Reviews of J K Wong Kungfu Tia Chi Academy in Richardson

I’ve been at this gym for a little over a year now and it's such a great place to learn Kung Fu and Tai Chi from Grand Master Jimmy Wong. I'm loving my elite tai chi class and I have friends in the Kung Fu who all really love their classes too. This is a first rate place, and very professional and respectful. Master Wong traveled for a couple of years before the pandemic but since the pandemic, he's hands on and I'm so incredibly grateful to have an instructor with so much knowledge and experience. The other teachers are amazing as well

This academy is led by a grandmaster of Chin Woo. As much as I'd like to call him a Grandmaster, he is not my grandmaster anymore - I realized my life is better spent elsewhere. Having been there for nearly twenty years and learning a great deal of forms and discipline from everyone else but from the Grandmaster. I can say I'm a pretty average student despite stopping at blue jacket with a blue belt - the level is intermediate. Objectively, depending how eager and determined you are to learning, the faster or further you go here.

The school has about two classes on most of its regular opening days - the Tai Chi class and the Kung Fu classes. These classes are taught and led by students turned into teachers who trained and honed their skills at the school for several years. From my personal experiences, the teachers to instructors do their absolute best regardless of the class size or not. All of the instructors have their strengths and weaknesses but they've got either a few years or a decade's worth of teaching experience.

The Tai Chi classes are spent practicing one of the movement forms with through and careful examination from the instructors. They have about three classes of different times for beginners, intermediate, and advanced students with usually a half hour or an hour of time spent. You're usually free to stay longer if need to be but you need to keep up the pace. Lastly, they usually have one instructor or two but I can guarantee that the quality is consistent and top notch.

The kung fu classes usually have the bulk or huge percentages of students where there are multiple instructors with the classes separated into kids and adults. When one of the kids are old enough, they can be promoted or/and brought into the adult class where teenagers and adults of various ages do class together. The classes for adults are more or less like the Tai Chi class with beginner, intermediate, and advanced with the same amount of time spent and all. You'll need to keep up the pace here usually since the class size is larger here than the Tai Chi classes - the quality of instructing here is rather open-ended but more positively.

But until the weekend or rather Saturday hits where a variety of things occur that change up a few things. Outside of Tai Chi and Kung Fu classes being put on the same day. There is class where students can train and learn how to do things such as lion dancing, coordinated musical teamwork, and the usual practice but with a performer-based atmosphere.

Other than that, there are sparring classes on Saturday as well if that is your thing. They have gear you can borrow and use if you do intend to jump right into the action of sparring with the others.

In terms of the people there. I can say for certain that they're genuinely good people - but they've got a few rusty spots that need polishing. But there are two people that made me realize a few things weren't as... good as they were supposed to be. One is the Grandmaster himself and the other is a pseudo-former student that affects the school in a negative way which I cannot elaborate for that specific student as I care for their well-being.

Let's just say we had our differences and that I still do not understand why the Grandmaster defends and keeps them around. The Grandmaster hasn't been a good mentor to his most loyal students during my time - as things might've changed after my departure from the school, much of this review is primarily restricted to the last quarter or within the seven years of my time. During and within classes that he teaches personally which during my time are very few, he does his best to explain everything in detail like a Grandmaster of his caliber usually does.

He's the opposite of what a Grandmaster is outside of that, he does not hold hands, is almost incapable of dealing with problems between students and teachers alike until it is too late