Instructor Profile

I grew up in St. Louis, Missouri, which at that time was nationally ranked in the top five for murder per capita.  My family was very poor and as many of the youths in my position,  I seemed to be fighting all the time.  If I wasn't fighting to protect myself, I was fighting to protect my three sisters.  I didn't consider myself a good fighter, but I seemed to win because my cause was always righteous.  My cause, along with the rage one gets sometimes from being poor, made me a worthy opponent.  My  life experiences--in addition to an efficient, practical, yet powerful martial art--sum up my mental growth over the last twenty-nine years.

As President and Chief Instructor of Lee's Chinese Martial Arts Federation, my  first commitment is to improve the quality of life for my students.

What good is it to be a Black Belt if you cannot use your skills to keep yourself healthy?  What good is it  to have great fighting skill if you can only demonstrate its destructive power?

My students must first learn how to breathe properly and how to stretch.  Why?  Because we can live one month without food, two weeks without  water, but only 60 seconds without air.  Never underestimate the importance of any aspect of training.

If your fighting skills are based on the "all or nothing" principle, or just simply without control, your success in the martial arts community may seem to be great.  You may have lots of wealth to show for it.  But what are your efforts doing for the community?  In our Federation, higher ranked students are taught  the responsibility of controlling their power.  They are prohibited from hitting lower ranked students.  When a student learns how to defend without having to injure the opponent, it not only gives them greater options in a fight, but promotes a positive image of Kung-Fu.  It  takes less skill to be destructive.

It is difficult to teach this skill if the Instructor does not demonstrate it in his own fighting.  My skills have evolved due to the nature of my employment.  For 16 years, I was employed by a Job Corps--educating some of the toughest  young adults in the United States.  Wing Chun Fut,  a non-destructive fighting style,  has enabled me to move my Job Corps center from being ranked 70th to 1st in the nation for the least acts of violence.

In essence, I have made Wing Chun Fut Kung-Fu applicable in today's world, visibly showing the community positive ways in which to use our skills.

If you are involved in any local groups/organizations who could benefit from a free self-defense seminar, please contact Von @ (816) 916-4470.  As part of the Instructor Program criteria of Lee's Chinese Martial Arts Federation, all upcoming school owners must go out and give back to the community in the form of self-defense seminars and demonstrations.  We do many of these for non-profits/churches, etc.  The length of our session will determine how much we will cover--the focus being--what to do if approached or attacked.