Salih Avci

Salih Avci is a Wing Tsun and Escrima martial artist.

Summary

Sifu Salih Avci (pronounced: aavji) is one of the chief trainers of the SEK, MEK, ZUZ and GSG 9 in Germany as well as various other special forces ranging from the American Rapid Response Team (RRT) in Chicago to the special police of one of China's biggest provinces. He is a security consultant for the Ministry of Justice in Germany. He was born in Turkey in 1962 and moved to Germany in 1971. He has started training Wing Tsun in 1980 in the European Wing Tsun Organization (EWTO). In 1986 he attained the 1st technician degree. In 1997, he left EWTO to found WTEO (Wing Tsun-Escrima Organization). He is still the world chief trainer of the organization. As today, there are more than 8000 students of WTEO excluding law enforcement forces. There are more than 70 schools of WTEO alone in Germany and several others in Holland, Italy, France, Austria, Spain, Jordan, and Turkey.

Since 1997, Sifu (Chinese for paternal teacher, master) Salih Avci has been the head and chief trainer of the young and dynamic martial arts organisation. As head of the Organisation, Sifu Salih Avci is responsible for the standard of the instructors’ training and the students. He leads the official seminars that take place around the world.

He has been training the SEK (Spezialeinsatzkommandos: special police commandos)of the largest German federal state North Rhine-Westphalia (NRW) since 1992 in the areas of safety and interference techniques. The NRW Police Force is the biggest of the 16 German state police forces due to the fact that almost a quarter of the German population lives in NRW.

In 1996 Sifu Salih Avci became a member of a working group organised by the Ministry of Justice of NRW that had the task of revising and setting new guidelines for law enforcement. The new techniques of Avci WingTsun/Escrima were introduced into law enforcement in NRW. Other public organisation were including Avci WingTsun/Escrima into their training. The Customs Office and the Federal Bureau of Criminal Investigations use Sifu Salih Avci’s experiences and abilities for training their task forces.The positive results that were reaped from Sifu Salih Avci’s system during real-life dangerous situations resulted in the training of the police of NRW Avci WingTsun/Escrima. These techniques are now being applied on a daily basis by officials in NRW. Other Federal States in Germany have stated their interests in incorporating Avci WingTsun/Escrima into their officials’ training.

Arriving to Germany in the 1970s

Sifu Salih Avci was born on the 6th of May, 1962 in Karasu, on the Turkish Black Sea coast. He is the eldest son, with two sisters and a brother. After their father’s emigration to Germany in 1964, the whole family followed in the 1970s. After completing high school and a two-year stay in Turkey he started his technical training in the field of electro-mechanical machinery equipment.

He started his training in the Chinese combat art WingTsun in 1980 and two years later the Philippine stick and weapon combat art of Escrima.

Opening the first martial arts school in 1984

At the end of 1984 the first martial arts school was officially opened in Aachen, west of Cologne, the largest city in NRW, and trained the two combat arts Wing Tsun and Escrima. Others followed in the next couple of years around the same town. Today there are 100 schools and over 60,000 students (including police and law enforcers) in Germany, with Sifu Salih Avci as the highest level instructor.

By 1986 he had dedicated himself exclusively to the professional instruction of the martial art. He was invited to various combat training courses and in 1992 he was invited to demonstrate his techniques before the Director of the special forces of NRW, who was impressed by the highly effective skills of the martial artist.

Until today, Sifu Salih Avci is the coach of the special forces of the state of NRW. The involvement has led to developments in the police interference and arresting techniques, resulting in substantial improvements in the dangerous fields of work. There have been apparent results in which the frequency of injuries incurred by official male and female officers has been reduced with the application of the new techniques.

Understanding the art

Sifu Salih Avci’s unique approach to the combat art lies in the practical application of his techniques to disarm and arrest without the use of excessive force or weapons, even in life-threatening situations. Sifu Salih Avci does not focus solely on unarmed techniques. He has developed traditional short and long stick techniques to be used efficiently and practically without causing unnecessary harm to the person being arrested. A general-purpose tool for protection, disarming and arresting was the result of Sifu Salih Avci’s practical modification of the “tonfa”, which is used by the police. This has resulted in the reduction of the use of firearms during interference and arrest.

Apart from the realistic application and professional use of self defence and arresting techniques for civilians and officials, Sifu Salih Avci trains actors and fight choreographers for film and television.

Family and four children

Sifu Salih Avci married in 1993 and he and Mrs. Bilgi now have three sons and two daughters.

Sifu Salih Avci is a role model for a whole generation of martial artists and an exemplification of the characteristics of patience, compassion, hard work, reliability and confidence.

External links

* [http://www.awte.org/ingilizce/info.html Biography]
* [http://www.wteo.org WTEO Main Web Site in German and English]
* [http://www.wteobursa.com WTEO Bursa Grubu]