Email Sifu Benno - sifubenno@hotmail.com
Sifu Benno is a Founding Member of the Alliance and Jing Wu Yong Chun Quan (Freely translated it means: The Fighting Spirit of Yong Chun Quan). Yong Chun’s origin came from Wing Tsun Concepts taught at the UCT schools in Holland. Throughout the years Si-Fu Benno and his of close team of Instructors realised that the Wing Tsun they were teaching was more and more changing into a personal interpretation of the Art. And although the concepts haven’t changed, the way of training had changed considerably. Benno and his team had a wide variety of Martial Arts influence during the last few years, and through their respected teachers they decided to give birth to a new Yong Chun (Wing Tsun) family.
The name says it all; UCT International train with this old spirit in mind, in the basic levels it is not that apparent, but when the student reaches the advanced stage, he or she finds a considerable difference in training. As has been custom in China for many centuries, UCT have decided on their own family style of combat so to speak. They are not claiming to be an authentic WT, VT, WC style, but they strive to be an open Martial Arts (WT, WC, VT) family where sharing knowledge is considered to be gaining knowledge - which is why the Alliance was formed for ‘Friendship and Knowledge”
This open-mindedness and forward thinking brought Master Steve Tappin and Sifu Benno together a few years ago and Steve and Benno have now given EC a great home in Holland with Peter de Vries in support. UCT International is the official Representative for Escrima Concepts in the Benelux. Chief-Instructor for UCT Escrima Concepts in the Benelux is Sifu BL Westra. The training in UCT Escrima Concepts is under the guidance of Head-Instructor Peter de Vries. Both Sifu BL Westra and Instructor Peter de Vries are private students of Master Steve Tappin, the International Chief Instructor for Escrima Concepts.
At the UCT centre in Amsterdam there are two classes a week. In Zaandam Head Instructor Peter de Vries teaches Escrima Concepts twice a week as well. On the UCT school in Drachten there is a class on every Thursday. Seminars with Master Steve in Holland are two or three times a year with training at Summer Camps too. Sifu Benno also travels to the UK to train in EC and teach WT to Steve’s UK members when time permits.
The Martial road Master Benno walked has been a long and so far an enjoyable one. It all started when he was 15 years old. Being teased by his father for never coming home with nice trophies like his brother (who was a great talent on the Judo Tatami those days and was winning big Tournaments on a regular basis) he decided to start with a Martial Art himself. He decided to join a local Tae Kwon-do School where some of his best friends trained as well. After having trained a couple of years he got started with entering Tournaments. Although he did well, he always came home without a prize; he didn’t seem to get to that first place. After his father died when Benno was 20 years old he won in the following years every Tournament he entered. During these years he opened, with a friend, a Publicity Agency and divided his time between designing and training. At this time he also started ‘cross-training’ training in Kyokushin Karate with a friend (still a valued friend to this day) and Judo.
When he was 25 years old he went to New York to teach sports in a Summer Camp for kids for a period of two months. During this period he also gave clinics in Tournament Fighting in New York State. Because of a close friend of his family he was introduced into the world of modelling. He decided to take a break from the Publicity Agency and give this new career move a chance. After modelling for a year he decided to go for it a hundred percent. This was an ideal way of travelling and training Martial Arts in different countries. During these modelling years he was able to train in different Martial Arts where two jumped out specifically: Muay Thai and Aikido.
Because he was working as a model in Tokyo (Japan) for a while he had the honour of being accepted in the Aikikai Dojo of Aihara Sensei. Although the training was not what he (being young and only interested in fighting;-)) expected, Aihara Sensei made a great impression on him. When asked how much he owed him (the last day they saw each other) the translator told him that he did not owe him anything, when you first entered his school he had sensed an 'Old Samurai Spirit' coming home. He only wishes for you to be true to your warriors’ heart and devote the rest of your life to Martial Arts, in time he said you will find the way to Aiki. Although Benno was moved by this statement he went back to his modelling life not giving much thought to what Aihara Sensei had said.
Constantly on the search for new mountains to conquer he ran into a guy at his gym who said that he practiced a style of Kung-Fu which was clearly superior to any other Martial Arts - this made him laugh, throughout the years he had heard these words being said, but had never been convinced by actions. He decided to have a look at a seminar at a local WT school in Amsterdam. Although he was very impressed by two Instructors he was not impressed with rest of the group. Nevertheless he decided to give WT a chance and started training at the local school. Due to personal circumstances and a change in behaviour in his Instructor (due to Benno training privately with another student for extra training) Benno thought it better to leave.
Later he trained at another WT school where he met his good friend Gordon Cheung. Together with a few other guys they would generate money together to assemble the complete Leung Ting WT system. After having seen the movie ‘The Last Samurai’ Benno suddenly remembered the words Aihara Sensei had spoken. From that moment he drastically changed his lifestyle by starting to live like a Buddhist and decided to open his own school and be an inspiration for the loyal students around him.
The last three years have been a rollercoaster ride for Benno. He has had the opportunity to train Brazilian Jiu Jitsu privately under Cadu Francis and expanded his Wing Tsun Concepts skills by visiting other Masters in this field.
A big contribution the last three years has been Master Steve in which he found a great friend and Instructor. Escrima Concepts proved to be a true asset in becoming a more versatile Martial Artist!
Benno continues to work hard to help others and leads from the front.
Tournament Awards:
First place '86, '87, '88 N.N. Championship Tae Kwon-do
First place '88 Dutch Champ. Tae Kwon-do / '88 Open Dutch Champ. Tae Kwon-do
First place '87 Open European Champ. TKD / '87 Open German Champ. TKD
First place '88 Open Dutch PKA-WAKO
First place '94 Open Frisian Kyokushin
First place '95 European Champ. WKA
