Our Lineage
Where Have We Come From?
The School of Self-Defence draws on elements from a range of styles, with four in particular. Below is a little more information about each of the key elements that have been brought together to form the curriculum for the Inspired Lives School of Self-Defence. There's a much wider world in each of the specific styles than we can cover in our curriculum, so if you find something has a particular interest of appeal to you, these links will help you explore a little further. Enjoy the journey...
WING CHUN KUNG FU
Wing Chun Kung Fu is the core foundation of the school. In particular our lineage is from the Qian Li Dao school, founded by Sifu Dana Wong and brought to New Zealand by Stu Dunn. Carl has trained with Stu and Sifu Dana since 2011 and travels to Melbourne nearly every year to join Sifu's famous training camps.
Although Wing Chun spread to the West from Hong Kong, Sifu Dana's lineage is from Foshan China, having been taught by the last of Ip Man's first generation students in China (Master Kwok Fu), before Ip Man fled to Hong Kong. There are some notable differences in the Foshan style as a result that are particularly well suited to practical self defence, including an adapted stance and a number of more aggressive disabling techniques. Sifu Dana has continued to evolve the style further into a contemporary form of modified Wing Chun from his base in Melbourne.
It's a privilege to have such a direct link to the Foshan origins, something that we aim to preserve with careful integrity in our applications of these techniques.
Together with Sifu Stu Dunn, Carl is one of only two people in NZ who are fully qualified practitioners under Sifu Dana's Qian Li Dao syllabus.
You can learn more about Sifu Dana Wong and Qian Li Dao Wing Chun here.
The NZ Qian Li Dao movement can be found here.
brazilian jiu jitsu
Brazilian Jiu Jitsu is a highly effective system for close quarters ground contact. We run an adults and teens BJJ class. Carl began his training at the Combat Room under Professor Vanderson Perez and Brian Morris in 2015, and is now privileged to be training at Valley BJJ under BJJ Black Belt, Norm Hemi.
While famous as a one-to-one ground-fighting sport, BJJ has a number of self-defence applications that are essential in today's world. Carl began his BJJ journey after 20 years of training in striking arts, finding he had no effective options for what to do when taken to the ground. Carl holds a 3rd-Stripe Blue Belt in BJJ and is working towards purple.
His BJJ journey has not only begun to address that but also opened up a much more effective world of control and restraint techniques - the ability to bring conflict to an end without unnecessarily damaging your opponent.
This has huge implications for students of martial arts who aim to shift from 'learning to fight' to "learning not to need to fight."
That's absolutely what we're about here.
Our classes are particularly suited for beginners and those wanting to build their core techniques.
VSCK Eskrima
We're super proud to be able to host Visayan Style Corto Kadena Largo Mano Eskrima (VSCK for short) here in New Zealand. VSCK was created by Maestro Sonny Umpad (read more about his amazing history and lineage here).
We train under the supervision of Guro Mario Fernandez Quiroz, who trained directly under Maestro Sonny for many years. It's a style that has been tested and proven in real life situations. We also greatly supported by Sifu Dana Wong who is the Australian representative for Guro's Missing Link VSCK Eskrima and Guro Mario has appointed Carl as the NZ representative for the style.
Alongside the variety of weapons and strikes common to most forms of eskrima, Maestro Sonny introduced a series of footwork concepts that are entirely unique to VSCK - the pendulum system.
While Carl has previously trained in Balintawak (Grandmaster Bobby Taboada's ferocius single stick style) and Modern Arnis (founded by the amazing Grandmaster Remy Presas), VSCK has added the footwork and timing that really was the 'missing link' in Carl's ability to incorporate this art into truly effective street-style self-defence.
The emphasis on quick, fluid hand movements complements the Wing Chun system perfectly. We train the short and long range sticks, as well as blades and empty hand concepts. In Carl's view eskrima offers the most realistic and practical weapons system.
ZENNIN/ZEN DO KAI KARATE
The modern karate and kick-boxing techniques we incorporate are drawn from the Zennin (previously Zen Do Kai) Freestyle Karate movement, originally founded by Bob Jones in Australia. Carl has trained with the Four Dragon's club in Upper Hutt since the early 2000's, under Shihan Kane Freemantle, Shihan Billy Elery, Shihan Greg Nesbit, Sensei Quiz and kick-boxing instructor Shane Johnson.
The style places a strong emphasis on aggressive close quarters contact, incorporating knee and elbow strikes with the powerful smashing kicks of the Muay Thai tradition. Highly effective and the ability to turn your limbs into soft-ball bats provides a great compliment to the rapid short strikes of the Wing Chun system.
You can learn more about the Zennin/Zen Do Kai style over at the Four Dragons school here.
Carl holds a 2nd Dan Black Belt and continues to train with the Four Dragons school regularly, with each of his kids having achieved their first degree black belt.
TAE KWON DO (ITF)
In 1996 Carl was invited to tag along with a uni buddy to his first ever martial arts class. It happened to be one of the weekly classes at Hamilton's Incorporated Martial Arts club (now run by the amazing Samuel Donaldson) and introduced Carl to martial arts in general and a decade long TKD journey.
Although Carl doesn't formally train in TKD anymore, it's left an indelible mark on his approach with a ongoing flair for spinning back-kicks, tornado kicks, reverse leg sweeps and jumping front and side kicks.
His interest in close combat self-defence ultimately led him in a different direction after gaining his 1st Dan Black Belt, but TKD was a great start to what became a life-long journey in martial arts.
We'll introduce a couple of those elements from time to time in our pad drills and free-sparring...just for the fun of it.
Martial arts is ultimately a journey of discovery - sometime's expected and sometime's unexpected.
Your biggest challenge, the toughest opponent to defeat, is always yourself.
Know and overcome that enemy and you are on the path to freedom.
If we can assist you on this quest, it would be our pleasure to do so.
- Carl Billington, June 2020