The Loss, The Lesson and The Legacy

Quite the contrary, his final months were lived as he had lived his entire life – constantly traveling and teaching kungfu. And when I say constantly, this is not an exaggeration. One only needs to visit his FaceBook page to see current videos of him working with students, many of them larger than him, and all of them younger than him across the European Wing Tsun Organization.

These videos show a man of health, vigor, and an extraordinary level of martial skill handily dealing with persons of size, and athleticism by his use of technique, leverage, skill, and tactile reflexes.

He was in every sense an Üֹbermensch, someone who achieved that which is “beyond” what most ordinary men achieve. Yet he always remained a true Mentsch – a person of honor and integrity. Without a doubt, he always had a passion to build up others by educating, training, teaching, inspiring and motivating them to exceed not only their own limitations, but also their own imaginations.

I haven’t posted to this Blog in some time, so it is fitting to take this opportunity to honor of my departed friend. Let me share with you the story of how I met GM Keith Kernspecht for the first time and the lifelong impact he has made on my life as he has on so many others.

For 32 years Keith Ronald Kernspecht, the man dubbed as “The Kaiser of Kung Fu,” by Black Belt magazine, would be an inspiration, a mentor, a wise counsel, and above all a beloved friend to me. Though we were kungfu brothers, he was the same age as my own father. A few years back my father accompanied me on a trip to Italy where he and GM Kernspecht had a chance to meet. Both being from that same generation who grew up in the aftermath of WWII, GM Kernspecht and my father got along well. After sharing dinner and a long conversation with him, my father told me, “I really like Keith, he is an amazing man and I can tell he loves you like a son.”

I first met Sifu Keith Kernspecht on May 16, 1992 at a seminar he held in Saarbrücken, Germany. Having enlisted in the U.S. Air Force in 1991, I was later stationed at Ramstein Airbase, Germany following my boot camp and technical training.

I can say wholeheartedly that enlisting in the U.S. Air Force was one of the most consequential decisions of my life. Not only because it shaped my formative years, but because it caused me to cross paths with GM Kernspecht. Looking back, my life would have been vastly different had I not met him.

Though I had trained in Wing Tsun kungfu since 1985, there were perhaps only 15+ schools spread across the entire United States. In Germany on the other hand, there were close to 400 schools at that time which had been established through the efforts of GM Kernspecht and his EWTO. This does not include the other branches of his organization throughout the European continent. Naturally the standard of instruction was very high and coming from a comparatively tiny organization in the USA, it was literally a dream come true for me.

Shortly after arriving in country, I made contact with a local instructor named Jörg Weber who ran a chain of around 6 training groups in the area. Within less than two weeks, I was accompanying him and his students to Saarbrücken for a seminar with then Master Kernspect. For the next 3 and 1/2 years, I would attend these quarterly seminars, as well as special annual events in Wiesenbach without fail. The only exception being the one time I had a severe flu.

Each local seminar would typically begin with GM Kernspecht breaking the mass of participants into smaller groups based on rank and showing each group what to start working on. For the remainder of the time, he would constantly rotate, moving from one group to the next to give them individual instruction. At the time, I marveled at how he tirelessly went from group to group, again and again, practically without a break. Naturally with such large numbers of participants, often 200 or more, there were other instructors on hand to assist with the instruction as he cycled through the groups.

Upon arriving at our group, Jörg Weber walked me over to GM Kernspecht and formally introduced me. Before leaving the USA, I had actually written a letter to GM Kernspecht introducing myself and telling him I was an American student of Grandmaster Leung Ting who would be stationed in Germany that May.

He remembered and greeted me warmly, then we chatted for a while. As things turned out, we had the same Si-Fu (GM Leung Ting) which created an interesting situation. In Germany GM Kernspecht was the only direct student of GM Leung Ting, which made me his Si-Dai (younger kungfu brother). Everyone else in Germany was either his To-Dai (direct student), or a student of one of his own students. I remember this initially caused some confusion with others around me, because I addressed him as Si-Hing (older kungfu brother) and not Si-Fu (kungfu father) or Si-Kung (kungfu grandfather) as everyone else in Germany did. This coupled with me being “the American,” initially made me stand out.

Well as we spoke, I let him know that I would be stationed in Germany for at least three years and had the goal of learning as much as I could in order to teach when I returned to America. He understood and explained to me that though the forms, basic lat-sau and chi-sau training were the same internationally, the EWTO student program was based heavily on the specific lat-sau fighting program which he had developed. Though I was Student Grade 11 (an assistant instructor rank), I would need to learn those EWTO programs before advancing and that Jörg would see to my on-going training locally.

Previously, I had been exposed to the first three levels of this lat-sau program by a German instructor named Thomas Dolnitzki who had visited the USA in the late 1980’s. GM Kernspecht was aware of this and told me, “So Jeff, you are free to go to whichever group you think you belong and start there.” Humbly, I opted for the group at Student Grade 4.

After training with that group for some time, we were instructed to begin practicing Wing Tsun’s second empty-hand form known as Chum-Kiu. At one point that afternoon, GM Kernspecht walked over with Sifu Thomas Mannes, the head instructor of that area and watched me performing the form. As they were discussing, I remember GM Kernspecht telling Sifu Mannes in German, “Ein schöne Chum-Kiu,” (meaning a nice looking Chum-Kiu performance).

What happened next took me totally by surprise…GM Kernspecht walked over to me, pulled me aside, called the group to gather round, gave them a quick explanation and then began to walk away.

At this point I was standing in front of a group of about 20-25 strangers that I had been practicing with – all staring at me. Though I had learned some German before arriving in country, I didn’t fully understand what he had just announced to them. So before he walked off I said, “Excuse me, Sir. I’m sorry, I didn’t understand what you told them,” to which GM Kernspecht replied, “Oh, I told them your Chum-Kiu form looks just like GM Leung Ting’s and that you would be leading the form for them,” then he just smiled and walked away. Wow. For a moment I was in shock, but being freshly out of military boot camp, I simply did what I was told to do. I lined everyone up and began leading them through the form.

I continued doing this for the remainder of that portion of the seminar, leading them in unison to perform Chum-Kiu, then making corrections on students while trying to speak to them in broken German. Though many younger Germans spoke some English, the only language we really had in common was Wing Tsun itself.

This was my first impression of GM Kernspecht which revealed something about his character, something which I believe made him such an exceptional leader. He had an uncanny ability to read people and bring out the leadership abilities within them. It didn’t matter whether you could see these things within yourself, he could see them and knew how to encourage them.

Here I was a young assistant instructor with little experience, a foreigner with barely a rudimentary grasp of their language, put in front of a large group of people and told to lead them. Was I nervous? Yes, absolutely! But it was a test of my character, and an opportunity to groom a young instructor in the making.

Gratefully, this became the first of many occasions over the years where GM Kernspecht helped me grow in my confidence by confronting my own limitations. One of many opportunities to face something daunting and learn to overcome it.

One weekend in early 1994, a couple of my training partners and I decided to drive to Frankfurt for a seminar with GM Kernspecht for some extra training. At that time, the Frankfurt group was rather huge and that particular seminar was broken down into one day for the students and another day for the instructor levels.

Well, we inadvertently arrived on the day scheduled for the younger students. Since it was a bit of a drive, each of us decided to just go ahead and stay. Surprised but happy to see me, GM Kernspecht’s response was, “Well then, you‘ll just have to assist me in teaching the beginners.” Once again I was tasked to lead a group learning the Chum-Kiu form. Hmm…

This time however there were over 50 students, but I was more than confident the handle this task. Looking back, GM Kernspecht surely remembered putting me in this same situation just two years earlier. No longer was I the foreigner who could barely speak German, and inexperienced at teaching groups. Now I was a well-trained instructor, fluent in the language, and confident in myself. Truly, this was one of my fondest memories of my time in Germany and I can’t express how proud I was each time he passed by the group and gave me an approving nod while I was teaching.

For over the next three decades he would continue to have a significant impact on my development as a teacher and leader in a number of ways. From 2001 to 2007, I ended up leading the American organization, a challenging task under the rather mercurial direction of my former teacher GM Leung Ting.

But GM Kernspecht who had years of experience dealing with this himself was always an invaluable source of support and advice for me throughout that period. Even afterwards, when I chose to leave the IWTA and form my own National Ving Tsun Organization, GM Kernspecht continued to offer his advice and support, as well as his continuing instruction to me, for which I was always grateful.

In closing, we are all still trying to process the incalculable loss of GM Kernspecht. All who knew him are profoundly saddened by his untimely passing. Over the past two days, I’ve texted and spoken with colleagues of mine overseas whose lives he has personally touched. Close friends who many would consider “tough martial artists” have, like myself, all been brought to tears by his passing. He won’t be there at the next seminar, and we can’t just reach out via text or email anymore. He’s gone, and the world is a poorer place without him.

When one exceptional man has filled so many roles in the lives of so many others, such as Si-Fu, Si-Kung, Si-Hing, teacher, mentor, guide, role-model, life coach, motivator, leader, or even friend; it leaves an inevitable void.

But as I ponder mortality, his and our own, I am left realizing that he is not totally gone. For Keith R. Kernspecht has left us with two things: a lesson and a legacy. So as long as we remember and honor that, he will always be with us.

His lesson quite simply was his example: continue to work and improve, to strive for perfection, invest your time in others, guide them, mentor them, innovate, be a lifelong seeker of knowledge, think outside the box, ask yourself the hard questions, and above all be the kind of leader that inspires others to do the same.

But what of his legacy you ask? It’s each of us who knew him and learned from him. In us, his teachings will continue on. For each of us, has the same opportunity to inspire others and to help them experience the personal growth that he so passionately guided us to achieve. And in doing so, we can continue to experience that growth ourselves.

My prayers are thoughts are with my Wing Tsun family in Europe and especially with Sigi, Natalie, GM Bill, Giuseppe and Oliver.
For my Si-Hing Keith, I wish you a good journey to the other side my friend. I will miss you, but we will see each other again some day. As always with love and respect,
– Jeff