Grandmaster Doc-Fai Wong’s First Tournament
By
Sifu Alan Hubbard
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When Doc-Fai Wong was 18 years old he and his friend went to one of
the biggest local open tournaments in San Francisco run by Professors Ed
Parker and Ralph Castro in the Civic Center of San Francisco in 1967.
His friend Joe Chan came from Hong Kong and was a black belt in Shotokan
Karate. Joe and Grandmaster Wong were the same age. Joe invited the
young Doc-Fai Wong to the tournament to watch him compete. This was
Grandmaster Wong’s first tournament in his life. Joe Chan was warming up
and asked Doc-Fai Wong to workout with him in sparring. Doc-Fai Wong
didn’t understand any of the fighting rules or restrictions in point
sparring. Every time when Joe kicked him, he used a lau-kiu technique to
scoop his foot up and follow up with a leg sweep to take Joe down. After
Joe got up from the ground he said, “no no no, you don’t get points by
doing that.“ Doc-Fai Wong said, “If that doesn’t get you a point, what
is the use in anyone training like that? I have not trained for this
kind of fighting, and I don’t see any reason to, I’m not going to
compete in this kind of fighting for sure.“ However, the repeated take
downs by the young Grandmaster Wong drew lots of other Kenpo and
Kajukempo black belts to watch their practice. Grandmaster was so busy
sparring his own way with other black belts and not one of the black
belts could touch him, they just ended up falling all over the place
with their arms and legs bruised with black and blue marks. By the time
the actual tournament started the best show and lessons were over. From
there on, Doc-Fai Wong kept going to other tournaments.
During that period of time, tournaments were very popular; almost every
month someone from some school had sponsored one. Grandmaster Wong had
never entered in the point sparring competition, however, he always made
time for sparring workouts with the other black belts when they were
warming up or finished fighting for their matches. It was fun practice
for him, and always an eye opener for his tournament fighting partners.
He of course continued to draw crowds of Black belts in a variety of
karate styles impressed with his fighting abilities, soon after they
gave him the nickname of “Gung-fu Doc“, this was long before kung fu
became popular. He had so many black belts wanting to become his
students and learn his fighting “secrets“, that in September 1968, he
officially started his club in the Chinese Recreation Center on Mason
and Clay Street of San Francisco.
After Joe Chan went to college, he no longer trained with Doc-Fai Wong.
Currently, Mr. Chan is one of the owners of the KFC restaurants in San
Francisco. To this day, every time he runs into any of Grandmaster
Wong’s students, he always talks about this story from the good old
days.