About Mark Beardsell and his Wing Chun

Mark was born in Dover, Kent in early 1964 at Buckland Hospital, Mark was born with only a left hand and a stump on his right, where the hand and the ulna bone were missing leaving only his radius which floats between the two sockets of his elbow at which point his right arm becomes standard again, he was also born with his right leg being shorter than his left and has a small digit on his right foot where his big toe should be thus making balance difficult on his right leg.

Mark considers himself a normal person and does not see his own disability but is aware that other do, mark in his own words quoted "I did not realize until I went junior school that I was different to anyone else until the other children pointed it out"

Mark grew up in Thornaby on Tees and spent some time training Aikido at Thornaby Pavilion with his father until the age of 15 when Mark then relocated to Folkestone in Kent for the next 8 years, during which time Mark trained Judo and Karate for some time.
For a number of years Mark did not bother a great deal with martial arts as other life priorities took over and then he hit the age of 40 and found Wing Chun and was drawn to it like a moth to the flame, in Marks own words "I was inspired like so many by what Bruce Lee had trained but I had had no idea that it was Wing Chun and Jeet Kune Do" that I was looking at, I just knew on seeing it, that this is what I needed to train".

Mark searched everywhere locally for a school that taught this art and could not find one, as a last choice he tried to learn it by himself and soon learned that this was not the way to go, he looked online for a course and finally signed up with the Arizona Wing Chun Association in the United States who were teaching Leung Ting Wing Tsun, but for the first year mark could only study the level one course notes for Siu Lim Tau as the founder of the school and Headman, Sifu Phil Bradley was converting the course from VHS to DVD and as soon as it was ready to go Mark signed up and dove right in, for the next couple of years Mark would visit the USA at least twice a year to meet up with his teacher Phil Bradley and grade in person as Mark believes everything in life should be earned not just handed on a plate.

When Mark had reached student grade six of the Arizona wing chun grading system is felt the urge to learn the dummy form but under the current organisation that was not possible I the Wing Tsun system is progressive but being a bit of a rule breaker he went of and found the International Wing Chun Association and re-graded to Chum Kiu level equivalent to the AWCA but Sifu Sam Chan taught the wing chun dummy form at this level so he jumped in and gained the grades he needed through this organisation, up to present mark has completed all the level barring the knife form under this organisation.

While learning the dummy form mark took a trip to Portugal and trained with Grandmaster Samuel Kwok for seven days and after having a great training experience joined the organisation and went on to become an in-door student and Instructor with Grandmaster Samuel Kwok who currently remain Marks primary source of wing chun.

Among Mark's achievements are:-

Founder and Chief Instructor of Teesside Wing Chun Gung Fu Association www.twcga.com

Author of “Wing Chun - Siu Lim Tau for Solo Students” and ”Jeet Kune Do for Wing Chun Students” and Wing Chun - Closing he Gap with Chum Kiu"

Lifetime member of Ving Tsun Athletic Association, International Wing Chun Martial Art Association and World Ving Tsun Athletic Association.

Qualifications

Sifu/Instructor - Samuel Kwok Marital Arts Assoc.
Sifu/Instructor - World Ving Tsun Athletic Association
Red Sash - International Wing Chun Martial Art Association
Black Belt - Jeet Kune Do

Knife Form DVD for Wing Chun - Trailer

Want to learn the wing chun knife form http://www.kwokwingchun.com/shop/wing-chun-knife-form-dvd/

Learn a martial art

What are the reasons people choose to learn a martial art? would love to hear you thoughts on the subject.

Karate, Tae Kwon Do, Judo, Aikido, MMA and BJJ

The most well known martial arts are karate, Tae Kwon Do, MMA, Judo and BJJ, back in the eighties after about 20 years, Aikido finally got its recognition, its al about speed and economy of motion, checkout Wing Chun if you can't get to class this is one martial art you can learn at home checkout this link

Samuel Kwok Wing Chun - Portugal Training Camp 2014

After the huge success of the last 5 years of The Samuel Kwok Wing Chun Portugal Training Camps, We have now started taking bookings for next year, Training Wing chun everyday with legendary Kung Fu Grandmaster Samuel Kwok the only man in the world to be made a Master of the system under both of Great Grandmaster Ip Mans Sons, GM Ip Chun & GM Ip Ching, learn the traditional Forms and application as preserved by Ip Man .

FULL DETAILS COMING SOON
 
For the sixth year the dates for Portugal training will be the16th to 22nd of April it wil be the  Easter weekend and will be held for 7 days. Please book early to avoid disappointment. There is a 10% discount if you book now. email: kwokwingchun@hotmail.com

Distance learning? Does it work? The answer to that question is CAN YOU make a distance learning work for YOU. its not alwas the fault of the course if you do not succeeed, if the indivudal has not got the get up and go, then the course has already failed. it worked for me because failure was not an option! it can work for you if you want it badly enough :-)

The first Mixed Martial Arts system

Muay Thai and Brazilian Jiu-jitsu as the most popular martial arts at the moment WHY? They are both used in MMA (Mixed Martial Arts) in competitions such as the UFC and cage fighting, and everyone thinks “it’s dead cool and that”, you will probably know that Muay Thai can also be used effectively on the street, however there are two more very useful systems that can be used on the street BUT not in the ring as the moves are far too dangerous to be used in competition, these being Krav Maga and my personal favourite Wing Chun.
While it may be good to tell everyone you are an MMA fighter etc. how about telling them you’re an MMA fighter who models is fighting system on Bruce Lee who is the founder of the first MMA and built is system around Wing Chun.