fu as possible.

Anyhow here's a short breakdown of some of the many other clubs available.

Choy Lee Fut clubs;
1) Sifu Hilbert Yiu @ Renfrew Community Center - website @ www.shungying.com
2) Sifu Gary Seto @ Willingdon & Hastings - website @ www.setokungfu.com
3) Sifu Wong Ha @ 306 Jackson St.
4) Sifu Peter Wong @ Hon Hsing Athletic Ass'n on Pender St. across from the Chinese Cultural Center
5) Sifu Mathew Wing @ Strathcona Community Center

Wing Chun clubs;
1) Fred Kwok's Wing Chun Kung Fu @ Commercial & Hastings (above the Chinese Funeral center, the club Diego spoke of)
2) Sifu Lee Man Kit of Global Martial Arts @ King Edward & Fraser
3) Sifu Ralph Haenel @ Kuen Way on Victoria & 49th - website @ www.wingtsunkungfu.com
4) For more Wing Chun clubs in Vancouver a simple search on 'Wing Chun Vancouver' through Google.com will provide many results

Praying Mantis clubs;
1) Sifu Jon Funk @ West End Community Center - website @ www.mantiskungfu.com (does various modes of sparring & grappling in addition to traditional praying mantis)
2) Sifu Jack Wong in Surrey @ Traditional Kung Fu Training Center - website www.traditionalkungfu.com (also teaches Hung Gar, Tai Chi & Kickboxing)

Hung Gar clubs;
1) Sifu Ben Tang @ Collingwood Center on Victoria Drive - website @ http://www.geocities.com/tokyo/5389/abc1.htm
2) Sifu Raymond Cheung @ Kensington Community Center (also trains San Da / Shou fighters)
3) Sifu Ken Low @ Jewish Community Center in Yellow Pages - website @ www.kenlow.com (also teaches My Jong La Hon & Wushu)

Others;
1) SY Liang Wushu Institute (don't be fooled by name they teach not only modern wushu but also traditional as well as internal & San Da fighting) on Jackson between Cordova & Powell at Japanese Buddhist church - website @ www.shouyuliang.com
2) Sifu Vincent Chow's White Crane @ Broadway & Main under Guys & Dolls Pool Hall (once produced one of the top kickboxers in Canada Tom Laroche)

Go to any of the martial arts supply stores (Golden Arrow, Mikado, Dragon, Kuen Way or Bushido) where you can pick up flyers of various clubs. That should give you a good start.

Good Luck... let me know how you do?

[kungfulover]

yeah diego, you are right. Tai shing pek kwar is the top 5 kung fu school in Northern America for sure.

They have just opened a school for a few months but already got over 100 students now. One of my friend tried many different kung fu styles in there and he almost wanted to give up ( i dont wanna tell you guys the reason why but i guess you guys should know how 'best" the other kung fu schools run in there) Luckily he ran across with this monkey kung fu and have been learning it for a few months. Right now, he is even willing to give up his job for practicing kung fu in there for the whole day. ;)

Too bad,i am still working in Korea now. I have no chance to meet them. But fortunately, he always send me all the up to date news about them.

Actually, there are many active instructors in Vancouver. However, their bad reputation are well known. I used to live in Vancouver for a couple of year for my job. I saw many of their tournament, performance and competition. They all SUCKED. They cant even compare with those small tournament in US. I am not trying to put them down but i just wanna tell people the truth. Most of so call "sifu" are, in fact, at student level. If you dont believe, next time if they have any performance, you go and take a look and for sure you will be surprised by their "outstanding" skill. That is one of the reason why Tae Kwon Do got many students even there are many kung fu sifu in there.
:(

[firepalm]

No insult intended to GM Chan, but there are several Sifu in Vancouver that also have over a hundred people. That is in part a reflection of they're (GM Chan & others with 100+) ability to promote. If student numbers was the only criteria, then I know of a Vancouver wushu school (not listed on my previous post) that has in excess of a hundred students, a great many junior & senior champions, even a few movie stars & stunt people and they put on great shows at tournaments (and they've only been around a few years). So certainly they must qualify as a top five school, there for with two of the top schools in North America certainly Vancouver's rep is looking better. If KFL's friend is more happy with GM Chan's school, good for him & all the best in his training as he has certainly found a good teacher. However to write off all the other Sifu within in the Vancouver city would lead me to question KFL's friends so called expertise. Not trying to flame on you KFL just feeling defensive about Vancouver.

It is true that there are a lot of sub-standard teachers in Vancouver, but from what I have seen of other cities (San Fran, NYC, LA & even Hong Kong) there are poor quality instructors everywhere. To further complicate matters the Vancouver scene is tangled up in a lot of politics presently with two large recognized CMA bodies that just do not get along & tend to hold their own functions exclusive of one another.

To the original post I would say that Vancouver in addition to GM Chan does have a great many good teachers, its just a matter of doing some shopping around. Refering back to my previous post I would say that all listed would certainly be worth a look. :cool:

[CanadianBadAss]

****, I didn't know there was that much kung fu here...
Check out the monkey king if you want, I hear it looks nice...

If you're intrested in WC though, you should check out http://www.tstvingtsun.bc.ca/ , I go to there richmond location, but they have one other studio in vancouver that might be closer to you.
It's a bit diffrent then most of the other WC you'll find in vancouver.
And when you first walk in it might look a bit like an "innerpeace" type deal, with skinny chinese guys spending hours just doing the same form.
However my sifu is very open to friendly challenges. He's even told me how he misses hong kong, where he would be challenged almost every day, Canada's to boring for him I think... Anyway, you should at least check it out, test some of your stuff out on him, and see if it's what you're looking for.

[CanadianBadAss]

And by WC i mean Wing Chun, or Ving Tsun or Wing Tsun...

[whippinghand]

Seek and ye shall find....

Take a walk on West Broadway.

[firepalm]

West Broadway has essentially two 'EFC' style Tae Kwon Do ish / Karate Kickboxing schools & the 'Western Martial Hall' a rather low key school that to the last of my knowledge contained a Hung Gar teacher (sorry can't remember the name believe he is European), a Taiji teacher named Ian Sinclair and someone teaching Karate. There are a couple of Tui Na / Qigong treatment clinics but that's it.

[CanadianBadAss]

So sleazy, hows your search coming, check any of the schools out yet?

[Mr.Sleazy]

Hey CanadianBadAss:

Scary Name!

My search continues and I have collected info and brochures from many of the schools mentioned above, including the Monkey King one (sounds really cool) but have not visited any yet. Maybe this weekend...

I'm speaking from real limited experience but I would like to find an aggressive style that doesn't focus very much on blocking, and definitely not train in the "if the attacker does xxxx, use the yyy technique" mode. Having been in a few fights, and watching boxing/UFC and real street fights, I don't really think blocking works very well unless you have lightning fast reflexes (which I prob don't) and so many of the traditional MAs seem to train a lot of blocking.

From thinking the training over, the initial choice of where to go seems like a very important one, and there are just too many choices!

All the suggestions so far have focussed on traditional MA, but howabout some of the non-traditional combat arts? Anyone know anything about the Cocoon Athletics school? They have a nice website anyway [[/url]http://www.straightblast.com/index2.html[/url]]
and are there any other good non-traditional schools around?

Thanks for all the input.

[firepalm]

Studio West, Joel Wasel & Franco Gibson, Pankration, Submission Wrestling, Kickboxing, good school, tough as nails yet professional & friendly. Marco Sauras (spelling) Gracie Ju Jitsu teacher @ Fitness Quest gym on 6th & Cambie. Kel Lee's Simon Posner, kickboxing, Pankration, Submission Wrestling, thai boxing.
All good schools if you're looking for real world.

Check em out, all should be in Yellow Pages..

[Adamdd]

I have been looking for monkey kung fu instructor for a long long time. Right now, i am learning all the Tai sheng pek kwar forms from the tapes.

I have bought it from here www.tspk.com (http://www.tspk.com)

Their video tapes are very good ..... very easy to follow. A+++++


I have been thinking of flying there for private lesson but super busy with my job now.