INSTRUCTORS Wu Dae Wing Chun

Already at an early age, I came into contact with a variety of martial arts. I started at the local Judo club. During my time at secondary school, I found my physical challenge particularly in Thai Boxing, Jiu Jitsu, Judo, and Karate. In the last phase of secondary school, I also began to practise Wing Chun Kung Fu. After secondary school, I studied Fiscal Economics for two years at the University of Amsterdam.

After my studies, I wanted to teach Wing Chun in a professional manner: a martial art where the combination of the mental and the physical plane remains intact. I have been teaching Wing Chun with great pleasure since 1998. “WuDae”, which was founded in 2002, stands for ‘the ethics of the warrior’. The focus at WuDae is that we strive to maintain the philosophy of having the balance between physical and mental effort. At WuDae, I work together with a few excellent and capable colleague instructors. I enjoy transferring my enthusiasm for Wing Chun. It has brought me so much, and I wish that for everyone.

Born in The Hague, I discovered at an early age that sport certainly was for me. Very soon, football fulfilled my boyhood dream, but I also became interested in martial arts. At 14, I started Taekwondo and later Freefight, alongside football. When I was 17, after "The Haque Youth", I ended up in the Feyenoord Youth club, and no longer had the time to think about martial arts. I started a degree in Graphic Design in Rotterdam and was forced to end my football career a couple of years later, due to personal circumstances. When Wing Chun crossed my path, I fell in love instantly and I have been involved with martial arts ever since. I have my own company, a graphic design bureau, which keeps me busy four days a week, so that I have plenty of time for my daughter, Mila, my son, Javi, and my passion, Wing Chun!

I have been preoccupied with martial arts, such as Taekwondo, Kick Boxing and Kendo, since my youth, but after having discovered Wing Chun Kung Fu, I knew I had found the martial art which really suited me. In 2006 I started teaching it. I studied ICT and Information Science, and after my degree I was outsourced as software engineer in various companies. At the moment, I work as an ICT analyst and develop (web-based) applications at home. In the past, I also studied at the Royal Conservatory in The Hague, majoring in guitar for jazz and classical music. So besides sport and ICT, I go to as many jam sessions as possible.

Sports has always appealed to me from a young age. It is an outlet, you develop physically and it gives energy. During my childhood I played tennis with my brother for a few years. Because my brother practiced self-defence, I also decided to start a fighting style in the last period of high school. My choice fell on Wing Chun at WuDae. A practical self-defence that appealed to me especially after experiencing the great training environment. During and after my study Commercial Economics, Wing Chun brought me a lot such as discipline and body awareness. In addition to WuDae I have my own dance school, Mistura Movement, where I am busy with my other passion at home and abroad.

Martial arts, films and the combination of both were recurring themes in my youth. I was able to develop my fascination for film with a study of Film and New Media Sciences at the University of Utrecht, but martial arts remained a neglected interest for years. I found work as an editor at a legal publisher. This created the need not to neglect the body in addition to working at a desk. Running seemed to work well for a while (and it still does), but still somewhere in my head there was the boy’s dream to master a fighting style.

I was interested in Wing Chun from an early age, even though I didn’t know exactly what it was. I could only infer from the experiences of others and of course films that Wing Chun seemed to be something special. I was just lucky that one day I chose to take a trial class with WuDae. It immediately felt like a good match. I have been training here for almost a decade and have also been teaching for a number of years. Wing Chun is always challenging for body and soul and at WuDae I experience that in a nice school with friendly people.

I was born in Leidschendam where I started playing football at the age of 5, until I started running at the age of 14 where I ran as a youth at the Dutch top. After many injuries and lack of motivation, I started looking for something else and I came into contact with Thai boxing. After I had done that for a number of years, I wanted something in which body and mind are more interconnected and so I ended up at Wing Chun at WuDae. During my first trial class at WuDae in 2011 I knew right away this is my new house, here I have to be.