Private lessons and seminars in the UK and online
If you’re looking to learn Kung Fu for self-defence purposes, you’ve come to the right place. I offer private lessons in Chinese Kung Fu, to individuals and small groups, at venues throughout the UK but mainly from my home in Swanage, Dorset. I also offer tuition online.
I offer Kung Fu lessons to selected students through private tuition and the occasional travelling seminar. I also offer sessions online, suitable for anyone from complete beginners who need efficient help getting started, to other teachers who may be looking for new ideas or another angle of constructive critique & suggestion. I welcome all levels of Kung Fu student to give my classes a try – first lesson is free, so why not give it a go and see if I can’t help you on your journey to kung fu mastery.
Am I a Kung Fu Master?
I have been called this before, but I don’t like to call myself a Master because there’s always more to learn and I’m only 40 years old.
I do feel like I’ve pretty much mastered my craft as much as anyone else out there, although everyone has unique strengths & weaknesses – nobody’s perfect and everyone has different physical attributes and a different training background.
I’ve been training in martial arts for over 30 years. Kung Fu for over 20 years. But it’s not just about the number of years passed, it’s about how well you spend that time too. And it’s not just about how hard you train – sometimes you need to train smarter not harder. Hour for hour, nothing beats private tuition with the best teachers you can find, ideally in a range of different styles that complement each other.
What can beginners expect from my classes?
Anyone who’s new to kung fu can expect to learn quickly what practical kung fu is all about, and gain real tangible skills for defending themselves against all levels of violence & provocation. Naturally these skills are a lot easier to share in person, but there are still ways to make progress online at all levels so my online students should still benefit from these sessions.
What can experienced practitioners expect?
Everyone is at a different stage on their journey, and comes from a different background, so there’s no “one cure suits all”. But there are still patterns between students of similar backgrounds, and there are ways to read your strengths and weaknesses during training without any prior knowledge of your background or abilities.
I may notice you’re good at one thing and not so good at another. In fact, my job is to detect what are your strengths and weaknesses as quickly as possible, so we can get to work on improving your game where it has the most room for improvement, patching any holes, while also capitalising on what you’re really good at, ensuring it fits in with your strategy for handling different types of self defence scenarios.
This is especially the case with 1-to-1 private lessons in person – we’ll get straight into testing your strengths and weaknesses and working on them as is appropriate within the first few minutes. There is still an element of this in seminars and online classes but the onus is much more on you to be the governor of your own development in those types of classes.
Who are my classes intended for?
If you are a thug – Kung Fu is not for you. You will not be able to understand it. Try MMA or any other style of sport combat where you’ll have every chance to vent your anger in the ring, and if you don’t give up too soon, you’ll become a better person for it. This is what Kung Fu (功夫) really means in Chinese – putting in the time to master a craft, to better yourself.
If you care for others – if you are an empath who refuses to hurt people unless absolutely necessary – my Kung Fu is ideal for you. It can equip you with the tools to do what needs to be done at all levels of violence & provocation, for maximum safety of yourself as a priority, with minimal unnecessary escalation.
Why train with me?
The main differences between the Kung Fu that I offer, and the Kung Fu that you’ll most likely find elsewhere, are:
- Faith in – and commitment to – what feels Balanced & Natural. If it feels awkward, there’s probably a better way. This is the priority. It trumps tradition, without being disrespectful to the founders, pioneers and sacred texts of our preferred systems – they had the same priority themselves.
- Practicality for self defence. Focusing on the most important things first. Neglecting neither end of the spectrum of threats, from petty bullying to clinical assassination and unconventional warfare. I will teach you several ways to deal with every type of attack you can imagine, while emphasising the most efficient defences to the most common and the most dangerous forms of attack you may encounter, or any specific threats you’re especially interested in.
What styles of Kung Fu do I teach?
- I primarily teach Wing Chun Kung Fu, with emphasis on certain fundamentals.
- I also teach elements of Tai Chi to fill in the gaps left by classical Wing Chun.
- This is supplemented by techniques and concepts from JKD, Aikido, Boxing, Judo, Ninjutsu, Fencing. Capoeira and more.
Did you know?
Tai Chi and Wing Chun were taught as a single consolidated system in the Shaolin monastery at the end of the Ming dynasty.
As the Ming dynasty fell, the Shaolin temples stayed strong in spite of various attacks by Qing forces. But they were eventually all destroyed with Qing spies burning the temples down from the inside during simultaneous attacks from outside. Throughout the Qing dynasty, martial arts were outlawed, and Chinese culture was generally oppressed. The Shaolin never really recovered. But some styles including Wing Chun and Tai Chi survived mostly intact, evolving into separate systems, taught secretly for centuries, and never to westerners until Bruce Lee fought to the death for the right to teach Kung Fu indiscriminately overseas.
Bruce Lee was a master of Tai Chi and Wing Chun fundamentals. He then developed his own system called Jeet Kune Do (JKD) to avoid bringing trouble to his teachers’ doors as he became increasingly critical of classical Kung Fu (at least, the way other people did it) and increasingly famous as a movie star – he became the highest paid movie star in the world in the early 1970s, but still insisted he were a martial artist 1st, actor 2nd.
JKD began as Bruce’s own highly aggressive yet finely tuned version of Kung Fu (mostly Wing Chun), and as Bruce developed, his JKD evolved to prioritise Boxing & Fencing principles for more pro-active attacking capability while still cherishing his Kung Fu ‘sticking’ skills for defence.
Locations
Currently, for work reasons, I’m based mainly in Swanage, on the Isle of Purbeck, in Dorset, on the South Coast of England.
If you live up north, it’s a long way to travel for premium tuition in Kung Fu for Self Defence. So you may be better off finding a local teacher near you.
But if it’s not an impossible journey, don’t rule it out too fast. I never got to where I am today by only training within my local area. When I was poor, in my early 20s, I still found ways to travel the country once a month for private lessons with the best teachers I could find, while also attending weekly classes near me. When I was wealthy, in my early 30s, I paid some of the best teachers in the country to come to me, teaching me at my home. This is what you do, when you’re serious about learning from the best. Top professional boxers are always moving from city to city, or going to America, to spend time with the best trainers they can find. Kung Fu students often visit Hong Kong or China – they sometimes even learn to speak Cantonese or Mandarin. Japanese martial arts students often visit Japan, sometimes even learning to speak Japanese. Muay Thai kickboxers often visit Thailand, sometimes even learning to speak Thai. Capoeiristas often visit Brazil, and sometimes Angola, sometimes learning Portuguese. So it’s not unusual for serious students to travel the country and the world in search of top level tuition. Of course it’s not always necessary and not always wise, but sometimes it feels like it is.
Although based mainly in Dorset, I often also visit London, Birmingham, Manchester, Liverpool, Cardiff, Wye Valley, Brecon Beacons, Snowdonia, the Peak District, the Lake District, Galloway, etc, so do still get in touch if you can’t come to me but are interested in the odd session near you and we’ll see what we can do.