# Good place to learn Wing Chun in northern California?



## Benevolentbob (May 16, 2011)

Hey everybody, I'm really interested in learning Wing Chun but from what I can tell my options are extremely limited. I live about 30 to 40 minutes north of San Francisco, sometimes longer depending on traffic obviously. I'm a college student who works part time so time is highly limited, and with gas prices where they are I'd obviously like to have as short a commute as possible.

So far I've found these places:

Bay Mountain Martial Arts
http://www.petalumawingtsun.com/

East-West Wing Chun
http://www.wingchun-sf.com/sanfrancisco.html

US Wing Chun Kung Fu Academy
http://www.uswingchun.com/

Does anybody go to any of these places or know anything about them? I'd prefer not to go to San Francisco for class because gas would start to get crazy and I would lose a lot out of my day with the commute. However, if it's my only real option then I'm willing to give it a shot. I've heard negative things about Bay Mountain Martial Arts and US Wing Chun Academy and not much at all about East-West Wing Chun. Bay Mountain is conveniently located so I'll probably check it out anyway. I'd greatly appreciate any input or advice.


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## Nabakatsu (May 16, 2011)

The only experience I have had with folks from Cali would be Micheal Casey.
this is his website: http://westlaselfdefense.com/
if you can make it out there, I can 100% guarantee you will NOT be disappointed.
Otherwise best of luck!


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## Benevolentbob (May 16, 2011)

I'm sure it's a great place to train but it's also over 400 miles away .


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## wtxs (May 16, 2011)

Benevolentbob said:


> Hey everybody, I'm really interested in learning Wing Chun but from what I can tell my options are extremely limited. I live about 30 to 40 minutes north of San Francisco, sometimes longer depending on traffic obviously. I'm a college student who works part time so time is highly limited, and with gas prices where they are I'd obviously like to have as short a commute as possible.



I share your pain man, I grew up around the bay area in the 60's/70's, the traffic situation gets worse each time we visit the families there.

Check to see if your college have an message/bulletin board, let the folks posted there know you're looking for anyone may had/has WC training and willing to share ... good luck.


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## Benevolentbob (May 16, 2011)

wtxs said:


> I share your pain man, I grew up around the bay area in the 60's/70's, the traffic situation gets worse each time we visit the families there.
> 
> Check to see if your college have an message/bulletin board, let the folks posted there know you're looking for anyone may had/has WC training and willing to share ... good luck.


I am fortunate enough to have a friend that hosts a sparring group once a week who has done some Wing Chun. He's a great guy and is willing to teach me what he knows but I would ideally like to find a really good sifu.


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## Eric_H (May 16, 2011)

Benevolentbob,

Not 100% sure where you are located but my Sifu, Garrett Gee is in Daly City, and you've already posted Sifu Chris Chan who is in SF as well. Both are well worth a phonecall.


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## Benevolentbob (May 16, 2011)

Eric_H said:


> Benevolentbob,
> 
> Not 100% sure where you are located but my Sifu, Garrett Gee is in Daly City, and you've already posted Sifu Chris Chan who is in SF as well. Both are well worth a phonecall.


Daly City is really kind of pushing it, as I stated earlier I would rather not commute too much, it's pretty impractical for me to do so at the moment. Have you trained with Chris Chan or heard much about him? I was reading that he doesn't teach the classes and just has assistant instructors do it for him and I also heard that he's not even a very good practitioner, however those people may have just been bitter.


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## zepedawingchun (May 16, 2011)

You could post in Craigslist for your city under Community Activities or Services Lessons wanting to find a Wing Chun instructor or lessons in your area.


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## zepedawingchun (May 16, 2011)

Benevolentbob, I found these two posts in Craigslist, not sure how close they may be to you.  But check them out.

http://sfbay.craigslist.org/eby/lss/2379665201.html
http://sfbay.craigslist.org/sfc/lss/2373449823.html


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## Eric_H (May 16, 2011)

Benevolentbob said:


> Daly City is really kind of pushing it, as I stated earlier I would rather not commute too much, it's pretty impractical for me to do so at the moment. Have you trained with Chris Chan or heard much about him? I was reading that he doesn't teach the classes and just has assistant instructors do it for him and I also heard that he's not even a very good practitioner, however those people may have just been bitter.



Benevolentbob,

Thats why I said it might be worth a phonecall, either one may have senior students out your way who have small clubs/training groups going if their schools are too far.

As for Sifu Chan, I have not trained with him personally but have met several of students/former students of his throughout the years. Also, my Sifu shared a school with him many years ago on Market street and speaks very well of him. 

As for the senior students teaching, that's fairly traditional. Plus Sifu Chan is getting up there in age, he may not physically be able to teach as much as he'd like to. That said, he was a pretty badass dude back in the day. I don't know of anyone having a problem with him other than some Ken Chung students a few years back.


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## Benevolentbob (May 16, 2011)

Thanks Eric, I think Chris Chan would be my best overall bet. However, I'm looking at where it's located and there are no nearby parking garages, and good luck parking on the street in San Francisco. I wish the city was designed better. This coupled with the commute (time, gas, bridge toll), is what's keeping em from checking it out. I think I'll shoot him an e-mail asking if he has senior students closer to me like you suggested.


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## Benevolentbob (May 16, 2011)

Also, if anyone could look at some of the videos on the Bay Mountain site and tell me if they look legit at all I'd appreciate it. There's a few on youtube but they're not specifically from the Petaluma school which is the one I'm looking at.


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## Domino (May 18, 2011)

Learn traditional Ip Man Wing Chun @ 

California
                                3020 Mariquita Street, 
                                Long Beach, 90803 
                                Contact Sifu Bryan Talbot, a student of Ron Heimberger.
                                Telephone: 562-612-7332

http://www.ipmankungfu.com/


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## Benevolentbob (May 18, 2011)

Domino said:


> Learn traditional Ip Man Wing Chun @
> 
> California
> 3020 Mariquita Street,
> ...


Thank you for the suggestion, however Long Beach is an 8 hour drive for me.


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## Eric_H (May 19, 2011)

Benevolentbob said:


> Also, if anyone could look at some of the videos on the Bay Mountain site and tell me if they look legit at all I'd appreciate it. There's a few on youtube but they're not specifically from the Petaluma school which is the one I'm looking at.



They all look like promos from different schools and organizations - the only one that looked decent was the weapons one and the film was obviously sped up.


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## Domino (May 19, 2011)

Benevolentbob said:


> Thank you for the suggestion, however Long Beach is an 8 hour drive for me.


 
You're welcome however I never did get geography gcse


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## zepedawingchun (May 19, 2011)

Eric_H said:


> They all look like promos from different schools and organizations - the only one that looked decent was the weapons one and the film was obviously sped up.


 
If you're talking about the stick and staff, stick and stick, and machete' video, it is not sped up. Anyone familiar with Kali or Arnis will recognized the 6 count pattererned drill called Heaven 6, which is what they are doing. It is one of the first things Kali students are taught. Once mastered, a person could make around 6 strikes in a second.  It teaches you angles, coordination, rythym, and of course speed in striking.


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## Eric_H (May 19, 2011)

Zepeda,

It could be the compression they use, but the film looks sped up. 

Doesn't mean that they could or couldn't do it that fast.


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## bully (May 19, 2011)

Weirdly enough I bumped into a Chris Chan student today at Gatwick airport in London.

He lives here in Jersey and I trained with him for a couple of months. I will give you my 10 cents...

They do lots of dynamic tension in their training. The forms are done as if you are lifting invisible weights and pushing down on invisible poles etc. After doing SLT like this (it was a different SLT to what I know but not inferior, all the moves were there) I was aching in places I never knew existed.

I thought this was a good way to develop power BUT I felt it went against the traditional way I had been taught sensitivity. When we did Chi Sau it was like we were both putting full force into our rolling and my structure was compromised. It is really hard for me to explain but I felt it went against all I had been taught for sensitivity.

I would like to point out that the student who taught us is a very very good Wing Chun guy, so the Chris Chan system must work. He controlled me easily and his shapes and power were very good. We chatted today and are going to grab a coffee soon and perhaps talk about trying to train in some way again.

This system wasn't for me but I have taken some ideas from it. I have also been told that Chris Chan has produced some pretty good WC fighters, so again it can't be a system that isnt any good.

Flying Crane may be able to comment too as he has trained in this lineage I think.

Good luck and I hope you find a good sifu.


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## fangjian (May 19, 2011)

Although not Wing Chun, there is Balintawak ( its empty hand training is somewhat similar) in the Bay Area. 

[yt]Dsfz54EXgkg[/yt]


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## zepedawingchun (May 19, 2011)

Eric_H said:


> Zepeda,
> 
> It could be the compression they use, but the film looks sped up.
> 
> Doesn't mean that they could or couldn't do it that fast.


 
I have experience doing Kali, and we can do it that fast. It doesn't look sped up to me.  It looks sped up most likely because you're not used to seeing sticks (blades) move that fast to begin with.  And as I said, it is a *taught* *routine* done in 6 count.


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## zepedawingchun (May 19, 2011)

Here is a really good video demonstrating one of the basic 6 count Kali drills taught to beginners. There are 3 of them, Heaven 6, Standard 6 (Heaven and Earth) and Earth 6. Towards the end, the demonstrators move a little faster. However, they are capable of going a bit faster than that.


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## Virtual Jim (Jun 4, 2011)

Hi Bob.  Have you found a place to train yet?  I just came across this thread and thought I might share some thoughts.

First, if you're a college student, does the college have any affiliated Wing Chun clubs?  I work at Stanford and was surprised to find out a year or so ago how many MA clubs are on campus, including WC.  Obviously Stanford's way too far from the north bay, but perhaps your school operates the same way.

Second, you're right about parking for Chris Chan's class, not to mention getting there from the GG Bridge.

Third, and this isn't directed so much at Bob as for the board's sake vis-a-vis future searches, Garrett Gee's a good teacher.  When I was exploring various styles of MA about a year ago, I took a class with Sifu Gee (he was in Glen Park at the time).  I found the quality of instruction to be excellent.  He's clearly into it.  I'm not a student of his now, as I'm studying other arts and can't fit additional training into my schedule, but if someone's looking in the city or peninsula, I highly recommend looking him up.


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## herbinnorcal (Jun 15, 2011)

One of Grandmaster Chris Chan's senior students is just outside of Fairfax. 


Wing Chun Kung Fu Self Defense P.O. Box 717 Woodacre, CA 94973 Phone: (415) 488-4041 *Sifu Ralph Pinkerton*, Instructor

​Wing Chun Kung Fu Self Defense
Sifu Ralph Pinkerton
415-488-4041
Wing Chun Kung Fu Self Defense P.O. Box 717 Woodacre, CA 94973 Phone: (415) 488-4041 *Sifu Ralph Pinkerton*, Instructor

​
Wing Chun Kung Fu Self Defense P.O. Box 717 Woodacre, CA 94973 Phone: (415) 488-4041 *Sifu Ralph Pinkerton*, Instructor

​


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## antaeus (Sep 6, 2011)

Benevolentbob said:


> Hey everybody, I'm really interested in learning Wing Chun but from what I can tell my options are extremely limited. I live about 30 to 40 minutes north of San Francisco, sometimes longer depending on traffic obviously. I'm a college student who works part time so time is highly limited, and with gas prices where they are I'd obviously like to have as short a commute as possible.
> 
> So far I've found these places:
> 
> ...



Other schools you may be interested in:

LeBlanc Wing Chun (http://www.leblancwingchun.com/) Top student of Gary Lam, Wong Shun Leung lineage

International Academy of Wing Chun (http://www.iaw-us.com/) Paul Wang, student of Klaus Brand, who originally learned from Keith Kernspect, Leung Ting lineage

East Bay Wing Chun (www.eastbaywingchun.com) Wong Shun Leung>Gary Lam> Greg LeBlanc lineage - inexpensive and an hour and a half a week - good class to see if you like WC


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## sihing_steve (Dec 21, 2011)

Hi all,

Brand new to the forum.  Sorry for bringing up this old thread but since it involves me and my school I thought I should chime in.

First:



Eric_H said:


> They all look like promos from different schools and organizations - the only one that looked decent was the weapons one and the film was obviously sped up.



I am one of the two individuals in this video and I can say without a doubt the film was not sped up.

We trained with sticks for about 5-6 months before even attempting the machetes, and then took our demo to the streets 4 months after that.  This film was taken about 2 months after we started demoing.  

*Benevolentbob:

*I would invite you to come check out the class.  We offer a 1 month free trial to all potential new students.  

Please contact me through my website if you have any questions.

Cheers,

Sihing Steve Crandall 
3rd Technician
Bay Mountain Martial Arts.
www.petalumawingtsun.com


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## Eric_H (Dec 21, 2011)

Fair enough - as I noted before it could have been the compression.

BTW... You guys do know Sihing isn't a title right? I saw on your website that everyone called themselves "Si-Hing" such and such - is that to denote that they're a club instructor but not a fully certified Sifu or something?


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## sihing_steve (Dec 21, 2011)

Hi Eric, nice to meet you.

In our "family" we use Si-Hing quite often.  The difference between spellings, Si-Hing and Sihing, is a matter of personal relationship to that person.  In general in Sihing means "older brother."

Sihing is used in quite a few ways in our group, but you could consider the Sihing "title" as a club instructor.  

I'm not sure what you mean by fully certified Sifu, but then to me titles are just that, titles.  ;-)


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## Eric_H (Dec 22, 2011)

Steve,

Had never seen Sihing used that way before or with spelling difference changing the meaning. AFAIK it was only a familial term for your older brothers, it just seemed odd to me that students under someone would call them Sihing and not Sifu, but I don't know the particulars of your teaching arrangement. 

Most orgs I've seen had a distinction between someone allowed to teach fully on their own (A "certified" Sifu) and someone who was more of a junior instructor/still in training but is allowed to teach. Some did it by belt rankings or titles or a similar mechanism, just curious if what I was seeing was how your org did it.


Best,


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## WingTsun650 (Jun 19, 2012)

Hello,

  I am the Bay Mountain Representative in San Mateo, CA. Of course I advocate for my organization, but I would like to note that their is a lot of variation in the Wing Chun community. Hard style vs soft style ect. The WT linage can feel very different than the WC linage, especially the hard style WC guys. I have met a few guys from the Chris Chan organization and the East West organization and they all seemed cool. The main complaint about the WT linage (my linage) is that we are overly technical, for me I do not see that as a problem. 

  I don't know any Martial Artist who dosen't think their stuff is the best stuff. What I can say is this, they should give you some training at no charge so you can get a feel for the class. In Bay Mountain we train a new student free for a month. I would not advise to go to anyone who wants to lock you into a contract up front. 

   What is important is that you find an instructor you both respect and like. That said, free is not a bad rate. 

Thanks for reading,

-Andy (Si-Hing Andy to my Students)

my website
www.wingtsun650.com

Bay Mountain Website (with links to BM classes around the Bay)
www.fit4kungfu.com


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## WingTsun650 (Jun 19, 2012)

Eric, 

 In the Leung Ting linage a Sifu was traditionally a teacher is at least 28 years old, who has the rank of at least 3rd Tech, and has a Student who is a 1st Tech. A 1st Tech was (is) qualified to teach their own group, but take their student to their Sifu for testing. This was the model used by the EWTO

-Andy


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## geezer (Jun 19, 2012)

WingTsun650 said:


> Eric,
> 
> In the Leung Ting linage a Sifu was traditionally a teacher is at least 28 years old, who has the rank of at least 3rd Tech, and has a Student who is a 1st Tech. A 1st Tech was (is) qualified to teach their own group, but take their student to their Sifu for testing. This was the model used by the EWTO
> 
> -Andy



Hey Andy-- Welcome to the forum. We come from the same lineage, although I now practice with independent groups. Back in the 80's my main instructors were LT and Rene Latosa. I have to admit that I'm kinda jealous that you guys are located close enough to have regular access to GM Rene. Nowadays I watch his old DVDs and wait till I win the lottery, or till he gives another seminar down this way. Anyway, good to have your input.


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## Eric_H (Jun 21, 2012)

Since this thread popped back up, figured I should mention that I'm now in San Fran for anyone that'd care to meet up or train.


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## geezer (Jun 23, 2012)

Eric_H said:


> Since this thread popped back up, figured I should mention that I'm now in San Fran for anyone that'd care to meet up or train.



Eric, is this a permanent thing? You've left Arizona? --Steve


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## Eric_H (Jun 25, 2012)

geezer said:


> Eric, is this a permanent thing? You've left Arizona? --Steve



Hey Steve,

Yeah, I've up and moved. My Sifu said he only had about 3-4 years left before he retires, so I figured I should move close to him to learn what I can before he does.

I do miss the Phoenix sunshine though, it's cold here!


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## Nabakatsu (Jun 26, 2012)

Awesomeness.


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## bully (Jun 26, 2012)

That's dedication to the art Eric. Respect!


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## chuba (Aug 21, 2013)

Hi,
I wanted to bring this particular topic back up as I am looking for somewhere to train wing chun in the bay area. I live in the tri valley area (dublin/pleasanton/livermore). Can anyone give a recommendation for a school in my area? I am willing to travel a little.
Thanks for the help. 
Chuba


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## Eric_H (Aug 22, 2013)

chuba said:


> Hi,
> I wanted to bring this particular topic back up as I am looking for somewhere to train wing chun in the bay area. I live in the tri valley area (dublin/pleasanton/livermore). Can anyone give a recommendation for a school in my area? I am willing to travel a little.
> Thanks for the help.
> Chuba



I only know of folks closer to oakland, or one of my sihings has a garage kwoon in modesto. How far are you willing to travel?


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## J W (Aug 22, 2013)

chuba said:


> Hi,
> I wanted to bring this particular topic back up as I am looking for somewhere to train wing chun in the bay area. I live in the tri valley area (dublin/pleasanton/livermore). Can anyone give a recommendation for a school in my area? I am willing to travel a little.
> Thanks for the help.
> Chuba



Don't know much about that area (I'm on the other coast), but I do know that our family has a school in San Francisco if that's not too far for you.  

http://vingtsunsito.com/


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## chuba (Aug 22, 2013)

Eric_H said:


> I only know of folks closer to oakland, or one of my sihings has a garage kwoon in modesto. How far are you willing to travel?



oakland is about as far west i would like to travel. modesto may be a little far for me to go two three days a week. i visited eastwest-wingchun but want to see others before settling in. Can you recommend another in that area? thanks for the reply.
i am about a 30 minute drive from oakland (east of oakland)


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## Eric_H (Aug 26, 2013)

chuba said:


> oakland is about as far west i would like to travel. modesto may be a little far for me to go two three days a week. i visited eastwest-wingchun but want to see others before settling in. Can you recommend another in that area? thanks for the reply.
> i am about a 30 minute drive from oakland (east of oakland)



Sorry man, I've only found one other school out that way via google, and I don't know any of their guys.


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