The brains and the brawn at the San Antonio WingTsun Academy
By Janis Turk
Photography by Robert French
At first glance, yes, William Parker seems fairly “brawny”: He looks great, he’s in excellent health, he’s agile and active and, clearly, he works out. But Parker will be the first to tell you that’s not what he’s about. In fact, Parker has devoted a sizable part of his life instructing others in a certain philosophy that maintains it’s not the brawn but the brain that’s the body’s most important weapon — an instrument that must be finely tuned and trained along with muscles and reflexes.
It is that principle — that a keenly honed intuition, a carefully planned response, a well-thought-out technique and endless hours of practice — that WingTsun™ is all about. At the San Antonio WingTsun™ Academy, Parker, a fifth-level practician and certified master level instructor, teaches this special branch of Kung Fu martial arts, which holds that one’s success isn’t necessarily dependent on the size or strength of you or your attacker. Using a logical approach in responding to an attack, WingTsun teaches that defense is all about an “economy of motion,” which requires more training than toning, and brains over brawn.
Parker, one of the first two Americans to be promoted to the rank of Master in Hong Kong in 2005 in the Leung Ting Organization, instructs men and women in WingTsun, a very contemporary system of self-defense with roots going back to Southern China over 350 years ago. WingTsun is based on the premise that small, precise, properly timed and carefully positioned movements can deflect even the most forceful attacker.
As Parker explains, “WingTsun also teaches that successful self-defense involves immediately turning the tables on the attacker and assuming the role of the aggressor until safety is assured. We actually have a joke that we don’t call it ‘self- defense,’but rather ‘self-offense,’ as you must learn to be extremely offensive and unpalatable to your enemy!”
Sounds tough? Well, this isn’t something one learns overnight, as Parker well knows. He’s been at it for over 20 years, and he claims he’s still learning as much as he is teaching.
“I was introduced to WingTsun shortly after finishing undergraduate school in 1985 and was immediately impressed with the logic and concepts behind the system. I’d always been a fairly good athlete, but this went beyond sheer athletic prowess. The principles of WingTsun just make sense intellectually. It employs elements of geometry, physics, and common sense,” explains Parker. “Though everyone must find what works for him or her, I felt this was a good fit for me.”
Ideas like, “Don’t kick the head and punch the toe,” seemed so logical and obvious, the more Parker thought about it. The movements, responses and trained reflexive actions are all carefully conceived. As he explains, “This isn’t a breaking boards and screaming at each other kind of thing; It’s basically about programming your body to react in a natural, logical and efficient manner according to visual and tactile cues.”
Born and raised in San Antonio, Parker also spent four years in Virginia and four in Tennessee, but he always considered San Antonio home and settled here as an adult. With a master’s degree in communications, he went on to become a stockbroker and work in sales before he left all that to begin devoting himself, full time, to what he loved most: his study and training in WingTsun. Most fortunately for Parker, for years he was able to learn from several high-ranking instructors within the Leung Ting organization. And in 1990, he was adopted as a direct disciple to Grandmaster Leung Ting, who was the first to take WingTsun out of Hong Kong and show the rest of the world what it’s all about. It was Leung Ting who suggested that Parker begin training others.
“It wasn’t my idea to start teaching,” recalls Parker with a grin. “My interest was always in being a student — learning is a lot more fun. Being a teacher can be difficult because people want instant results. We’re living in a fast-food society where everyone wants things right now, and few are really willing to put forth the effort it takes to master anything. Teaching WingTsun is a lot like teaching music because, in music, in the beginning you have to teach simple scales and practice them over and over. People don’t always want to do that — to start at square one and practice that much. But that is what it takes in both music and martial arts: repetition and discipline.”
Discipline was one of the first things about WingTsun that appealed to Parker. At the time he was a student, and he knew the dangers of a normal college-kid’s routine: staying out late, sleeping in, being lazy, lacking focus. He wanted to break away from that lifestyle.
“It would be fair to say that I was enthusiastic about everything nonscholastic that university life had to offer. My dad still jokes that my dog at the time attended more classes than I did. Of course, by the time graduate school rolled around, I had evolved somewhat!” he says.
“That’s what got me started, but what kept me involved was the logical approach WingTsun takes. It involves a conceptual system rather than a mere collection of techniques, and three basic cores govern the execution of WingTsun: economy of motion (be as direct as possible), sensitivity to force (we don’t clash our force and get into a strength contest with the enemy) and a continuity of action (there’s no disengagement with the enemy — this is a one-round deal. We don’t disengage until it is over). This is a system that becomes part of you. It is something I still learn. I take my lessons all the time,” says Parker.
While the path of father/teacher or “SiFu” may not have been the one Parker set out to take 20 years ago, it has been very rewarding for him. And while most of his students happen to be men, Parker explains that women are encouraged to join the classes.
“This is the martial art that is most ideal and best suited for women. A woman can defend herself against an attacker, even if he’s really coming at her and he’s clearly got superior strength, speed and youth on his side. Here, you learn to use the attributes of the enemy to your advantage. WingTsun also teaches you to read and use body language to your advantage. It teaches prevention and awareness, and it improves your chances of surviving an attack,” says Parker.
Parker has been teaching men, women and children (the youngest have been around 12 or 13) for the past 15 years, and he says he would like to start new classes for special groups outside of his school. “Any group that would like to organize a venue and set a time twice a week can have classes. We’ll come to them,” he explains.
Parker leans heavily on a Taoist philosophy of becoming one with the rhythm of life, both mentally and physically, and lately life’s rhythms have taken him to some pretty special places. He lists adventure travel, scuba diving, music, reading and (most precious to him) raising three daughters as some of the most thrilling paths life’s taken him on. Another thrill came from his recent trip to Budapest, Hungary, where SiFu Parker went to honor his own mentor, SiFu Ting, for Ting’s 60th birthday and to train in six-hour daily WingTsun seminars. But that’s just one of many of Parker’s thrilling world travels. Still, he’s not in a hurry to get anywhere fast: through WingTsun, he’s learned to appreciate the journey.
“I try to teach others, and to remember myself, not to get in a hurry — to enjoy the process, to make goals. That way, your confidence develops and the ability to protect yourself improves. As you do, you will come to find that if you stick with something, you can overcome your own preconceived limitations about yourself. That’s the greatest thing to learn — that you can do something you didn’t quite know you could do,” says Parker.
When asked if one needs to be super-fit or ultra-trim to fit into one of his WingTsun classes, Parker replies with a smile, “Well, it’s good if you can dribble a basketball with a bowl of fruit on your head and not drop anything; but, seriously, if you can fall out of bed without hurting yourself, then you qualify!”
Brawn is purely optional.
