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November 15th — Check out our new promo-vid! This is the first City WingTsun promo spot. Starring Sifu Alex, Mike Yahn, John Ficarra, Matt Rinni, and Victor Berrios. Directed, edited and scored by June and July director, Brady Hall (http://www.juneandjuly.net/). November 1st — Welcome Temple of the Monkey/Taoist Yoga to the City WingTsun family. Sifu Damon Honeycutt is now teaching Taoist Yoga at the City WingTsun facility. Taoist Yoga is a centuries old Chinese style of yoga that complements martial arts practice tremendously. Sifu Damon has been a student of Master Paulie Zink as well as Paul Grilley. WingTsun students are encouraged to add Taoist Yoga to their regimen in order to increase flexibiltiy and flow. Sifu Alex is very happy to welcome Sifu Damon on the staff! May 7th — Asian Pacific Heritage Festival — Once again Sifu Alex and the City WingTsun team performed to a packed crowd at the annual Asian Pacific Heritage Festival. This year's City WingTsun demo team was all "black shirt" assistant instructors: Fabian Rivera, Mary Austria, Victor Berrios, Thomas Stanford, Elliot Sanchez, Paul Cully and the animated Mike Yahn. Since the WingTsun fighting style generally makes very quick work of the opponent, it is always a daunting task to fill out a 30 minute timeslot for this demonstration. It is much easier for other styles that show a lot of fluff in their demos (meditation, forms, staged fighting sequences, ad nauseum). But every year we come up with creative ways to fill out the time, although this year our demo clocked in at only 15 minutes (sorry Kelly!). To begin, Sifu Alex demoed some hard-hitting fighting applications with Paul Cully and Mike Yahn. Mary Austria showed the audience that WingTsun was made for women by beating Mike Yahn up in a realistic self-defense situation. Afterwards Thomas Stanford demonstrated defense against a stick attack, immediately followed by Victor Berrios showing the audience what WingTsun people do to fancy kickers. Mike Yahn wowed the audience with his aggressive display of anti-grappling tactics. After that was a multiple attacker demonstration followed by Fabian Rivera showing soft control techniques. The demo culminated in a chi sau demonstration which featured the students training the standard chi sau programs. Finally Sifu Alex came back and finished the show with some freestyle chi sau applications and blindfolded chi sau. This is the third year that City WingTsun has participated in the demonstration. Thanks again to Kelly Fung for inviting us.
April News — The test lasted over an hour and tested the skills, knowledge and endurance of the students. The students were tested on all the basic skills from footwork, kicks, hand techniques, steps and punches, and steps with kicks and punches. Next the students were tested thoroughly on their chi sau programs starting with dan chi, progressing to poon sau, then to the 1st section of chi sau, and finally to kuo sau or free hand chi sau sparring. Afterwards the students were put in "the ring of fire" where each of them had to defend against continuous street-fighting style attacks (punches, kicks, grabs, wrestling attempts) from a number of different attackers. Finally after the test-takers were well worn from the intensive chi sau and sparring, then they asked to demonstrate the WingTsun forms siu nim tau and chum kiu. After the forms were inspected, the test-takers had to answer some indepth theoretical and technical questions. Finally, the examination was topped off by an endurance test of non-stop wall-bag punches. Each of the students passed his test and may now proudly wear the black shirt of the IWTA. Congratulations!
       Sifu Alex's trip to Taiwan & Hong Kong Sifu Alex Richter traveled to Taiwan and Hong Kong for vacation and "business" (WingTsun, of course) this past April. First, Sifu Alex stayed in Taiwan for a week visiting with his extended family of in-laws. During the week Sifu Alex visited Tainan, Kaohsiung, Taichung, and the capital city of Taipei. Oddly enough Taiwan has very few authentic Chinese martial arts schools besides tai chi, white crane and a small handful of other styles. Martial arts are on the whole not very popular in Taiwan and the most common style practiced in Taiwan is Korean Taekwondo. A shame really, perhaps one day Sifu Alex will have to reintroduce practical Chinese martial arts into Taiwan. After a week in Taiwan, Sifu Alex flew to Hong Kong for a weekend of WingTsun training. It has been ten years since Sifu Alex was last in Hong Kong and a lot has changed since then. Much in the same way NYC has changes so much in the last 12 years, Hong Kong is cleaner and much friendlier than in the past. This trip was also a chance for Sifu Alex to meet Sifu Robin Tsang (3rd Level Technician), assistant to Grandmaster Leung Ting. Sifu Robin has always been a tremendous help to Sifu Alex and the have two shared an online friendship until they finally had this chance to meet in Hong Kong. Sifu Robin is a very dedicated practitioner of WingTsun as well as a sincere and humble person. During the weekend in Hong Kong, Sifu Alex had the rare opportunity to take private lessons from Grandmaster Cheng Chuen Fun. Sifu Cheng is the most senior WingTsun instructor after Grandmaster Leung Ting in the IWTA. Sifu Cheng is an amazing instructor with plenty of patience and attention to detail. It was truly a dream come true for Sifu Alex to learn firsthand from yet another one of his WingTsun idols. On the final day Sifu Alex participated in an instructor tutorial with Grandmaster Leung Ting. It was an exciting atmosphere of Hong Kong style training with some instructors working the WingTsun long pole techniques, while others trained in their respective chi sau programs — all under the watchful eye of Grandmaster Leung Ting. At the end of the tutorial, Sifu Alex was officially awarded his 3rd Level Technician certificate. This made the trip all the more memorable. PHOTOS on the right:
 Later, the participants were broken up into two groups. The junior students worked on kicking and stepping with an emphasis on proper technique. Later they trained anti-grab applications. The senior students worked on the first section of chi sau. Sifu Lau touched hands with all the chi sau students, correcting many of the finer, and often neglected, points of the first section. The students were impressed by Sifu Lau's attention to detail as well as his entertaining explanations. During the second half of the seminar the junior students worked on combining the previously learned anti-grab and kicking techniques with steps and punches. Combining these elements, the students leaned how to flow from anti-grab defense to kicking and punching with steps. The senior students learned how to use the first section of chi sau in a sparring setting, affectionately known as the "Hong Kong style". Sifu Alex and City WingTsun assistant Dan Hsiao took the opportunity to take private lessons from Sifu Lau. Sifu Lau corrected the two most senior City WingTsun instructors in the advanced chi sau programs with emphasis on fighting and application. Both Sifu Alex and Dan Hsiao were blown away by the level of detail and instruction received from Sifu Lau. Sifu Lau's first seminar of 2006 was an absolute success. Sifu Alex and the City WingTsun students are really looking forward to his next seminar in August.
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November 4 - 8 — Once again, City WingTsun hosted Grandmaster Leung Ting for one of his National Seminars. Students had the chance to learn WingTsun firsthand from the Grandmaster.
 While in the Seattle area, Sifu Alex had the opportunity to take his NYC students to the grave of Bruce Lee (see photo on right). We are looking forward to helping the Leung Ting WingTsun system grow in the Seattle area! February 13 — City Wing Tsun is proud to announce the opening of a new branch in Seattle, WA! See citywt.com's announcement or visit the Seattle Page. January 1 — City Wing Tsun head instructor Alex Richter has been promoted to Sifu! All the students at City WingTsun are very proud of their instructor's great accomplishment and wish him the best on continuing to grow and promote Wing Tsun!  Blog |
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December 9 - Updated special events page with upcoming events in 2005! August 22 - We just had our two day summer intensive seminar. Si-Hing Alex covered some special topics during a sweat and fun filled 10 hours of training to end the summer. See the group photo in the photo gallery. June 10 - Updated photo gallery and instructor pages with photos. May 30 - Grandmaster Leung Ting came to New York to hold an instructor tutorial and student seminar. For most students, it was their first time seeing the Great Grandmaster, and they were overwhelmingly impressed. Grandmaster Leung Ting was happy with the students' enthusiasm and abilities, and will return again in the fall. Visit the Photo Gallery for some photos of his visit. May 3 - City WingTsun has relocated to a new address! We are just around the corner from our former space, now on 6th Avenue between 38th and 39th street. See The Latest News for other recent events. April 4 - Updated Events page with updated list of upcoming events. MEMBERS ONLY FORUM added. March 27 - Updated News page (see below) with recent events. Also updated Schedule page, Connecticut School page, and added a image of our school on Classes page. Also, check out nikewomen.com to see a video with Sije Christa Wagner, a student of Sifu Bernd Wagner in Germany.
January - WingTsun-KILL BILL connections in Hong Kong and New York:
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