Seattle Kung Fu Club

This is not a shiny, Eastside club. It’s old, it smells like sweat, and it could use some paint touch up. Otherwise, it’s frickin’ fantastic.
The Si Hings give you exactly as much instruction as you need, but otherwise get out of your way to let you practice and learn. You are surrounded by practitioners at all ages and skill levels (from 6 year olds to 70 year old masters). The other students are supportive and cheerful, but more importantly, focused on learning and practicing their art.
If you want to learn to spar, you can practice with tournament champions. If you want to learn lion dancing, you can practice with a Grand Master who’s been in the same location since 1963. SKFC is a traditional club. For people who want to work their butts off and learn in a traditional environment, it doesn’t get any better.

First, the reviewer calling this a «Zen temple in disguise»…must either be a joke or a troll… nice.
My husband, son, and I started learning kung fu here almost three months ago. It is difficult, occasionally painful, and there is no hand-​holding, back patting, or feedback about how you are doing. When my si-​hing hits me more and teaches me something new, I figure I must be moving along ok. You learn kung fu. You learn it slowly, systematically, and with a lot of repetition. You learn it next to men and women who have been practicing for decades and in a club that has graced the International District since 1963. I really can’t recommend it highly enough.

I remember the first time I went to the school. The door opens to a long stairwell up to the dojo. The air was thick with the scent of incense. On the walls hung flags and photos spanning many years. It really felt like I walked into a school in Canton or Hong Kong.
There are many serious, longtime practitioners and that helps newer students develop quickly. They separate the floor space with a partition where one side is for beginners and the other for more advanced students. They have a good sparring group and welcome outsiders. Sifu Leong has a lot connections in the Puget Sound area so there are many chances to participate in extracurricular activities. I was on the Lion Dance and Dragon Dance teams and toured about to different casinos and other businesses especially around Chinese New Year.
I studied here for a few years and I really enjoyed the rigorous training and learning a traditional art. Sifu Leong is very quiet and hard to read. He hardly speaks a word. While I was there we didn’t connect well, because of that and other (non-​school related) reasons, I eventually left the school.
The reason I didn’t rate this school higher is because of some drama going on between this school and another school in the area while I was there. This drama came to a head when some dojo busting occurred. Not to pick sides, but the whole thing was kind of meat-​headed and silly.

Been training here for a few years and I just love it. Definitely a traditional school, so be ready to work those legs good. Along with the southern stance training, you work on kick, strikes, blocks, and forms. Although it takes a bit to get through learning the basic exercises, once into the forms, figuring out the applications for the moves in the forms is what keeps me coming back.
They also do some tournament sparring practice (San Shou & San Da) on Friday nights and go compete in tournaments in the summer. Great way to get into that summer shape (as seen in my pictures).
Come down and take a look at the class!