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Former Padre emphasizes balance, control during martial arts classes
By Pat Sherman
TODAY'S LOCAL NEWS
August 17, 2007
ESCONDIDO The patience martial arts instructor Pete Roberts practices in his Escondido garage other people might reserve for making shelves or rebuilding a carburetor.
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NANCEE E. LEWIS / Union-Tribune
Wing chun instructor Pete Roberts (right) taught a technique to student Gary Lair at the Jing Institute in Mira Mesa. |
Roberts and his garage scholars may stand for up to 30 minutes at a time with knees bent, waists still and toes pointed inward in their training stance, or horse. The exercise helps stretch ligaments and back muscles, a suppleness required in wing chun, a form of kung fu from southern China.
Popularized by Bruce Lee, wing chun involves quick thinking and rapid hand movements in close-range combat.
A former pitcher for the San Diego Padres, Roberts began practicing wing chun almost 20 years ago after retiring from baseball.
Though it can seem aggressive at first, wing chun is as much a defensive as a fighting art. It involves learning to control opponents' energy and redirecting their force to defeat them. Wing chun practitioners learn to gain control of their foes' centers of gravity, then maneuver them into vulnerable positions.
It is about 70 percent hands and 30 percent kicks, said Roberts, 42.
One of our maxims is, 'Your feet are wheels; you're hands are arrows.' If you're on one wheel, you're unbalanced. If you're unbalanced, someone can control your center of gravity. ... Basically what you want is a subtle power.
One of the primary components of wing chun, chi sau, or sticking hands, is a combination of striking and grappling in which a person seeks to locate holes in an opponent's blocking to counterattack.
Overt displays of aggression are discouraged.
Hitting is easy, said Roberts, a native of Derby, England. It's controlling the person or the energy (that's important). If I can control your energy, I can direct you and move you around.
Roberts teaches between eight and 15 students at the Jing Institute in Mira Mesa on Wednesday evenings and has classes in his Escondido garage on Thursday nights. The classes on Thursdays are free, though Roberts is selective about accepting new students. They must be at least 18 years old and display a dedication to the art form.
The discipline is best suited for passive personality types, said Roberts, who works for General Atomics Aeronautical Systems division. On his Web site, escondidowingchun.com, Roberts offers a disclaimer: Our door is always open, as long as you are respectful, come to learn ... and are not a hothead.
I'm not doing it for money, Roberts said. I find students that want to practice and learn the art. ... I'm there to practice and have fun.
Student Christine Marshall said she likes the casual atmosphere of Roberts' garage training.
He lets us practice on our own and then steps in and tells us where we need corrections, she said.
Roberts promotes the teaching methods of Sifu Rene Ng and Master Ho Kam Ming of Macao, China. Roberts began studying with Ng in 1991 and assumed teaching responsibilities for the San Diego Wing Chun Kung Fu Club when Ng moved to San Francisco, and later Florida.
Nathan Hart, 32, a mechanical structural engineer, drives from his University Heights home to Escondido on Thursdays to train with Roberts. Hart considers Ng to be his sifu, or teacher, and Roberts his senior kung fu brother.
Hart said he prefers Roberts' laid back form of instruction to the often stifling teacher-student deference found in some martial arts.
Growing up in Peoria, Ill., Hart studied a form of karate popular in Okinawa, Japan. Though he longed to take up kung fu, it wasn't until moving to San Diego that he found a kung fu school that suited him.
I always think of it like learning to play the piano, Hart said. Your teacher teaches you the skills, and you practice the way you practice, but in the end you become your own artist.
Hart said he enjoys the physical and intellectual challenge of wing chun. It is important that this training take place in a peaceful, nurturing and noncompetitive environment, he said.
Most wing chun writing stresses that it is a woman's art, Roberts notes on his Web site. Correct positioning, timing and strategy should take precedence over brute strength and force. Skilled male and female wing chun practitioners who are little more than 5 feet tall and weigh 115 pounds often defeat men who are 6 feet tall and upward of 200 pounds, Roberts said.
Marshall, who lives in Chula Vista, often carpools with her kung fu brothers to Thursday night trainings. She said she has learned from Roberts how to sense when her male training partners are relying too much on muscle power.
I usually practice with much bigger guys than me, Marshall said. They use their muscles a lot, and sometimes I can use it against them, unless they move really quick.
Wing chun's noncompetitive ethos may have something to do with its supposed origin. A common legend holds that, when a young woman named Yim Wing Chun refused a local warlord's marriage proposal, he offered to rescind the offer if she could beat him in a fight. After taking boxing lessons from a local Buddhist nun, Yim Wing Chun defeated the warlord, and her style became the basis for modern wing chun.
Though Roberts cannot speak to the veracity of the legend, he appreciates the restrained, intellectual nature of wing chun, a discipline that he said can be practiced at any age. It's something I can grow old with, Roberts said.
Escondido Wing Chun
When: 6 to 8 p.m. Thursdays
Where: Home of instructor Pete Roberts (e-mail for location)
Cost: Free to select students
Jing Institute wing chun classes
When: 6 to 9 p.m. Mondays and Wednesdays; noon to 2 p.m. Saturdays
Where: Jing Institute, 8860 Kenamar Drive, Suites 306-307, Mira Mesa
Cost: $98 to $200 a month
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