There is a guy who trains with me at a Wing Chun kwoon. I've known him since I started there last year; he has been a student there for 3 years and he also trains in Hung Kuen. I wouldn't say that he's a friend but certainly an associate of mine and a Kung Fu brother. Last week, he asked Sifu about sparring with someone outside of our kwoon. I guess what he actually wanted was to bring in someone from another style to spar with him at the kwoon. Keep in mind that he wanted to do this either before or after the regular training class, and he was going to have some kind of liability waiver drawn up for both he and the other person to sign, releasing Sifu of any responsibility.
Well, of course Sifu said no. Now I was present when Sifu told him this, but when Sifu told him no, he took the guy over to his (Sifu's) office. I couldn't hear what was being said nor did I try to eavesdrop. After class, the guy was very upset and I asked what was wrong. He said that Sifu told him that he didn't want any of his students sparring with someone of another style, and if the guy asked again then he would have to leave the kwoon.
Ok so that was last week. Now this guy came to class last night, and said he needed to talk to me. I spoke with him after class, and he said that he's going to spar anyway outside of the kwoon. I told him that's his business and between his concious and Sifu. But then he said something kind of disturbing. He said that he is tired of not testing his Kung Fu, so he is planning to go to different kwoons or martial art studios and openly challenge anyone there to fight him. I thought he was joking but he is dead serious!
In his opinion, he says that's the problem with a lot of martial arts these days. Students follow the Sifu but don't know if we are being taught anything useful, and if he's not learning the fighting skill that our Wing Chun promised, then he wants to find out now so that he can stop training and switch to a different style.
Now I can understand his point on that to a certain degree, but I think it's very disrespectful for him to go and challenge another school no matter what style. Even if the instructor shouldn't be teaching at all, it's dishonorable to the name of Wing Chun and the Martial Arts in general to go around making challenges like that. At least that's my opinion and I told him so. He said I was entitled to my opinion just like he's entitled to his, but he is still going to follow through with it.
I asked him when he planned to do this, and he said that he's thinking of starting this Friday evening, going to a different school each week until he either beats someone of every style here (and I'm in LA so of course there's a school in just about every style) or until he gets beaten. In which case he said he will stop training in Wing Chun completely and switch to a different style. He said that's the way they did things back in the day.
Is there anything I can say to him to talk sense into him, and make him stop this nonsense? I'm going to class in a little while so I hope he's there and maybe calmed down enough to listen to reason.
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Originally Posted by Psycho Mantis
Isn't that why Many sifu don't want thier students to go out and spar other styles?