Happy New Year Wing Chun Peeps

[ShortBridge]

I was largely inactive on the forums in 2023 and I can't promise that I will be more active in '24, but I did want to check back in and at least send a greeting. Nice to see some of you still at it.

Seattle saw a significant contraction in Wing Chun schools coming out of the pandemic. The two oldest continuously operating clubs seem to have closed their doors, though I suspect some of them are hidden away training somewhere.

My club did make it back, but I lost some students. We are small by design, so I'm usually fairly closed off, but we're raising our flag locally and have had a few calls and visitors.

I am still enjoying training and teaching and have no intention of closing my hands.

I hope you are all banging away as well!

Troy

 

[Steve]

I was largely inactive on the forums in 2023 and I can't promise that I will be more active in '24, but I did want to check back in and at least send a greeting. Nice to see some of you still at it.

Seattle saw a significant contraction in Wing Chun schools coming out of the pandemic. The two oldest continuously operating clubs seem to have closed their doors, though I suspect some of them are hidden away training somewhere.

My club did make it back, but I lost some students. We are small by design, so I'm usually fairly closed off, but we're raising our flag locally and have had a few calls and visitors.

I am still enjoying training and teaching and have no intention of closing my hands.

I hope you are all banging away as well!

Troy

Do you happen to know what happened to the club that was across the street from Greenlake? Once upon a time (talking 1980s), I took wing chun lessons there for about a year. I noticed a few years ago that it was still there, but at some point it has closed its doors. Any idea which one I'm talking about?

 

[ShortBridge]

Do you happen to know what happened to the club that was across the street from Greenlake? Once upon a time (talking 1980s), I took wing chun lessons there for about a year. I noticed a few years ago that it was still there, but at some point it has closed its doors. Any idea which one I'm talking about?

There was a place near Greenlake called something like Tsun Jo Wing Chun or something. Is that the one you mean?

There also used to be a school or schools called "Wing Chun Do" and I think they were by Greenlake. I think the Tsun Jo guy (I may have that name slightly wrong) came out of Wing Chun Do.

If that's what you were thinking of, I recall it being Bruce Lee/Jun Fan branch-off from Wing Chun. I visited one of those schools when I first moved to Seattle and my Duncan Leung lineage sihing spend about a year in the other before he came to our organization. No idea what happened to them, I haven't heard anything about either in a long time, well before the pandemic.

Julio Ferrar had a club for 20-25 years in Belltown under Chung Kwok Chow's organization and Steve Elaimy ran a Leung Sheung lineage club in Capitol Hill for about the same amount of time. I haven't talked to Steve, but I think post pandemic he teaches privately out of his garage in West Seattle.

There is also a organization run by sifu Ed Dumancas, who I have met, but don't know very well, however I respect them and have only heard good things. I don't totally understand their lineage and don't want to mis-represent them. Their kwoon or kwoons are not in Seattle-proper, but northern/eastern suburbs and on the peninsula. They stay fairly low in the radar, which I respect.

The Duncan Leung family here in Seattle has 3 kwoons: Ballard, Chinatown (mine), and West Seattle. We're cooperative and friendly, run independently, but come together to train and are friends. We'll all be together in my place this weekend, actually.

 

[Steve]

There was a place near Greenlake called something like Tsun Jo Wing Chun or something. Is that the one you mean?

There also used to be a school or schools called "Wing Chun Do" and I think they were by Greenlake. I think the Tsun Jo guy (I may have that name slightly wrong) came out of Wing Chun Do.

If that's what you were thinking of, I recall it being Bruce Lee/Jun Fan branch-off from Wing Chun. I visited one of those schools when I first moved to Seattle and my Duncan Leung lineage sihing spend about a year in the other before he came to our organization. No idea what happened to them, I haven't heard anything about either in a long time, well before the pandemic.

Julio Ferrar had a club for 20-25 years in Belltown under Chung Kwok Chow's organization and Steve Elaimy ran a Leung Sheung lineage club in Capitol Hill for about the same amount of time. I haven't talked to Steve, but I think post pandemic he teaches privately out of his garage in West Seattle.

There is also a organization run by sifu Ed Dumancas, who I have met, but don't know very well, however I respect them and have only heard good things. I don't totally understand their lineage and don't want to mis-represent them. Their kwoon or kwoons are not in Seattle-proper, but northern/eastern suburbs and on the peninsula. They stay fairly low in the radar, which I respect.

The Duncan Leung family here in Seattle has 3 kwoons: Ballard, Chinatown (mine), and West Seattle. We're cooperative and friendly, run independently, but come together to train and are friends. We'll all be together in my place this weekend, actually.

Wing Chun Do sounds familiar, and I'm pretty sure that's the same one. It was just off the main street, . I wasn't there long enough to get much from it, but they were tough dudes in the 80s. I was in high school and quit when I joined the wrestling team. At that time, they did a lot of sparring, and had a weight room in the back of the school that everyone was encouraged to take advantage of.

The school was down in the basement of this building. You can see the sort of weird gable roof where the stairs down to the entrance was.

 

[wckf92]

We'll all be together in my place this weekend, actually.

That's awesome!

 

[ShortBridge]

That sounds like Wing Chun Do. I visited and watched a class when I moved to Seattle. Not really Wing Chun, more JKDesque. They seemed cool, it just wasn't what I was looking for.

Wing Chun Do sounds familiar, and I'm pretty sure that's the same one. It was just off the main street, . I wasn't there long enough to get much from it, but they were tough dudes in the 80s. I was in high school and quit when I joined the wrestling team. At that time, they did a lot of sparring, and had a weight room in the back of the school that everyone was encouraged to take advantage of.

The school was down in the basement of this building. You can see the sort of weird gable roof where the stairs down to the entrance was.