San Francisco - Chinatown

[LaoZi]

Hey,
I am a Ph.D. student in Chinese Religion and Philosophy. My spoken "standard chinese/putongua" is pretty weak, but I am working on it. My literacy is getting pretty good, but mainly in classical.

I am looking for a good place to train, anywhere in San Francisco and particularly in chinatown. I know I am not going to find any websites for the more authentic schools, so far all i have stumbled upon have been the flashy-trashy ones through google.

I was wondering if anyone here moght know of a good place/instructor to train with? I have trained on and off most of my life in a variety of styles, mostly hung gar/shaolin/lohan sorta stuff. But I am interested in finding a really good place both for my physical health, mental, spiritual development, academic enrichment and everything else under the sun.

Thank you so much!

[Gary]

YC Wong is right there at Sacramento and Grant.

http://www.tigercrane.com/

[shawnsegler]

I think there's guys of adam hsu's down in the panhandle

[brucer56]

I trained with Andrew in the panhandle for 3 years ending last may when I moved. I can vouch for his teaching skill and knowledge (insofar as I'm able as a relative "newbie"to chen taiji). He trains in the traditional teaching style. You can check out his website: www.goldengatemartialarts.com.

[nianfong]

send Omar (Bailewen) a PM. He can give you some good referrals.

[bailewen]

Got the pm.

Fong was right. I am deeeeep in the SF kung fu scene.

Since you told me you have a Hung Gar background you'd be kind of at least slightly insane to not at least check out YC Wong (my own Shifu) over on Sacramento and Grant as Gary recommended. While you are in Chinatown do drop by Doc Andy's chiropractic clinic and art studio one block over on Clay St. between Stockton and Powel, just across the street from the Chinese school. Doc Andy is one of the top Wing Chun guys you are ever likely to meet. He does not teach but he can help with introductions. He is one of the top students of Chris Chan who was a classmate of Bruce Lee's and who also consistantly produces truly fearsome fighters. I am extremely partial to "Hannibal" the rastafarian Choi Li Fut master who teaches in the panhandle. He is also Andy's teacher of 10 years or so and if you were really into the "fighty" part then Hannibal could probably introduce you to Zhong Luo who runs the White Eyebrow/Dragon school over in the south of Market area. His guys do a lot of MMA comps. Hannibal is more of a spiritual type but he can introduce you to all the violent types if you want.

If you are out in the Sunset or Richmond, you could always study with Chris Chan directly or you could hook up with the oldest kung fu school in San Francisco (probably in all of America) the Hung Sing Choi Li Fut. Dino is a great guy and really incredibly good.

So:

Hung Gar/Bagua/Yang Taiji: YC Wong ( but mainly Hung Gar)
Wing Chun in a very violent way, sort of overly "yang" lots of iron palm training: Chris Chan
Choi Li Fut - very practical, old school kind of like YC Wong in some ways: Dino Salvatera
Choi Li Fut + White Eyebrow with tons of spirituality from a Rasta with a violent past and a peaceful present: Hannibal
White Eyebrow + Dragon + MMA: Zhong Luo.
Just good networking and sharing stuff: Doc Andy.

YC Wong is the only one in Chinatown though and he's my Shifu so of course he's better than all the rest.

If you end up visiting ANY of the names listed here, please, please, please, tell them I said hello.

[nianfong]

just adding to omar's statement,

GM Chang (my GM) met YC Wong a long time ago. He told my teacher that YC Wong has some true skill (zhen gongfu). GM would not say that about someone unless they have the goods.

[bailewen]

He's something special, that's for sure. Keeps it on the lowdown, I mean, he teaches out of a Basement in Chinatown fer chrissakes. lol Pretty "old school" but also very nice. Not so into the endless challenges and stuff that many of his shixiong back in Hong Kong were into. Classes are very informal. Maybe only a half hour of group line-up out of the whole 5:30 - 8:00 night time sessions. Other than that half hour, if that even happens, people mostly just work semi-independantly. You grab a partner and work on dui-da or sparring on your own. Feels almost more like a gym than a school. I only left for China for the lifestyle. I didn't really feel like my training was lacking anything. Life in San Francisco was just kind of hard for me and in China I have managed to make gongfu the centerpiece of my life instead of a light hobby.

Still though, nothing like seeing an 80-something year old swing a Guan Dao around to show the "kids" how its done to warm your heart.

[LaoZi]

Thank you so much Omar! I will let you know what happens . . .