Good afternoon to all,
As a former TWC practicioner and a current WT (the correct trademark spelling is not VT for neither Leung Ting or Emin Boztepe-EBMAS) I will like to clarify a few points that I personally deem as an insult and worst of all, biased.
There are good and bad personalities in both schools of thought. I personally beginned my Wing Chun training in the Traditional Wing Chun school which calls itself "The Wing Chun Society." My experiences there were horrible: the instructor was very racist, he made racial comments at every class I'd attended, took my money for two months and didn't teach me anything (90% of his time was spent in teaching his other students who were not African American) and so I left.
But there is another more disturbing notion that bothered me even more: how they ragged on and on about "Emin Boztepe." And boy, believe me, they hate him with a passion. I eventually left their school and joined the EMBAS headquarter school in Brooklyn two summers later. And so far, my experiences there has been fantastic. From day one, I was made to feel at home.
It wasn't the same with the WT school I'd previously attended. Those guys and girls were more like "what the $^&@& are you doing here? Scram!" These experiences goes to show that the differences of what I believe to be 'sibling rivalry' derives from the individual schools not the founders. I believe there are good, respectable, and well mannered TWT schools out there but I haven't found one. Likewise one the reverse with the EBMAS schools. Every school may not adhere to the same "knights in shining armor philosophy" my EBMAS school does.
The other major difference is in terms of philosophical concept and on this one, I must admit to: many EBMAS practicioners feel that their Leung Ting Wing Tsun is better than that of Traditional Wing Chun practioners. I mean, there is no need to lie about it. Either TWT guys are doing something wrong or they're trying to build our self confidence because they get punched in the chest and face a lot when our schools come together.
Now on account of Emin Boztepe, the guy is NOT a thug. He is a very very very nice guy. And the funny thing is, he only mentions the fight he had with Grandmaster William Cheung if a student asks. He did not "jump" William Cheung as some ill informed TWT practioner mentioned on this site. Personal words to that individual: go look at the video on youtube.com before you make another biased comment.
Concerning the centerline theory, both schools believe the same exact thing. It's just that the TWT schools included a "centreline theory." Both schools target the opponents centerline but the ways of engaging or attacking this line varies amongst the schools. For instance, Leung Tings schools don't block. William Cheung schools do, they call it "deflecting the attack." Concept: the pinball effect. Leung Tings schools perform footwork that involves pivoting, sliding, circling and a 100/0 triangle stance (back stance). William Cheung schools are transitional; they prefer steps to pivots and a 50/50 stance that's similar that of a boxer.
On the outcome of the whole Leung Ting and William Cheung mess. I've been searching for those answers for some time now and I came to two conclusions. Either somebody is lieing about being Yip Man's student (ever taken notice to the fact that every branch style of Wing Chun in America proclaims Yip Man was their progenator?) or we as humble practioners will never know the truth because our founding fathers won't tell us for sake of promotion and the possibility of losing students. Guess they are taking this one to the grave fellow brothers and sisters. Peace.
(Mandarin is Yong/Yung Chun)
