Progressive Fighting Systems

All my life I have been fascinated with martial arts. From Bruce Lee movies to the original Karate Kid, martial arts have always excited and inspired me. As a child I briefly studied Tae Kwon Do but quickly discovered it wasn't for me. I have great respect for every martial art, and there are certainly some very good martial artists that are exceptional at Tae Kwon Do. For a variety of reasons, it just wasn't the art for me. I then moved to Kenpo, Karate and enjoyed the art a lot. Unfortunately though, life happened and because of things like money, college, marriage and starting a family I had to put my martial art studies on hold. After college and things began to slow down some, I was able to begin studying martial arts once again. Around 2006 I began studying Jun Fan Jeet Kune Do under a great martial art instructor, Sifu Jason Korol. I trained with him for a few years and learned a lot from him. After I trained with him a few years I then discovered Wing Chun, and fell in love with that. I began to train Wing Chun in 2011 with Sifu Haroon Raja of Raja Academy under the Francis Fong lineage. I fell in love with the trapping aspect of Wing Chun, and presently hold a blue sash in the art. While I'm on my 5th sash, I still have 4 or 5 more to go to reach black sash and then I will work on being certified to teach Wing Chun under Francis Fong. Although I dropped Jeet Kune Do for a little while to focus on my Wing Chun and developing it as my solid foundation, the art of Jeet Kune Do was never far from my thoughts and I knew I would pick it up again real soon. Once I trained in Wing Chun for awhile and developed a good foundation to build my martial arts career on, it was then that I met the man that would change my life, Sifu Paul Vunak. Once I began training in Vunak's Contemporary Jeet Kune Do, or filthy MMA as he calls it, my perspective on martial arts radically changed for the better. I no longer only viewed martial arts as forms and rules, but as a way of living, fighting and surviving. Bruce Lee said that a martial artist should 'be like water.' He said  if you put water in a cup, it becomes the cup. Put water in a pot it becomes the pot. Water can flow or it can crash. He then says 'be water my friend.' What Bruce Lee was saying is that a martial artist should be able to flow, to adapt to any scenario, one on one, multiple opponents, weapons, etc. Water can be hard or soft, whatever the situation calls for. Sifu Vunak taught me how to do that. Today I train Wing Chun and Contemporary Jeet Kune Do exclusively. Both arts are aggressive, simple, and street applicable.​I am happy to say that I am a Phase 1 instructor in PFS, and will continue to train and reach my ultimate goal of Full Instructor. Sifu Vunak has a huge heart for people in general, but also for his students. He wants us to teach this art, to pass along this great art handed to him by Guro Dan Inosanto, which was handed to him from the late Bruce Lee. He wants us to teach handicapped children this art, to help them not only defend themselves but also to help them build up their confidence and self esteem. I want to take it a step further. I desire to teach anti bullying classes one day, and I want to teach women self defense as well, so they don't have to be a victim to domestic violence that runs rampant in our country today. Although I don't see myself as a victim today I have been a victim of bullying in the past, and I want to help people stand up for themselves. I have two children that I teach this to, and they love it. Their confidence has been through the roof once they understood the value in taking control of situations and the liberating power that comes from one knowing how to defend themselves. If you're in the South Carolina area, or in driving distance of the South Carolina area and want to train let me know. My phone number and email address is on my page. Thanks for reading, and I wish you the best on your martial arts journey.