Who we are

History

Ba Feng Quan (八風拳 Eight Winds) is a forward-looking and pragmatic kung fu school owing its teachings principally to those of the Southern Shaolin tradition. Sifu Faraz trained under Sifu Leppard, head of the Eight Winds Kung Fu school in London UK, for over 15 years before he moved to Bermuda in 2022. He has now established a new school in Smiths Parish.

Teaching philosophy

After many years of training under Sifu Leppard, Sifu Faraz gained a deep understanding of traditional Shaolin art through his contemporary teaching methods. Our training involves rigorous physical training but also includes other fundamental elements of training, such as centredness and mindfulness through the practice of Qi Gong.

Philosophy of Practice

We do not wish to indoctrinate our students with any particular set of beliefs, and our instructors do not subscribe to identical views, but it is helpful to examine the origins of Shaolin kungfu to put the art in its proper context. We tend not to articulate our philosophical foundations in words; this is not because we are being evasive, but because Shaolin kung fu was developed in the Ch'an (Zen, as it's known in Japanese) Buddhist temples of China and there is something to be gained from adopting the traditional experiential methods of learning kung fu, and we don't believe it is right to enforce a world view on anyone.

These methods may be viewed as anti-intellectual by those familiar with mainstream Western philosophical traditions, emphasising as it does direct experience and transmission of knowledge at the expense of lengthy debate and an attempt to objectify knowledge.

We believe that progress in any endeavour in life is best achieved through hard work ("kung fu" is sometimes translated as "man's effort"), dedication and reflection. The harder the work, the more profound the reflection, the deeper the insight.

Among the cultural elements we adopt from our classical origins are the supremacy of direct experience as a substitute for "book learning", a desire to suppress one's ego, the respect for all life, the value of physical effort, and the desire to achieve harmony with other people and one's environment.

One can practice Ba Feng Quan purely as an absorbing physical activity with great benefits, and a large proportion of our students do just that. For those seeking deeper insight there is much food for thought in our techniques, and our teaching methods, that serve to act as a direct illustration of these underlying principles.