In the 70's everyone loved Bruce Lee. A phenom, he burst onto the American martial art scene and became a cult hero. His status as cult hero was sealed when he died six days before the 1973 release of his movie, Enter the Dragon. Everyone and his brother were now looking for the Bruce Lee connection.
At the age of fifteen, we took a bus to the Fox Theatre in downtown Detroit. In the 70's, the Fox Theatre was a rundown theatre, stinky, sticky and on its last legs. There was talk of tearing it down. Now it's beautifully restored. At that time, it was considered a little dangerous to head downtown, but we had to see Bruce Lee!
Jim Clark was looking for the Bruce Lee connection too. He sought out a student from Bruce Lee's Seattle years and met James W. DeMile. Clark, after an intense training camp, brought back to Michigan the Basics of Wing Chun Do concepts and principles he learned from Sijo (meaning founder) James DeMile.
In 1981, Rocco Ambrose, found Sifu Clark's Wing Chun Do school listed in a directory in a martial arts magazine. Although the Monroe, Michigan school was forty minutes away, Ambrose had to find out if wing chun was the art that could give him the effective fighting and self-defense skills he was searching. If not, then at least he could stop thinking about it. What he found, blew him away. When he came home, he told his wife, "I've found it. I found the art." A few months later, he knew he wanted to become an instructor. Being a big Bruce Lee fan, he was equally thrilled to find the James DeMile - Bruce Lee connection.
Wing Chun Do is the culmination of knowledge James DeMile derived from his time with Bruce Lee and the Seattle group. He developed and defined the concepts and principles he learned and created Wing Chun Do. At first, James DeMile called what he did wing chun, because that's what he thought Bruce was teaching. But a traditional wing chun sifu approached DeMile and informed him that he was not doing wing chun. DeMile realized that Bruce was already modifying and innovating his wing chun even during the Seattle years. He decided to add the "Do" on the end of Wing Chun to differentiate it from traditional. (the Do means "the way" thus "The Way of Wing Chun" paying homage to the art's roots.)
In 1984, James DeMile came to Monroe to conduct a seminar. His skill and knowledge was light-years ahead of anything they had ever experienced. After hearing about Sijo's previous camps, several students petitioned Sijo DeMile to create an Instructor's Training Program for the Monroe school and he agreed. Rocco Ambrose entered that program and graduated in 1988. The following year, he opened his own school. In 1993, Ambrose was fully certified as an Advanced Level Instructor.
Today, Ambrose is the only instructor in the Wing Chun Do Gung Fu system allowed to train and certify new instructors. In 2003, Sijo DeMile named Rocco Ambrose as his Inheritor to Wing Chun Do. Ambrose will celebrate 22 years as a Wing Chun Do instructor and the anniversary of his school Ambrose Academy of Wing Chun Do in Livonia, Michigan.
The future and growth of Wing Chun Do is in capable hands and it's happening here in Michigan.
