Originally Posted by
anerlich
Wing Chun hardly has the franchise on this sort of arrogance. It's pretty common to most TMA's. I have friends that are long time practitioners of two strands of Kyokushin, and they have the same issues.
Most of this stuff comes from recent history and marketing. The YM lineage wars fostered by William Cheung and Leung Ting. A sh*tload of arrogant and immature behaviour on both sides there which literally went on for decades.
Some more recent marketing strategies by Benny Meng and others with regard to HFY and, later, Black Flag, inevitably caused another sh*tload of internet vituperation. I'll probably cop some flak for saying that, but it did happen.
All this goes on at a local level too. Some years ago a senior WC guy of one lineage on AUS began shooting his mouth off and making disparaging comments about other lineages. One of his WC contemporaries put him in hospital.
Some of my WC classmates have even met with rude treatment when they attended another TWC branch.
Most of these guys would love to see a united WC, as long as theywere seen as the logical head of the system and all the respect and $$ flowed to them.
The culture of TCMA unfortunately is too often one of trying to lift oneself up by treading on the heads of one's peers, especially when money is involved.
I started martial arts as a student of an eclectic practitioner whose background included Goju Ryu, JJJ, TWC (before it was TWC), Choy Li Fut, Northern Sil Lum and a smattering of other arts. He and his contemporaries basically had to take what they could get, even doing stuff like going down to the docks in Adelaide to meet Japanese ships, showing the sailors around the town in exchange for whatever MA knowledge those guys might have had. No going to your local KF school and plonking down your cash, those places didn't exist.
I took up TWC after five years of that and five of IMA, not because I felt any allegiance to WC but because I though my instructor was the best guy around at the time.
I still can't see the point of trying to connect WC schools. Loyalties should be to individuals or organisations, not styles. And I am no purist - I'm not trying to "add to WC", or "make WC better" by cross-training in other arts. Those arts interest me and I want to learn them. IMO there's more point making friends and working out with the guys in your area who do karate or BJJ or boxing or CLF, rather than linking up with people you're unlikely to meet in the flesh who do WC.
"Stylistic purity" is not something I care about. Specialisation is for insects.
My instructor is regularly described as one of the better WC practitioners in AUS and sometimes the world, but he also had a long and successful kickboxing career, and recently attained a black belt in Kyokushin and got his brown belt in BJJ a while ago. He's also had some success training students for kicboxing and MMA bouts.
I do train regularly with a high level WC practitioner from another YMWC school. We are both purple belts at the same BJJ school.
The tournament sounds interesting. But in two weeks I'll be referreeing at a BJJ tournament with different schools meeting from all over the state. Getting these people together is never a problem. It'd be nice if WC was the same, but because meeting up and making friends in BJJ is so much easier, why would I bother?
I knew I recognised him in your clip you posted here!
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