Detroit Lions Lineman Trains Ving Tsun
In 2011, Detroit Lions lineman Andre Fluellen began training Ving Tsun (wing chun) Kung Fu at the Detroit Kung Fu Academy. Fluellen had started his football career with the NFL in 2008, and Ford Field was nearby. The average NFL player’s career lasts about three years; Fluellen’s spanned eight, with five of those years after he began training Ving Tsun. As a kid, he was intrigued by Bruce Lee and martial arts, and happened to see a film about Yip Man (Ip Man) a couple weeks before seeing the sign for the Detroit school.
Jeff Arnold pic for ESPN. “Detroit Lions lineman Andre Fluellen takes between 5,000 to 10,000 punches each training session.”
The Detroit Free Press took note of Fluellen’s Ving Tsun training, and interviewed him for it:
When Fluellen watched Ely Matson, the academy's program coordinator, demonstrate some of Wing Chun's basic forms, including a move called "gaun sau" in which both hands move simultaneously, one high and one low, he thought to himself, "That's my bread-and-butter move right there."
And the more the Matson brothers talked about Wing Chun's principles, specifically the idea of dominating the space directly in front of you, the more Fluellen thought they sounded like every coach he has ever had.
"A guy who coached me before, he calls it the power circle," Fluellen said. "Our defensive line coach (Kris Kocurek) calls it your inside number. The Wing Chun Sifu, he calls it your centerline. You can't let anybody invade the centerline, so at all cost, you've got to either use your hands or use your body to turn to either defeat the hands or get around the hands. https://web.archive.org/web/20110531233157/http://www.freep.com/article/20110527/SPORTS01/105270432/With-video-Lions-DL-hopes-kung-fu-can-help-his-game?odyssey=mod_sectionstories May 27, 2011 article publication
ESPN also found Fluellen’s Kung Fu practice newsworthy, publishing an article June 6, 2011:
"The first couple of days kind of humbled me because even the littlest women, the littlest people can knock me off my stance, knock me sideways or pull me down," he said. "I was like, 'How is this happening'?"
Fluellen learned Wing Chun has more to do with technique than physical girth. His sifu -- or instructor -- Owen Matson, instructed Fluellen to not give up his centerline but rather, to protect it at all costs.
Fluellen came to view training partners not as fellow Kung Fu pupils, but as offensive linemen, pushing him to perfect precision moves.
Matson has seen Fluellen succeed at a form of Kung Fu other athletes struggle with.
"This doesn't look like what's on TV," Matson said. "But Andre knew it would be different. He values the tradition, he values the training and he digs deep. I often leave it up to the individual student to see how hard they will push. He pushes hard." http://www.espn.com/espn/page2/index?id=6631391
