H. WON TAI CHI INSTITUTE

 

I have decided to remove the article, “Demise Of A Legend”, from H. Won Tai Chi Institute website, out of my own volition.  I feel that the article has been up long enough and has served its purpose, for better or worse.

Moreover, I have to confess that by writing this particular article, I have done a terrible thing: I have shown disrespect and greatly dishonored Ip Tai Tak SIBAK.  I ask him for his forgiveness.  I wrote this article with the intention of attacking a certain individual, Robert Boyd, and was in no way meant to criticize ITT SIBAK and his skill, or bring him any posthumous harm, though it certainly appears to be quite the contrary.  When I wrote it, I was terribly offended and angered by Boyd and his Youtube videos, and the only way that I saw fit to deliver my message was to use my elder’s reputation to point out the flaws of Boyd and his claims.  Thus, I’m guilty of violating the code of ‘Honor Thy Elders’ and truly remorseful.  Furthermore, in the course of my action if I have offended anyone other than Boyd and his camp, I sincerely offer my humble apologies.   

After giving some serious thoughts on the matters of Boyd and his outrageous and unacceptable pomp on the promotions and marketing of his newly found system, I wrote the article, not without a certain misgivings, with an intention of debunking his claims.  My reasons for writing the aforementioned article were as follow:  First, all of Boyd’s writings and video productions clearly undermine the very system of Classical Yang Family Tai Chi Chuan, that many of us have trained and represented for many years, for the benefit of promoting his own questionable system, ‘the snake style’.  According to Boyd, all of us have allegedly learned a water-downed, public version, thus not training or teaching the true Tai Chi Chuan.  Secondly, Boyd has negatively spoken of my teacher in his book.  Thirdly, Boyd has negatively spoken of his former tai chi teacher’s personality and other matters, thus character-assassinating him in public, in which my student was present, during one of Boyd’s workshops. Lastly, Boyd has openly shown his disrespect to me by trying to recruit my student, knowing fully well who the latter was, to be Boyd’s NYC representative, while at the workshop. 

As I have said at the end of the article, I have shown my own ugliness, thus questioning my own values and moral character, by writing the aforementioned article, saying things about ITT SIBAK that would have been better off kept unknown to the public.  I’m not, in any way, proud of what I did.  In fact, it was a terrible thing.  I truly wish that there were other options, back then, to discredit Boyd and his system, but at that time, I had perceived no other options.  Thus, in my haste, I commenced.  

Thoughts On Robert Boyd’s Snake Style