More information on Instructor Carlan Steward
Carlan has a long and diverse history in the various martial arts but the Chinese arts became his central focus for the last 35 years.
Now age 61, Carlan Steward started his studies in martial arts in Judo at age 17.He began studying Korean karate at age 21 while in the military.He began his studies with Andy Ah Po, a first degree black belt instructor with a school near McClellan AFB.After two to three years, Carlan then volunteered to go to Korea just one year after the Pueblo incident occurred and received orders very quickly since the Air National Guard was due to rotate back to the USA.Carlan was able to study with the Grandmaster’s son in Seoul, Korea and was awarded his Black Belt in 1970, just before rotating back to the states.He earned his second and third degree Black Belts under his senior instructor in Sacramento, Grandmaster Mariano Estioko.In 1986 Master Estioko also awarded me the fourth degree Black Belt which Carlan considered to be honorary since he was dedicated to practicing Wing Chun kung fu.Grandmaster William Cheung had just awarded him the designation of Sifu, meaning teacher, in his system of Wing Chun kung fu that same year.
By 1995 Carlan had been practicing martial arts for some 30 years and had been reading the classic writings of the old masters of the internal Chinese arts like tai chi for 25 years.Yet he felt his practice had not led him to the deeper understanding of relaxed internal energy and power that was described in the classic writings.In this year Carlan had the opportunity to study with Master Henry Look, a well known tai chi teacher and student of the famous Kuo Lien Ying.He took the opportunity with the hopes of learning the secrets of internal power described in the classic writings of the old Chinese masters.
In 1996, Carlan met his current teacher, Grandmaster David Chin, Sifu Look’s senior kung fu brother under Master Kuo.Sifu Chin was the second student of Sifu Kuo Lien Ying in this country.Carlan has continued to learn tai chi and chi gung from Grandmaster Chin.Much of Master Chin’s practice is teaching chi gung (health exercises) and tai chi to seniors in the hospitals around Fayetteville, North Carolina.Most of the chi gung and all of the tai chi forms we teach in our school are from Grandmaster Chin’s teachings.
