Andrew Ballinger

Andy always had an interest in martial arts. As a young boy, he would watch martial arts films by the likes of his heroes Bruce Lee and Jackie Chan. Andy started his Martial Arts journey with some Judo and then moved on to try a few other different styles. He saw a class for Wing Chun advertised close to where he lived in Bristol and as he knew Bruce Lee trained the style he read into the subject from numerous books. Andy began attending the class that he had seen advertised but he thought that the teacher appeared to have not trained very long himself and thus could not pass over the finer points. However the time that he did spend at the class had given him a thirst for Wing Chun and he decided to search for a more experienced teacher.

After finding out a little more about Yipman and Yipchun it was by accident that my friend read an artical on Shawn Rawcliffe, who we then contacted, as he's chief instructor in the UK for YipChun. He told us about his instuctors who taught at a club in Cheltenham, a 1hour or so train trip away from where I live. I haven't looked back since. I also got to attend a class Hong Kong trip and got to meet grandmaster Yipchun. To train in such a safe and friendly environment brings a real smile to my face even now, plus Wing Chun is a very effective method of self defense. It's an honour to train with the people that I do and to have an opportunity to pass on the knowledge I have learned.