Important decision(taekwondo/hapkido or wing chun)

[viskous]

at the end of august i am moving to kelowna bc and i have narrowed my school search down to 2 and i would very much like some input from other people

First a wing chun school:

http://www.kungfuacademy.ca/site/view/Home.pml

i have been crazy about kung fu since i took a lil bit when i was about 10 (unfortunately i had to stop due to financial reasons, i recently looked in the phone book for my old instructor but couldnt find his name), plus from what ive read on this forum it seems simialar to my old style and very interesting, but from the website the school doesnt seem to stress the tradition as much as i would like voicing it as an excercise more then an art(which i lament),and it seems rather commercial, but it seems to have a good schedule, the site does not list the rates though so i wont know that till i get them on the phone

Second a Taekwon do/Hapkido school:

http://members.shaw.ca/rjsproductions/home_11.htm

I am currently taking taekwon do and am very interested in hapkido, and with my college program being 4 months on 4 months off assuming i can find work here well im off i'll be here in nelson and unless i find that elusive kung fu class i used to be in taekwondo is the only available martial art, so goin to this school i would be able to keep my taekwondo training goin seemlessly(although they are different styles), plus this school seems to be more traditional, with a more disciplined environment(from what ive read) this school also has a good schedule , but it also doesnt list its rates and i havent been able to get a hold of them on the phone yet(as for some reason i hate leaving machine messages, so detached)

Both of these i would presumably be able to attend the same amount of hours a week, unless i were to take private lessons , one school i get to continue learning my current art well learning an art im interested in, the other i get to return to my roots in an art that the way i was taughtin was incredible but i had an awesome teacher and i know non of these instructors, i just so want to be doing kung fu, but i probably would have to be jumping between taekwon do and wing chun for the next 2 years(which might not be that bad actually now that i think about it), but im also really interested in hapkido and do want to continue my progress in tkd,

i'll begin to get clearer on the subject once ive gotten on the phone with both schools, im also planning on speaking with my current instructor, and my dad(a martial arts guy with hapkido experience) and i plan to take free classes at both schools hopefully my dad can come with me, But till then i am desperate for insight as i am seesawing back and forth here

i love the high flying kicks and with long legs im good at them and i am interested in grappling, but i am also immensly interested in the center line, balance and all the other theories of wing chun,

This is a massive post and anybody who took this time to read and respond is worthy of much respect and admiration. THANKYOU for letting me spill my head out

[White Warlock]

Okay, the first one... not wing chun. The few photographs they present of those being stated as practicing wing chun, were not. The hand actions were too distant, the hips and leg positions entirely incorrect. Looking at the other photos, i would say this is a low-grade wushu school 'maybe' pushing for 'forms' tournament wins and for demos to parents. I was not impressed, and actually somewhat dismayed.

I won't go into the specifics, but i did the courtesy of looking up what credentials i could find on the instructor, and the instructor's instructor (Lewadny), as well as timelines. It does mesh, but leaves this school's owner with maybe 3 to 5 years of formal training to obtain level 10 (a rank, as i recall, penned by William Cheung). More to the point, it is indicated he was given this rank 'prior' to his instructor obtaining that rank, or at least allegedly obtaining that rank, in 87'.

His instructor's background is Shotokan as a base, woo dip, then later hung gar, and even later, wing chun. At the time of instruction being argued, Lewadny learned 'modified' wing chun, as he calls it, from a guy who i and others have been unable to validate, called Simon Fung (nothing whatsoever on this guy... which doesn't jive, given WC's obsession on keeping the books straight).

Anyhow, Lewadny left Canada for Australia in 86' and 'allegedly' obtained level 10 from William Cheung in 10 months. This is a process that normally takes a minimum of 4 years. And, considering what i know of William Cheung, it is unlikely he would have given such rank without due cause... so either it's not true, or Lewadny was incredibly exceptional. Common sense leans towards the former.

Adding to this, Lewadny's proponents claim that Lewadny was, at one time, head of all of North America TWC, but such claims are contraindicated by reputable sources (Phil Redmond, for one, who runs the TWC academy in Michigan, co-runs the East Coast TWC, and is well respected).

For what i saw of the photos there, and of my education in wing chun, i would say... nope, not wing chun, but what looks to be some home-study rendition of it. Lewadny may very well, in fact, be a talented wing chun practitioner... but at the time this particular instructor was taught, it doesn't seem as if he had 'proper' training and thus provided substandard, and incorrect, wing chun training to the owner of this school.

I did not do any homework on the other school, and thus cannot provide insight there.

Edited July 31, 2005 by White Warlock

[Enviroman]

Well, since you take TKD, you might find Hapkido a nice compliment.

[viskous]

wow thanks white warlock i greatly appreciate the time you put into that response and it definently helped me alot, i love the idea of traditional wing chun but i had a feeling this wasnt that, thanks alot for doing some fact checking for me, and yes hapkido would be a good compliment to my taekwondo training so aslong as the price isnt overwhelming in the other school, which it might be as the instructor has dodged answering that question in 2 emails he sent, and aslong as nobody can come in here and prove WW wrong, that seems to be the better solution, thankyou to both i think i'll call right now about those rates

[White Warlock]

np. i did take a cursory look at the other one just now. Their organization affiliation is Saskatchewan GTF, which stands for Global Tae kwon do Federation, and is a regional federation directly affiliiated with the international federation of the same name. GTF, international, was founded in 1990, with grandmaster Park Jung Tae as their federation president. He died semi-recently, and the federation is in disarray. But, so are most of the others, so no real issue there.

Their associations are legitimate. GTF is not a strong federation. In fact, it's rather loose in its structure. They do have regional and international events though.

I can't say yay or nay on this one. TKD's politics has never been an area i spent much time with. Indeed, i've learned more about their stuff in the last few weeks than in all my years, from one source. MasterH, any thoughts?

[viskous]

darn! it seems the kelwest school is only 2 nights a week

for 2 hours, is 4 hours a week enough? right now im only doin 2 hours a week and its definently not enough, would private lessons be worth while??

[tufrthanu]

Viskuous are you still posting about this I thought you solved this issue like a month ago.

[Enviroman]

darn! it seems the kelwest school is only 2 nights a week

for 2 hours, is 4 hours a week enough? right now im only doin 2 hours a week and its definently not enough, would private lessons be worth while??

Well, if you're doing 4 hours a week you'll need to train on your own. Practice your forms and techniques another 2-4 hours a week in addition to class time. If you can get someone in the class to practice with you, that's even better. It's certainly doable, especially if you like the school.

[viskous]

tufrthanu

i had figured i'd go to that school but then i found this wing chun school, and the other thread was pretty old so i figured i'd post another

and thanks for the advice enviroman

[Patrick]

Hello,

We removed a post from this thread in error. It is below. This post was after White Warlock's second post in this thread. I apologize for the confusion. Thanks.

well he's told me several times that his school stays away from the politics of the martia arts, and i just called him and he said the fees were 60 a month which is a huge relief, BUT he did mention something about classes being twice a week? when the schedule shows classes being 4 times a week with weekend private classes, but he could have just been talking about the hapkido which the schedule shows only 2 times a week im not sure he was at his day job so i didnt wanna take up his time, anyways the site also shows his school participates in alot of tournaments does anybody know if gtf/itf is sport based taekwondo like wtf? cause im not very interested in learning to point spar