Grandmaster Tse’s Wing Chun Note 417

Studying with Sīfú 師父 – Part 4

As I remember, Ip Chun Sīfú’s 葉準師父 classes at that time were held on Monday to Thursday evening from 7 to 9pm. They were quite small with only three to five people, but this did not matter to me and it also meant that we all got to know each other very well. People who study Wing Chun, usually become very close because of training Chī Sáu 黐手 together. The longer they practise, the closer they get.

My seniors in the class at that time were, Sam Hing (Third Eldest Brother) 三兄，Da Tao Chai (Big Head Boy) 大頭仔, Ah Chun 阿松，Thomas, Terrence Yip 葉培，Ah Poon阿潘，

Ah Kong 阿鄺, there were a few more, but I cannot remember their names. Later people like had joined in, like Santo Ma 馬定光 , Ken Chow and Raymond Lo 盧德安, plus some others who I cannot remember their names. Some of them came on Monday and Wednesday and some came on Tuesday and Thursday, twice a week. As I had to work shifts, I could only come every third week, but Sīfú was kind enough to allow me to come for one-on-one lessons during the day time. He would let student who had difficulty coming in the evening to come to his home. He also had some other private lessons where he would go to the student’s home, but of course, they would pay more. Studying with Sīfú was very enjoyable, we were more like a family and Sīfú was our father. He was very kind and really cared about us. All the students were like brothers, during my time we did not have any ladies training in the class, so we had no sisters.