Paul started training in martial arts in 1971, at 7 years of age and as   a student  at Weston Wing Chun at 30 years of age under Sifu Fletcher. His background was  mostly full  contact   Japanese Martial Arts . Paul holds teaching qualifications in Wing Chun, Brithai and Self Defence. Due to his chosen  career  he has gained extensive experience working with and managing  challenging and aggressive behaviour within  a number of prisons and other secure or forensic environments. 

I was fairly used to the striking arts and thought myself fairly competent . I had been studying Tae Kwon Do, Kenpo, and Jiu Jitsu  training up to  4 times a week, but found very little to be useful within my working environment. With professional and ethical constraints and the sheer level of ferocity with which people can come at you, these martial arts simply did not work. A number of people working as Doormen and Policeman have all told me pretty much the same thing. I enjoyed training but began to think of Martial Arts as a recreation rather than a serious method of self defence as they just did not seem to work.

 I suppose this was the "Classical mess" Bruce Lee mentioned. It is still alive and kicking today with a new set of excuses!!!

I saw an advert for Wing Chun and although sceptical about any form of Kung Fu, made an appointment to see Ian Fletcher, the Instructor, (Sifu). Initially  I was very uncomfortable with the tight  close fighting style of Wing Chun being more comfortable fighting at kicking or punching range. I explained to Sifu Fletcher than I could see no reason to fight so close when you could set the opponent up with a kick and follow up as necessary.

This became a pivotal moment in my martial arts career as Sifu Fletcher asked me to demonstrate. 

 My feet never got more than a few inches off the ground. Either Sifu Fletcher jammed my leg down, or merely stepped in just past it and punched  me.

 Very "kindly", (I was so gullible !!!), Sifu Fletcher agreed not to jam my kicks, just to block them. Round House to the head,......... big mistake, he accepted the kick and just pushed it on up !!! Not surprisingly I rotated upside down and dropped on to the back of my neck. Axe kick, and a hard one mind, he just stepped straight in and .......bang,  again !! Spinning back kick, really big mistake, (never ever turn your back on a wing chun practioner!!!! ). At this stage I  understood his point and decided to quote a cliche' decided to, "empty my cup",  and start from scratch.

I felt I had  found an art that was practical at the short ranges people seem to attack from in real situations, and one that could also be used to subdue or restrain an assailant if safe to do so.

I have been running the club now for the past 3 years, and as time has passed my classes have slowly grown from 4  to around 20. I tend not to take more than 20 students on as I feel the 1 to 1 quality of tuition drops rapidly and I get less "hand on" with the students. 

My aim is to provide a really positive environment where we can all learn and grow in a non competitive manner.  I teach fighting arts that have to be simple efficient and reliable.  It belittles the martial Arts to restrict them purely to the concept of physical movements. They are an excellent  vehicle for self development, spiritually, physically and mentally.

Due to the current demand I am looking at expanding the schools hours and reviewing the possibility of establishing a small full time school here in Banwell in 2002.

Regards

Paul Grey

Members of

The British National Martial Arts Association

Combat Sports Worldwide

Send mail to wingchun@i12.com with questions or comments about this web site.
Copyright © 2000 Weston Wing Chun
Last modified: November 12, 2001