World Viet Vo Dao Federation
History, Tradition, and Continuity
The World Viet Vo Dao Federation (WVVDF) was born from the need to consolidate, protect, and promote Viet Vo Dao internationally, enhancing the historical legacy of International Viet Vo Dao as founded and developed by Grand Master Phan Hoang. The creation of the WVVDF represents a fundamental step in the discipline’s development, ensuring continuity, technical consistency, and global growth, drawing on the experience of decades of dissemination and organization in Europe and around the world.
Viet Vo Dao is a comprehensive Vietnamese martial art, integrating technique, spirit, and philosophy, offering practitioners a path of awareness, personal growth, and martial development. The WVVDF aims to preserve these values by organizing courses, seminars, exams, and international events, and by fostering collaboration between schools and Masters to promote cultural and technical exchange globally.
History and Founding Schools
The origins of International Viet Vo Dao date back to the 1960s and 1970s, when Grand Master Phan Hoang arrived in Europe, introducing the Vietnamese discipline and laying the foundation for its international spread. His work was not limited to merely transmitting techniques: he emphasized ethical, cultural, and philosophical principles, making Viet Vo Dao a comprehensive martial art, in which the inner aspect is considered as important as the technical aspect.
Among the historic schools that contributed significantly to the founding of International Viet Vo Dao are: Thanh-Long, Thai-Son-Lam, Han-Bai, Quan-Ky, and the Nghia-Long Institute. These schools, coordinated by Grand Master Phan Hoang, laid the technical, cultural, and organizational foundations of the art, fostering the birth of a unified system capable of respecting the traditions of each school while ensuring consistency and international recognition.
In the following years, International Viet Vo Dao consolidated itself as an international network, coordinating teachers and Masters in various countries, developing shared training methods and examination criteria. This process ensured that the discipline remained faithful to Vietnamese tradition while adapting to the needs of contemporary practice.
Grand Master Phan Hoang – Founder of International Viet Vo Dao
Grand Master Phan Hoang, born in 1936 in Vietnam, is universally recognized as one of the key architects of the spread of Viet Vo Dao in Europe. Arriving in the continent in the 1960s and 1970s, he played a leading role in the encounter between Vietnamese martial arts and Western practitioners, laying the foundations of International Viet Vo Dao.
His work was not limited to technical transmission: he emphasized the integration of ethical, cultural, and philosophical values, making Viet Vo Dao a comprehensive and profound martial art, in which the inner aspect is considered as important as the technical aspect. Phan Hoang coordinated numerous Masters and schools, fostering the development of training methods, examination criteria, and shared practices, drawing from Vietnamese tradition the founding principles of an open, progressive, and rigorous martial art.
Grand Master Phan Hoang continues to play a leading role as a technical and spiritual mentor, guiding and supporting new generations of Masters and practitioners. His vision remains the foundation upon which the discipline’s continuity and the WVVDF project rest.