Vance Young first started practicing martial arts at the age of 6 when his father took up the study of Yang Style Tai Chi Chuan. Vance accompanied his father and learnt the Yang style long form, a cane form, as well as the Tai Chi Sword form.
In the Spring of 1986, Vance was introduced through a family friend to shifu Tony Chuy who was teaching a children’s class in Transfiguration Church in New York Chinatown. Since then, Vance has studied the Northern Praying Mantis System under shifu Chuy. During the school’s 16th Anniversary in 1998 and in the presence of his family, friends, and classmates, Vance Young underwent his Bai Si ceremony and was made a disciple of the Northern Praying Mantis System under Master Tony Chuy.
In April 2001, Vance Young traveled to Hong Kong and through an introduction by shifu Chuy, had the honor of meeting and training with shifu Yuan Wen Jie (Yuen Man Kai). During this trip, he was also privileged to have met shifu Su Shao Ming (So Siu Ming), a senior classmate of both shifu Yuan Wen Jie and shifu Li Da Chong. Although Vance’s visit in Hong Kong was brief, he greatly appreciates the opportunity to have met with elders of this system.
Although Vance has been authorized by Master Tony Chuy to teach on his own, he remains as an assistant instructor at Master Chuy’s school in NYC.