About Us
Kung Fu Southside was founded in 2013 with an idea to make martial arts training accessible and affordable for everyone. We have a wide variety of martial art programs to cater for all levels and goals.
Kung Fu Southside
We teach students of all age groups powerful and practical self-defence and fitness techniques, so they can protect themselves and their loved ones at the time of need. Our primary area of teaching is the Kung Fu style of Traditional Wing Chun which is a southern Chinese boxing style.
In a short span of time, Kung Fu Southside has become one of the leading names offering training classes to children and adults. Our instructors are highly qualified and received first hand training from the Master who was a part of the Wing Chun Ling Tung Gong as passed down by Grandmaster Gregory Choi.
At Kung Fu Southside, we believe that Martial Arts is a way to bring out the best in people, especially children. Your child will learn so much more than to just punch and kick! We believe in the amazing benefits Martial Arts has for fitness, self-defence, and personal development.
Get in touch with us today to learn more about how we work.
What We Do:
Established in Hillcrest, Queensland – Kung Fu Southside teaches people of all ages powerful and practical self-defence and fitness techniques. Over the years, we have become one of the most renowned martial arts schools in Australia. We schedule and organise over 20 lessons every week and highly qualified instructors that have their own impressive martial arts and competition backgrounds.
Our specialisation lies in teaching our students “The Art of Wing Chun”!
Wing Chun is an ancient Chinese martial art that promotes courtesy, respect, integrity and self-control in a healthy mind and body.
Translated literally as ‘praise springtime’, Wing Chun is a traditional Southern Chinese Kung Fu style and a form of self-defence that requires quick arm movements and strong legs to defeat opponents. Softness (via relaxation) and performance of techniques in a relaxed manner is fundamental to Wing Chun. Whether you are looking for an effective self-defence system or just want to improve your health and fitness, Wing Chun Ling Tung Gong is the answer.
Kung Fu Southside is a strong proponent of Wing Chun Ling Tung Gong, which also contains the internal aspects of Wing Chun Qi Gong, as taught by Grand Master Gregory Choi, in Australia.
Our head instructor, Sifu Dave Richardson, is the last student of Grand Master Choi where he learned the secrets of Wing Chun Ling Tung Gong passed down by Ip Man to Grand Master Choi. Healthy living and other internal practices are an integral part of the Wing Chun taught at Kung Fu Southside.
We have a modern fitness centre located in Browns Plains on the south side of Brisbane in the southeast of Queensland, Australia. Our wide range of courses and programs suit children and adults of all ages and abilities.
History of Kung Fu Southside:
Kung Fu Southside has a deep-rooted legacy even though the business was founded in 2013. The head instructor, Sifu Dave Richardson, received first hand training from Grandmaster Gregory Choi, also known as Tsoi Siu Kwong.
The history of Wing Chun dates to 1750 and has been passed on to different masters since then (including Grandmaster Gregory Tsoi). Wing Chun is an ancient Chinese martial art that emphasizes and teaches people about courtesy, respect, integrity, and self-control in maintaining a healthy mind and body.
The business is based on teaching children and adults of all age groups to learn the art of Wing Chun. Do you wish to acquire Bruce Lee’s skills? Kung Fu Southside boasts having Grandmaster Choi’s teachings as an integral part of our business. According to Dave Richardson’s oral history, Master Choi was a private student of Grandmaster Ip Man in Hong Kong when Ip Man first began accepting students.
This is how Kung Fu Southside came into existence – a place or institution where we try to bring balance to your life when you participate in our daily and weekly training.
Ip Man gave GM Choi the book that was passed down through the generations detailing the internal art of Wing Chun Qi Gong. And with the knowledge contained in this book GM Choi has continued to develop the Qi Gong of Wing Chun Ling Tung Gong into its current form.
Grandmaster Choi emigrated to Australia in late 1959 and at the time only taught a few friends privately. After a visit back to Hong Kong early in 1968, GGM Ip Man suggested that GM Choi should open a school here in Australia, reluctantly he agreed as he had no interest in teaching formally, but his Master requested it and he diligently obeyed and said that he would teach for 5 years, after which he would then pass the school over to his students. This is exactly what he did and so the first Australian Wing Chun school opened at George St in Sydney (VCK Kung Fu Centre). This school closed in the late 1970s. He then moved to Queensland after getting married and has continuously studied and refined Wing Chun Ling Tong Gong to its current form.
Being a very private person, there is very little written about Sigung Choi, and up until now, he taught only a handful of students privately who sought him out during this time. You can read the only recorded public interview with him from the 1974 Australasian Fighting Arts Magazine here.
Now it is his wish to see Wing Chun Ling Tung Gong be passed on and preserved to benefit future generations.
Grandmaster Choi
Grandmaster Gregory Tsoi (Choy Siu Kwong)
Grandmaster Choi Siu Kwong (Gregory Choi) attended Francis Xavier College in Hong Kong alongside other Kung Fu greats such as Bruce Lee. He started to learn Kung Fu when he was very young, whilst being cared for in the temple that took him in during the second sino-japanese war.
Sigung Choi was 12 years old when he started Wing Chun under his instructor Great Grandmaster Yip Man in Hong Kong.
During his early years in Hong Kong, Ip Man had three groups of students; the ‘Live-in’ students Leung Seung, Lok Yu, and Chu Shong Tin; then the private students, of which Sigung Choi was the first; and then others who attended the public classes.
GGM Ip Man taught in a traditional way and gave the student what they needed, based on the individual’s nature, and also the strengths and weaknesses of the disciple. Some of the students from this time period were taught how to use the martial aspect of Wing Chun over the internal aspect. This was because they showed interest and ability in this field and they would be good candidates to promote Ip Man’s school and the efficiency of Wing Chun in challenge matches.
GM Choi was not interested so much in proving himself in these challenge matches, but Ip Man saw talent in the young GM Choi for the internal Qi Gong and medicinal side of Wing Chun.
Meet The Team
Dave Richardson
Sifu Dave
Born in 1972, Sifu Dave Richardson began his study in Wing Chun in 1989. He switched to Muay Thai and Western Boxing when the school closed and there were no other Wing Chun schools in the area.
High profile work in the security industry at South Bank Parklands in Brisbane, Indy Carnival on the Gold Coast and various other sites from 1993 saw Dave engaged in Personal protection for:
- Celebrities and dignitaries
- Crowd control and armed services
- Hotel security and management
- Security dog handling and training (both dogs and handlers)
In 2007, he found a Traditional Wing Chun kwoon in Browns Plains and resumed the Wing Chun journey that had started years before. He continued his training until Sifu Alfredo Del Brocco stopped teaching in 2012.
Sifu Dave then travelled to Melbourne and met with Grandmaster William Cheung himself and was most fortunate to become his student. In 2016 he was graded to Provisional Master 3rd level in Grandmaster Cheung’s system. Grandmaster Cheung then went on to retire from public teaching and Sifu Dave was once again without a teacher.
Back in Brisbane, Sifu Dave was having lunch at a restaurant one evening when an elderly Chinese gentleman overheard a conversation about Wing Chun, and he asked who Sifu Dave trained under. This gentleman turned out to be Grandmaster Gregory Choi, who had also trained under Ip Man.
It was fate that this meeting occurred, and it was also Sifu Dave’s good fortune to be accepted as Grandmaster Choi’s final student.
This proved to be the moment that forever changed the direction and purpose in Sifu Dave’s life and opened up a higher understanding of the art of Wing Chun. Sifu Dave is continuing his training and studies under the watchful eye of Grandmaster Choi and is learning the teachings of Wing Chun Ling Tung Gong as passed down by Grandmaster Choi.
He is committed to ensuring the art of Wing Chun Ling Tung Gong is preserved for future generations and that the methods practised are effective and have been tested in a real-world environment.
SiJe Kamini
Kamini first began learning Wing Chun in 1998, and after a temporary hiatus, she found Kung Fu Southside in March 2015 and began her new chapter in Wing Chun training.
Kamini is now a closed-door student of Sifu Dave Richardson and has been studying the Wing Chun Ling Tung Gong system to further develop her skills. She began helping with the kid’s classes in 2016 and in June 2018 was promoted to become the kid’s kung fu program coordinator.
Kamini has a keen interest in the internal side of martial arts. Her aim is to continue her Wing Chun journey from a holistic perspective, encompassing not only the skills of fighting but also incorporating the benefits of mindfulness and overall well being which comes with Wing Chun Ling Tung Gong’s qigong practice and philosophies.
Kamini’s passion for teaching women was the catalyst for the introduction of Women’s Only classes in 2020. A focus for her has been expanding the women’s programs and delivering Self Defence Workshops for women and girls.
