Brown Belt in Jiu Jitsu

On Saturday April 30th 2022 I had a Brazilian Jiu Jitsu brown belt tied around my waist. Huge exhalation. And I mean huge. A brown belt in BJJ is a monumental achievement and a massive personal milestone in my own goal of getting my black belt by 40. What was my first thought after the huge exhale? Fuck. If I’m being honest it really was just that one word. Fuck.

My coach, Ross Nicholls, if you don’t know him, is a black belt under Cesar Lima and Roger Gracie. He has more competitive achievements than I can even start to list. Chiefly among which I would guess he’d say (I should probably ask him) is ADCC European trials champion. But chiefly among which I would say is somehow managing to turn me from what he got me as, which was a totally clueless blue belt to a position where he felt I was good enough to be awarded a brown belt.

In summary, imposter syndrome doesn’t really give you a good idea of what I feel at the moment. I awkwardly muttered as much when he gave me my purple belt. But I know that is entirely the wrong attitude. Not just wrong, but rude. After training martial arts almost all of my life, intelligibly I know that. But it’s a hard one to bury. Ross is a formidable practitioner of his art. Someone who I look up to greatly as a coach because he commands respect but never demands it. He’s a friendly, laid back human who could snatch my limbs from their joints, or the air from my lungs, without that much effort (and I’m being generous to myself there).

This is probably felt, to some extent, by everyone getting promoted in BJJ. And equally not felt by anyone that expects to have been promoted in BJJ. I don’t think we’re supposed to feel ready. But luckily for us, it’s not us that we have to trust. It’s our coaches. Trust their knowledge, experience, and feel, for us as grapplers. Trust that they know how to guide you through the process you’re going through and just show up to work.

I haven’t been to Hong Kong in probably well over three years now. That means I haven’t trained with anyone ranked higher than me in at least that long, let alone trained with my Sifu. Partly due to distance and money but in large part down to having my son and of course covid. In going through this journey in Jiu Jitsu though I’ve realised something important about my Wing Tsun. I have been awarded ranks in a couple of different associations now, highest of which was first technician. That rank is viewed by most in the art as the equivalent to black belt. When I met Sifu Chris in 2013 he generously, and I mean generously, allowed me to continue wearing my black shirt which denotes an advanced student and just said wait until I’m ready to get my stripe.

I’ve had a few conversations with Sifu over the years about ranks, the level of Wing Tsun generally, and the proclivity of people to branch off to start their own associations and miraculously end up with yellow stripes denoting them as Grandmasters. He’s not one for engaging in the mad politics of the art for which we are all eternally grateful. And you won’t hear him verbally attacking other schools or teachers. Ever. Sifu’s only concern is that we embody Wing Tsun and become proficient and capable exponents of what is supposed to be a functional fighting art.

A brown belt in Jiu Jitsu is seen as a sort of holding belt for your black belt. The time when you don’t necessarily learn anything new per se, but you dedicate the time to smoothing out the execution of your technique and closing up gaps in your timing. But when you reach technician in Wing Tsun you still have so much to learn. You have two whole empty hand forms with Biu Tze and Wooden Dummy, each with their respective chi sao sections. As well as a load more I’m sure I’m not even aware of. So even though you have weapons still to learn, once you reach 5th level and are considered a “Practitioner” or “Master”, you know the whole empty hand system. Sifu told me a while ago that he really doesn’t look at technician as a black belt and instead considers Practitioner as the appropriate equivalent. And knowing where I am now in Jiu Jitsu, I really understand why.

In 2015 I told Sifu about my goals I wanted to hit before 40 and along with my black belt in BJJ was achieving my 5th level in Wing Tsun. I feel like I might have to re-evaluate my timeline. But, just like in Jiu Jitsu. Trust your coaches. Trust the process. And just show up to work.

Andy Dufresne in Search of Superpowers

I realised the other day that I’ve been studying martial arts for twenty six years now, teaching in some capacity for twenty of them (read more here if you’re interested or bored). Age 7 or 8 my Grandad let me watch some of his VHS tapes of Bruce Lee (too young to watch them I’m sure but I never really got to thank him for the inspiration). In Bruce Lee I was watching a man that looked to me to have real life superpowers. Powers I desperately wanted. My quarter of a century search for them has undoubtedly shaped my life and my outlook on everything in it.

Last week my son had his first birthday. He is absolutely the most perfect little human my wife and I could possibly imagine. He’s had me thinking about a lot of things in a way I hadn’t before. The last eighteen months have given all of us pause for thought. What matters in our lives, how we balance work with passions, or even turning those passions into our work. But having a little person in your life that you’re responsible for puts a whole new lens on things. You’re not just responsible for keeping him alive; believe me that would be pressure enough. You’re now responsible for giving him the skills to navigate this increasingly insane, but ever incredible, world.

The fundamental reason I’ve spent twenty six years searching for those illusive super powers is rooted practically in self defence. It’s a simple philosophy that is easily understood. The confidence to not fear a physical altercation in order for you to verbally avoid one. The confidence that if the occasion arises that someone tries to physically overpower you, you’ll have some answer to it. A confidence you then carry into any and all situations. In teaching that skill to others I found something I truly love doing.

The term “self defence” is derided by a large proportion of the wider martial arts community and I understand why. There’s an irony in my hunt for super powers because there are those, too numerous by far, who study what they think is a real martial art, yet they believe they actually have supernatural abilities. Or at the very least follow some “master” who will one day pass on the secret to his magic death touch to them in his will. Props to McDojo life’s documentation of that madness. Sadly, these delusional folk cast a wide shadow over the rest of us.

There’s increasingly a sport vs self defence debate, particularly in BJJ. A distinction that I think is a real shame because they don’t need to be so polarised. Fight sport practitioners and MMA fighters often think “self defence” is pointless because they’re good fighters; and they are! But in my opinion some of those practitioners just don’t see the reason why I, and many others, want to study a martial art. It’s not just about a specific brand of efficacy. It’s the ability to ask a fundamental question to understand why you’re doing a particular movement or art as a whole. It’s really that simple. Is it to ultimately win a match/score a point or is it to have the ability to survive an altercation. 

I don’t have that underlying philosophy to train through in BJJ because most of the UK is purely sport and it’s something I still really struggle with. I am incredibly lucky that my coach is one of the best grapplers on the planet, an amazing coach and a person I admire. But I feel sort of philosophically homeless. My reason for training doesn’t match up with anyone else on the mat. Coming home with a medal just isn’t something I personally care about, or philosophically want to pass on to my son. Calmly surviving every eventuality in front of him is. Be that a bully at school or a tricky situation at work when he’s older. It’s a philosophy to live by. That’s why I think a martial art, practiced through the mindset of self defence, is so important. It’s why I turned up on my first day at Karate in 1995 and why I still love it today. As a teacher that is where my passion is. Preparing someone, as best I can, for every eventuality, not for a podium spot.

These last months then, thinking about what insight I could possibly have of value to help my little boy navigate the world have boiled down to a fairly concise thought. Find something you truly love doing. Understand the fundamentals of why you love it as profoundly as you can. Then just keep turning up. Relentlessly and methodically chip away at that goal regardless of whether you ever achieve it. I know I will always be searching for those superpowers. But I understand why I will always be searching. And I’m at peace with chipping away for as long as it takes because that’s the whole game.

A really good article about the differences between the Hong Kong and European teaching methods of Wing Tsun written by Sifu Brett Slansky from our sister school in Prague.

European vs Hong Kong Wing Tsun

Reasons why I have started practicing Wing Tsun Kung Fu in Hong Kong directly with Master Sifu Chris Collins from the beginning. This is the English translation from the Czech original that I wrote the other day. After posting the original article, I got a lot of request translating it to English. Especially that my sifu Chris Collins asked for it, so he can read it.

Because I have a lot of English speaking friends here in Prague and all over the world, I have decided to publish the same article again, but this time in English. Have fun reading it:

Why European Wing Tsun schools differ from schools that teach in Hong Kong?
Our school is open only a few months, but teaching model attracted a lot of new fans for the Chinese martial art of Wing Tsun (Wing Chun) Kuen. Even students who have studied this style of Kung Fu many years ago, found their way to us. Many of them are very surprised that the very concept of training and fighting differs a lot from what was once practiced in Europe.

There are many reasons that might contribute to these differences. I do not dare to write about all of them here. It would be a very extensive article and a waste of time talking about politics, which many European schools promote. From such topics I’ve grown up and I’m not interested to continue to discuss why one school pays annual members fees, exams and many other nonsense, and why the others not.

But I’d rather share with you about why I’m through with any Wing Tsun organizations or associations (mainly European and American) and decided to train directly in Hong Kong under Sifu Christopher Collins, a former Marine, a direct student of Grandmaster Leung Ting and Cheng Chuen Fun .

My beginnings in EWTO – European Wing Tsun Organization

I have been practicing martial arts since the age of 6 years. I am from a generation where perhaps all my peers went through training Kodokan Judo, Shotokan Karate and Aikido. And I am not an exception. I also trained traditional Southern Hung Gar. When I was roughly 11 years, I read an article by Sifu Ivan Rzounek in the Warrior magazine, which talked about Chinese martial arts Wing Tsun Kung Fu.

Ivan described his training in EWTO under the command of the German Keith R. Kernspecht, who was the first European who invited Grandmaster Leung Ting to a seminar in Germany in 1976. An article about this martial art was very exciting and I was looking for a way that I can train this martial arts.

Since that time there were not many schools WT, I found my first teacher around the age of 15, when I saw the flyer about WingTsun by my first sihing Jindra Kopecky in Decin.

I immediately came and started to train Wing Tsun under his supervision in Decin three hours every Tuesday and three hours in Ústí nad Labem every Thursday. Soon I also used to go every weekend to Varnsdorf and trained with my sihing and other students for about 12 hours each weekend.

It was a time when I loved Wing Tsun and EWTO very much and when training in Wing Tsun was still not in any altered form. This changed in around 1999 considerably. I can still remember a seminar with Sifu Oliver Koenig, when he began to teach instructors of WT “the new programs” grandmaster Kernspecht borrowed from the British bouncer and bodyguard. They named this training program the “Blitz-Defence”.

Even then I did not like it and I began to look for what to do next. Slowly I was preparing to leave for the US where I wanted to train under the supervision of Sifu Emin Boztepe. The master of Wing Tsun was a very fearsome warrior who probably understood the principles of Wing Chun and did not add any extra stuff like his European teacher.

In 2001, I finally managed to travel and train with Sifu Emin Boztepe. I even had to ask permission Sifu Oliver Koenig, if I’m even allowed to train with him in the States. Everything was so strange about it, but he gave it to me.

When I first met Sifu Emin, he was completely different than what I have expected. He was bigger and stronger than I thought! But he was very friendly. Even today I remember a few parties. Trainings were also much more explosive than in Europe. With Emin the trainings e were quite aggressive. Which helped me to get a bit more confidence and explosiveness in the use of techniques of Wing Chun.

But what I started to wonder was that every time I trained with Sifu, I had no chance against him. It was very frustrating, no coaching on why or what to do. The only thing I heard was: “Brett, you’re like a robot, relax!” … Nothing more, nothing less.

Then when I got angry and asked why I do it wrong and how to do it correctly, I received no methodological advice on how to relax. Just advice such as: “You have to train more,” or “When you practice WT 40 years as I am, you will understand it …”, etc.

I said to myself, this is impossible. They must think I’m stupid or what! After all, even if I went to study to be a surgeon, it will take around 6 years. And personally, I think the doctor has much more to learn than a fighter of Wing Tsun. In addition, the legend says that this martial art could be learned faster than classical traditional Kung Fu!

So why here it takes so long ???

I suspected that something was not right. Someone always take me for a fool. I never got a response that would help me grow even further. Only I was cool as long as still paying for tuition, for seminars, for sections or programs etc.

Everything changed when I saw Sifu Chris Collins from Hong Kong.

Around the summer of 2012, I saw a video on YouTube from Sifu Patrick Gavelin from Sweden as they train directly in Hong Kong with master Chris Collins. I was really impressed and contacted Patrick via Facebook.

Here’s the video:

We had a long conversation. I found that he trained directly with K.R. Kernspecht in EWTO and achieved higher Practician Grades. I also found that he was also training privately with his sihing Emin Boztepe for 13 years. I was just glad that someone understands me and that we have a lot in common.

I was very surprised, as he talked about Chris. Just what would you say that the great master degree holder decides to throw over 30 years of training and start again from the beginning and from the teacher who trains WT for only half of the years ???

I was very surprised. Many masters have very big ego and do not want to give up what they have built, even though they know that what they teach is really wrong. Here I am excited to see that someone finally had a chance to understand a simple concepts of Leung Ting Wing Tsun.

It just seems that many European masters have different thinking.

They want to compete with other schools and thus try to teach what is currently in. This way they are hoping to keep their students for as long as possible. But that destroys the essence of martial art they practice. Wing Tsun then no longer is Wing Tsun, but something completely different.

First contact with the Hong Kong WingTsun

After prolonged decision making I saw on Facebook that two of my former younger kung fu brothers (Jiri Drnec and Zdeněk Kobrle) went to Hong Kong and trained directly with master Collins. I immediately contacted Zdenek, who teaches in Prague and other cities in the Czech Republic. List of his schools teaching Hong Kong WingTsun here.

This was the best moment in my whole career Wing Chun.

Zdeněk was very helpful and showed me a few details that I nobody ever showed me before. I was really excited and wanted more. But Zdeněk assured me that if I want to learn WT properly, I would have to travel to Hong Kong otherwise I will still be doing and teaching WT the wrong way.

I was very lucky I guess, because Zdeněk planned seminar with Sifu Chris in Prague. It was at the end of November 2013. I couldn’t have missed it. It was a chance that might never be repeated!

Meeting with Chris Collins and Hong Kong WingTsun Kung Fu

I must say that for me sifu Chris have made very big impression. And on several levels.

1. From the first moment I was introduced to him, he was very friendly. It was clear to me that his passion is WingTsun. His willingness to spread this beautiful martial kung fu in an open nature is what I was looking for in my past teachers, but in vain. I felt like this was my best Wing Tsun dream.

2. He did not trained with the typical “European” type system – two hours seminar, an hour lunch break and two hours of practice. But coached the typical “Hong Kong” model type – no pause, no hours. He was just there and finished very late or until there remains only the last student. I laughed. Some seminar participants asked me to I ask sifu Collins, when there will be break, or the hour when the seminar will be over, because there is the last bus taking them home.  And Chris’ answer??? No pause if they want to go home, let them go. Nobody here will force them to stay. And those who remain? Well, more to learn!

I first found out what is the right approach of a true master to his students. Also I have discovered that for 18 years I practiced something that could have similar looking techniques to Wing Chun, but it was not Wing Chun. I thought that as a teacher who trained under many of the leading “European masters”, I’m good. But now I learned for sure that I know nothing.

When I trained free Chi Sau with sifu Chris, I was stiff as a rock. No clear reflexes, nothing was working for me. The only thing I felt was fatigue, shortness of breath and utter exhaustion. While Sifu Chris was fine. Even using only one hand and chewing a gum. I really felt that I am just complete beginner. How could this be possible after 18 years of training?

All these years in Europe they were telling us that European Wing Tsun is improved and is much better than the Chinese Wing Tsun. So why one from Hong Kong is so much more better and very capable fighter?

Wing Tsun is not about how many years you practice, but how many hours you put into this workout!

I have heard this motto for the first time from my former sifu Emin Boztepe. But now I got it.

I was so excited that I flew the very next week to Sweden for the next 4 days of training with Sifu Chris. I get to know Patrik Gavelin personally and it was really nice meeting him. There was also Jirka and Zdeněk so I was happy to see that the quality of WT in the Czech Republic will go up.

It is not true that the European WingTsun is better than the Chinese … is just different!

And for the following reasons.

1. The European model aims to practice model situations and drills a combination of techniques that may or may not occur in a real situation. Hong Kong WingTsun is based on principles and ability to respond to any change without warning.

2. The European model has a lot more techniques combinations and takes longer to learn. It is more complicated, because there are more scenarios for self-defense situations one need to practice. The Hong Kong model trains natural reflexes, which can get under the skin rather quickly. It is more simple, but we from Europe have problems to understand what is simplicity.

3. The European training requires the use of greater force and more energy is spent. Hong Kong training is aimed at learning to borrow the force from the opponent using the least possible effort.

4. And much more …

After 18 years of training under European based masters I dare say that I can compare the two.

Whether it is how it is. Nobody disprove me this:

Sifu Chris started training WT in 1996. That is completely the same year as me. This is the first time I can not say that he is better because has been practicing longer than I have, as it was the case with all other masters. Chris was lucky enough to train only in Hong Kong under Leung Ting and Cheng Chuen Fun. I trained only with the European masters such as Oliver Koenig and Emin Boztepe.

If the European model of teaching was better, it would mean that I’d be better than him. But the opposite is true. That’s why I’m glad I finally opened my eyes.

The future of our school of Wing Tsun Kung Fu in Prague

I am very glad that Sifu Chris Collins accepted me as a pupil and that our students can learn Wing Tsun, as was put together by Grandmaster Leung Ting. We will teach only in Hong Kong methods, where there are no programs or degrees, but puts the emphasis is put on understanding the ideas and concepts of Wing Tsun.

Our students are not required to collect grades and exams only for the purpose of continuing their studies. The students can practice every day and it is up to each student how often they will practice. Again, I note here that it does not matter how long someone is training, but how many hours they will put into their workout years.

Therefore, our school does not limit the number of hours the students can attend per week. Just who wants to practice, they will practice.

We will continue to travel to Hong Kong and learn from the right source from the lineage Yip Man – Leung Ting – Cheng Chuen Fun – Chris Collins Wing Tsun.

And we teach this art without any changes or “improving”. After all, if it works subtle Chinese (for over 50 years), who happened to have also only two arms and two legs, it must work for us as well.

No need to make any changes or improvements. Let each student choose for themselves what is working for them.

If you are interested in training Hong Kong Wing Tsun, as it is taught by our sifu Chris Collins, just fill out the form below for a free introductory lesson.

Hong Kong Trip 2014.

Tom and Matt recently returned from their second trip to the Hong Kong Wing Tsun Association HQ. This year they were able to offer the students the opportunity to join them which was an experience the students won't every forget. We'll be planning our trips back for 2015 very soon. Every year Sifu Chris holds a seminar with his Sifu, Grand Master Cheng Chuen Fun. Just having the chance to train with both of them at the same time would be special enough but of course the content of those days was second to none.

There are two highlight videos of the seminar that Grand Master Cheng's students filmed and edited. Please check out our Facebook page to watch them. Please like while you're there. We'd also urge you to like and visit Grand Master Cheng's and Sifu Chris's pages too!

We don't look the happiest bunch in the photo below but we promise it was just because it was a long trip. We had an absolutely amazing time.

We were with Sifu for a week in total and he worked with all of us individually and as a group to make sure he'd given everyone the pointers they needed. Tom and Matt trained with Sifu in additional sessions to make sure they were up to speed with everything they needed to teach the students ready for Sifu Chris's visit around April time.

Sifu Chris's European Seminars

Some time in April Sifu will be coming over to conduct seminars in all the european HQs including London. It will be an opportunity for those that couldn't make it to Hong Kong to meet Sifu, and for everyone a chance to be graded, making sure every student knows where their level is and what they need to do to progress and develop. It's going to be an incredibly exciting year but there's lots of hard work ahead.

More details on Sifu's visit and seminar in London coming soon.