SIFU FRANK MCCARTHY

Sifu Frank Joseph McCarthy a.k.a. Jew Hung Loong has been doing martial arts for the most part of his life. Both his father and older brother were black belts in Karate, and they were his main inspiration to travel along the same path. He started with Karate, then moved on to Tai Mantis, and eventually on to Tai Kwan Do, all before the age of 13. Still, none of these styles were what he was searching for, so he quit the lessons and sticking to his street fighting abilties for the time being.

After moving from the Mission district to the Sunset district, Sifu McCarthy eventually joined the Tien Loong Gung Fu Club which was basically just across the street from where he lived. Hung Sing Choy Lee Fut was exactly what he was looking to study.

As a child Sifu Frank grew up around Latino's, African American's, and Asians, and rarely any Caucasians. However, outside of the Mission District there was an obvious rift between Chinese and Non Chinese. Sifu McCarthy had no idea that the usual case Chinese Gung Fu schools would turn away non Chinese from learning Chinese martial arts. Because of this he knew it would only take time before they (the Chinese at the Tien Loong Gung Fu club) accepted him since he wasn't your typical "CAUCASIAN." It was the same way for him while living in the Mission District where he would actually get into a lot of street fights for not being a so-called minority. In that type of situation he learned how to adapt and blend into his surroundings, eventually becoming a product of his environment.

However, over time the Chinese disciples under Grand Master Salvatera slowly began to accept him. Since Sifu McCarthy lived on the same street, he stopped hanging out with street thugs and devoted all his time (outside of High School) to practicing gung fu.

Unfortunately, a couple of years later Sifu McCarthy's younger brother was struck by a car and put into a coma for 2 weeks. Mixed with the passing of Sifu McCarthy's mother, then the accident with his younger brother, these tragic incidences cause their family to split up and Sifu McCarthy and his brother were placed into Foster Homes until they were 18 years old.

For Sifu McCarthy this unfortunate situation eventually took him too far tocontinue his training under Grand Master Salvatera. But, until that time he would do what ever it took to make it to class and participate in the Lion Dances. During his time away from the Tien Loong Gung Fu Club, Sifu McCarthy was spreading Choy Lee Fut's name whereever he was living. But the time away from the gung fu studio cause Sifu McCarthy to get involved with street gangs where he used and refined the gung fu he already learned.

Meanwhile, Sifu Frank hooked up with a couple of friends who were also martial artists, all from different styles. Although he couldn't actively practice at the Tien Loong Gung Fu Club he practiced everything he learned and stayed only with the Choy Lee Fut style. Whenever he and his two friends (Harry Salas and Alan Bartolome) got together it was nonstop sparring no matter where they were be it in the kitchen, living room, in a mall, or even out in the streets. "We used go out cruising and we’ be throwing punches at each other in the car until we got to a red light. Then the cars doors would swing open and all 3 of us would spill out into the streets in a flurry of kicks and punches. People who saw this was like ‘what the hell? Then we’d just pile into the car when the light turned green and keep on going until the next light and it would start all over again. That is one of the reasons we became known as the 3 Deadly Dragons" adds Sifu McCarthy.

In 1987 only two months after turning 19 years old sifu McCarthy was involved in a serious accident where he ended up paralyzed from the waist down resulting from a 50 ft fall. He broke 3 parts of his back, almost died within the first 3 hours of surgery, and was told he would never walk again. This tore him up inside because aside from walking, he would never be able to practice gung fu again, which for him was even more devestating news.

Still, Sifu McCarthy has been a survivor since childhood, and turning to his figther within along with Mental Gung Fu, a form of meditation that originally was meant to aid him in memorizing his gung fu techinqiues he managed to revive his legs and did what everyone believed he wouldn’t. On January 11, 1988 he walked out of that hospital in only two of the expected 6 month recovery stay there, turning all of his doctors into liars.

Around 1991, Sifu McCarthy’s recovery from his accident had come to a stand still. He walked with two canes and literally was taking one step at a time. His recovery wasn’t moving fast enough so he decided that gung fu was going to become his savior. On the two canes, he returned to the Tien Loong Gung Fu Club and asked regardless of his physical condition to be let back into the school. Grand Master Salvatera then took him personally under his wing and foresaw all of his training first hand.The first stage of Grand Master Salvatera’s plan was to start over from scratch, and made him practice the various Choy Lee Fut horses which eventually began to rebuild the strength in his legs as well as stability. Then it was the running horses mixed along with the Hung Sing Chut Sing Kuen stances which slowly helped him to regain his mobility and the confidence to try and take it to the next level. And the final phase of Grand Master Salvatera’s plan was basically forms practice retraining him from scratch how to maneuver in the Choy Lee Fut manner.

Over time as he progressively got stronger and stronger, Sifu McCarthy began to compete against world class performers, even managing to take home a few 1^st and 2^nd place trophies in the process. Little did his competitors know that he wasn’t nearly ready to compete, but sifu McCarthy was determined to get back to normal as much as possible so he never let them know about his condition.

Sometime in the mid 1990's Sifu McCarthy earned the title of Sifu under Grand Master Dino Salvatera. Ever since, he has worked hard at promoting Professor Lau Bun’s legacy by reaching out to other Hung Sing Kwoon’s around the world, reminding them that they still had one of their own in America. According to Sifu McCarthy, the Hung Sing Lineage in America was locked away tightly within the walls of Chinatown, behind the scenes and out of sight from the non-chinese public for decades, so no one outside of San Francisco really ever knew we existed, especially in Asia until I began my co-respondance.

In the mean time Sifu McCarthy began teaching small groups of people. Included in his students was a man named Henry who is in a wheel chair, partially paralyzed from the neck down, whose dream was to learn martial arts but because of his handicap believed it would never happen. Henry couldn’t open his hands so Sifu McCarthy worked with his limitations and taught him to use the crane techniques, elbows, upper cuts and even sow choys, as well as various blocking techniques. Sifu McCarthy also taught Henry how to use his electric wheelchair as a weapon if needed.

Then in October of 2001 Sifu McCarthy along with two of his classmates and Grand Master Salvatera took a trip to China to Participate in the 150^th anniversary of the organization of the Fut San Hung Sing Kwoon. There, Grand Master Salvatera has managed to retrace Professor Lau Buns roots to which to have been proven to be true and authentic Fut San Hung Sing Choy Lee Fut by the Fut San elders. During their trip, Sifu McCarthy was faced with a unique opportunity, and with the blessings Grand Master Salvatera, he took Master Lok Gee Hung as his Fut San Hung Sing Kwoon Sifu, who was a senior student of the late Ho Cheurng.