3/13/2014

The battle for perpetual refinement: New Yorks ever evolving martial arts community - NY Daily News

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The battle for perpetual refinement: New Yorks

ever evolving martial arts community
Ultimate Fighting Championships popular Mixed Martial Arts bouts have enticed many newcomers
to New Yorks lively world of combat. Expert martial artists show the Daily News how they are
preserving the electrifying worlds of Wing Chun and Jeet Kune Do two Chinese martial arts
closely associated with legend Bruce Lee.
BY MICHAEL WALSH / NEW YORK DAILY NEWS
SATURDAY, MARCH 2, 2013, 3:01 PM

MICHAEL WALSH FOR NEW YORK DAILY NEWS

William Kw ok Wai Yin continues to refine his Wing Chun skills w ith the Mook Yan Jong, or w ooden dummy, a classical training
device.

Swift, clean, precise chops: A kung fu master refines his technique with economy of motion and stillness of
mind in a lively metropolis.
Just before the recession, William Kwok Wai Yin, 41, co-founded Gotham Martial Arts on the Upper East
Side.
I chose New York as my base because it is the capital of the world, said Kwok, who moved to the city from
Hong Kong in 1991. I feel that it is my responsibility to share the beauty of Practical Wing Chun with the rest
of the world and, more importantly, to promote Chinese culture.
Kwok is one of many martial arts instructors in New Yorks growing community. At the multitude of gyms,
dojos and academies spread throughout the five boroughs, students can follow in the footsteps of a proud
tradition, cultivate their own style or take a course on everything in between, including womens self-defense
and creative self-expression.
Every morning, Kwok rides the subway from his Brooklyn home to his Manhattan school. He has instructed
more than 300 students in Wing Chun, an obscure martial art that dates back about 300 years to Chinas
famous Shaolin Temple.
Most people in the neighborhood have never heard of Wing Chun; it certainly is not as well known to the
layman as karate or judo.
But it has become more popular because of the 2008 biopic of Ip Man, the renowned master who taught the
art to Bruce Lee.

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The battle for perpetual refinement: New Yorks ever evolving martial arts community - NY Daily News

Other obscure martial art forms have also gained more followers because of the Mixed Martial Arts (MMA)
promoter Ultimate Fighting Championship (UFC), despite being prohibited from organizing professional live
matches in the New York. The first sanctioned amateur MMA tournament in the state, Kings of New York,
will take place March 23 at the Hammerstein Ballroom.
Dan Anderson has watched the citys fighting landscape expand since 1996, when he founded Andersons
Martial Arts Academy, just south of Canal Street, where he teaches Muay Thai, Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu and other
martial arts.
When I opened there werent a lot of martial arts schools, he said. Now there are three, four or five times the
amount of schools You have to be very competitive in New York.

MICHAEL WALSH FOR NEW YORK DAILY NEWS

Kw ok leads his students through Siu Lim Tao, an open-hand form of Wing Chun, at Gotham Martial Arts in Manhattan.

At bars throughout all five boroughs, you can find people watching UFC who never fought in their lives but
recognize specific grappling moves such as arm bars.
I give a lot of credit to UFC, he said. Its the evolution of fighting right in front of your eyes. Its Bruce Lees
dream of being able to go all out. His dream came true.
Widely considered the godfather of MMA, Lee wanted to liberate martial artists from strict adherence to the
dogma of any one style. He took techniques from anywhere he could karate, wrestling, boxing, fencing,
etc. and discarded the superfluous. With nothing off limits, Lees meticulous curiosity led him to create his
own martial art and philosophy, Jeet Kune Do (JKD).
Jeet Kune Do is not about constantly changing. Its about constantly finding. Its about constant refinement,
said Dino Orfanos, 51, director and head instructor at the New York Martial Arts Academy, which opened a
Williamsburg location last May.
Just off Bedford Ave. looms a giant mural of Lee in a meditative pose, hinting to passing hipsters that the
members inside focus on far more than mere combat.
Our main goal is not about fighting; its about becoming a martial artist and becoming a better human being,
said Queens-native Orfanos. There has to be a philosophical basis to your art or else youre just a bunch of
street fighters and thats not what were looking to do. We focus on the individuals mind, body and spirit.
For Orfanos, the beauty of martial arts is not about different styles pitted against each other. Rather,
everything should just flow.
The idea is to have a totality. Orfanos said. JKD is an art form, not a style. Bruce didnt believe in styles. He
wanted martial artists to honestly express themselves in the most efficient manner possible.
More than ever, martial artists are experimenting with various styles in New York.

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The battle for perpetual refinement: New Yorks ever evolving martial arts community - NY Daily News

You will get to a certain level, Anderson said, where you can mix and match on your own but it takes
development in each of these core areas: punching, kicking, trapping or grappling and weapontry. Once you
learn how to wield a weapon could you create your own way? Of course, why couldnt you?

MICHAEL WALSH FOR NEW YORK DAILY

Graffiti artist Cernesto painted a mural of Bruce Lee above the entrance to the New York Martial Arts Academy in Williamsburg,
Brooklyn.

Muhammad Ali and Mike Tyson both knew boxing technique but had their own methods and ways of fighting.
That is the ultimate goal, for Anderson.
You can see so many different cultures in New York, Kwok said, and my students come from all different
backgrounds, from taxi drivers to chefs to bankers to lawyers to Ph.Ds. They all come to the same place to
share one common interest.
Their goal: personal fulfillment.
***
A closer look at Wing Chun
According to legend, Ng Mui, a Shaolin nun, created Wing Chun (meaning everlasting springtime) after
watching a crane deflect a snakes attacks with its wings. The clash inspired her to create a system that
would similarly enable smaller people to defend themselves against larger opponents.
Wing Chun fighters emphasize the importance of body structure and centerline, which is roughly an
imaginary line that runs vertically down the center of a person. Practitioners attack an opponents centerline
and position their hands to protect their own. Lee later transferred this central concept over to JDK.
The specific style of Wing Chun that Kwok practices is called Practical Wing Chun, which his teacher Wan
Kam Leung founded to modify techniques he considered outdated.
We look at Wing Chun as a constant evolution. We dont add techniques from other martial arts. We improve
the system based on what we have, said Kwok.
mwalsh@nydailynews.com
On a mobile device? Click here to watch the video.

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The battle for perpetual refinement: New Yorks ever evolving martial arts community - NY Daily News

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