Master Andrew Sofos began his training on a very cold January evening in 1978. Although he had studies martial arts for four years, he found that Wing Chun was the system that best matched his philosophy. 

Master Andrew Sofos

Master Andrew gives us an account of how it was in earlier days of his training.

“The Wing Chun history has always fascinated me from the very early days of my training.  I had to research the history in many ways; from books, which were confusing as each master had their own story. I also booked very expensive seminars. The best way, I found, to get the TRUTH was to win over Yip Man’s (the Grand Master) students, by way of putting them up in my home, showing them around town and building the relationship out of respect.

The late Grandmaster Moy Yat stayed with me for a week, as did Master James De-Mile in 1989, one of Bruce Lee’s original students. I attended seminars by the late Grandmaster Wong Shun Leung (Bruce Lee’s teacher) and two others who are alive and well today; Grandmaster William Cheung and Grandmaster Leung Ting. I also had the pleasure of meeting Yip Chun (Yip Man’s eldest son), Kenneth Chun and Dan Perzold (Grandmaster Jim Lau’s top student).

My early days were with Siman Lau and although classes were good, it was time to move on, so I had to perservere, build trust and earn respect with all the masters to gain the knowledge. Which has provided me with authentic teachings from the original masters, which is invaluable.

Since then, over three decades have passed and Master Andrew Sofos has appeared on numerous TV documentaries: ‘The Way of the Warrior’, ‘Fighters’ and ‘Combat Masters’ and many West End stages. The highlight of which, was performing at The Saddlers Wells theatre to a full house.

He has been involved with many charities including Great Ormond Street Hospital, CLAPA, Whizz Kidz, Thalassemia, Cancer Research, Multiple Sclerosis Society and many others. More recently, Action for Kids.

He has carried out security work for countless VIPs, diplomats, including Lennox Lewis, Steven Segal, Simply Red, Wham and Sir Bob Geldof and for a time ran his own security firm. This led him to work abroad, to which there are many hair-raising tales.

Today Master Sofos dedicates his life to teaching and sharing the many gems this breathtaking martial art has to offer. Since 1987 he has taught at the Imperial College of Science, Technology and Medicine in South Kensington and the Univeristy College London in Euston. See Univeristy branches.

He has performed demonstrationas and organised workshops for the Police, Navy and Army and helped at the YMCA, Buster Bully Project, Hearing Impaired groups and Rape Victim support group.

Master Andrew also produced two sell out shows for Charity, “Between Two Worlds” and ” The Spirit of Kung Fu”. He also went to the Himalayas in 1997 and reached the base camp of Mt Everest where he was met by various Buddhist monks from Nepal and Tibet.

In 2005 Master Andrew Sofos created SAS Combat Activities Ltd which umbrellas the SAS Martial Arts Academy (Est. 1986 for the private sector) and Body and Soul (Est. 2004, Sports for the public sector)

The Wing Chun Kung Fu training has been taken into schools, colleges and universities, into Special educational needs, Pupil Referral units and working with several London boroughs, to provide a quality service to Young People.

Master Andrew has been working intensively with his expert team of senior instructors to prepare them for their 8th Rank Grading which consists of the Wing Chun Weapons, Pole and Butterfly knives, the Bil Jee 3rd Form, multiple fighting and strong floor takedowns are a few of their challenges the training started since 2005-2009, The completion of their grading will be a great achievement for the SAS Martial Art Academy, as the 3 senior instructors will gain their “Sifu” Title, after more than 10 years of training.

29th September 2007 was an excellent day – the SAS Laid on a double production show at the Bloomsbury theatre, organised By Master Andrew and his team of instructors, two productions of breathtaking martial arts skills the matinee performance titled Zen Zone was performed by nearly 70 young persons from 5 different boroughs of North London, the evening performance titled Tao –The way of the warrior was also a great success performed in front of 500 persons including 4 London mayors and two MPs with distinguished guest from Great Ormond Street hospital and the NSPCC.

Since 2008 Master Andrew has enrolled his martial academy with governing bodies for national recognised accreditation via AQA and ASDAN, has also registered with Learning skills council, the national skills academy and the London Development agency. SAS Wing Chun has really taken off to new heights, from teaching in the streets of White City Hammersmith, in barking and Dagenham to Universities in Kensington Imperial College and Euston at the University College London.