Wrights KUNG FU & Fitness

**papieboni** · Posted On: 8/27/2009 5:55pm

Very large open space, very clean and bright, friendly staff, instructor is very professional and straight to the point, just as a martial arts instructor should be, friendly but not too friendly,however you know where you stand with him always. Students are friendly, always introduce themselves and shake your hand and welcomes you to the academy. Everything is organized and structured. Its just a safe place to train. I LOVE IT!

**Chili Pepper** · Posted On: 8/28/2009 8:33am

Wow, those are some way overblown rankings. A 9 for striking and an 8 for weapons? That kwoon had better be producing some fighters with verifiable records to achieve that sort of rank.

**default** · Posted On: 9/01/2009 12:12pm

Maybe the OP should read the guidelines for rating?

**Pork Chop** · Posted On: 9/29/2009 1:19pm

Derrick Wright's kind of a friend of mine - talked on email quite a bit, never met in person.

He trained with my first kung fu instructor, in Okinawa, before I ever got there, back when my first kung fu instructor was still fighting full contact. That makes him kinda my sempai/sihing/older classmate whatever you wanna call it.

Funny thing is that he joined up with the same organization (US Kung Fu Exchange Federation) as the second kung fu school i trained with as well. That organization is headed by Raymond Fogg, who fought bareknuckle back in the day and is classmates with Albright, aka user BedStySifu from youtube who's posted a bunch of his old bareknuckle matches. The USKFEF has a lot of in-house quality control mechanisms. As far as kung fu schools go, they know their stuff and pretty well respected. Some of the other USKFEF schools have a bit of a reputation for coming off "cliquish"; but I'm not sure that's the case here. When I was there they were 90% forms, 10% medium contact continuous sparring, but I've heard they've changed things up a bit in the last 10 years.

Those rating numbers are only vaguely accurate if you're only comparing with other strip mall joints.
In the grand scheme of things, the numbers are probably more realistically:
Aliveness: 6 (more alive than a lot of kung fu, but it's kung fu)
Equipment: 6 (probably not giving Xtreme Couture a run for their money)
Gym Size: 8 (probably perfect for the number of students they have)
Instructor/Student ratio: 9 (not a sea of faces)
Atmosphere/Attitude: 8 (kind of subjective)
Striking Instruction: 6 (okay for kung fu, if sanshou is taught, program's not big)
Grappling Instruction: 3 (last I heard some rudimentary ground positioning & takedowns taught)
Weapons Instruction: 7 (they teach 'em, might spar with 'em, but don't fight with 'em)