Att. Rolf Clausnitzer

[kung fu fighter]

Hi Rolf!
i was wondering if you ever got a chance to see how yip man moved in regards to fighting applications. i heard that he was a master of controlling peoples balance.
Judging from pictures, he always seemed to use the upright slightly leaning back posture. I feel this posture is good for a defensive purposes such as when waiting out of range for an an attack, but lacks forward drive when you are attacking. Did yip man leaned forward when attacking forward.
I also heard a story about WSL being unable to touch Bruce Lee after he developed his JKD. is this story true, did they ever spar when Bruce was older?

Have you heard the story about how some of yip man's students (about 16 of them) went over to challenge some thai boxers and all lost in the 1960's. Can you tell me the details. Was Wong Sheung Leung involved in this challenge match? Also was it wong sheung in the black and white roof top challenge fight clip that's in the bruce lee journey of the warrior dvd.

I heard Wong sheung leung had a video with yip man doing the baat jaam do form, is this true and do you have a copy of it.

Thanks
Kung fu fighter

[R Clausnitzer]

Hi Rolf!
i was wondering if you ever got a chance to see how yip man moved in regards to fighting applications. i heard that he was a master of controlling peoples balance.
Judging from pictures, he always seemed to use the upright slightly leaning back posture. I feel this posture is good for a defensive purposes such as when waiting out of range for an an attack, but lacks forward drive when you are attacking. Did yip man leaned forward when attacking forward.
I also heard a story about WSL being unable to touch Bruce Lee after he developed his JKD. is this story true, did they ever spar when Bruce was older?

Have you heard the story about how some of yip man's students (about 16 of them) went over to challenge some thai boxers and all lost in the 1960's. Can you tell me the details. Was Wong Sheung Leung involved in this challenge match? Also was it wong sheung in the black and white roof top challenge fight clip that's in the bruce lee journey of the warrior dvd.

I heard Wong sheung leung had a video with yip man doing the baat jaam do form, is this true and do you have a copy of it.

Thanks
Kung fu fighter


Hi, KFF

You're being very optimistic :)

I am simply unequipped to answer some of these questions with any authority, but I'll have a go:

1) You've obviously not read my old interview in IKF, but as a teenager I met Yip Man only very briefly and did not see him perform at all. My schoolmate, Billy Silvey, actually returned at a later date (I found this out some 40 years after the event when Billy visited Perth!) for a lesson and was shown a few techniques by Yip Man himself.

2) I don't know about leaning back, but an erect, upright posture is biomechanically more conducive to delivering strong attacks than the hunched forward postures of countless practitioners around the world.

3) This is the first time I have heard the story of WSL's being unable to touch BL after the latter had developed JKD. This smacks of fantasy, even though BL was one of the best chi sao practitioners around, despite his denigrators. In 1965, WSL told us how impressed he was with Bruce's skills after they had sparred some months previously and that Bruce was starting to "get through". In one of Jesse Glover's books, Bruce suggests that he had reached a point where he was getting the better of WSL. Further, it is known that the two remained friends to the end and always got together for hours at a time to talk and spar, whenever Bruce visited HK. Then there is the readily available article on the internet, allegedly written by WSL but apparently cobbled together by a journalist from interviews, in which WSL describes some inconclusive sparring between the two just weeks before Bruce's demise.

4) The story of 16 (!) Yip Man students going to Thailand with the express purpose of fighting muay thai professionals sounds spurious to me. I have heard of at least three visits by small teams of kung fu practitioners, but none included Yip Man students. I have read, however, that Wing Chun practitioners did not do well in the first ever South East Asian full contact tournament. WSL certainly never went to Thailand to fight.

5) It was definitely not WSL in that roof top fight, although he was there as a spectator. The WC representative was one of Wong's students by the name of Wu Chan Nam who actually vetted me before I started training with WSL and who is still teaching in HK today.

6) I know nothing of the BJD tape, but it is a fact that WSL was one of only four students who were personally shown the entire BJD form by Yip Man. Also, Yip Man and WSL were reportedly the only Wing Chun representatives who successfully used their knives in sparring matches with a western fencing champion in Hong Kong.

Regards.

Rolf

[kung fu fighter]

Hi Rolf,
My mistake it was the south east asian tournament that some of Yip Man competed in, Do you know the details of it.


You said " his is the first time I have heard the story of WSL's being unable to touch BL after the latter had developed JKD. This smacks of fantasy, even though BL was one of the best chi sao practitioners around, despite his denigrators. In 1965, WSL told us how impressed he was with Bruce's skills after they had sparred some months previously and that Bruce was starting to "get through". In one of Jesse Glover's books, Bruce suggests that he had reached a point where he was getting the better of WSL. Further, it is known that the two remained friends to the end and always got together for hours at a time to talk and spar, whenever Bruce visited HK. Then there is the readily available article on the internet, allegedly written by WSL but apparently cobbled together by a journalist from interviews, in which WSL describes some inconclusive sparring between the two just weeks before Bruce's demise".

My sifu and Wong sheung leung were good friends and whenever Wong came to Toronto he stayed at my sifu's house.

My sifu mentioned that because of Bruces western experience wong sheung leung was not able to beat him towards the end. I assume that Wong himself mentioned this to my sifu.
My sifu also mentioned that bruce had very good wing chun but didn't teach that to his students because he wanted an edge over them since they were bigger. What's your opinion about this. What do you think of events like the UFC, Do you think that fighters like yip man from the old days would be able to handle some of the top NHB fighters of today such as vanderlei silva. Also can you share some stories about the old days that you might have heard from WSL.

Thanks
kung fu fighter

[Vajramusti]

Hey kungfufighter-
buy Rolf's book when it comes out!

[Nick Forrer]

KFF,

Rolf has already answered many of your previous questions in previous posts. Use the search function to find them.

BTW, on Bruce Lees chi sau: When bruce came back to HK to Yip mans school he rolled with Ip Ching. Ip Ching said that Bruce had difficulty once he turned up the intensity, but that was only because he had no one to practice with in the US. He said that his punch was however 'Ho Leng' i.e. 'beautiful'.