An Englishman's Kung-Fu Journey

Like many a lad growing up in the 1960’s, Alan Lamb came away with an indelible memory from the television series “The Avengers”. And no, it wasn’t just Emma Peel. Alluring as Diana Rigg was in the role she played opposite the suave and bowler-topped Patrick Macnee, Lamb can still recall in detail the exact episode that changed his entire life.

Steed was trapped in a building,” he explains. “’We’ve got to get out’, said one character, ‘because this chap knows karate’. ‘What’s karate?’ came the next question. Well, it was all very glamorized and such but the guy hit the door to demonstrate and I thought to myself, ‘That karate looks pretty cool’.”

Lamb immediately set out to find someone who could teach him. “Unfortunately,” he reveals, “there were no martial arts schools in England.” His large contingent of Chinese friends were also dubious as to why he’d want to learn karate and not study kung-fu instead. ”One night I was having dinner with them at a restaurant and saw a story in a Chinese newspaper abut a man named Paul Lam who was the first Chinese gentleman to teach kung-fu to non-Asians. I drove 400 miles down to London to see if I could get accepted as a student.”

He chuckles in reminiscence that a Chinese wedding was going on when he got there and he found himself seated with three elderly Chinese men who were all masters of different styles of kung-fu. “Since they spoke very good English, I asked them why they happened to be doing Wing Chun which is known as a ladies style.” The trio informed him that they embraced Wing Chun simply because they felt it was the best of all forms. Lamb returned to Newcastle, got a job transfer, and proceeded to study with his new instructor for the next 5 years.

Wing Chun, he explains, was developed in the 16th century by a Buddhist nun at Shaolin Temple, birthplace of Chinese martial arts. “A lot of people don’t know this,” Lamb says, “but it was popularized by Bruce Lee. Prior to that, there was quite a stigma attached to it because it was invented by a woman for use by other women. Lee led the way in changing the thinking that if a woman could defend herself with techniques that emphasized form, sensitivity and economy of motion over physical strength or size, just imagine what a man could do with the same moves.”

Lamb went on to become the first non-Asian to be certified as a master of kung-fu by the Chinese Martial Arts Association in Hong Kong and developed classes to teach others what he had learned. One of his students, Lori Abril, is now his assistant in the early morning sessions he teaches at Ballet Petit in La Cañada.

Like Lamb, Abril always had an interest in studying martial arts but had difficulty in finding the right school and instructor. “I happened to pick up the phone book and found an ad,” she says. “This led to a phone conversation with Alan who invited me to come down and look at a class. Immediately I knew that this was what I wanted. It’s such a good system and such a great form of self defense.”

Lamb’s pupils even credit Wing Chun with saving their lives. He proceeds to share the story of a cardiologist who wanted to take private lessons but had a lot of concern about injuring his hands. “Because he had a high stress job,” Lamb says, “he was basically looking for something that would help him unwind. After studying with me for about five years, he was in the hospital one day when there was an incident with a guy who went on a rampage and was attacking anyone he could find. The neat thing about Wing Chun, of course, is that there are drills and conditioning exercises that puts everything at a subconscious level. He successfully managed to disable this man by hitting him with an elbow and knocking him down so that security could step in and take him into custody. He told me when he first took the class he wasn’t going to go looking for any fights or any trouble but wanted to be able to protect himself if anything ever happened.”

Both Lamb and Abril dissuade individuals from taking martial arts for the wrong reasons. Says Lamb, “I tell them if they’re just looking to be macho, there are plenty of schools that will teach them. Ours isn’t one of them.”

No matter how much martial arts training you have,” Abril adds, “you still have to use common sense. I don’t think people with martial arts training should put themselves in risky situations just to try to see what would happen, but if a situation should occur – such as an unprovoked attack – your training should give you the confidence to handle it.”

In conjunction with the physicality of the classes, there are also elements of intellectual conditioning, wellness and healing and spirituality. “What we’re teaching through our techniques,” says Lamb, “is based on Chi Gung which is a non martial arts form that uses acupuncture principles and theories that control the flow of energy through a person’s body. It’s similar, in fact, to yoga in a lot of the postures and the focus in discipline.”

He points out that in many Japanese martial arts classes, it’s required that a person have extreme flexibility. “It’s like the ballet – you don’t really see ballet dancers who are 45 or 50 years old because the knees are usually shot and they can’t move as well as they did in their 20’s. It’s hard to maintain that level of intensity as they get older. Wing Chun is different. When I was in Hong Kong, I used to see people who were in their 80’s practicing these exercises. Unlike here where people don’t think about starting an exercise program until they notice they’re getting a belly, in China the people learn all of the hard stuff when they’re kids and then they do an hour a day maintenance.”

He relates a funny story of how he used to see people in their 90’s at a park in Hong Kong. “They’d be doubled over and walking with a stick when they arrived. Then they’d take off their jackets, set the sticks down and all of a sudden they’d be doing these graceful, magnificent art forms. As soon as they were through, they’d put their jackets back on, pick up their sticks, and become ‘old’ again.”

Lamb conducts his classes at 6 in the morning in order to coincide with cycles during the day when a person’s energy level is high. “At 6 a.m.” he illustrates, “is what the Chinese call ‘the hour of the living breath’. By exercising at a time when your energy is at its highest peak, you’re more likely to retain things and to give your system a boost that will carry you through the entire day. In contrast, evening time after work is ‘the hour of the dead breath’. Your body is getting ready to rest after a hard day and an exercise program won’t be as effective because you’re not as mentally alert.”

Self-motivation is another important part of what Lamb imparts. “Some people are very self-conscious about how they look or how clumsy they feel at the start. I try to build their confidence.”

Abril heartily concurs. “We want to bring out the best in people which also means that we want them to improve their health, their diet, and their commitment to something that’s going to be very good for them. Over time, the mindset is that whatever we teach will become instinctual to them. People are so stressed these days that they don’t always do something that’s just for themselves. Having classes early in the morning means they haven’t been bombarded yet with outside demands and worries. We also encourage people to look at this as an art instead of just a form of fighting. We emphasize that this is a classical tradition that’s been practiced for hundreds of years.”

Lamb discovered a particularly effective use of Wing Chun at the Royal National Institute for the Blind in London. He prefaces his story by explaining that advanced students in Hong Kong were required to practice blindfolded in order to hone their sensitivity and awareness of their opponents’ movements. “I realized that if a young person is blind, they’re basically trained to learn a handicapped person’s skills but don’t often develop much beyond that. Nor is there much access to competitive sports. One of the things they tried to do at the school in London was introduce a basketball with bells in it. Well, they always knew where the ball was but were colliding with each other because they didn’t have a sense of who or what was around them! The classes I taught in Wing Chun opened up a lot of excitement and confidence for them in terms of making them more aware of the energy and the reciprocal movements of those they were interacting with.”

His attempts to launch a similar program in the U.S. haven’t met with success. “The emphasis at the Braille Institute,” he says, “is more on seniors who are going blind and teaching them things like how not to blow themselves up when they light a gas stove.”

Lamb divulges that he regularly gets up at 3 every morning – “3:30 if I sleep in”.

It’s a schedule that accommodates his private clients, many of whom are in the entertainment industry. This enables him to do most of his writing in the afternoon. The author of several books that are already on the market, Lamb is currently working on a new project entitled “The Power Within”, a personal development/metaphysical book that will include stories about people and cultures he has encountered during his travels throughout the world. “I’ve lived in so many different countries and learned so many valuable lessons. People are different on the outside but on the inside we all have the same needs and desires. My new book will explore some of these universal truths about who we are.”

He defines “home” as wherever he hangs his hat. “Some people need to be grounded and have a special place they call home. For me, every country is a different lifestyle and with different things it can teach me about myself.” He admits to frustration with those who criticize the U.S. “To me, England and America are among the best countries in the world in which to live. In Colombia I saw families living in cardboard boxes. Before criticizing, I sometimes think people should travel more to get an appreciation of how fortunate they are to live here.”

For more background on Wing Chun or to sign up for instruction, readers are invited to visit Lamb’s website at www.alanlambwingchun.com or call him personally at (818) 841-4430.