Austin Goh is a Wing Chun instructor, Qigong and T'ai chi practitioner, actor and fight choreographer based in London.
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Grand Master Austin Goh originally moved from Malaysia to England in the 1960s in order to study a degree course in physical education. Due to the popularity of Kung Fu at the time, partially due to Bruce Lee, Sifu Goh found that martial arts was a profitable business and not knowledge to pass.[1] This prompted him to pursue careers in being a body guard, club bouncer and Wing Chun instructor. He has been teaching Wing Chun since 1971.
Once his school, based in central London, became profitable Sifu Goh devoted his time in being a full time Wing Chun instructor. He caused controversy amongst the Wing Chun community by being the first to openly teaching Wing Chun in its entirety to both Chinese and non-Chinese students. In the past Wing Chun had been taught privately only to Chinese students and whilst some practitioners taught non-Chinese students the latter would not be taught the system in its entirety.
Austin Goh has written several books and DVDs including the popular 'Breaking Power of Wing Chun'.[2]
In 1995, Austin Goh appeared on UK television in a show called 'Just Amazing' and beat the, then, world record of breaking consecutive concrete blocks. In 2006, Austin Goh appeared in a music video for X-Press 2's single "Kill 100". The single reached number 59 in the UK Singles Chart.
Sifu Goh currently teaches Wing Chun, Qi Gong and Tai Chi as well as "Human Energy Courses" in London and Eastbourne and holds seminars across the UK as well as worldwide.
Grand Master Austin Goh was taught by the great and influential Wing Chun master Lee Shing and thus inherits Lee Shing's Wing Chun heritage which contains Centre Line Wing Chun, Pien San Wing Chun and Dai Lim Tao. Grandmaster Lee Shing was the first ever person to teach Wing Chun in Europe/UK in 1956.
Sifu Goh teaches a combination of Centre Line Wing Chun and Pien San Wing Chun.
This describes the basic principle that runs across all lineages of Wing Chun. It states that the objective of the practitioner is to both attack an opponents centre as well as to defend one's own centre. This is because the centre is where most of one's vital organs are located, e.g. head, heart, celiac plexus, groin. Therefore, damaging your opponents' centre area is effective while defending your own is vital.
This describes the stance of an uncommon style of Wing Chun where, instead of standing square to an opponent as in most Wing Chun lineages, the practitioner faces slightly to the side in order to extend his reach. This allows Wing Chun to be used at a medium to long distance. This does not mean that the practitioner is stuck at a longer range. Sifu Goh believes that a practitioner can combine this longer range stance with the traditional Wing Chun stance to be able to fight at all ranges.
Austin Goh believes that although Wing Chun and its forms teaches numerous techniques in any practical application only a few of the very basic moves are needed. For example, there are many possible ways to kick but in reality the most effective and most often used are still the basic front kick, side kick and roundhouse kick. Learning long chains of combos is discouraged because they are almost never practical. In their place is a stronger focus on learning simple techniques that have more multiple or universal application.
Sifu Goh believes that martial arts, especially those of Chinese origin, should be taught openly to anyone who is willing to invest the time to learn it. He rejects some traditionalists' views that it should be kept as a secret for Chinese people on the basis that such an idea is outdated, impractical and does not conform to the martial art spirits of openness and pluralism.
Sifu Goh also rejects the now popular view that a martial artist should try to learn many or all martial arts. Whilst there's nothing inherently wrong with it, Sifu Goh feels that by training across different disciplines at the same time the practitioner risks not being able to delve fully into any particular martial art. He feels it's particularly detrimental for a non-professional individual to practice more than one martial art because most people do not have the time to devote themselves to so many disciplines. As such, Sifu Goh believes that one should focus on mastering one martial art before seriously looking into anything else.
Although Sifu Goh is trained in just Wing Chun as a combative martial art he respects other martial arts. He feels that each martial art is a different path towards the same goal of self fulfilment and betterment of a person both physically and spiritually.
Although he firmly believes that Wing Chun is a complete martial art Sifu Goh does not think comparing martial arts is a useful exercise. This is because he feels each martial art excels in its own domain and, as such, direct comparison is difficult. Similarly any competition between different martial arts is not indicative of any arts' superiority due to the rules required. For example, due to the dangerous nature of most Wing Chun techniques if any cross discipline competition is set up then Wing Chun will be disadvantaged by not being allowed to use many of its main techniques. What's important then isn't a comparison of which martial art is the 'best' but which martial art a person enjoys and suits them.
Sifu Goh respects all martial arts and view them as different paths towards the same goal of betterment of oneself. He teaches that each style or art has its own merits and that any direct comparison for the purpose of determining which is the 'best' is ultimately missing the point. The combination of the practitioner, what he or she is training for and the circumstances of combat (e.g. self defence or cage fighting or casual sparring) means that comparison can never be objective.