# What do you know about Sifu Colin Ward (Leeds, UK)



## strike101 (Oct 22, 2013)

Hi Guys,


I'm up north at the moment and am considering joining Sifu Colin Wards www.purewingchun.co.uk school in Leeds. After doing some research on wing chun in the UK I stumbled across him and found out that he has been practicing for a long time and is certified by Ip Chun. However there's hardly anything out there on the internet about him.


Other sifus that trained with Ip Mans sons such as Shaun Rawcliffe, Sam Kwok and James Sinclair seem to be far more well known and there's a lot of info and forum discussions out there about them. Colin Wards profile seems to be surprisingly low considering his northern wing chun association is pretty big with loads of branches and considering his affiliation with Ip Chun. 


My question is, what do you know about Colin? Have you ever trained under him? What's he like?


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## wtxs (Oct 23, 2013)

strike101 said:


> Hi Guys,I'm up north at the moment and am considering joining Sifu Colin Wards www.purewingchun.co.uk school in Leeds...



Welcome to the forum.

Finding "pure Wing Chun" is like searching for the Holy Grail my friend.:hmm:


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## strike101 (Mar 11, 2014)

wtxs said:


> Welcome to the forum.
> 
> Finding "pure Wing Chun" is like searching for the Holy Grail my friend.:hmm:




Haha right you are.
Purewingchun is just the name of the website i doubt he claims to teach "Pure" wing chun.


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## Kwan Sau (Mar 11, 2014)

Being associated and/or certified by a son of Yip Man isn't the holy grail either!


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## Marnetmar (Mar 11, 2014)

Actually, no it's not.


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## strike101 (Mar 11, 2014)

Yea obviously everyone has their opinions regarding lineages. i don't think anyone claims being taught by Ip Chun/Ching is the holy grail


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## wtxs (Mar 11, 2014)

strike101 said:


> Haha right you are.
> Purewingchun is just the name of the website i doubt he claims to teach "Pure" wing chun.



Can't assume the motive behind the name selection ... seems to me its use are misleading and misrepresentation ... just MHO.


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## strike101 (Mar 11, 2014)

wtxs said:


> Can't assume the motive behind the name selection ... seems to me its use are misleading and misrepresentation ... just MHO.



Sounds to me like its advertising it's just wing chun and no other martial art is taught. It's in leeds, a small city in England. In the uk there's very very little debate and conflict regarding lineages and mma. That's more a us thing because of how many schools and lineages there are over there. In the uk we pretty much only have ip chun or ip ching schools. Besides like I said its a small city in the uk. Nothing to gain by advertising it as pure wing chun because nobody cares or knows about mma style wc clubs.


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## geezer (Mar 11, 2014)

wtxs said:


> Can't assume the motive behind the name selection ... seems to me its use are misleading and misrepresentation ... just MHO.



Oh well. Who doesn't use a bit of marketing. Maybe "Purewingchun" is accurate in the sense that _WC is all they teach_ as compared to a school that teaches Karate, Kempo, Ju-justsu, kung fu, boxing, Muay Thai, etc. etc.?

And sometimes _a name is just a name_. For example the Escrima I teach is called PCE for "Practical Combat Escrima". Originally in the '80s I trained "PMAS Combat Escrima" under Rene Latosa. So logically enough we called our Arizona branch PCE for "_Phoenix _Combat Escrima". Years later, the PMAS organization sort of fizzled out, but we wanted to keep the same letters (Who wants to have to buy new shirts, right?). And of course we realized that by then the whole "combat" moniker was totally overused and bogus. I briefly considered calling our group Practical _Wombat_ Escrima. But then people would think we were a bunch of Aussies like _Mook_ (shudder). In the end I just decided to keep the old name. People will like what we do or not and the heck with the name!


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## wtxs (Mar 12, 2014)

geezer said:


> Oh well. Who doesn't use a bit of marketing. Maybe "Purewingchun" is accurate in the sense that _WC is all they teach_ as compared to a school that teaches Karate, Kempo, Ju-justsu, kung fu, boxing, Muay Thai, etc. etc.?



Agree with you on the marketing point.   However, you must also take into consideration the many implications when you throws in words like pure, real, and authentic, as oppose to use a name such as "Strictly Wing Chun".   Just look the various take we had here of the name "Purewingchun" ... never mind the vast public view ... just my $.02.:asian:


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## almost a ghost (Mar 12, 2014)

The 'purewingchun' domain name is a little off putting, but its just a domain name and I can understand the sentiment that they chose it because they don't teach anything but Wing Chun and/or they do not want to modify it to fit what the public is looking for in relation to trends in training.

However, I always take a big step back when I see "Online training." Nothing good comes from that.


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## geezer (Mar 12, 2014)

almost a ghost said:


> The 'purewingchun' domain name is a little off putting, but its just a domain name and I can understand the sentiment that they chose it because they don't teach anything but Wing Chun and/or they do not want to modify it to fit what the public is looking for in relation to trends in training.
> 
> However, I always take a big step back when I see "Online training." Nothing good comes from that.



Yeah, I don't think you could legitimately call it pure or authentic if you were a 100% online school. But as far as most schools go that teach  straight up WC in a kwoon setting, words like "pure" and "authentic" are just meaningless, feel-good terms. I mean, who would advertise "impure and inauthentic" WC? 

Here in the Phoenix area, there are several legit lineages and _we all teach pure, authentic WC._ Joy, ("Vasramusdi"), for example, teaches the Augustine Fong/Ho Kam Ming/Yip Man lineage -- with purity and authenticity. JP teaches HFY and, from all appearances, he is equally sincere and dedicated and "pure". Each is authentic ...and different. I don't know why some people have trouble with that.


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## wtxs (Mar 12, 2014)

wtxs said:


> Finding "pure Wing Chun" is like searching for the Holy Grail my friend.:hmm:





geezer said:


> Yeah, I don't think you could legitimately call it pure or authentic if you were a 100% online school. But as far as most schools go that teach  straight up WC in a kwoon setting, words like "pure" and "authentic" are just meaningless, feel-good terms. I mean, who would advertise "impure and inauthentic" WC?
> 
> Here in the Phoenix area, there are several legit lineages and _we all teach pure, authentic WC._ Joy, ("Vasramusdi"), for example, teaches the Augustine Fong/Ho Kam Ming/Yip Man lineage -- with purity and authenticity. JP teaches HFY and, from all appearances, he is equally sincere and dedicated and "pure". Each is authentic ...and different. I don't know why some people have trouble with that.



We can sat down with tons of popcorn and lots of cold ones and have a go at it till we all pass out.:drinky:

Pure/authentic WC to me is the original BLUE PRINT of the system, other than the creator(s), no one has the claim to that honor, like it or not, every generation introduce some impurity.

All the people you listed taught their respective WC system ... with regards to purity and authenticity to their lineage, it is a big difference from having "Purewingchun" for you web page.

Peace


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## strike101 (Mar 12, 2014)

It's not an online school. It's actually a full time kwoon Monday to Sunday.
Also like you guys said it's just the domain name. The actual school is called northern wing chun Kung fu association

they have an online training scheme which is actually a brilliant compliment to learning at an actual school. Hundreds of videos and really enriches your solo training at home. I agree with everyone as far as learning online is near impossible. But I think it can be a great compliment


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## strike101 (Mar 12, 2014)

wtxs said:


> We can sat down with tons of popcorn and lots of cold ones and have a go at it till we all pass out.:drinky:
> 
> Pure/authentic WC to me is the original BLUE PRINT of the system, other than the creator(s), no one has the claim to that honor, like it or not, every generation introduce some impurity.
> 
> ...



agree with a lot of that.

as I said though I'm sure the purewingchun domain name is not a slight on other lineages and schools and I doubt it's to mislead their prospective students. I say that because in the uk there is almost no debate or disputes regarding authenticity of wing chun around schools. There aren't many lineages here like in the us. Almost every large school is ip chun or ip ching. 95 percent of wc students In the uk will have no idea about lineages like twc, wt or even wsl. I certainly didn't until I actively did deep research on it. There aren't many schools here so there's not much choice regarding what lineage you want to follow. Because of that I don't think the domain purewingchun is anything other than a catchy domain name


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## Tony Dismukes (Mar 12, 2014)

geezer said:


> Oh well. Who doesn't use a bit of marketing. Maybe "Purewingchun" is accurate in the sense that _WC is all they teach_ as compared to a school that teaches Karate, Kempo, Ju-justsu, kung fu, boxing, Muay Thai, etc. etc.?
> 
> And sometimes _a name is just a name_. For example the Escrima I teach is called PCE for "Practical Combat Escrima". Originally in the '80s I trained "PMAS Combat Escrima" under Rene Latosa. So logically enough we called our Arizona branch PCE for "_Phoenix _Combat Escrima". Years later, the PMAS organization sort of fizzled out, but we wanted to keep the same letters (Who wants to have to buy new shirts, right?). And of course we realized that by then the whole "combat" moniker was totally overused and bogus. I briefly considered calling our group Practical _Wombat_ Escrima. But then people would think we were a bunch of Aussies like _Mook_ (shudder). In the end I just decided to keep the old name. People will like what we do or not and the heck with the name!



If there was a school around here teaching Practical Wombat Escrima, I would sign up in a heartbeat.  Wombats are cool.  So is the word itself.  I just like saying wombat.  Wombat, wombat, wombat.


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## cwk (Mar 17, 2014)

strike101 said:


> Hi Guys,
> 
> 
> I'm up north at the moment and am considering joining Sifu Colin Wards www.purewingchun.co.uk school in Leeds. After doing some research on wing chun in the UK I stumbled across him and found out that he has been practicing for a long time and is certified by Ip Chun. However there's hardly anything out there on the internet about him.
> ...



where up north are you?
I remember there was a guy teaching chu sau lei wing chun in Hull. There's a sam kwok school in bradford and another school in rotheram but I'm not sure of the lineage. There are others too just google search wing chun yorkshire.


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## VT_Vectis (Mar 29, 2014)

[QUOTE/] as I said though I'm sure the purewingchun domain name is not a slight on other lineages and schools and I doubt it's to mislead their prospective students. I say that because in the uk there is almost no debate or disputes regarding authenticity of wing chun around schools. There aren't many lineages here like in the us. Almost every large school is ip chun or ip ching. 95 percent of wc students In the uk will have no idea about lineages like twc, wt or even wsl. I certainly didn't until I actively did deep research on it. There aren't many schools here so there's not much choice regarding what lineage you want to follow. Because of that I don't think the domain purewingchun is anything other than a catchy domain name[/QUOTE]

Agreed about the name of website, sometimes a name is just a name, not a claim to any special insight or purity.
As for for Colin Ward, other than seeing his name advertised on seminar with Sam Kwok I think it was, can't say I've ever heard of him outside of his own website either.

Though I think you'd be surprised at the number of schools in other lineages than the Yip bro's; Clive Potter in St. Albans runs WSL VT schools in Hertfordshire, London has a multitude of differing lineage schools, the 'Kamon' schools of Kevin Chan all over the South, as well as the Wing Chun Federation of Alan Gibson WSL lineage which have schools all over the south too. 

Also I believe Eric Oram, unless I'm thinking of someone else, is trained in a couple o lineages ,one non yip man, and he's in the North.

Plus I just found a Wing Tsun EWTO (Leung Ting) school in Leeds at this address http://wtmartialartsleeds.com


ALS a Leeds uni wing chun club that caters to non students and looks good, more info here ; http://www.leedsuniversityunion.org.uk/groups/wingchun


And there are ALWAYS little schools that aren't well advertised or sifu's teaching privately in the most unlikely places. Try wing chun Encyclopedia, think it has a page of sifu's whereabouts.

Hope that helps and good luck, mate.


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