Sigung’s Corner
by Sigung David Moylan
Fu For You Winter 2024
I write on the heels of a weekend of two successful Youth/Junior gradings (our 11th and 12th of the year). I was assisted at all the gradings by a rotating cast of dedicated instructors (and some not rotating – Sifu Anne was at all 12!). Following both Thanksgivings, I am taking pause to reflect on how truly fortunate the students of Waterloo Kung-Fu Academy are to have such a terrific team of leaders!
WKFA has 23 active instructors, meaning they teach each week and attend some combination of regular classes, Black Sash classes/meetings and gradings. I don’t know of any martial arts school that has this many active instructors.
In addition to our uniquely large team, each instructor has deep experience in our Kung Fu style. I did some math – the average time of our instructors with the Academy is 20 years! They bring a diverse skillset from outside of the Academy too. Many are parents (and some grandparents). They are professionals in their specific fields (accountants, business professionals, doctors, engineers, lawyers, millwrights, teachers and writers – to name some). Take our newest instructor for example, Sifu Erich. He’s trained with us for 14 years and is a computer engineer. Sifu Erich teaches and trains consistently every week; he was at both gradings this past weekend and assists with our Demonstration and Competition Teams. I could elaborate on each of our instructors as easily. You can read this link to learn more about them. You can also check out our Instagram page, where I profiled an instructor each week to start 2023.
Beyond our active instructor team, I regularly connect with our many alumni instructors, including those that are semi-retired, living out of the city or not currently teaching a weekly class. We have tremendous mentors outside of the Academy too. This includes Sifu Robin, his instructors from Jing Mo, plus other Toi San affiliated instructors like Sifu Ian Chow. There is also Sigung Dave Hackett and the entire team at Kitchener Kicks, including the highly experienced Sifu Steve Rushmere. I learn from legendary kickboxing trainer, Jimmy Fields, and shaolin monk, Shifu Yuan Jing. Our long-time affiliation with the Canadian Karate Kung-Fu Association and my board membership with them also provides access to the founder of our style, Grand Master Chong and the very talented instructors within that organization. You can learn more about some of these influences in the lineage section of the Student Handbook.
We did lose Sifu Josh to Holland this month. Having started with us as a young boy in 1997, he was a dedicated member of our Lion Dance and Demonstration Teams. We had the joy of performing a Lion Dance at his wedding and later got to celebrate the birth of his son. Sifu Josh will be missed. We wish him and his family the best with this new chapter!
I am very grateful for our diverse and dedicated team, and I hope you also appreciate how special our Academy is because of them!