After it was announced, Sifu Allen was moving to Edinburg, I needed to find a closer place to train. I had a good friend who was learning Tai Chi at Bob Kreuger's Yee Sing School. He highly recommended this school, so I decided to check it out. It was located at 779 N. Main Street in Akron. I have to admit, the studio itself was really cool. It was up on the 3rd floor of an old Masonic Temple. The training floor was huge and there was raised theater-like seating surrounding it. The people there seemed friendly and the whole atmosphere had a nice vibe to it. I told Mr. Kreuger that my friend had recommended his school and he was very cordial and polite. I thought to myself "this might be my new Kung-Fu school". Then class started, and it became apparent that it wouldn't be. The opening warm-up was semi-structured i.e. stances, etc., but the rest of the class was like the blind leading the blind. There was NO instruction. The students were trying to remember moves of a form they were working on, and it was almost painful to watch. Half way through the class, one of Mr. Kreuger's advanced students performed Fa Kuen and Gok Fee Kuen. In all fairness, the guy did a pretty nice job. Then he and Mr. Kreuger went back to Kreuger's office and left the students on their own again. Coming from GD (order and structure), I just couldn't stomach that.

I had passed Alex Wasil's Wing Sing School on my way to Kreuger's School. The following week, I went to check it out. At GD, we were required to bring a training manual to all classes. Out of habit, I brought a notebook with me to take notes of the class. Looking back, it was very funny. Alex Wasil thought I was a spy from another school since I was taking notes. He brought me into his office to interrogate me. His studio was dark and depressing and his students (including his son) seemed to be genuinely intimidated by him. The quality of his students was poor in my opinion. I was very depressed when I got home that evening, knowing there was no way I could train at either of those schools. If I couldn't be at GD, I at least wanted to train in the Kwan Ying Do system, because of all the stories I had heard Sifu Allen tell of Master Ong. I went to the Yellow Pages and began to search. That is were I found the Chung Sing School of Chinese Martial Arts. Unlike Mr. Kreuger's and Al Wasil's large yellow page ads, Chung Sing only had one line. I called and spoke with Mr. Bob Keen. I asked permission to watch a class and he said I should come by whenever it was convenient for me. I went to a Tuesday night class and was impressed. Sifu Allen demanded a student's respect. Mr. Keen didn't, but had it nevertheless. I was so impressed that a man in his mid 60's at the time (now 77), was doing everything the students were doing ie. low stances, opening warm-up, arm grabs, three star, etc.

Running out of time, I will finish post later tonight or tomorrow.
Chuang Tzu