An Awesomely Powerful Experience

Sifu Vincent Borromeo-Manila



When I come in contact with Grandmaster Doc-Fai Wong the experiences can be totally out of this world! Our interactions can be anywhere from playful to totally serious, but always totally awesome! I would like to share with you some experiences I like to call ?Awesomely Powerful?.

I have been in the External Martial Arts (sometimes referred to as Hard Martial Arts) world for over 20 years now. I have seen many strange things; people chopping themselves with a bolo, and someone who jumped head first from a three storey building! I?ve seen a master bite a glass and then do acrobatic maneuvers on top of it. I have even been asked to look for a .45 caliber gun to shoot a master who claimed that bullets would not harm him!

But total mastery, not hocus pocus tricks, is what I have come to respect. Grandmaster?s exact words are ?Our style is not a style of Philosophy or Psychology it is hard work and practice. Do not engage yourselves in talking but get to work. Practice?!

Many of my friends have asked me about Internal Martial Arts. They tell me amazing stories. One person said he could not push over a man standing on one leg, that he was as solid as a wall! Another friend told me of someone pushing the wind and everyone around him falling down due to the force! Because of these stories I decided to see for myself what these internal systems have to offer. But the internal teachers I met didn?t really impress me enough to want to go into training with them. Some of my colleagues even went so far as to import teachers from China, but they didn?t make that great an impression on me. Then I met Grandmaster Doc-Fai Wong. And Here is the story:

Grandmaster?s First Visit:
The first time Grandmaster Doc-Fai Wong visited Cebu many martial artists came to see him. When he was teaching me I felt a very gentle touch and suddenly I was flying across the room! That was when I realized I was indeed in the presence of a true Master. With the External Systems I practice, whatever part of the enemy?s body you touch is broken and destroyed. But with an Internal System a touch can be very gentle and still send your opponent flying. Grandmaster Wong said to me ?Now you will be flying east?? and sure enough I was flying east. Then he said ?You will be flying west . . . ? and I was flying west! This was something I had never seen before.

Even more amazing, a respected personality in Tai Chi was right there watching and said ?Wow, I need to experience this for myself! It is very seldom that we find a real Master who knows these things! Mostly it is only the health aspect we have seen.? Grandmaster Wong obliged and this person did not make it easy. He resisted with all his skill, but as we know, ?the harder you fight the further and higher the flight?. I could not believe what I was seeing - he was really flying onto a nearby bed. The thundering crash I heard must have come from the bed board breaking under the cushion! To my surprise the Tai Chi person was very elated instead of being afraid. His words were, ?Great! Great! I have been looking for this all my life!? Then he tried again and again using all the skill he had, but he just flew and flew and flew. He was like a child who loves to be thrown onto the bed like the way my kids do. But if he had been thrown against the wall, just a bit further than the middle of the bed, he might have been hurt. I began to see the incredible degree of skill Grandmaster Wong has. His push was so precise as to throw this man exactly in the middle of the bed each time. And my Tai Chi colleague was doing his best to resist and fight. He showed his appreciation by telling grandmaster Wong, ?Thank you for showing me this!?.

On Grandmaster?s 2nd Visit:
On his second visit Grandmaster Wong was now with a friend who had more than 4 years of internal training under a respected teacher here in the Phil. When I heard Grandmaster asking this man about his training it became clear that pushing can be dangerous, especially if someone is not properly trained. If the push is too strong it could cause a whiplash, or a fall against the wall. Once Grandmaster Wong was convinced that this man was properly trained, he said to him, ?Touch my hand?. Upon contact there was a burst of energy and the man flew about 20 feet! I also saw that one must be good at absorbing the force so he will not be injured. This is an art in itself. As this person was flying through the air, I realized that, just like being in an airplane, it is important to know how to land. One must use the legs properly while the body is still reeling back from the force. It was indeed a fantastic display of skill. Upon landing the man knelt down and said ?Thank You Grandmaster for showing me this!?

This whole demonstration just blew me away! I realized I am now one of the privileged few who have seen these internal skills. When I had thought about these slow moving styles in the past I always asked myself ?Why should I bother to learn them?? Now it is my opinion that it would be crazy not to learn this style, for it will enhance my Hard Martial Arts skills.

Grandmaster?s third visit:
My secret treasure Grandmaster Wong was now exposed! It became difficult for me to find time to train alone with him. Many local Kung Fu associations offered to host his coming. The Ling Nam School invited dignitaries and Grandmaster agreed to demonstrate his skills. Here is what happened:

First Grandmaster Wong displayed his power by tearing a very thick phone directory in half! Then he asked for a very big person. A man came down from the stands. This guy looked like a body builder or a weight lifter. It turns out he was also a Tai Chi practitioner. Grandmaster said, ?Push me?. Grandmaster Wong looked small compared to this giant man, but the big guy could not budge Grandmaster. Then one more person was called to push him. That?s two against one now! Still Grandmaster didn?t move an inch. Then three, four, five, six, seven and finally eight people were pushing Grandmaster and yet he couldn?t be moved. Wow this was really shocking! He even gave the people pushing him lessons on how to push. Each of them, one by one, tried to push him. Still they could not. It was hilarious to see eight people shaking their heads in disbelief after all of them together could not push him.

The best part of all was when Grandmaster said ?watch out!? Then he pushed each one half the distance of the basket ball court! I asked one of them (who was an instructor level in Tai Chi), ?Did you really fly that far?? He showed me his bruised leg. He had hit a chair in the Audience. He said, ?Do you think I would want to bruise myself??

So those are the experiences which made an External stylist like me want to learn an internal style. I have something amazing to look forward to. Grandmaster says that part of the advanced External style is soft and internal. He said, ?I will open this for you in time?. I guess that?s what I just have to look forward to?that time!



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