Andrew Shinn
Praying Mantis Shifu
The information presented in this chart was collected from different sources -see Bibliography-, therefore the romanizations in Pinyin according to the Mandarin pronunciation of the characters sometimes is not available. If you find any mistakes or inaccuracies please contact me.
Student of shifu Sun Po Wen.
Shifu Andrew Shinn was born on March 30, 1974 in Chicago. Andrew is the son of a Russian Orthodox priest, and the eldest of five children. As a child, shifu Shinn's family moved about fairly frequently, finally settling in Philadelphia in 1985. Once in Philadelphia, shifu Shinn had the opportunity to begin studying martial arts, training Shotokan Karate, Tae Kwon Do, and Juijitsu before finding shifu Steve L. Sun, who is known for his Fujian style southern fist, and Tai Ji Quan.
Shifu Shinn has been training praying mantis under shifu Sun Po Wen since 1990 and in 1995 became the first student to receive an instructor's ranking having trained solely in the Praying Mantis style as taught by shifu Sun Po Wen.
Under shifu Sun's guidance, shifu Shinn has also learnt Long Fist, Monkey and Six Harmonies Fist as well as various traditional weapons.
While working to complete a Bachelor's degree in Political Science and Asian Studies at Temple University, shifu Shinn also managed to become a nationally ranked competitor specializing in traditional weapons forms.
To further cultivate his skills, Andrew has also begun training in Chen style Tai Ji Quan under shifu Ren Guangyi.
Shifu Shinn has also trained under shifu Chao Hsiao and shifu Zhang Li.
Page Updated: 1st November 2000.
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Fernando Blanco Dopazo .