Interviews and Podcasts

   Interviews and Podcasts: A space for sharing knowledge and experiences of students, instructors, teachers, and various guests who have something to say about the Wing Chun system… 

   You will find exclusive materials here, where we discuss everything from the technical details of Wing Chun to questions of morality and life philosophy. Follow this section and discover the stories we are writing together in our Federation.

Sifu Juraj Povinec - Birth of a Warrior

   Every story begins somewhere. Do you remember that very first moment when martial arts "captured your heart"? Was it in childhood, were you influenced by a movie, a book, or a specific experience that ignited the spark in you that this is the path you want to follow? What fascinated you the most back then?

   ,,My fascination with martial arts began in early childhood. As a 6 or 7-year-old, I watched with huge enthusiasm every martial arts movie I could possibly get my hands on. For me, it was a world of heroes, discipline, and movement that instantly captivated me.

   Paradoxically, however, the real impulse to start training came from two unexpected directions. As an 8-year-old, I was more of an indoor type and moved very little, which took a toll on my health – a heart defect, a heart murmur, began to develop. Even with minimal activity, I was out of breath, although I was not overweight. Added to this was a second problem: I developed a bad habit of propping my chin with my right hand while sitting at a table. This minor thing had serious consequences – my cervical spine began to deform, and the muscles on one side of my neck shortened to the extent that I began to subconsciously turn my head to the side even while standing.

   When we visited both the cardiologist and the orthopedist, they both agreed on the same sober advice: ‚Treatment is movement, movement, and movement.‘ For me, it was like liberation. Since I had dreamed of warriors since childhood, and I didn't live with my father, my mother gave me a choice of a sport and I didn't hesitate. I chose karate. And right there, in an effort to save my health and fix my own body, my lifelong journey into martial arts officially began.“

   Let's move on. Karate was your first step. Do you remember your first trainings? Was it that "movie world" you knew from screens, or did the reality of hard work and sweat in the dojo surprise you in some way? How quickly did you feel that the movement (and the effort to overcome the heart defect and neck problems) is starting to bring results?

   ​„Success in treatment came unexpectedly fast – problems with the cervical spine and the heart murmur soon became a thing of the past thanks to movement. But while for my cousin, with whom I started going to karate, the commute from the village of Dunajov to Čadca was inconvenient, for me it was a challenge. Trainings ended at eight in the evening and I returned late by train. Once I even missed the bus to the station and as an 8-year-old I had to walk on my own. Grandfather, who always waited for me, went out looking for me in a panic all the way to Čadca. We found each other, and although we came home late at night, I never stopped. I convinced our family that I was ready, and I kept going.

   At 10 years old, however, I ran into a new obstacle – the trainer's approach. Instead of technique, we spent half of the training running or playing football, and the trainer dedicated himself exclusively to the older students. When he forbade me from joining them, I started listening to what the older guys from training were talking about. I found out that the guys from Kysucké Nové Mesto had their own intensive trainings outside the club.

   I asked them if I could join. At first, they laughed at me, but eventually, they allowed it. As a 10-year-old, I was initially just a ‚punching bag‘ in their group, but for me, it was the best school of life. While they focused on belt grading, I learned how to fight. A few years later, I excelled in kumite over any of them. This independent path shaped me for the next 10 years and taught me that true mastery is not about official honors, but about the toughness you build in combat.“

   After those 10 years in karate, when you were already seasoned in kumite and had built a strong discipline, a turning point came. How did you first encounter Wing Chun? What was it about it that appealed to you so much that after a decade in karate you felt the need to switch to a completely different system? Was it a meeting with a specific teacher or a situation where you realized karate was "no longer enough" for you?

   ​„My journey into martial arts was not straightforward. During my ten years in karate, I gradually added other elements – from the age of 14 I started weight training to match older opponents in strength, later I added amateur boxing, and for a year I even competed in armwrestling, where I won 5th place in the Slovak Cup under 80 kg. I felt strong and was so confident in combat that I believed it was impossible for anyone to defeat me.

   Then came basic military service. I was lucky to have conditions that allowed me to continue training, and for the first half of the year, I focused on boxing. The turning point came in mid-1997. On a pillar in the barracks, I saw a recruitment poster for a Wing Chun / Kung Fu school. Wing Chun was a big unknown to me, but Kung Fu, which I knew from movies, awakened a strong curiosity in me.

   About ten of us came to the recruitment, but due to demanding military service, the others gradually dropped out. However, I managed the pace and Wing Chun immediately absorbed me. That style completely blew me away – it confronted me with something that was in sharp contrast to my confidence from karate. Suddenly, I encountered a system that was able to surprise me, and that was a challenge I couldn't refuse. Throughout my entire military service, I devoted myself fully to this very art.“

   The military service ended, but your journey with Wing Chun didn't. You mentioned that you then taught intensively for 4 years in three different schools. What was that period like? What was the hardest thing for you in transitioning from a "student who wants to know everything" to an "instructor passing on knowledge"? And when did you tell yourself in your head: "This is the path I want to take, now I have to be my own master"?

   ​„The end of military service brought a major turning point. My girlfriend was expecting a baby, and my responsibility to my family came first. I was resigned to the fact that I had to quit Wing Chun because, alongside working as a waiter, I couldn't imagine commuting to Bratislava. However, I missed Wing Chun immensely.

   Fate ultimately arranged it differently. Working as a waiter didn't satisfy me financially, so I decided to follow the family tradition and joined the railways as a passenger train conductor. My routes led both east and west, and I regularly ended up in Bratislava. I found out that during my three-hour layovers, I had plenty of time to train. Moreover, my former Wing Chun teacher lived only 10 minutes from the station.

   I contacted him and we agreed on private lessons. The teacher noticed my responsible approach and the fact that in half a year in the army I had reached a level that other students took three years of training to achieve. He saw potential in me, and therefore came up with an offer that changed everything: he suggested that we jointly open a branch of our school in Žilina. This is how a father who just wanted to support his family became an instructor tasked with passing on his art.“

   You have a start in Žilina, experience from three schools, and eventually independence behind you. When you look back at those 4 years when you operated in other schools and gradually built your own vision, what was the biggest lesson for you in your approach to students? What did you take away from those other schools that you knew you wouldn't do in yours, and conversely, what was it that you wanted to build on a completely different foundation in your own school?

   ​„Opening the branch in Žilina was just the beginning. Although I was still employed on the railway, my informal and irregular conductor shifts dictated the pace of my life. Despite that, the school in Žilina was doing better than expected – I managed to build a community of 30 students, which at the time was twice as many as in the Bratislava headquarters. However, my desire for self-improvement was stronger than comfort. I constantly worked on myself and within two years I mastered the instructor level all the way to completing the third form, Biu Gee.

   Personal life, however, brought difficult trials. The conflict between my desire for independence with my family and my wife's reluctance to leave her mother's house led to our separation. It was a difficult period, but that was when I made a key decision in my work as well. I switched from the position of a conductor to a wagon shunter. Although it meant lower earnings, it brought me the most valuable thing – a regular working schedule.

   Thanks to that, I could set a fixed training schedule that was completely unimaginable for many others: on Monday, Tuesday, and Thursday I taught in Žilina, on Wednesday and Friday in Čadci, on Saturday in Bytča, and on Sunday I regularly commuted to Bratislava to see Si-fu for private lessons. I operated like this until 2002. It was a life dedicated to growth, where I devoted every free minute either to training students or to my own mastery.“

   You mentioned that the year 2002 was a milestone in your story. What changed after this period? When was the moment you felt that your path as an instructor under the wings of others had reached its peak, and you had to step out in a completely own direction to fully develop your Wing Chun? Was it a gradual process, or one specific event that opened your eyes and showed you it was time to found your own federation?

   ​„The desire to found my own school had been simmering inside me since I was ten years old, when I fought for my spot among the older guys at training sessions in Kysucké Nové Mesto. Through natural development, it eventually became a Wing Chun school. For a long time, however, I wanted to remain loyal to my teacher and operate under his wings. Therefore, in 2002, I left Kysuce, moved to Bratislava, and started working in security (SBS) to be as close to the source as possible and complete the entire Wing Chun system.

   Reality, however, brought disappointment. The moral attitudes of my teacher, his behavior towards my friends and towards myself, were in conflict with my values. I realized that this is not the path I want to take. Therefore, at the end of 2004, I became independent and founded my own Wing Chun Kuen Federation.

   Although I had mastered the long pole form (Luk Dim Boon Kwun) and almost the entire wooden dummy form back then, I desired perfection. I completed the system thanks to cooperation with friends from the Czech school, and I polished the butterfly swords form within the Hungarian branch of Wing Tsun. The milestone year of 2008, when my son was born, marked my definitive transition to a professional career. I left my job in security (SBS) and from that moment on, I invested all my energy into developing my own school and refining my personal martial art – Wing Chun Kuen – polished by years of hard experience.“

   You completed the system, but instead of satisfaction, disappointment came from the reality you saw in other schools. What exactly led you to so radically change your teaching methodology, introduce sparring, and even create your own combat forms and weapon adaptations? Was it the awareness that Wing Chun must first and foremost be functional in contact to preserve its integrity?

   ​„Completing the system did not mean the end for me – quite the opposite. More and more often, I heard stories from people in other martial arts about how long-term Wing Chun practitioners 'got beaten up' by boxers or Thai boxers. It tired me out. I knew that the problem was not in the Wing Chun system itself, but in its incorrect teaching, which was detached from reality.

   Already during my last year with my teacher and later after founding my own school, I began seeking out confrontation spars with other branches of Wing Chun. I visited about five different schools. Unfortunately, instead of self-reflection and a willingness to change the teaching approach, I merely became a 'challenger' who found no understanding. For many, it was painful to admit that their methods did not work. They only realized this when a conflict on the street happened – for many of them, it was such a disappointment that they quit Wing Chun altogether.

   I realized that if real progress was to happen, I had to take everything into my own hands. Therefore, in 2008, I significantly expanded and opened school branches at Žabí Majer, in Mlynská dolina, on Palisády, and in Petržalka. The foundation of my approach became regular, hard sparring, which I integrated into the training of every single Wing Chun form. The school grew, and successes followed – my students began to win in confrontations because they were prepared for contact.

   However, during countless hours in the ring and in training, I came to an important realization: not all techniques from the classic forms are usable in combat. Opponents in real contact rarely create the exact situation that would require the use of these specific movements. Yet, I didn't want to throw these techniques away. Therefore, alongside the four basic Wing Chun forms (three unarmed forms plus the wooden dummy), I created four additional combat forms. Their goal was to solidify the student's mastery of techniques that are not used as frequently in regular sparring and to polish them to a level where they become a natural part of their combat repertoire.

   My process of improving the system didn't stop there. I included seven types of sweeps and their diverse combinations in the curriculum, which I took from my experience in karate and subsequently adapted to the specific tactics of fighting in Wing Chun. At the same time, I found that effective self-defense on the street requires working with realistic threats. Therefore, I adapted the techniques from butterfly swords into techniques with short sticks as an effective defense against a knife.

   This combat form with short sticks is taught to my students right alongside the first Wing Chun form. This early approach to weapon work immensely pushes the student's motor skills to a completely different level. There is a significant development of both brain hemispheres, which manifests in better coordination, faster reactions, and a more comprehensive understanding of movement that is irreplaceable in real combat.

   I further enriched my system with work using the kubotan. It is a short weapon with a blunt tip that is an invaluable helper in crisis situations on the street. While a knife could cause fatal and legally irreversible consequences, the kubotan allows me to defend myself effectively in unfair situations, especially when facing multiple attackers. I teach my students how to use this tool so that the defender is able to gain space and safely end the conflict, which is a key skill in modern times for anyone who takes their safety seriously.“

   Your journey began to naturally transform after years of intensive school building. How did you arrive at connecting martial arts with the Christian faith and the study of theology? And what led you to start writing down your experiences into books that now form an important part of your legacy?

   ​„Since 2018, I have also focused my attention on teaching children aged 8 to 12. This experience taught me patience and gave me a new perspective on Wing Chun – as a tool for shaping a young person's personality. After years of developing an extensive network of schools, I later decided to narrow my focus. From 2008 until today, I have concentrated all my energy and experience on the development of our school and operating in the premises at Žabí majer, where I focused mainly on intensive, personal instruction of individuals.

   This time gave me space not only to refine the combat system, but also to search for a deeper meaning of existence and a spiritual path. I found it in Christianity, which became my firm moral compass. Five years of study at the Faculty of Theology (ÚTV) allowed me to integrate spiritual values into my life and work.

   The result of this journey is not only an improved combat system, but also the literary work that defines it. I am the author of four books on Christianity, the translator of two apocrypha, and the author of the book ‚Wing Chun Mastery: The Basics of Combat‘. However, my journey continues – I am currently working on a sequel subtitled ‚Secret Techniques‘. Today, my Wing Chun is no longer just about self-defense; it is a synthesis of physical efficiency, discipline, and spiritual depth that I strive to pass on.“

   Your story comes full circle with a return to the very beginning – the shaping of a child's personality. What is the main motivation that led you to return to security work (SBS) after 17 years in order to save up for building a children's training center? What is the most important message you want to instill in future generations through this new project?

   ​„My journey ultimately led me to the highest goal: the desire to pass on everything I have learned to the next generation. That is exactly why I am working on my new project today. After seventeen years, I have returned once again to security work (SBS) in order to save up for building a new children's training center right next to our Wing Chun Monastery.

   My goal is not just to teach children how to fight. I want to create a place where character is shaped, where a culture of self-discipline and the pursuit of excellence are combined with healthy movement and the joy of sports. I want to show children the path to a healthy lifestyle in which the body is as strong as the spirit. It is my way of giving back to the world everything that martial arts and faith have taught me over the years – to create a safe haven where children grow into responsible and confident people.“

   Thank you for reading the interview, with regards from the editorial team of the Wing Chun Kuen Federation.

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