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After years of training in various systems of Wing Chun here in Australia, all claiming to be better then the next, I decided that I wanted to find a more pure style of Wing Chun that is not just about money or fame but about the art, and I found this through Grandmaster Kwok,” says Sifu Scott Cowen.
Though he has been training in various martial arts for 24 years, Cowen was only recently appointed as the Australian representative of Grandmaster Samuel Kwok. He is now establishing his school in Brisbane, having recently returned from a trip to the UK to train intensively with Kwok.
“I spent a lot of time working on perfecting the three hand forms Siu Lim Tao, Chum Kiu and Biu Gee, while also training extremely hard on the Wooden Dummy, Long Pole and Butterfly Sword forms. I spent a lot of time perfecting my forms and also my chi-sao [‘sticky hands’] against various other instructors throughout the UK,” he explains.
In Cowen’s estimation, this contact-reflex drill is perhaps the most important element of the Wing Chun system. “Chi-sao is very important; it’s the tool we use to prepare for real combat,” he says. “It helps in training your sensitivity, controlling the centre, out-thinking your opponent, controlling your opponent’s energy, and relaxation. It also helps you to face attacks head-on without shying away or covering up from them.”
Aside from improving his chi-sao skills, what most pleased — and surprised — Cowen about the UK scene was the sense of camaraderie he found between various kung fu schools.
“One thing that stood out to me in general was the bond between schools. They welcomed me in with open arms and treated me like family — a kung fu brother. It didn’t matter about who was better than who or from which country you came; at the end of the day the focus was purely about the art and helping each other to have a better understanding,” he says. “The world is a big place and when you think you’re training hard, there’s always someone out there training harder.”
The training though, was not so different to what the Aussie visitor was used to. “I felt that the structure was very professional in many of the schools I had the opportunity of training at, and the energy in the UK was very similar to how we approach it here in Australia. They are very focused and passionate about their martial arts and the other instructors and students were very dedicated to the art and their own self-discovery.”
Cowen also got out and about with Grandmaster Kwok, who is well known and respected in the martial arts community. “We went to several demonstrations while I was visiting and the public loved what they saw,” he recalls. “When we were at the Chinese New Year Celebration in London, Grandmaster Kwok was being met by various other instructors who just wanted to say hello. At one time he did chi-sao with one of the instructors in Trafalgar Square (London) and instead of the crowd of thousands watching the performance on stage, they all stopped to watch Grandmaster Kwok performing in the crowd.”
Cowen now plans on running classes in Kwok’s system throughout Queensland and then other states of Australia, as well as programs in schools, which will focus “purely on health and self-defence for kids as well as coordinating their motor skills,” he reveals. “Too many instructors hold back on their students and drag the system out for years. We don’t have 10 years or more to spend just to finally learn how to defend ourselves, we need to know now!”
Cowen says he’ll also look to promote what he sees as the “true linage/roots of the art” as taught by Hong Kong’s famous Grandmaster Ip Man to his sons Ip Chun and Ip Ching, who in turn taught Grandmaster Kwok. But while many claim to teach a ‘pure’ martial art, keeping a fighting system unchanged is arguably impossible, given that each new generation of master tends to interpret the art slightly differently to the last, and may also change it intentionally to adapt to social changes, combative trends and his or her own physical limitations. Cowen does like to use the word ‘pure’, but seems under no illusions as to these realities.
“You’re right, it’s a tough one, as many instructors have changed/altered their styles to suit themselves or to suit the society we now live in,” he admits. “We are only human and not perfect, that’s why we have erasers on pencils! It’s hard to say that what you teach is exactly or purely the same as the previous instructors before you, as we are all individuals with our own ways of seeing things we are taught. But keeping it pure is what we strive to do, because if we just keep adding to the system, eventually we forget the basic principles and lose its foundation. We then start creating a separate art altogether and move away from the simplicity and directness for which it was created.
“That’s why today we have so many mixed styles and freestyles, but if you’ve noticed when all these styles want to perfect a certain area in themselves that is weak, where do they go? Straight to a traditionalist in that area they’re needing,” Cowen muses. “That’s why it is important to stay as pure as possible, because it still has its place in today’s society and is still vital. At the same time, you need to keep it real and not fairytale or fantasy.”
Originally from Townsville in North Queensland, the 38-year-old says he’s always had a passion for kung fu, especially Wing Chun. He began training at 14 years old, beginning with Chow Wing Kune Do (a Chow Gar/Wing Chun blend) under the tutelage of Sifu Kim Gray, himself a student of Master Tony Da Costa. Under Gray’s guidance, Cowen trained and fought in full-contact tournaments and was eventually made an instructor of both Wing Chun and San Chi Kai karate.
“I went on to become chief instructor in the Wing Chun Kuen system under Master Ian Garbetts at the Weng Shun Kuen and Taiji Academy in Townsville, where I studied Wing Chun, Yang taiji and baguazhang,” Cowen reveals. “Master Garbett is also a close friend and member of the World Taiji Chinese Boxing Association under Master Erle Montaigue.”
While studying with Master Garbett, Cowen also completed a Diploma in Fitness at Townsville’s Barrier Reef Institute of TAFE and began teaching Wing Chun to the Senior Sergeant and staff of the local police in his home town of Ayr. He wasn’t content to stay put though, seeking to find more kung fu experience and knowledge in the sparsely populated far north.
“I moved from school to school to continue my search for more knowledge in kung fu,” he explains, “In 2006 I found an instructor who focused purely on Wing Chun — Sifu Pablo Cardenas, a former student of Grandmaster [William] Cheung’s.”
Cowen worked in Townsville for four years as a sports development officer, but three years ago was transferred to Toowoomba, away from Cardenas’ school. Without a Wing Chun teacher there, he supplemented his solo practice with training in Yang-style tai chi under Sifu Roger Bastick, himself trained in the UK under the third disciple of the Yang family, Chu King-hung. More recently, Cowen has also been training in Northern Long Fist (Chang Chuan) and Hong Family Fist (Hung Gar) under Shi Xiong Lester Walters, “to keep up my fitness, strength, flexibility and focus in Chinese combat,” he explains. “It has been good to be training in both the Long Fist/Hung Gar and the Wing Chun. It has given me a better understanding of the long- and close-range fighting styles of kung fu — but my passion and devotion still rests with Wing Chun Kuen.”
In Grandmaster Kwok, Cowen finally found the Wing Chun mentor he’d been looking for.
“I find Grandmaster Kwok’s way of teaching to be very clear and straightforward,” he says of his mentor. “He believes in you questioning things you are taught and not just blindly following. He is a very honest and giving man and is not out to hold back or hide anything from his students. He makes sure that everything he knows and has to offer is passed on so that the art stays as pure as possible… There I go again with the ‘pure’,” he laughs.
When moving between different schools of Wing Chun, or indeed any martial art, you’re likely to encounter dogmatic attitudes regarding certain techniques and how they should be done, but Cowen says he’s had no such issues in adopting Kwok’s methods.
“I have trained in several schools of Wing Chun and other forms of martial arts, and found they all have reason behind what they teach,” he reasons. “There is only so much an instructor can tell you when it comes to angle [of technique], etcetera — the reality is that you will know soon enough whether it works, when you have to use it.
“This is where politics comes into it, when one style claims to have all the answers over another. Grandmaster Kwok is very open-minded; what’s important is that the principles stay the same — for example, the centreline theory, economy of movement, simplicity, directness and practicality.”
Although some Australian Wing Chun enthusiasts may already be familiar with Kwok’s style from his instructional DVD series, soon they will have an opportunity to see and feel the kung fu of the man himself. Cowen says Kwok will bring his own particular flavour of Wing Chun Down Under this year, giving his first seminars here since 1984.
Cowen himself is currently preparing to open schools in Brisbane, Ipswich and the Gold Coast, and says he’ll soon have them running full-time. “I have several centres ready to go and look forward to giving the people of Australia the Samuel Kwok/Ip Man family system of Wing Chun kung fu.”
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