Professionally ethically, as I understand it, I am required to own up to my mistakes and correct…read morethem when possible. I believe it is appropriate to extend such ethical behavior into my personal life.
I originally gave this place five stars. Part of that was because I was coming off a horrible experience with the predecessor organization of this place, part of it was because David Diep does in fact have some good knowledge with respect to shao lin training. Some of what he states is not correct, or at least debatable at best, but no one can be perfect and I think I could have easily overlooked most of his short comings.
To start with, like their predecessor organization, they lied. Before I started training there, I asked a very simple question and was outright lied to. That question was do they hit the floor or do ground work. I even elaborated and stated that their predecessor organization claimed to do ground work but during sparring, the minute two people hit the ground, it was stopped. Further, they considered ground work rolling and drop kicking and a half day seminar annually on the same. Chuan Wu even has mats, so I thought they were telling the truth. But alas, they were in fact lying. They do not do ground work.
On this same light, I believe their understanding of Chin Na is missing the spirit of Chin Na. Like their predecessor organization, their Chin Na is more akin to what Kajukenbo calls quick responses. Chin Na, as I understand it, translates to "sieze and hold," not move out of the way while punching and kicking. It became clear to me that joint locking was foreign to most at this location.
Then the problems started to arise about six weeks after I started to train there. A third degree violently verbally projected his lack of understanding of the subtle emptiness inherent in tai qi sparring. How he rose to the rank of third degree without this understanding baffles me. But this issue would more than likely have resolved itself, except others did not want it to.
David's wife, second in command as I understand it, overheard part of the subsequent conversation between the third degree and myself. Taking the part of the conversation out of context and blowing it up to a mountain resulting in further drama culminating in both public and private meetings. During the private meeting, I was required to become much more than humble merely to save the face of David even though it clearly showed in his face that he knew very well he was not speaking the truth and was taking credit where it did not belong.
From this incident, I started to see that although David does have some good knowledge, he doles it out as his whimsical heart determines. Unfortunately this means if you are not in his good graces, irrespective of the underlying reason, the information is withheld. To me, one of the primary functions of a teacher is to provide information to the students, not withhold it.
The incident with the third degree and the subsequent wife issue, were just the start. The drama and psychological costs kept occurring to the extent that I realized I had been through this before. For five years I trained at a place that had decent kung fu and training. Four or five days per week for about five years, I motivated myself to take the 45 minute drive, and train for three plus hours.
At this place, the training was top notch, but just about every week, one of the upper echelon would behave in such a way as to demotivate the class. The same thing was happening at Chuan Wu. The only difference is at the other place, the very top guy was not involved; at Chuan Wu the top guy is involved and often treats adults like children. He requires people to be perfect yet he is far from it. On numerous occasions I answered a question only to be told I was wrong and then listened to him reiterate my correct answer.
The final straw for me was when David's son, a second degree who's shen is not developed enough for him to hold such status, apparently became bothered because he and many other upper echelon of this place believe respect is a one way street, and that lower ranked persons should be in a perpetual bow to bolster the empty egos. In my opinion, this is completely wrong. If an upper belt is on the floor during a lower belt class, the upper belt, being the guest at the moment, should yield to the lower belts since it is their class time, but the empty egos simply would not allow this.
If you are willing to pay the psychological costs, and if you are willing to accept teachers that take much effort to demotivate, as opposed to motivating students, and dole out information sparingly based on whimsical emotions, you might be able to get some decent training here.
I think it is sad, because the majority of the people I trained with had good hearts, I was learning and changing, but like the other place of many years ago, the upper echelon leave a lot to be desired and exact a price that I am not willing to pay.
