“No, I’m not Batman,” said David Wolovsky ‘10. “But if I was, I probably wouldn’t tell you anyway.”

Like the superhero, Wolovsky leads a double life. Perhaps most well known for being the editor of the Wesleyan Ampersand, Wolovsky also teaches Five Animal Kung Fu in an hour-long WesWELL class every Tuesday at 4:30 p.m.

Although he is officially certified to train others, Wolovsky never had the inention of becoming a master.

“It was my freshman year of high school, and I went to a really big school in Brooklyn, and it was kind of scary,” Wolovsky said. “I got robbed a few times early on in freshman year, which made me want to learn how to fight, so I started taking lessons at this kung fu school in my neighborhood. Now, I basically have one test before I can open my own kung fu school.”

In order to continue his training while away from home, Wolovsky decided to start teaching kung fu to his fellow students. What started as simply teaching the fighting style to his friends evolved into an official WesWELL class, after he found that the hierarchical master-student relationship didn’t work well with people he hung out with on a regular basis.
Wolovsky practices and teaches Hung Ga kung fu, a Five Animal style developed by a Shaolin temple abbot in southern China that emphasizes close- range combat. The most famous practitioner of the style was Wong Fei Hung, who also happens to be the grand- master of Wolovksy’s great-grandmaster.

“There are a lot of movies about him, like ‘Once Upon a Time in China,’” Wolovsky said. “He sort of took this tiger crane style and mixed it with Hung Ga, and developed the five animals: tiger, crane, leopard, snake, and dragon. And each animal has a different philosophy behind it, like what you’re supposed to feel and do while you’re utilizing the style of each animal. It runs a bit deeper than that, though.”

Wolovsky’s students have quickly embraced the Five Animals fighting style.
“Personally, I always wanted to be like Bruce Lee,” said Jacob Litke ’10, a student in Wolovsky’s class. “And I’ve never taken a WesWELL class before this one, so I thought it would be really fun to try it out. It’s been really great, because I get to show off my moves to my friends after every class.”

Eve Edelman ’13 praised the class for its focus on precision over brute force.

“I was interested in learning some sort of self defense, and Five Animal Kung Fu caught my eye,” Edelman said. “I think the kicks are becoming my specialty, but my favorite move is where you move your hands in a quick circular motion near your opponent’s face to disorient them, and then, while they’re confused, you draw your hands back and shoot them into your opponent’s chest in a hadouken-like shape to make them fly backwards. It’s just plain awesome.”

To master each move takes a lot of time and practice. If the footwork isn’t exactly right, the move loses a lot of its potential strength and effectiveness. In place of the use of simple brute force, this martial arts style trains the body to move in precise ways to maximize momentum and power. 

However, an important question still remains: who would win in a fight: Master Wolovsky or Jackie Chan?

“Wolovsky, hell yeah,” Litke said. “He is my master, after all.”

Edelman was in solid agreement.

“[Chan] might have solid skills,” she added. “But no one stands a chance against Wolovsky’s Tiger Claw.”