What I loved about this school is the convenience of the location. I've always grew up around Chinatown, hitting up the restaurants on nearly every road. To know that this Wing Chun school was inside Chinatown was a plus for me.
Let me just start off by saying that Sifu Jue knows exactly what he is doing. Here is what I wasn't a fan about, and this is based off how classes were run at nearly all the Asian martial arts academies I've trained at. It wasn't until I discovered Wing Chun, and researched it locations that provide Wing Chun training. For instance, the very first discipline I studied was traditional Chinese Shaolin kung-fu. From then on, since switching from school to school, the classes were run, more or less, the same. Typically, beginning of class would start on time, and it would involve a warm up doing numerous cardio exercises. During the first few days I studied at this school, class would normally start about 30 minutes later than scheduled. After I started noticing this pattern, I confronted one of the students about this learned that class usually never begins right on time. I was appalled to know that tuition is being received in full, and the students are not getting their money's worth, not to mention the tuition wasn't a friendly price either. So, already that was putting a shock to my system.
Secondly, there was no agenda to the class. Typically, after warming up in my Chinese kung-fu classes, we would begin working on basics. Eventually, that would lead into a new direction from the Sifu, such as a new move being taught, new form, new drills, whatever. It was done as a class. Here, well... I'm not sure how to explain it... at the start of class, which already starts late enough... everyone goes off and does their own thing... whatever that is... I don't think I even knew where I was. When class finally starts, everyone scatters off and does their thing. Sifu Jue then cycles between each student assisting them in whatever they need until the class is over. That was a shock to my system as well. He seemed as if he exhausts himself running from student to student.
On top of that, Sifu Jue was not even present during my first few days. As a result, I needed to be trained in the basics by the students. The thing that threw me off was that I was being fed different information from different students. I'm not against learning from students. I'd just appreciate it if I was learning the same thing from everyone, and not different things from different people.
Thirdly, what disappointed me the most was while class usually started 30 minutes late, I figured I would make up for the time, AFTER class was over. Not possible. While everyone seemed eager to leave, I just wanted to stay and continue working. I got about 10 minutes into extra practicing before Sifu Jue gave me the "time out" hand gesture, and said it was time to go home.
All in all, I think the reason I wasn't enjoying the school was because it was different from how I'm used to learning Asian martial arts. On the first day I arrived, I noticed quite a few students of the school, so something is being done right. (Or they are getting ripped off, and not noticing it.) However, I'm just not used to learning the way Sifu Jue teaches. I'd rather follow the system that all the other Sifus' in Boston do. Nothing against Sifu Jue and his excellent knowledge, nor the students, but I just wasn't a fan of how class was run. read more