I thought i'd share with the Scorum community the type of Chinese Kungfu I train in and an insight into the art form 10 years on from when I first started training back in the UK. Pictured below you can see me practising Chi Sau, a fundamental form of fighting practice which helps to develop close range fighting skills involving controlling and trapping the opponents arms and legs whilst attacking their heart line.
What is Wing Chun?
Wing Chun is a type of Southern Chinese Boxing and was believed to have been created roughly 300 years ago by a Buddhist nun who was a Master in Shaolin Kung Fu. She formed the art after one day observing a Crane fighting a Snake. The nun was training for a fight in order to win a bet made with a suitor. This suitor was trying to force her to marry him. She knew the man would take the bet that if she defeated him in hand to hand combat he would stop pursuing her - he obviously presumed his physical superiority alone would be too much for her. So the man agreed to the fight and lost! She was free to go.
This Guy (Master Wong) is a Little Crazy But Executes Some of the Wing Chun Moves Very Well...
Bruce Lee's Influence on the Art
Bruce Lee is regarded as Wing Chun's most famous and highest profile practitioner. Ironically Bruce is Asia's most famous ever martial arts star (regarded in higher esteem than even the likes of Jackie Chan and Jet Li) yet his main martial art is one of the less known throughout the entire western world.
Bruce Lee built his philosophy of fighting (Jeet Kune Do) on the back of Wing Chun. One common misunderstanding of his philosophy by many fans is believing this was a new martial art system. In fact it was merely a philosophy for how to fight, not what to do when fighting. Bruce's philosophy is pretty much at the heart of Wing Chun - to intercept the opponent's attack rather than to block it and then counter.
Fantastic Video Showing Bruce Lee's Way of Thinking and Fighting Based on Chinese Kungfu & Philosophy
Living in Thailand, Training in Vietnam
I have learnt Wing Chun in 5 different countries, with 2 of them having a completely different way of teaching the art which is not without it's challenges. In the current country I live in - Thailand there is no Hong Kong Wing Chun (the style I train in) so it's difficult to train here now. Thailand is mainly full of Muay Thai gyms (surprise surprise) and some MMA classes. So I regularly fly across to Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam to train and assist with a Hong Kong Wing Chun school there run by a very nice Vietnamese man called Hieu Vinh Xuan. Unlike many teachers Hieu is actually very welcoming towards students who train in different styles of Wing Chun. Below you can see me with some of his schools students.
Criticism of Wing Chun in MMA Circles
Wing Chun comes under a lot of criticism within MMA circles and in my view their is some merit behind this criticism. The art has not adapted well to other fighting styles, in fact it's had little exposure in MMA and for a fighter to become truly good at Wing Chun they need to train by fighting other types of styles. One of the main reasons behind this is the fact that many Wing Chun students do not fight each other, they only practice Chi Sau. Students need to fight each other and get use to the initial engagement side of a fight rather than just the close proximity part.
I have started to practice fighting with Wing Chun against different styles of fighters including Western Boxers, Karate and Ju Jitsu fighters. This has already given me a much greater insight into fighting in general than I would ever learn sticking to practising my martial art with fellow Wing Chun practitioners. My advice to any martial artist - don't just stick to training your art against fellow students if you want to be good at it.
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