Rob Ley Academy Ip Man Ving Tsun

30/08/2026

Several years ago at the Ving Tsun Athletic Association in Hong Kong with Sisuk Lee Wai Chi, a student of Ip Man.

It is always good to spend time with people from an earlier generation of Ving Tsun. You listen, ask questions and keep learning.

Lineage tells us where the system came from, but the work still has to be done in the Kwoon—developing structure, centreline control and sensitivity through Chi Sau.

For step-by-step Ving Tsun training, with Wing Chun terminology included for accessibility, visit the Online Training Manual: https://robleyacademy.com/online-manual — link in bio.

29/08/2026

Out at Geevor Tin Mine the other day, practising a little balance above the Cornish coast.

Ving Tsun kicking depends on the whole body, not just the kicking leg. The standing leg has to support your structure, while the body stays controlled so you can put the foot down again without losing your balance or position.

Holding the kick for a while is a simple way of testing that. Speed can hide a wobble. Staying there for a while cannot.

The view was excellent. The Cornish wind was less helpful.

Do you practise your kicks slowly as well as at speed?

Build your Ving Tsun foundations 👉 robleyacademy.com/online-manual (link in bio)

28/08/2026

An older photograph with my Sifu, Grandmaster Roland Tong, beside the VTAA instructors’ board in Hong Kong. His name is there on the board behind us.

The second photograph is his original permanent membership card for the Ving Tsun Athletic Association. It is numbered 0200 and carries his Chinese name, 唐祖志 — Tong Cho Chi. Printed down the side are the words “This card is permanently valid,” and Sigung Ip Man’s handwritten signature can still be seen faintly beside the President field.

This is a small but important piece of our lineage history. The card is not a grading certificate and it did not make him a Sifu. His Ving Tsun came from training directly under Sigung Ip Man. What the card records is his permanent membership and formal connection to the Association.

Seeing four of my own students receive their VTAA memberships this week brought this card back to mind. A different generation, the same Association, and a connection being carried forward.

Which pieces of your own lineage history are you responsible for preserving?

Learn the system as it was passed down 👉 robleyacademy.com/online-manual (link in bio)

26/08/2026

Very proud of Aicha, Sam, Mike and Josh, who received their permanent membership of the Ving Tsun Athletic Association today.

The certificate and membership card are a formal connection to the VTAA in Hong Kong and to the wider Ving Tsun family. It is not a grading or a finish line. The training still has to be done, the structure still has to be refined, and there is always more to learn.

All four have put a great deal into their training, and I am very pleased to see them receive this recognition.

Congratulations to Aicha, Sam, Mike and Josh. Well deserved.

Who remembers receiving their own VTAA membership?

Continue your Ving Tsun training 👉 robleyacademy.com/online-manual (link in bio)

22/08/2026

After a class at the VTAA during our November visit to Hong Kong.

I took my students along to attend the class, and they had the opportunity to train with everyone in this photograph—mostly through Chi Sau.

There are well-known Sifus from several Ving Tsun lineages here, including Sisuk Pang Chi Yam and Sisuk Mok Ho Ching, both students of Sigung Ip Man and both juniors of my Sifu, Grandmaster Roland Tong.

Chi Sau gives you something a photograph cannot. Through contact, my students could feel different structures, timing, pressure and approaches from people with many years of experience. They were not simply meeting names from the lineage; they were actually training with them.

Afterwards, we stayed to catch up with old friends and make some new ones. A good class, a good evening and a valuable experience for my students.

What have you learned from doing Chi Sau with somebody from a different lineage?

Develop your structure and sensitivity 👉 robleyacademy.com/online-manual (link in bio)

21/08/2026

My Sifu, Grandmaster Roland Tong, moving my arm into the correct position for Lan Sau from Chum Kiu. In his own home, as it usually was.

Lan Sau is the bar arm. It can pin or cover an opponent's arms against their body, which leaves my other arm free to strike. Depending on the position and the strike coming in, the same arm can deflect upwards instead. Which of those it becomes depends on what is being done to you, where your own arm and body are at that moment, and a good deal else besides. You are not choosing from a list. You are responding to what is actually there.

Which is why his hands are where they are in this photograph. Not demonstrating to a room, not posing for anyone — both hands on my forearm, physically putting it where it needed to be.

You can be an inch out and never know. The form still looks like the form. It is only when somebody who knows moves your arm for you that you feel the difference.

That is how it was passed to me. Not from a stage or a syllabus, but arm to arm, in a small room with the kettle on and a shrine in the corner. He would correct one thing, make me do it again, and correct it again. Then we would eat.

One thing while I am here. Chum Kiu means sinking the bridge, not seeking the bridge. You see that mistake everywhere. Don't seek the bridge — seek the hit.

Who put their hands on your arm and set you straight?

Learn the system as it was passed down 👉 robleyacademy.com/online-manual (link in bio)

20/08/2026

https://youtu.be/loLloW6YiP8?is=53wpyFVGljYicFCq

Sil Lim Tao (Little Idea) — the first form of Ip Man Ving Tsun / Wi...

19/08/2026

Josh in action at the Hong Kong Fighting Union event in 2019. He won his fight.

Competition is a different sort of lesson. There is no stopping to reset the distance, no chance to explain what you meant to do, and no room for ego once somebody is trying to hit you back. You find out what stays with you under pressure.

That is why I have always respected the students who are willing to step up. Winning is a good result, of course. But getting on the platform in the first place takes honest courage.

Josh did both that day.

Have you ever tested your training under real pressure?

Build the foundations properly 👉 robleyacademy.com/online-manual (link in bio)

18/08/2026

An old photograph with John Wong Hong Chung at the VTAA in Hong Kong — taken on a visit five or six years ago, I think.

I had met John plenty of times before this visit, but have not seen him since. I have only just come across this photograph again.

John's father, Wong Shun Leung, and my Sifu, Grandmaster Roland Tong, were good friends. That makes this a particularly nice photograph to come across.

The older I get, the more I value these visits. Ving Tsun lineage is not only names on a chart. It is the friendships, conversations and mutual respect that carry from one generation to the next.

Always good to be back at the VTAA.

Who have you been pleased to meet again through your own training?

Learn the system as it was passed down 👉 robleyacademy.com/online-manual (link in bio)

17/08/2026

Up at the Peak with Sam, Cedric, Aicha and Regis, looking out over Hong Kong.

Taking students here is one of the better parts of teaching. You can talk about Sigung Ip Man in a Kwoon in Cornwall for years, but standing above the harbour at dusk with the whole city switching on beneath you does something a lesson never quite manages. The lineage stops being a chart on a wall and becomes a place, with a noise and a smell and a view.

Somewhere in the streets below, this art was taught in rooftops and back rooms to people who needed it. Now four of my students are stood above it all, carrying a piece of the same system home with them.

That's how it travels: not through institutions, but through people and their experiences.

No egos up here. Just students, and a very good view.

Where in the world has your training taken you?

Train the same system wherever you are 👉 robleyacademy.com/online-manual (link in bio)