Hey all my first post here but been a long time lurker. This thread is in response to the Samuel kwok chi São session posted a few weeks ago on here. That session was not the best by all accounts. But lead me to think what actually constitutes a grand master?

Is it knowledge alone or the fact that you personally have fought live opponents in real street fights etc.

Ip Chun himself always says that he has never fought with wing chun ever. I'm sure Samuel kwok has never fought for real either but could be wrong on this! That fact that they have knowledge of the system is not important? If that's the case then I don't think many practioneers can claim to be a GM.

Another point is that we all get good days and bad days. Some days I'm on it sparring well using all my tools, but another time I'm slow think too much and is just a bad day. We are all human I don't care what your title is, so logic dictates so do the GMs! From what I have seen I'm my personal opinion is that people that are good at fighting before they do wing chun seem to excel at it. Gary Lam, Wong Shun Leung etc. I'm just interested to see others point of view on this subject. I have to point out I have never met Sam Kwok, trained with him or any of his people other than Sifu Brian Desir which I train with but not directly.