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Learn about our club
and the art of Qwan Ki Do
Qwan Ki Do History
Qwan Ki Do is a Martial Art with ancient traditions and simultaneously one of the most modern combat types today. At its roots stands a methodology inherited from China and Vietnam.
Master Pham Xuan Tong had the privilege of being a student under Master Chau Quan Ky of Chinese origins and his uncle Master Pham Tru. In this context, it was in 1981 that Master Pham Xuan Tong codified Qwan Ki Do as the elaboration of a single synthesis between Vietnamese martial arts and Kung Fu techniques transmitted to Master Tong by Chinese Master Chau Quan Ky, exponent of the Nga Mi Mountain Tiger Claw and Crane School.
Qwan Ki Do is in fact characterised by a vast technical repertoire made up of: techniques of hands and feet, fists, elbows and knees; grabbing techniques, with levers and projections and sweeping and scissoring techniques; besides techniques of a great variety of traditional weapons, the practice of codified progressions called Thao Quyên.
The totality of these progressions constitutes the archive and their codification guarantees the technical heritage of the school. The competitions correspond to the categories of technique (concatenations with bare hands and weapons) and team combat (bare hands and weapons).
In addition to its physical techniques, Qwan Ki Do also places great importance on moral and ethical values, such as respect, humility, and self-discipline. These values are integrated into the training and philosophy of the martial art.
Qwan Ki Do has gained popularity around the world and has become one of the most widely practiced martial arts in Vietnam.
Salutation
The Qwan Ki Do salutation (Bai) is composed of the opened left hand (representing the emptiness, the Am/Yin polarity) and the closed right hand (representing the fullness, the Duong/Yang polarity; together they symbolise the unity of empty and full.
When joining his/her hands, the Qwan Ki Do practitioner evokes the traditional Far East Asia philosophy connected to Taoism; the hand closed as a fist represents strength, power and agitation; the opened hand represents the gesture of peace, end of aggression and forgiveness.
The right hand’s fist wrapped into the opened left hand symbolises the Human Being submitted to the Law of the Universe.
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Traditions
The true Martial Arts practitioner is the one who has a genuine respect for seemingly insignificant things, such as the Salutation or the Vo Phuc.
The present is the living substance of the past; as a result, this respect is nothing more than a reflection of gratitude to those who laid the groundwork and planted the most ancient seeds of Qwan Ki Do. Seen this way, the Salutation is no longer an automatic gesture; it becomes a real small ceremony in which form no longer matters, the real value being placed on the larger meaning.
Respect your Master or Teacher for all they have done for you, for the long journey made, for the suffering endured, for all the trials faced and finally, for all that they have taught you. Indeed, whatever your results in Martial Arts, you owe them to your Master or Instructor. Without them, alone, you would be nothing.
How could you set out on an unfamiliar path with your free spirit without absolute trust in your guide? Your Master or Instructor then becomes indispensable. They are the one who will lead the way on the path of progress, a difficult path, sprinkled with more or less obvious obstacles. Thanks to him you will be slowly guided on the path of wisdom. They were a student like you. They also had difficult moments that they overcame by gaining experience and knowledge.
Master Pham Xuan Tong
Master Pham Xuan Tong was born on the 17th of July 1947 in Bông Hai, Vietnam. From early childhood he was admitted to the Taoist Temple from the Phú Nhuận district in the south of Vietnam. Subsequently, in 1966, he graduated the Vietnamese Institute of Traditional Medicine (Y Học Cổ Truyền) in Saigon. In 1968, he moved to France where he completed his higher education.
In parallel with the practice of martial arts, he studied traditional medicine, phytotherapy, acupressure, massage and calligraphy. Encyclopaedic personality, Pham Xuan Tong is considered a national treasure by the French state and an invaluable treasure to the practitioners of Qwan Ki Do worldwide.
The name QWAN KI DO was first introduced in 1981 by Master PHÂM Xuan Tong. It was at that time that one first noticed a third influence in the martial art, “French culture”. In fact, recent Western discoveries in physical activity, physiology, and teaching became part of his method.
Since then, Master PHÂM Xuan Tong has been continuously working on his personal development. He managed to resume contact with his Vietnamese students who had sought refuge in various countries. He continued to seize every opportunity to improve in the martial arts that Master Chau Quan Ky and his great-grandfather PHAN Van Miêng had trained him in.