I began my Isshinryu studies in 1974 and as a kyu attended many tournaments in Pa. and Md. However I was most concerned with my own competition and did not often pay attention to what was happening at those tournaments.

 

Living in Scranton I started competing as a Brown Belt at a tournament in Wilkes Barre Pa. and following that began competing at many tournaments in the former KI region 8 (Md, Pa and NJ) with occasional forays into NY and  Conn.

 

What became obvious to me the Senior Judges were mostly a group of 8 diverse judges who most often ran the judging. The rules varied from tournament  to tournament but as the day went on the “rules” changed according to what the judges wished.

 

Realistically when I began competing most of them did not have the 20 years my own instructor had, but somewhat fewer years. On reflection today I really doubt they were as experienced as they thought they were. But that was how things were back then.

 

As the tournaments were open, meaning martial competitors might come from any style. It became obvious that many time many the judges were judging styles they had no personal knowledge about.  In any division they might be judging Okinawan systems, Korean systems, Japanese systems, Chinese systems, modern systems of modified systems.

 

For the most part their judging standards were not just for a specific system but  for a personal generic system standard (and that often varied from judge to judge).

 

But they were given charge of the entire show by the tournament directors. (Later I realized their most important focus was the income the tournament generated for their own program).

 

After receiving my own Black Belt in 1979, I began having to judge myself, of course not as a chief judge. I found it difficult to judge other systems I had not studied. Especially the Chinese system competitors.

 

I read as much as was available, books and magazines. Movies (later videos) were not so much available. What I saw at tournaments often became my guide about what  many systems could do.

 

As a new black belt I also had the chance to study Tai Chi Chaun with Ernest Rothrock. Simply one lesson a week. But I never gave up even when realizing my Isshinryu studies did not prepare me in the least for that study.

 

In addition to the form I had to learn a Yang straight sword form, Push Hands (fixed, stepping and turning) as well as a number of other things.That form was a 108 form.  I completed learning the form over  2 years. Then more serious study followed.

 

Some Yang Tai Chi –Ernie and Victor doing the first ½ half of the Yang Form 10 years later.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B-iTlS_PyBw

After 9 months of instruction I had an idea for Ernest. I asked “would it be a reasonable idea to study some Chinese forms to give me an idea how to judge stylists of the Chinese systems.” He thought about it a bit then responded that is could not hurt. Now I had heard that he had studied several different systems outside of the Pai Lum system he was teaching in his school.

 

So he turned his head, pointed to a chart on the wall behind his desk of about 500 forms, and he asked me what I wanted to study.

 

I had no idea. We went back and forth about  that a bit and realizing I have no idea what to learn pointed to the chart where the Northern Shaolin form Dune De kuen was listed and told me that should be where I begin.

That form was the equivalent for a new black belt form. I am sure he thought I would quit, but I never did and about a year later I finished  learning the form. Of course that form was  way beyond where I was at, and I learned it without any schooling in the basics of the Northern Shaolin system.

Victor Dune de Kuen

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LvHfpxpyL-M

 

Then for the next 4 years I studied forms from the Jing Wu system beginning forms that all systems in the Jing Wu started their students with. Also forms from Pai Lum, Northern Tai Mantis, Eagle Claw and several different weapon studies (Short staff, Staff, 3 Sectional Staff and Yang Tai Chi Sword).

 

These are some of those forms. Many I never filmed. I have substituted other performers for those forms.

 

Gay Aston from WB performing N, Mantis form slip in and hit https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rqOJVwncCFE

Victor Tam Tui  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JmtCH-keqVc

A Chinese performance of the Eagle Claw form Hong Kuen https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NQFoHqsz4wI

Dave Belsky  the manager of the Wilkes Barre school - Supple Dragon and Pai Lum Kuen

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8UAvxub0b2E

Victor then Dave Belsky performing Chinese Short Staff

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FQLIBk8cxos

Dave Belsky performing a basic Chinese Staff Form

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WBCWFgNUpaU

I did study a variety of other forms, Power Fist of the Eagle Claw and Chin Woo Association, Peng Tsu Dune de Kuen (the greater Dune De Kuen) among them.

Here is a version of the Eagle Claw Kung Lek Kuen Power Fist form

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5S0rsVIl8Gg

Victor Peng Tzu Dune De Kuen

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XZ3aNJXpfCo

 

My Tai Chi Chaun studies eventually extended to the Wu Tai Chi Chaun Slow Form and to the Yang 24 form too.

 

Each form was a challenging study. Then when Ernest opened a school in Pittsburgh I saw him less often having to journey there. I used to travel to his Scranton school to train once a week and Saturday afternoon open training at his Wilkes Barre school for more training time.

 

None of which made me an expert, but I did gain some knowledge of what some Chinese systems did.

 

However as you can see, I know so little in any casel

 

Eventually the world turned and I had to move to NH, many of those form studies had to be discontinued, for one thing not enough time and not enough space for those forms.

 

I never stopped my Tai Chi Chaun practice, eventually teaching some of my students outside on Sundays for over 10 years. At that time I returned to my solitary practice,

 

On moving to NH I attended tournaments less and less. My direction for myself and  tournaments for my students became less and less important to me.

 

What I discovered were many performers were often doing made up forms and nothing like the originals of their systems. Many times I observed judges who were not fair to Chinese style competitors, or at times the judges assumed the Chinese style competitor doing kung fu were perhaps better than karate and would give them winning scores, where the performance was no better than average as I had experienced.

 

At the open tournaments there were fewer Chinese stylists. Perhaps one reason was that many judges did not have the knowledge to fairly judge them.