About the school
The oldest Wing Chun school in San Antonio
Dragon Martial Arts opened in 1983 and has taught the same art in the same city ever since. This is where that line comes from.
Since 1983
A school, not a franchise
Sifu Gilbert Leal opened Dragon Martial Arts in 1983 — the first Wing Tsun school in San Antonio. In the school’s own words, it has been providing top quality Wing Chun Kung Fu instruction to the San Antonio Metro area ever since, to children and adults, in a relaxed and friendly family atmosphere.
The school’s own line for it: “Wing Chun Kung Fu is the world’s most popular style of Southern Chinese Kung Fu and the original art of Bruce Lee and his instructor, the legendary Grandmaster Ip Man.” It is the only art taught here. Forty-three years on one system is the whole proposition.
One Google reviewer, having gone looking for Wing Chun in San Antonio, wrote: “The Sifu here is the real deal, and he is the original wing chun master here in SA, the other school descended from him.”
Where the instruction comes from
Five grandmasters
Sifu Leal considers himself extremely fortunate to have been accepted as a student by five extraordinary martial arts grandmasters. This is the line behind what is taught on the floor at San Pedro Avenue.
Grandmaster Leung TingWing Tsun Kung Fu
Pendekar Herman SuwandaMande Muda Pentjak Silat
Grandmaster Madame Wang Ju RongWushu, Yang & Sun style Tai Chi Chuan
Grandmaster Carson LauWing Tsun Kung Fu
Sifu Leal feels honored to have been taught by such respected instructors in these arts, and wishes to honor his teachers by passing on the knowledge that they so graciously shared with him.
Year by year
Sifu Gilbert Leal
Training since 1970.
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1970
Starts training
Begins in Tae Kwon Do, then goes on to study Wing Tsun, Shaolin Kung Fu, Wushu, Tai Chi Chuan, Pentjak Silat, Filipino Kali/Escrima, Muay Thai and Brazilian Jiu Jitsu.
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1982
Meets Grandmaster Leung Ting
Becomes one of Grandmaster Leung Ting’s first American students. Leung Ting was the last student of the legendary Wing Chun Grandmaster Ip Man. Leal is the sixth American to be granted the rank of Primary Level Technician.
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1983
Opens Dragon Martial Arts
The first Wing Tsun school in San Antonio. He has taught in the city continuously ever since.
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1985
Awarded the title Sifu
Grandmaster Leung awards him his Second Level Technician certificate and the title of Sifu — Chinese for teacher.
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1984 – 1990
Texas representative, IWTA
Serves as the Texas representative of the American branch of the International Wing Tsun Martial Art Association.
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1988
Third Level Technician
Promoted by Grandmaster Leung. At that point in the development of Wing Tsun in America, only three other Americans held the rank.
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1993 – 2000
Mande Muda Pentjak Silat
One of Pendekar Herman Suwanda’s top Texas students, he trains for eight years in the Indonesian art of Mande Muda Pentjak Silat and is awarded the title of Certified Instructor in 1998. He continues until Suwanda’s death in March 2000.
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1995 – 2005
Grandmaster Madame Wang Ju Rong
Accepted as a student by one of the most highly respected Chinese martial artists in the world — daughter of Grandmaster Wang Zi Ping, and twice Inside Kung Fu magazine’s Woman of the Year. He learns Shaolin Kung Fu, Yang- and Sun-style Tai Chi Chuan, traditional weapons and Wushu, and stays her student until her death.
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2006
Wushu with Master Wu Xiao Ping
Continues his Wushu training with Madame Wang’s youngest daughter. Her father, Dr. Wu Cheng De, had already taught Leal Northern Shaolin Zha Quan and Chi Kung.
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2012 – 2015
Grandmaster Carson Lau
Accepted as a student in March 2012. In June 2015 Grandmaster Lau awards him the rank of 5th Level Master Instructor in Wing Tsun Kung Fu.
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2018
Teaching independently
Resigns from Grandmaster Lau’s association and teaches as an independent instructor.
The art itself
Beautiful Springtime
Wing Chun is a system of southern Chinese Kung Fu which specializes in close range combat. It was created nearly 200 years ago by a Buddhist nun from the legendary Shaolin Temple. The nun later taught her system to a young girl named Yim Wing Chun. The name Wing Tsun translates as ‘Beautiful Springtime.’
Anyone can train it
In the school’s own words: “Created by a woman, it can be practiced by anyone, regardless of gender, size or strength.” That is not a marketing line about Wing Chun, it is the structural argument for it — the system is built on position and timing rather than on being the bigger person in the room.
Real-world self-defense
The school’s own heading for it, and the reason most people walk in the door: “Wing Chun Kung Fu offers ‘real world’ self-defense.” A system of southern Chinese Kung Fu that specializes in close range combat — economy of motion, simultaneous attack and defense, and a vertical fist.
Bruce Lee & Jeet Kune Do
Where Jeet Kune Do came from
Bruce Lee’s original martial art was Wing Chun Kung Fu. He learned it in Hong Kong from Grandmaster Ip Man in the late 1950s.
After about five years of Wing Chun, Lee’s parents sent him to Seattle to attend school. Once in the United States he began teaching a modified form of Wing Chun which he called Jun Fan Gung Fu.
Years later, after moving to California, he modified his original Wing Chun further by adding ideas from fencing, boxing and Northern Kung Fu style kicking, and called the result Jeet Kune Do — the way of the intercepting fist.
The school makes the argument plainly: Jeet Kune Do’s economy of motion, its simultaneous attack and defense, the vertical fist, the trapping hands, chi sau and the wooden dummy all trace straight back to the Wing Chun that Lee learned from Ip Man.
See the classes