Instructor

Frank Häberlin, born in Biel, Switzerland, September 1968. Education in various private boarding schools. Degree in economics, followed by employment at a Swiss bank.

At age 19 came the turning point, when he started to have some serious questions about life in general like most young people at that age. Unsatisfied by the answers society was offering, he was looking further and came across 'Zen', the concepts of which deeply impressed him.

At age 20, he packed his bags and left Switzerland and went to Japan to practice with the masters. He entered a temple and underwent rigorous Zen training for the next two years under the guidance of a prewar Zen Roshi who was already in his 80's at that time. After staying at the Zen temple, Frank thought it valuable to approach the essential core teachings from another angle and since Zen and the Bugei (martial arts) are traditionally closely linked together, he decided to take up Kyudo (the Way of the Bow). After having been introduced very formally to a teacher of the most widely practised Kyudo style, he was accepted and received instruction in Kyudo. However, almost from the start he had doubts about the approach because of all the excessive etiquette, ceremony and small number of arrows one was allowed to shoot per day. Of course, there is nothing really wrong with etiquette and ceremony, just that it should be in a healthy proportion to the training of becoming proficient in the art of the actual shooting itself.

Then one day, he had the fortune to meet the last headmaster of one of the oldest Kyujutsu lineages still existant at that time. This Sensei was also over eighty years old and Frank was allowed to undertake traditional Kyudo training under his tutelage. For the next year he trained every day for several hours. It was a very rewarding experience for him to meet such an extraordinary individual. However, due to the expiry of his visa, Frank saw himself forced to leave Japan.

When Frank was still a teenager back in Switzerland he trained Judo, Jujutsu and Shotokan Karate and very shortly Wing Chun Kuen which impressed him greatly because of its efficiency. Leaving Japan, Frank travelled to Hong Kong in search of a Wing Chun teacher. And so he happened to meet some of the most well-known students of legendary Yip Man, including his two sons. Again, by the chance of good fortune, Frank met accidentally his future Wing Chun instructor there and after having witnessed his superior skills while visiting together some of the established Wing Chun schools in Hong Kong, Frank asked him whether he would be willing to accept him as his private student. He was invited to follow him back to his country of residence and so ended up in Ontario, Canada on a freezing cold winter day.

There he lived and trained in the house of his Wing Chun instructor for the next for 4 1/2 years. Training was every day, seven days a week, 365 days a year, several hours per day. Due to the severe practice, his instructor had but a handful of students and was very traditional in his approach which was why most newcomers dropped out very quickly. However, due to his stubborness, Frank stuck it out and eventually completed the whole Wing Chun Kuen curriculum.

Having completed the system of Wing Chun Kuen, he went to India to subject himself to intensive training of what he had learnt over the last couple of years. Frank lived a very simple life at the foothills of the Himalayas for the next year and trained without a day off. Towards the end of that year in India, his instructor contacted him and suggested that he should come back to Canada for further study and practice in Wing Chun Kuen. Frank followed his instructor's advice and went back to Canada for almost one more year to deepen his understanding and practice of the system.

Some unfortunate events forced him to leave his Wing Chun instructor and Frank experienced a difficult time as what to do next. So, he decided to go back to Japan and practice Kyudo while continuing his Wing Chun Kuen practice. The next 3 years he spent with the study and practice of the art of the bow under the guidance of his former Sensei's top-student since his first Kyudo Sensei regrettably had passed away already a couple of years before. Frank's second Kyudo teacher was and still is holding the position of Professor of Kyudo at one of the major sport universities in Japan.

Frank gradually intensified his training regimen and soon was shooting an average of over 300 arrows a day in the first and second year to instill the very complex shooting technique of which the particular school is known for into his body.

Quite many Western visitors came to the Dojo, so one day there was one Slovene physicist who showed interest in Kyudo and they started discussing martial arts in general. To make a long story short, the Slovene person asked Frank to train him in Wing Chun Kuen and so they started to practice together. There were also some Japanese students Frank was instructing in the Wing Chun system at that time. Frank's student, the Slovene physicist, was in Japan for research and had to go back to his home country after three years and asked Frank to come to Slovenia to teach Wing Chun Kuen there.

Frank realized that his priority after all was Wing Chun Kuen and left Japan after 3 years and moved back to Europe. He started to teach and build up a Wing Chun Kuen group in Ljubljana, Slovenia, where he stayed for the next 6 1/2 years. During this time, he was away for a bit over a year which time he spent in China to train privately - also as a live-in student - with the present Chen Family Taijiquan headmaster and his eldest son. Afterwards went back once again to Canada to have his Wing Chun Kuen checked and to be able to train with his instructor.

During his stay in Slovenia, Frank trained a small number of people to improve his teaching methods and this gave him at the same time the opportunity to internalize the system more.