"Gatherings"

As many of you know, Sifu Don Grose, Headman of the Tucson Ving Tsun Academy and President of the International Ving Tsun Kung Fu Federation (IVTKFF), hosts the "Annual Southwest Wing Chun/ Ving Tsun/ Wing Tsun Gathering." These events are always very informative, but their primary goal is to bring the WC/ VT/ WT families together to share in friendship and just simply getting to know each other.

It's no secret that our past rivalries detracted from progressing the art to the populace, but many of those barriers have been removed due to events such as the annual Gathering. But what do these types of events really mean in the long-term scheme of things?

I remember our first Gathering in 2004 when Sifu Don said something that couldn't have been truer. He said that there was a time when getting different families together would have broken out into a fight. :o) And he was absolutely correct. There was a time when getting multiple lineages under the same roof, for one, was almost impossible, and two, if it did happen, more than likely the police would be called.

And that's really a shame, isn't it? Here we are, practitioners of one of the most well-known and effective methods of self-defense with a distinguished history of extremely competent fighters, and yet putting our various family members together is a problem. I guess in one way, it's understandable to a certain degree; after all, "family pride," "lineage pride," etc., is present in all martial arts. But at the same time, we as martial artists and members of the Wing Chun/ Ving Tsun/ Wing Tsun families should be bigger than that, you know?

I liken it to raising a child; you do everything you can to ensure that they get everything they need so that they're healthy and educated. You nurture them as much as possible, while also teaching them how to live in society and be a good citizen. And when it's time for them to go out on their own, you hope they make the right choices in life. Sometimes those choices are good, sometimes they're not. But in the "not so good" choices, you hope they learn from them and don't make the same mistakes repeatedly.

How does that relate to Wing Chun? Because we have those same choices. We can choose to either make friends with the various lineages and learn and grow together, or we can keep the barriers up and make what I believe is a "not so good choice."

Provided that any event in which we can share information with each other isn't abused, they can go a long, long way to removing some of the barriers we all still encounter periodically. I've learned a great deal from my teacher, as well as teachers of other lineages. I've had the fortune of training with some truly exceptional practitioners of many different lineages, and the one thing I can say is that everyone - regardless of what they believe - had something of value to pass on. What we do with it after we've learned about it is entirely up to us, and personally, I'd rather pass on a good view of our art to my students and those that follow us vs. a "back biting" attitude or one of discontent. We all make our own choices, of course, but in that choice, we make known our inner selves.

So what do events like these really do over the "long haul?" They bring us together, which something still very new to a lot of people. And those that make these attempts, people like Sifu Don Grose, should be commended for making the continuous effort of bridging the gap between the families and making us a whole unit vs. a "collection of parts."

If there are schools in your area, go over for a visit. Introduce yourself and your students so that you can create a more close-knit bond with your fellow practitioners. Whether you agree or disagree with what they're doing, who cares? Does it really matter if they teach something different than you? Of course not. They have their views about things, you have yours. But that doesn't mean that there has to be animosity at any level. I've met some practitioners here in Arizona that I didn't entirely agree with, nor they with me. But we remain good friends in spite of that and even periodically train together. That only proves to everyone that with an open mind, willing to accept what someone else does because we share the common bond of being WC/ VT/ WT families, we CAN overcome these limits.

It simply takes time, and patience, and the willingness to want to do it. But it all has to start somewhere, and that's really what events such as the annual Gathering does.