Open letter to gm. Prof. Kernspecht: "why i left ewto and i refused to be your todai"
OPEN LETTER TO GM. PROF. KERNSPECHT: "WHY I LEFT EWTO AND I REFUSED TO BE YOUR TODAI" (AND MY EXPERIENCE OF ZHONG XIN DAO INSIDE EWTO)
PREMISES: This letter is written by me and here I only represent myself expressing my experiences and feelings regarding the time I was an EWTOI-EWTO member from 2010 to 2018, so does not concerns at all what I'm doing now and my present life. This is all about my past experience and as the management of EWTO never answered my last emails I wrote them asking for clarification before taking the final decision of leaving EWTO, I'm writing this letter now and post it on Facebook from SAN MARINO Country and my only intention is to tell the truth supported by documents.
* MY BEGINNING AND MY FIRST LEAVING THE EWTOI
In 2010 I joined EWTOI (the Italian branch of EWTO Germany) and with great passion I followed almost all the international and national workshops in Italy. The last degree I got was the 2nd HG degree.
In 2016 I attended an international workshop in Guasticce and I started the training for the 3rd HG degree but then something happened and opened my eyes: during the 3 days workshop there was nobody teaching me the technical program I paid for (1 BTGS + APPLICATION). Then out of the 3 days workshop we only trained a total of 9 hours (everyday from 10 to 13) and most of these 9 hours had been spent listening or watching some higher degrees showing how good they were with WT. I counted the real "moving" training time in no more then 4 hours in total in 3 days! Actually all of a sudden I realised that this had been more or less what very often happened in all the previous seminars and workshops, but I was just too blind to see it in the past.
When I finished the workshop I had the signature that I passed the technical section of the 1 BTGS + APPLICATION, but I knew nothing about it as NOBODY SHOWED IT TO ME. I personally felt like a "milk cow": if I pay then I get a signature/certification even if I don't know something. I never had these feelings before in any of my previous martial arts experiences.
Then in order to get to the 1st HG degree or to the higher ones the rule in EWTOI is that everybody has to take a certain numbers of PRIVATE LESSONS with the National representative of Italy Mr Cuciuffo. This was also another new and strange experience as in every previous martial art I ever played IT NEVER HAPPENED THAT THE NATIONAL REPRESENTATIVE MAKES SUCH A (EXPENSIVE) RULE!
I followed this very strange and expensive rule and I had many private lessons with Mr Cuciuffo next to the washing machine in the GARAGE of his house: if I have to pay 100 Euro for 1 hour or many times only 45 minutes why can't we train in a real gym or why can't we have an Italian headquarter?
My last private lesson with Mr Cuciuffo was on the 28th of December 2013 when in front of a witness I asked the explanation of a technique and instead of getting the explanation I was waiting for, I received a punch in my neck from this national representative. I was there as a student paying 200 Euro for two hours lesson but in charge I got 1,5 hours of him talking and then got hit by him in the neck. I spent that night in the HOSPITAL OF CECINA risking a tracheotomy; doctors told me to report what happened to the Police and to sue who did that to me in front of a witness: I did not follow their advice and kept silence as a sort of martial respect for EWTO and EWTOI.
Anyway this is why since then I stopped any private lesson and most of the seminars with Mr Cuciuffo and since then I don't let anybody hit me in my neck anymore (Please note: this includes what happened a couple of years later in 2018 when a 6th HG EWTO degree during a workshop in Guasticce and a chisau training hit me twice in my neck without any reason as it was a technical training and not a fighting, so after advising him to stop such a stupid, dangerous and useless attitude I did the same to him just to make my unheard words more clear. This fact created lots of complaining against me by Mr. Cuciuffo and by GM Kernspecht as it was seen as a disrespect to an higher WT degree and to a Sifu. SORRY CUCIUFFO AND KERNSPECHT BUT THERE IS SOMETHING I DON'T UNDERSTAND: if an higher degree or if the National Representative of Italy hits me and sends me to the Hospital it is fine, but if I react and protect myself that is disrespect? I wrote both Cuciuffo and Kernspecht to ask for explanations and they started to accuse each other: Kernspecht wrote me that it was Cuciuffo complaining and Cuciuffo wrote me that he said nothing and it was Kernspecht complaining.. and both of them were far away from me when the fact happened. It was very sad and I still keep their messages and emails).
For all the above mentioned reasons and also helped by the fact that I moved my residency from Modena (Italy) to SAN MARINO, I decided that my journey with EWTOI was over because I really felt I had become for EWTOI a "MILK COW" (this is absolutely not for my WT family in Modena that I will always love) and not a martial art disciple that could follow his martial art organisation and learn and grow. So silently I left without showing myself anymore in the seminars and workshops, with lots of regrets but with the confidence that something strange was happening here in Italy specially if we open our eyes and see how many members (excluding the kids) EWTOI have now and how many members EWTOI had some years ago!
* THE SECOND CHANCE WITH EWTO
In 2017 GM KERNSPECHT personally called me and then after asking me why I was not showing to the International seminars anymore and after hearing my disappointment for how the EWTOI organisation of Italy was running, during a phone call he asked me to learn the ZHONG XIN DAO of the Chin Family and to help EWTO to develop ZXD it in Italy.
I accepted and during the next International WT workshop in Italy, I got invited by GM Kernspecht to his house in VICARELLO for a Coffee and a big talking. That day there I met there my great WT brother and friend DINO FIASCHI that I did not know was invited too. During that meeting Dino and I got told by GM Kernspecht that he had met GM SAM CHIN and had become his student because he was surprised about how effective this ZXD Martial art was, and told us in a very detailed way how shocking for him was to meet and touch GM Sam Chin's arms and to feel his huge internal energy. In that day GM Kernspecht told me and Dino that he planned to incorporate ZXD in EWTO WING TSUN by calling it INTERNAL WING TSUN. He could do this as he told us EWTO had an EXCLUSIVE CONTRACT with the CHIN family for 5 countries (Please note: SAN MARINO was NOT included in these 5 countries).
That day GM Kernspecht told me and Dino that he needed our help in Italy to develop ZXD as he had big internal oppositions to such a project and he asked us to maintain the conversation secret and don't to talk about it to anybody in Italy: from that moment we were going to report directly to GM Kernspecht. He also told us about a big concern he had regarding ZXD, as the founder GM Sam Chin clearly told him that wanted his family martial art to be thought with freedom to anybody and not just the EWTO members so that could be a problem as not only EWTO but also other martial arts organisations would have benefit of such a new and effective martial art that he wanted to keep exclusive for EWTO in order to give EWTO WT a superiority to other WT styles. Dino and I we are both witnesses that GM Kernspecht knew that exclusivity of the ZXD teaching was not possible, at least already back in 2017.
As I accepted to follow GM Kernspecht, he then named me TODAI and DISCIPLE and then he started to invite me anywhere there was a ZXD event: Bulgaria (University of Plovdiv), Kiel and in many other places. In Bulgaria for example the Italian national representative was not there, but there was me to be present as "Italy and San Marino".
GM Kernspecht asked me to translate under his supervision the GM Sam Chin's ZXD-ILC System Guide into Italian. It took me a lot of time but I did it without getting any money or any free training in charge of that.
Then as my ZXD activities and travels abroad could become a problem, I got suggested by GM Kernspecht to sign a contract for becoming the National Representative of San Marino as this is an independent country that could directly link with EWTO instead of being under EWTOI and Mr Cuciuffo's control.
GM Kerspecht pushed me for this by offering me very low monthly fees as they were worried that maybe for the opposition of some internal people, in Italy was not going to be easy to teach and have ZXD-ILC seminars, so San Marino as an independent country was the perfect place to jump any eventual opposition to ZXD in Italy and to eventually organise seminars with GM Sam Chin.
* PROBLEMS ARE ARISING
With time and training I started to have a very strange feeling about the ZXD I got taught inside EWTO as apart from two seminars with Chin family, in Italy ZXD was thought only by GM KERNSPECHT (many lessons with small groups for hundreds of Euro cost + some 45 minutes private lessons at a cost of 200 Euro each one) or by NAHI (45 minutes private lessons at a cost of 100 Euro each one).
I personally spent thousands of Euro for these lessons and I have the feeling that these lessons were also given by them in Italy, Germany and in all the other Ewto countries to many colleagues, maybe to hundreds and hundreds of them.
What worried me was not just the high cost of these lessons and the high amount of money involved in this ZXD project, but most of all worried me the quality of the lessons. I trained years with PUSH AND PULL without ever being told that it was not literally "pushing and pulling" but that it was an effect of ABSORBING AND PROJECTING. This is just an example, but I could quote many other similar situations: for example just like training the 5 elements without knowing the 15 basic exercises and the 13 points or the point of contact.
Once Dino Fiaschi and I we paid 200 Euro to train the first 21 Form of ZXD with Nahi and it came out that she did not remember it: at least she was so honest to stop the lesson and to offer us another free lesson that unfortunately me and Dino we never got and we did not receive back the 200 Euro either. This situation went on until I trained with GM Kernspecht for a 45 minutes private lesson with him telling me to "knock the opponent's shoulder", but without explaining me why and how; I paid 200 Euro for those 45 minutes and that was my last private lesson with him.
I started to understand that there was a big business going on and that I was paying lots of money to people that were teaching me ZXD without being (at least at that time) OFFICIAL AND CERTIFIED ZXD INSTRUCTORS. I had the personal feeling that every ZXD concept was explained not from the right point of view and everything was too slow, never clear and was always costing too much money.
For this reason I told GM Kernspecht that I wanted to attend a real ZXD-ILC FAMILY seminar in Ljubljana (SLOVENIA country not included in the 5 countries of the verbal talking regarding the contract between EWTO and CHIN family) and he was not happy at all about it as the seminar was not an EWTO one: in a nice way he made me understand that it was not a good idea to attend the ILC family workshop and I should not go.
I went there anyway and there I understood why it was a problem for EWTO. I started to understand the big differences between the teaching done by the real ZXD-ILC official instructors and the ZXD lessons I got inside EWTO. The real ZXD-ILC Family teaching is very detailed, clear, efficient and fast: it explains the principles and teaches you what to look at and how to look at!
After this seminar I told GM Kernspecht that I wanted to start learning ZXD-ILC directly from the ILC - ZXD family official instructors outside EWTO as he himself, Nahi, Oliver and all the other top Masters of EWTO were learning from Chin family or other official instructors with thousands of hours of private lessons.
I got asked to be loyal to EWTO and I got denied the possibility of going to Germany or USA to meet GM Chin as I had to follow EWTO: I ACCEPTED IT AND I WAS "LOYAL" EVEN IF I WAS VERY DISAPPOINTED.
Anyway I could not stop my mind from thinking why should I learn ZXD inside EWTO where only Nahi and Kernspecht were teaching it at a cost from 100 to 200 Euros for 45 minutes lessons when they were just starters and low level students in ILC-ZXD? Why couldn't I get the same official and licensed ZXD teachers with many years of teaching experience that Kernspecht and Nahi were having? Later I had all the answers when I got to know the cost of 1 hour (not 45 minutes) of private lesson with an official high instructor level of ILC-ZXD.
I was loyal to Kernspecht and to EWTO but so many issues grow up in my mind: what was the real issue loyalty or money? Then can a loyal person be used and cheated and become a believer? For sure being loyal does not mean I had to stop using my brain and to see what was happening. Maybe I was wrong, but the feeling of being in some ways "cheated and used" started to become stronger and stronger inside of me after almost 40 years of martial arts experiences.
* THE LAST BREAK
In 2018 I heard rumours that the EXCLUSIVE CONTRACT BETWEEN EWTO and CHIN FAMILY DID NOT EXIST as it was just a verbal talking still under discussion and nothing written had been signed yet.
I got very nervous and worried and I asked GM Kernspecht explanations with written messages and letters: I asked GM Kernspecht if that was true and IT WAS TRUE: NO WRITTEN CONTRACT HAD EVER BEEN SIGNED.
As a business man and a Certified Italian Accountant with a contract signed with EWTO this situation drove me very angry: SAN MARINO was excluded by any verbal agreement, but also ITALY and AUSTRIA and GERMANY HAD NO CONTRACT!!??? Why my EWTO partners never clearly explained me that before involving me in this ZXD project and before signing my contract with them?
This means that EWTO HAD NO LEGAL WRITTEN RIGHT TO START ANY ZXD SCHOOLS or COURSES then EWTO pushed me to learn ZXD inside EWTO and made me spend lots of money for something they legally did not have? Then what if there was not going to be an agreement with the Chin family for ZDX.. what a future for the money I spent with the goal to learn ZXD and to teach it inside EWTO?
Generally speaking as a certified accountant used to international business contracts I would never suggest to any company to sell something without having the clear rules for doing it stated in a written official and registered contract: this is such a basic rule and I think it is totally unprofessional and also dangerous if a company should not follow it.
* MY FINAL EXIT FROM EWTO
For the above described business reasons, as I was not trusting my business partner anymore, I eventually cancelled the contract I had with EWTO and officially left this organisation.
I want to make it clear that before that happened I was always loyal to EWTO as:
1) I did not get any official ZXD-ILC degree even if IT WOULD NOT HAVE BEEN A PROBLEM AS:
There was not any written contract to give the exclusivity of ZXD to EWTO.
SAN MARINO is not part of Italy so it was anyway NOT EVEN INCLUDED in any verbal talking between EWTO and CHIN family.
2) I never taught ZXD-ILC to anybody before of after leaving EWTO as I was not entitled to. Only now that I became 3rd ZXD Student degree and as I attended the Instructor's course and hopefully will become a certified official 1st instructor degree soon, with the Chin Family approval I got last month in Wien, I'm starting to share my ZXD-ILC experiences for the first times in my life; anyway NOT ONE SINGLE PAID LESSON (PRIVATE OR IN GROUP) HAS EVER BEEN GIVEN BY ME TO ANYBODY: I NEVER GAVE ANY LESSON AND GOT PAID FOR!
As I heard strange rumours about when I got my ZXD degrees and that I taught ZXD, I kindly ask these people not to write or say bullshits: if somebody ever tries to blame the Chin family by using my name and the ZXD-ILC degrees I got, or dares to say the bullshit that I taught ZXD-ILC, well this person would be a SHITTY LIAR AND TRICKSTER.
If somebody ever tries to say that anything I wrote here is not the truth I kindly ask this person to say it directly to me as I have EMAILS, MESSAGES, RECORDED CONVERSATIONS, SIGNED CONTRACTS and HOSPITAL OFFICIAL DOCUMENTS to prove anything I wrote.
So dear GM Kernspecht, I will always thank you for introducing me to ZXD, something that would have been impossible without you. I will always care for you and pray for you, and without knowing if it ever happened but just as a kind invitation, I kindly ask you to never mention me in any way and to never put me in connection with any issue you may have including the ones with ZXD-ILC.
With respect and with the hope to meet you and hug you again one day.
Alberto
(or "Mr A. from Italy" as somebody is naming me)
