Wonderful Winston

The handsome Winston Ramsamooj, 31, of San Fernando is seen at many modelling shows, escorting queens on stage, but he is in fact a Kung Fu Master who graduated in China. He is also the Wu Shu champion of TT having taken the winning trophy in Rienzi Complex, Couva, in August last. On approaching his school of Martial Arts of Kung Fu and Thi Chi, Balisier Street, Couva, you hear loud voices. They are the sounds expressed at the end of swift movement in the art of Kung Fu. It is indeed a treat looking at the students go through their routines. The slow instinctive movements of the hand and the feet are admirable.

Taking a moment of his busy schedule to talk to People, Winston said the movements look perfect because of the fact that the students have been able to gain the discipline and skill after many years of learning. “Thousands of people all over the world learn this art for maintaining good health, self defence, and discipline of body and mind,” he explained. “The body must work in accordance with the mind. Actually we think a million thoughts and we are able to act on a few. Getting the body to achieve any goal means it must be carrying positive rhythm, despite the problems people face on a daily basis. This is why this art is so difficult to master and this is why it is so important,” he said. Two years ago, Winston accompanied his tutor, Master Shi Yan Ming to China, where he was involved in a six months workshop taking his Kung Fu a step further. He was able to live in the monastery where the Buddhist monks carry on the art of Martial Arts. He was one of 200 students who were chosen from many parts of the world. He remains one of the most qualified tutors in his field locally.

Remembering his childhood days attending the Grant Memorial School, San Fernando, he saw a poster of Bruce Lee at the cinema and he was so carried away by the fact that this man was in a flying position with a stick in his hand that he tore off the poster and ran home with it. He could not wait to see the movie. And at the tender age of six, Winston was practising what he saw in the Chinese movie. He would not miss any action film that came with Bruce Lee, and he spent most of his day trying the moves by himself. Then when he became a teenager, he learnt from the Discovery Channel that there was a school in USA for Martial Arts. He convinced his parents about making the trip and he was on his way to meet his tutor, Master Shi Yan Ming. He amazed everyone with the progress he made in three months’ time. “It was as if I was teaching myself all my life. I just had to get the correct lines to move my hand and feet and I was qualified in three months for a ‘six- year’ course,” he said. He learnt the Martial Art of Kung Fu, and Thi Chi to the highest level within his two years in the USA.

He explained that in the art of Fung Ku, the fighter uses nature’s technique. In that, the tiger’s claw and the dragon move, the fish eye move, the snake movement and also the winds spin that takes the body into the air were introduced. “In the ancient days, the Chinese would look at the animals in the forest and learn the art of self defence from them and this is really nature’s technique,” he said. In the old days in the great wars of China, fighters would use the sword, cutlasses, fish knives in place of guns that came long after, he added.  In Thi Chi the moves are slower and more defined. “The moves help the spirit travel through the body to develop a greater awareness of the self. It is doing devotion with the body. This is recommended for the Kung Fu fighters who are 50 years and over.

Winston has since returned to Trinidad and has produced scores of Kung Fu and Thi Chi fighters. He has regular classes in Palms Club, San Fernando and in Couva. He said that he has chosen to teach these arts as a profession and he is already attaining great success from this venture. “There is a need to push this art in Trinidad and Tobago. It disciplines the mind and this is important in today’s society where there is the presence of so much ignorance and violence. And there are many of the students who cannot keep up with the discipline involved in these arts but many have been at the school for more than three years,” he said. There is a certain kind of depth you see when you look into Winston’s eyes. It is as if he is talking from his soul. He rarely ever smiles and is to the point.