ian c. kuzushi wrote:I'm going to completely disagree with the naysayers here. First, Sam Chin's art seems to clearly have some southern expression in it, even if the I Liq Chuan people like to present it as part of the family of northern neijia schools. The stance, shoulders, and frame are all very similar to many Hakka arts and other southern schools including phoenix fist and others. So, I don't see a problem with them working together (even if I see some similar vulnerabilities present in the frame of both styles).
Second, anyone asking why Keith Kernspecht might not want to work with just anyone in the "Wing Chun" community (is that a thing? No) clearly doesn't know about the history behind his master, Leung Tsing and his students. They come from a particularly fighty line (ie: Emin Boztepe) and the other lines generally either don't like them or are just scared.
My brother trained in that line and Keith sounded like a beast, as did his students who taught my brother (Emin, Klaus, etc).
There may be reason's to complain about what they are doing, I just think the comments above are way off base.
Just my 2c:
- Wing chun is not a Hakka art... not all southern schools are related. Although some of Ip Man's students had other backgrounds prior to learning most notably Wong Sheung Leung who was a southern Mantis fighter, and their wing chun has that flavour.
- Maybe people aren't too interested in Leung Ting and co., for a wide, wide variety of reasons, including marketing, franchising, etc. and how that does not always translate well into quality of teaching. "Particularly fighty" not really being something I realised they have a serious reputation for. "Just scared" is just laughable. This
is the same Leung Ting WT(copyright) and all the little turf wars between and within we're talking about right?