Instructor Biography - Sai Jun Mak

Sai Jun Mak became interested in Martial Arts from an early age but didn't start training until he was fifteen years old, when he took up Tae Kwon Do, training for 4 years and reaching red belt level. Fast forward a good few years - after studying for his university degree and taking time to travel - he realised he wanted to continue some form of martial arts training and looked into various forms of Kung Fu and Tai Chi Chuan, none of which seemed to satisfy what he was searching for, although his father, a native of Hong Kong had mentioned that, "Wing Chun is very simple and practically useful - very good for hitting!".

A move to Bournemouth prompted Sai Jun to seek out Wing Chun Instructors in the area. Knowing he wanted to take private lessons as this would encourage a steeper learning curve he contacted Sifu Mark Smith, an exponent of Augustine Fong lineage Wing Chun. From the first few lessons Sai Jun was captivated by the art and demonstrated a natural ability, developing very quickly indeed. With thanks to Mark Smith's diligent teaching, enthusiasm and personality, a strong passion for the system was sparked in Sai Jun and the two became close friends. A year and a half later, Mark Smith set up some group classes in the area, Sai Jun was incorporated as his right hand man.

In October of 2005, Mark and Sai Jun took a trip to York, contacting Sifu Alan Orr to arrange a private lesson,

"We primarily wanted to seek out another system which could show us something new, something that had more to offer, something that our own Wing Chun was missing. Having experienced various other schools/lineages of Wing Chun and finding nothing that really stood out when compared to our own abilities, we felt fairly confident. How wrong could we have been?!! For four hours Sifu Alan Orr completely astounded us! It was a total revelation! Never before had we felt so useless and overwhelmed, especially when it came to Chi Sau, Sifu Orr's power and control was awesome. We quickly realised we were in the presence of a highly skilled, knowledgeable and inspirational person in many areas and on many levels. Sifu Orr was very firm but gracious in pointing out the major flaws in our methods and how we would need to work on improving our skill, the vital component we were lacking of course was body structure."

From that moment on Sai Jun became a student of Sifu Alan Orr, learning Chu Sau Lei / Ying Hung Wing Chun. The structure and teaching of the class in Bournemouth was completely revised, everything was stripped back to basics, and all the old drills were thrown out. The transition was hard work and many of the students found the drastic change disheartening and unfortunately left the school. Only those few students who showed heart and could see the benefits of Chu Sau Lei Wing Chun Kuen decided to stay. Their hard work and dedication is now definitely paying off and they are reaching much higher levels of skill.

It is Sifu Sai Jun's belief and intention to focus on teaching Wing Chun to small but dedicated numbers of students, thereby creating a mindful, warm and positive school, where it is possible to learn and train hard in an ego free environment.