My Personal Learning Experience from Grandmaster Garrett Gee.
Subject: Hung Fa Yi Wing Chun Tin Yan Dei Chi Sao System being born.
After a little over 22 years of being a martial artist, many of my students, close friends, family and even my wife ask me from time to time, "Billy, why do you continue to learn, train, teach and get so wholeheartedly preaching passionately about Hung Fa Yi Wing Chun Kung Fu System?". It seems as though a good dinner party never goes unnoticed about me talking nothing except Hung Fa Yi Wing Chun Kung Fu. This is a very good question and to answer this question we must first examine my history, personal experience and involvement with the World Hung Fa Yi Wing Chun Kung Fu Association (WHFYWCKFA). First of all, I am very very fortunate to be able to be accepted as a student of our Grandmaster Sifu Garrett Gee. It is not easy to be accepted as a student as I know my Sihing Alex once have witnessed with his own eyes within the first year of following Sifu Garrett Gee rejecting more than 40 student applicants coming to his studio.
Through the last 10 years training with our Grandmaster Sifu Garrett Gee I witnessed and many others have also witnessed that on many occassions we are visited by numerous genuine martial artists around the world coming from many different backgrounds, some who are already certified masters in their respective arts of Jujitsu, Takwondo, Wing Chun, Karate, Kickboxing, MMA, Thaiboxing, and other animal style Kung Fu backgrounds. One such example is Michael G who have been certified as a Wing Chun Sifu learning more than 6 years from another lineage after a 2 hour session with Grandmaster Garrett Gee was willing to sacrafice his Sifu status in hopes to become a regular student of Grandmaster Sifu Garrett Gee. Why would a certified Wing Chun Sifu do this? He had driven from Sacramento to San Francisco continuously over 4 months once a week every Saturday only to find another rejection from Sifu Garrett Gee. And finally through his dedication was accepted as a Hung Fa Yi Wing Chun student. I have seen with my own eyes, when a genuine martial artist is introduced to Grandmaster Sifu Garrett Gee, he always ask their point of view about martial arts and their respective native arts. Every martial artist seems to have a different perspective of how their art is most effective and the differences it compares at the beginning of the conversation, but time and time again I see once anyone has a deep conversation with our Grandmaster Sifu Garrett Gee, and experience for themselves our Hung Fa Yi Wing Chun Kung Fu System, everyone at the end of the training session would very humbly agree with Sifu Gee that yes, their so called technique oriented style may be effective but when speaking about "Maxium Efficiency", there are deficiency and only personal interpretation in their art. But in Hung Fa Yi Wing Chun Kung Fu, we follow stringent guidelines from concept to theory to principles and philosophies we must follow otherwise we violate what is true and cannot attain maximum efficiency.
I am most appreciative of Grandmaster Sifu Garrettt Gee for sharing his valuable teachings today with me dealing with Hung Fa Yi Wing Chun Tin Yan Dei Chi Sao System. This Hung Fa Yi Wing Chun Tin Yan Dei Chi Sao System consists of 1) Tan Bong Fook Chi Sao, 2) Kiu Sao Chi Sao, and 3) Chi Kiu Chi Sao expansively demonstrated by Grandmaster Sifu Garrett Gee. Our Hung Fa Yi Wing Chun Kung Fu is very unique in the sence that we have 2 Categories of Hung Fa Yi Wing Chun Formulas. The first Hung Fa Yi Wing Chun formula category emphasizes on 1) Sup Ming Dim, 2) two line Jong Sao, and 3) 5 Line theory. The second Hung Fa Yi Wing Chun advanced formula category emphasizes on 6 categories of Tin Yan Dei concept. Clarification on the fact that our unique Hung Fa Yi Chi Sao System refers to Tin Yan Dei differently than most animal style Kung Fu who deciphers it as, "Kicking Range, Punching Range and Grappling Range". Though similar in the terminoloy of Tin Yan Dei, it is two completely different things by which we have our extremely Unique Core Hung Fa Yi Wing Chun Chi Sao System which encompass 3 Timezones: 1) 5 line theory Timezone 2) Box Theories Timezone and 3) 4 gate and 6 Gate Timezones. Today, Grandmaster Sifu Garrett Gee continues to open my eyes and have confirmed on a concrete level of understanding of why in the Hung Fa Yi Wing Chun Tin Yan Dei Chi Sao System, "there is nothing to add and nothing to subtract", there is simply no room for self interpretation.
I have been in both the Yip Man Wing Chun lineage and Hung Fa Yi Wing Chun System learning from Grandmaster Garrett Gee and continue to train and learn Hung Fa Yi Wing Chun privately up to date. I've witnessed both from Yip man lineage Chi Sao teachings, browsed many thousands of youtube videos on Wing Chun Chi Sao from all over the world and have never in my life heard the theories driven by principles and concepts so unique regarding Hung Fa Yi Tin Yan Dei Chi Sao System in such thoroughness as presented by Grandmaster Sifu Garrett Gee. So suddenly for the first time in my life I can see clearly and finally realize why there is a big "HUGE" difference between animal style Kung Fu and other systems who deal with outside the box concepts who can only demontrate effectiveness but never able to prove maximum efficiency. No word can truely express the excitement the experience the true art that I witnessed and so blessed with a shining light the path in which have been taken. From the bottom of my heart, I thank you Grandmaster Sifu Garrett Gee for showing me such a beautiful art the Hung Fa Yi Wing Chun Kung Fu System.
Billy Lau