Trainers
Reza Terani
Reza Terani is the chief combat instructor for street self defence. Reza has trained in Wing Chun for 40 years starting with the “White Cloud Kung Fu Society” under Derick Golden who learned his Wing Chun from Ip Chun but he already was a top combat instructor in England.
Reza learned the hard way both on the street and in the military and under the brutal English training method where broken noses and bleeding lips were the everyday norm.
Reza also studied TaekwonDo and Modern Arnis and has studied wing Chun under a variety of other lineages.
Reza feels that traditional “Dojo” sparring as practiced in many martial arts schools is not suitable for learning street self defence. Reza said the army never trains that way for real combat.
Ray teaches the classical wing Chun art, while Reza teaches what is needed to really apply Wing Chun to actual combat against people who know how to fight.
Ray Van Raamsdonk
Ray’s background started in middle school where typically kids wrestled. Then in 1965, in his University days, Ray studied Karate in Calgary and Edmonton under Grandmaster Olaf Simon, for 4 years.
Shown above is Grandmaster Olaf Simon breaking a stack of ice. In the third photo Grandmaster Olaf Simon is shown with Chuck Norris and Kenpo Grandmaster Ed Parker. The lady is unknown.
In 1969, Ray moved to Toronto to further his studies in mathematics and computer science and while there, found an excellent Hung Gar Kung Fu club behind city hall in Chinatown. This club was run by James Lore and Jack Chin. Both were at the master level. Jack Chin taught in the military style much like Reza does.
In 1975, Ray’s work took him to Vancouver where he started both the study of Yang style Tai Chi under master Raymond Chung and Wing Chun under master Chow Lok Ji who was a private student of Ip Man. Some of the early Tai Chi students actually came out of competition Judo so Ray acquired a combative slant to this art. Ray’s Tai Chi teacher taught until age 105! His Hung style teacher taught until age 93!
Again Ray’s work caused him to move. He moved to Victoria in 1978, where he continued to study both Tai Chi, Wing Chun and also Escrima under Dr. Dom Lopez and Modern Arnis under Fred Shadian, Remy Presas and a little from Bobby Taboada. All of these teachers were at the master level. Ray also learned about the realities of stick fighting from Heiko who was a Rene Latosa student and the number two stick fighting champion in Germany. Heiko knew many of the people who started the European WT empire but himself was a Jujitsu practitioner. He enjoyed our Wing Chun. His photo is beside Emin Boztepe below. Ray also met a Filipino lady dancer Elena Valle, who taught him the Remy Presas high school system of Modern Arnis.
In 1982, Ray commuted to Vancouver every weekend where he studied under Dr. G.K. Khoe at the University of British Columbia. Dr. G.K. Khoe was a private student of Master Wang Kiu, who in turn was a private student of the late Grandmaster Ip Man. Dr. Khoe was a Chinese from Indonesia where he trained both in Judo and TaekwonDo. He was very knowledgeable about Thai boxing as well.
Dr. G.K.Khoe posing with Ray’s homemade wooden dummy in Victoria in 1982
Master Wang Kiu and Master Wong Shun Leung were best friends and often hung around and gave seminars together. Master Wang Kiu, did not believe in modifying the early system of Wing Chun that he learned from Grandmaster Ip Man. He did not see a need for its modification.
Tsui Shan Ting, Lok Yu, Wang Kiu and Wong Shun Leung, the early students of Ip Man (photo given to Ray by Wang Kiu)
Eventually one has to test the waters with their art to find out what you really know and can apply. So in 1987 Ray ventured out to meet and take lessons from many teachers and had the privilege and honor to meet such well known teachers as: Wang Kiu, Wong Shun Leung, Tsui Shan Ting, Kenneth Chung, Eddie Chong, Emin Boztepe, Chung Kwok Chow, Ben Der, Ted Lucay Lucay, Herman Siwanda, Henry Huang, Jessie Glover, Chung Kwok Chow, Robert Chu, Ralph Haenel and a variety of other teachers.
Master Wang Kiu in 1982, teaching Yvette Wong in my house in Victoria, BC. A few years later, Master Wang Kiu asked me to produce an International newsletter to talk about his art. This is what started the newsletter “Wing Chun Viewpoint.”
At this time Ray’s knowledge even after many years was still at the beginner level but he wanted to find out what Wing Chun was really about. I have detailed writeups about each master but here I will give a very brief glance. First up was Master Kenneth Chung, who told me just to call him Ken. I found out out that nothing I knew worked on him. I would call his Wing Chun the classical Wing Chun according to the Leung Sheung lineage. I learned a lot from this Master and invited him to Victoria many times.
My next shock into reality was to meet Master Emin Boztepe who also didn’t demand we call him master. I found out again that whatever you learn in a “Dojo” works very well against one’s fellow students but absolutely zero works against a professional. You need a professional to fight a professional. These experiences just told me what my other teachers told me, that my Wing Chun needed much more work.
Ray Van Raamsdonk, Emin Boztepe, and Heiko (super stick fighting expert, was #2 in Germany)
Ray found out from these teachers that book knowledge, theory and classroom training is one thing but to really be able to apply the art in real is a totally different thing. However Ray was always willing to empty his cup, pretend he knew nothing and start over from square one.
Ralph Haenel Victoria BC seminar in 2008
In 1998 a William Cheung student by the name of Marty Goldberg along with a Yeung Kay San teacher by the name of Rene Ritchie and a Moy Yat teacher by the name of Benny Meng and many more, arranged a friendship seminar where different lineages got together for the first time. The seminar was to raise money for Ray’s wife Anna Lui to help pay for her Cancer treatment. Unfortunately she did not make it. Anna was also a very good teacher of Wing Chun. Everyone at the seminar was super friendly and very willing to share their version of Wing Chun. We were all able to practice with each other with zero problems. I think this was a first for the Wing Chun world.
The 1998 friendship seminar attendees from all lineages of Wing Chun.
Because of Ray’s different background and maybe age (74 now), he prefers to teach the classical early version of Wing Chun which is based on his experiences with the early Ip Man students. He no longer likes to do the high flying kicks and other antics that Spiderman and the Wu Shu people of China and TaeKwondo people of Korea are able to do.
Anna Lui (R.I.P.)