18th Annual Great Lakes Kung Fu results and 2010 Spring Newsletter can be downloaded here.

Shuai-chiao Results at the 2010 San Diego ICMAC
On January 24th, 2010 The International Chinese Martial Arts Championship hosted a Southern California Regional Shuai-chiao competition.  Teams from Ohio, Cupertino, Los Angles, and San Diego were all in attendance.  Competitors were composed of 3 teen divisions as well as men and women from a wide range of ages and weight categories. 
The competitors showed great competitive spirit and martial arts discipline through the day.  As usual, there were minimal injuries (mostly soreness!) and competitors showed great class and control by protecting their opponent throughout the execution shuai-chiao throws. 
On the mat, competitors were oppositional.  Off the mat, competitors were supportive and provided advice for those on deck to compete.  As aggressive as the competitive sport of Shuai-chiao is, this event proved to be one of the most humble environments at the ICMAC.  Everyone shared their love for the art and behaved in a manner that shows the preservation and advancement of Shuai-chiao was more important than any individual competitor.

The results are as follows:

Teens light weight
1st place: Corey Wong, Cupertino
2nd place: Henry Cheung, Los Angeles
3rd Place: Kevin Liang, Los Angeles

Teens Middle weight
1st place: Kevin Saina, Los Angeles
2nd place: Trevor Wong, Cupertino
3rd Place: James Ma, Los Angeles

Teens Heavy weight
1st place: Howard Cheung, Los Angeles
2nd place: Keefe Nghe, Los Angeles
3rd Place: James Liang, Los Angeles

Women
1st place: Diana Lin, Cupertino
2nd place: Shannon Harkin, Cleveland
3rd Place: Mariam Miller, Cupertino

Men’s Light weight
1st place: James VanDoren, Cleveland
2nd place: Alan Lee, San Diego
3rd Place: Kevin Saina, Los Angeles

Men’s Middle weight
1st place: Brandon Dahl, Cupertino
2nd place: Mike Wong, Los Angeles
3rd Place: Keefe Nghe, Los Angeles

 Men’s Middle-Heavy weight
1st place: Sudan Jeffers, Los Angeles
2nd place: Aaron Wong, Cupertino
3rd Place: James Herceg, Cleveland

Men’s Heavy weight
1st place: Emeric Chen, Cupertino
2nd place: Philip Chen, Los Angeles
3rd Place: Mike Dasargo, San Diego

Next tournament will be our National Championship in Cleveland, OH.  You can download the application and information at http://shaolininstitute.com/institute/Tournament.shtml.  Or contact Tournament Director, John Ervin at jervinsifu@att.net or 216-587-3478 or President of USSA, Jan-Yu Weng at jyweng@aol.com.  National champions, 2nd,3rd place finishers qualify for Team USA.

Dear Shuai-chiao community,

First of all Happy Holidays to all of you.

In case you have not heard, I wanted to announce an upcoming West Coast Regional in conjunction with ICMAC worldwide circuit. Though it will be predominantly a West Coast attendance, I highly encourage anyone itching to get some tournament experience and fun to join. We just had an excellent event in the summer in Las Vegas and are very optimistic for this one coming up to be just as successful.

As usual with our Shuai-chiao tournaments, you can count on good attendance for the Shuai-chiao event. We have confirmed at least USSA branches from Cupertino, California, 2 sites of Los Angeles, San Diego, 2 groups in Cleveland with nearly 20 people alone. Additionally, our Washington, and Las Vegas teams are finalizing their plans.

San Diego is a great time to go in January and reasonable prices by air (southwest airlines usually has sales). A few have already booked their airfares from San Jose, CA and Cleveland, OH, and I recommend anyone who plans on flying to keep their eye out for deals, in fact Southwest is having a sale right now where a Round trip from Cleveland to SAN is $300 RT.

Though the tournament starts Saturday, the Shuai-chiao portion is on Sunday. So if you plan to just go for the tournament, please try to arrive to San Diego no later than Saturday afternoon or don't leave until Sunday after 6pm.

The website is below, it contains the special deal for the hotel in San Diego.

http://www.kungfuchampionship.com/sandiego/index.htm

Please email me if you are interested or have any questions. I would like to get some headcount to make sure we can do some early matching of weight classes. This helps ensure a more smooth tournament.

Finally, I want to wish everyone a wonderful, safe, and restful Holidays.

Jan-Yu Weng

West Coast Shuai-chiao Tournament in Las Vegas August 8th, 2009

Despite our cancellation of the national tournament this year, we promised to ensure that we would have local tournaments available for our members and friends that would offer the same quality and sportsmanship of Shuai-chiao in the U.S.  Our Midwest branches are currently setting up something in the Fall (potentially in Columbus, OH), while in the West coast, we have partnered with ICMAC to run the Shuai-chiao event in Las Vegas, NV!  This event is open to all styles and schools that are interested in competing in International Shuai-chiao rules. 

Besides our local friends in Las Vegas, we plan also to have competitors join us from New Mexico, Los Angeles, San Diego, Washington, and the headquarter branch, Cupertino Kung-fu Club.  Additionally, many of our affiliates and branches in other parts of the U.S. are planning on sending several students for this event.  Also with Dr. Weng and his sons in Las Vegas, we are also planning on setting up some seminars.

For more information or to sign up for this tournament, go to the website below:
http://www.kungfuchampionship.com/vegas/index.htm
or contact Jan-Yu Weng at Jyweng@aol.com

So join us the weekend of August 8th, bring your family and enjoy Las Vegas!

Look forward to seeing you all there

USSA Branch holders, Affiliates Contact List updated

Please go to the USSA Contact link to check out our latest official list of schools that are recognized by the USSA. We’ve updated all the information with new websites, email addresses and contacts.

Also, recently President of the USSA, Jan-Yu Weng visited some new schools in the West coast to welcome them to the USSA group of Shuai-chiao teaching schools in the United States.

Tell all who are interested!

USSA Nationals cancelled for 2009 due to Global Economic Conditions

April 5th, 2009

Every year the USSA has consistently produced the largest and highest quality national championship in the U.S. Shuai-chiao competitors have come to expect a large tournament comprising of fighters (men, women, and children) from many different schools within the U.S., (even friends from Canada!) and enjoyed the sportsmanship and professional judging of the Great Lakes Championship. This along with a spectacular San-shou finale and clinics by renowned Shuai-chiao masters like Dr. Chi-hsiu Weng and David Chang has made it stable among martial arts enthusiast every year.

Unfortunately the global economic crisis has also impacted the Shuai-chiao world. Despite many inquiries and interests to join the tournaments this year, Tournament Promoter, Sifu John Ervin and President of USSA, Jan-Yu Weng struggled to the conclusion that these uncertain times pose risks that a tournament this year may not meet the standard of the Great Lakes Championship or the United States Shuai-chiao Association.

So it is with great regret that we decided to cancel this year’s tournament. This does not mean the USSA will not be hosting tournaments this year. Stay tuned for some local tournaments throughout the year that keep those of you who are itching to get on the mat satisfied!

Ch’ang Style Weekend San Jose Results

As usual, the summer tournament weekend in San Jose, California was filled with a fine combination of tournament, seminars, and friends getting together to enjoy the art of Shuai-chiao.

Attendees from Columbus/Cleveland, Ohio, Northern/Southern California, New Mexico, and new friends from Las Vegas filled out a very exciting tournament featuring veteran Team USA stars from the recent China Tournament combined with new up and comers that promise us many great practitioners for the future of United States.

The Tournament was followed by several seminars on Sunday by Dr. Weng in Tai-chi, Hsin-Jing, Shuai-chiao Chin-na, and Shuai-chiao Tournament combinations. The evening finished with promotion test of several Cupertino Club members and visiting USSA students. Finally despite fighting round robin the day before, we opened mat time and the fun began. We had to finally kick people off the mat after 2 hours!

Winners of the Tournament are:

Children’s

Lightweight

1st Shangyu Hsu

2nd William Yang

3rd Spencer Chang

Middleweight

1st Shangway Hsu

2nd Mark Chang

3rd Steven Yang

Heavy

1st Leonard Ting

2nd Zac Bigbee

3rd Timothy Chen

Women Adult Light

1st Janet Chen

2nd Krisanne Litinas

3rd Stephanie Fox

Women Adult Middle

1st Christina Roman

2nd Krisanne Litinas

3rd

Men Adult Lightweight

1st Philip Tsai

2nd James VanDoran

3rd

Men Adult Light Middle

1st Ian Donovan

2nd Brent Kincer

3rd Carl Patience

Men Adult Middle

1st Daniel Cliff

2nd Barnaby Hazen

3rd Marc Willer

Men Adult Heavy

1st Charles Lin

2nd Emeric Chen

3rd Phil Willer

Men Adult Open

1st Eric Brooks

2nd Jeremy Siegrist

3rd Billy Pinkerman

April 11, 2008

Hsing-I form seminar at this year's Great Lakes Championship by Dr. Weng

This year at the Great Lakes championship, Dr. Weng will be teaching the form
taught and practiced by Grandmaster Chang also known as Hsing-jing on Sunday
4/20 at 1:00pm.

Hsing-I Ch'uan(shing-yee), is also known as "Five Elements Boxing." The
late Grandmaster Ch'ang Tung-Sheng held this fist form style in high regard
and taught it to some of his students and disciples. Each element of wood,
earth, metal, water, and fire attacks and defends simultaneously with
devastating power. Hsing-Jing which means essence of Hsing-I was his own
personal interpretation of the style scaled down to it's most potent
applications.
He even developed a kick sometimes referred to as a "sixth element." If you
ever wondered why such a legendary champion would practice this particular
style now is your chance to learn the answers for your self and integrate
this knowledge into your training.

For more information and to reserve a spot, contact Sifu John Ervin at
jervinsifu@att.net or 1-216-587-3478

2/29/08: Update from Jan-Yu Weng, President, USSA

First of all, I want to apologize for our very outdated website. Contrary to the lack of activity on our website, the USSA has been very active in the US and internationally in the last several years!

Many of you have probably already heard of the excellent results our USA team accomplished in last year’s International Shuaijiao Tournament in Taizhou, China. I’m expecting a few articles will be published in martial arts magazines in the next few months. Plus there are numerous videos and postings all over the internet. This tournament will also be a feature on our quarterly newsletter to be released in April (with a special interview with Jude Braun, our international judge and SWAT officer in Austin)

Our performance there has shown that our commitment with Shuai-chiao development in the USA still pays off. Our teachers around the U.S., our local and national tournaments have paid off with some excellent Shuai-chiao practitioners. Furthermore, our partnerships and friendships with international organizations assure me that our best years are still ahead of us.

I wanted to use this opportunity to update you all on few things that will be happening in the next several months and yes….creating a new website is one of them!

- April 19th Great Lakes Championship and National for Shuai-chiao and Sanshou. Don’t miss this yearly event to see old friends and meet new ones. Our USA team was stocked with national champions from last year’s Great Lakes and thus this has been the proving grounds for Shuai-chiao in the U.S. You can also use the opportunity to test for belts with Dr. Weng. Sifu Ervin will be bringing back forms competition for other kung-fu styles as well as first time ever Taolu for Shuai-chiao for Jiao Chuan #1. See Sifu Ervin at jervinsifu@att.net or call at 216-587-3478 for more details.

- April 20th Seminars by David Chang from Taiwan and Dr Weng from California.

David Chang: once again, we have the honor of having the grandson of Grandmaster Chang Tung Shen at the tournament to teach the different types of applications of Shuai-chiao in combat as well as special techniques for training and tournament.

Dr. Weng will be conducting a seminar on the seldom taught Hsing-I form. So reserve your space for this rare opportunity.

-New Belt Curriculum to be released! The USSA belt system has been generally the same since Grandmaster Chang and Dr. Weng formalized it over 25 years ago. I am in the process with several other high ranking black belts to update it a little to help make it easier for us to consistently administer the same quality across the U.S. The updated curriculum will reflect several of the techniques that David Chang has been teaching many of us for the last several years. These are similar techniques used in his Taiwan Shuai-chiao organization.

- late July – Due to popular demand, we are planning to host the California Chang system weekend here in the bay area. For those who aren’t familiar with this, we use this opportunity for friends of the Ch’ang System to spend a weekend in the Bay Area and learn from Dr. Weng, David Chang, and many of the Senior Black Belts, compete in a friendship tournament, meet international guests and of course enjoy the nice California weather!

I would love to hear from you all out there, so feel free to email anything and let me know how the USSA can help you in your studies of Shuai-chiao, integrating within your school curriculum or just let me know how you are doing.

Best Regards

Jan-Yu Weng

President, USSA