Kung Fu Artist of the Year: Alan Goldberg
by Sara Fogan

There are probably as many reasons to study the martial arts as there are people who practice them. Some start training because they’re intrigued with the history and philosophy of a traditional style. Others want to learn how to defend themselves and protect their loved ones. Many are attracted to the excitement they see in action films, while others enjoy the thrill of competition. If you were to ask Alan Goldberg why he got into the martial arts, he’d probably place a check mark next to “all of the above.”

Like many 10-year-olds, Goldberg first turned to the fighting arts to learn how to fend off bullies. He went on to earn his chops in wing chun, chi kung, five-animal kung fu, shotokan karate, and Okinawan and Chinese weaponry. Forty-three years of experience later, the Brooklyn, New York, resident is widely regarded as a pioneer in transplanting the Chinese arts to America. He’s currently the highest-ranked wing chun practitioner under Jason Lau.

“When I started, no one knew what wing chun was,” says Goldberg, who spent five years learning the style at a martial arts temple. “It was just something unusual to try to see what it was about.”

Goldberg was so smitten with wing chun that he never let it out of his mind. Despite the amount of time he must devote to his business endeavors, he’s never far from a training mat. He credits the no-nonsense system with mentally preparing him to wear so many professional hats. “It’s a very economical style,” he says. “It’s streamlined my life. I’m a very busy person, [and] I’m able to make compartments of my life and work every day like that.”

In the 1990s, Goldberg created a self-defense course called Law Enforcement Survival Systems for the officers of an emergency-service unit in New York. Although they no longer use it, he continues to teach the ultra-effective program to a select group of 35 wing chun students.

Goldberg is a founding member of Bob Wall’s WorldBlackBelt and vice president of Shaolin Brand Products. Each year, he hosts the Mega Martial Arts Weekend in Atlantic City, New Jersey. In his spare time, he produces martial arts trading cards and publishes Action Martial Arts Magazine, the largest free publication in the American martial arts community.

Indeed, the 53-year-old master has gained a reputation for giving things away—whether it’s free tickets to his standing-room-only events, free seminars for those who attend his convention or free lessons for students who lack the resources to pay. “Just about everything I do is giving back to the martial arts,” he says.

For all he’s given to his students and wing chun practitioners everywhere, Black Belt is pleased to give something to Alan Goldberg: the title of 2004 Kung Fu Artist of the Year.

About the author: Sara Fogan is the managing editor of Black Belt.