Denver Wing Chun Articles

Martial arts Video and training.

2012-02-01T10:44:00.000-08:00

Many people engage in martial arts training to learn a “trick”. They think they are going to learn a cool kick/punch, or some other kind of almost magical unknown technique, that will end every confrontation. After a few years most of us learn that this really magical unknown technique, doesn’t exist. We realize that the body is a machine and it’s limitations can be readily understood by all.

So we give up on that idea, and we move on to the next bit of magic tricks. We start looking for either, a mental trick, a spiritual trick or an energy trick. We want to find a way that our minds, spirits or ki/chi can do the magic. While many spend forever looking for these tricks, most of us, again, settle down and realize that these are not all we fantasize them to be.

Slowly most of us learn that these things all come with dedication, perseverance, honest sweat and hard work. It only looks like a trick to the uninformed, who don’t understand that it took time to learn these things, and that if it could be given over night, it truly would be just a “trick”.

However most of us continue to fool our selves. We think that training in the martial arts is going to some how make us an amazing fighter. We might shrug it off, and say that we train in the peaceful way, and fighting is something we actually want to avoid. However it’s impossible to deny your interest in physical conflict. Because the study of physical conflict IS the study of the martial arts. If it’s not physical conflict you’re interested in why not study zen, or dance. There is something about physical conflict that draws you to the martial arts, otherwise you wouldn’t be a martial artist.

Martial arts don’t teach you how to fight. I don’t mean that in a psycho babble, pseudo philosophical, superior egotistical way. I mean it very directly. You will never become a fighter by studying the martial arts. If you think you will be, you are again deluding yourself with a fantasy.If you believe you will learn to fight by studying martial arts videos, you are again looking for a magic pill, a “trick”. The reason is simple, Only fighting can make you better at fighting. If you want to have a direct experience with fighting, you cannot cheat by listening to people talk, and you cannot cheat by thinking about it a lot. Those things would be dillusional. You can only learn to fight, by fighting.

Buying the latest video series, or subscribing to a martial arts video on the internet only add more drills, and study of the drills till you perfect them. Sure you can learn a few new things but what is it you are looking for? all the gadgets, tricks, and subscriptions will not bring you any closer to the underlying Questions, and these questions are not about a particular System but more about you, yourself. Maybe it's doubt, fear, lack of confidence, or shame. What we all miss is the true understanding of our self's (not to get esoteric on you)in any and all situation. " It's not the daily increase but daily decrease. Hack away at the unessential" -BL-.

Imagine for a moment a situation....how many techniques can you pull off in a stressful situation that will give you the results you are looking for?? Okay, now imagine the same situation but now you have to be accountable for the other persons actions/reactions and still pull off in a stressful situation, do you still have the same results? if you said yes your fooling yourself, we never know what each situation will bring nor what the other person know's, has, or will do. We can only know our self's and how we will react to situations. Many people look for the secret technique,do you know what a secret techniques is? in my opinion a secret technique is a technique that one has mastered with out flaw and has been able to apply it any many situations without fail.That is the secret technique.

"I fear not the man who has practiced 10,000 different kicks once, but I fear the man who had practiced one kick 10,000 times.” -BL-.

So in short it's not how many videos you watch to gain new techniques, but rather have you worked on what you have been given in class, to perfection in any situation?

Martial arts is about the Journey, who you become, and how it affects your life and the lives around you. Oh and yes kicking ASS!

My thoughts on Martial arts & Spirituality

2012-02-01T09:34:00.000-08:00

Martial arts and spirituality.

Martial arts and spirituality. What does that even mean? This is a question almost all of us ask. But few of us ever get any real answers. Some say it’s mixing religions such as Christianity or Islam with martial arts. Some think it’s dressing up in flowing clothes, spouting koans, and seeming esoteric. Some say it’s simply, “a bunch of crap”.
However I believe It isn’t any of these things.

I believe to understand the relationship between Martial arts and spiritually, you must first understand what each of them are on their own. Most of us pretty much understand, or at least have a clear concept of what the martial arts are. I’ll define it here as the study of physical conflict. But there are lots of definitions. Most of us have spent enough time with the martial arts, that we have a pretty clear definition, at least for ourselves. It’s spirituality that many of us have a hard time with.

To many, spirituality is simply going to church and reading the bible. While these things are spiritual things, they are part of a religion, and not the spirituality itself. A religion is a school of spirituality. The main goal of these schools is to put people in touch with their spirituality. The practices of a religion (prayer, bible reading, church services, worship etc.) are designed to put you in touch with your spirituality, but they are not the spirituality itself. By adding the practices of your religion to your martial arts, you are not working with spirituality, you are you are not working with spirituality, you are simply adding more practices. Which most martial arts systems already have more then enough of. Religion’s are to spirituality as Martial arts are to fighting. They are schools that point to a thing, but not the thing itself. Mixing the practices of a religion into your martial arts doesn’t train your spirit.

The trappings of spirituality are not the spirit. While different physical objects can help evoke your spirit, they are not the spirit itself. Wearing a Zen masters robes certainly does not make you a Zen master. Reciting words and incantations that you don’t understand does not make you a spiritual person. Seeming aloof and exotic to other people doesn’t do a thing for your spirituality either. It starts with you.Your spirit is at the very core of what you are. So how could you find it in things outside of yourself?

Because of our tendency to confuse spirit with practices and trappings, many of us come to the conclusion that spirituality is just a bunch of nonsense and doesn’t exist at all. However if you look to the normal instead of the extreme we can readily see examples of spirit in our daily lives. Some common indications of spirit are: “the spirit of giving”, “the Christmas spirit”, “Fighting spirit”, etc. We all understand these examples, and accept them with little doubt as to their existence. The reason is because we’ve all experienced them or seen them in our lives. We don’t think of these things as being different or special, they are just part of life.

Spirit is complete manifestation of true self. Once you surrender to your spirit, everything seems to come together for you. The same can be said of “fighting spirit”. When someone has a strong fighting spirit, they except the fact that they are in the midst of struggle. In fact they happily engage, excepting what is happening, exhibiting a kind of joy. They do this even in the face of agony or defeat.

Your spirit shows itself when you stop putting things off. Without fearing what is about to happen, simply being in the moment, naturally. We’ve all had the experience of getting up in front of a crowd to give a talk or present something. Maybe we allowed ourselves to be intimidated by the crowd, kind of shinking inside of ourselves. Not being the best showman we could be. We didn’t have the “showman’s spirit”. We didn’t allow ourselves to do as well as we could. We just didn’t have enough “spirit” to make the best presentation we could. Spiritual practice’s are those that teach you to except what is happening and who you are in order to let yourself, your spirit, shine through. When you are coming from a spiritual place you are acting without fear, worry, doubt, or any kind of dependence on what will happen next, you are simply being you, right now.

Understanding spirit, and spirituality in this way; its connection to the martial arts is undeniable. Martial situations are ones that require strong spirit. If your spirit isn’t strong you’ll never get through extreme difficulty’s. If your spirit isn’t strong it’s impossible to come through tragedy and not be a victim. And for these very reasons Martial practices make wonderful training grounds for the spirit. Lending the martial arts to being a wonderful spiritual practice. Most religions and non-martial spiritual schools have to add practices in order to train the spirit. Challenges and difficulties must be faced in order to strengthen your spirit. Non-martial spiritual traditions add things like: abstinence, fasting, tithing, worship, routine, strict moralities etc. in order to challenge their practitioners. Martial practices however have a built in set of challenges: fighting, physical fatigue, and habitual practice are the necessities of a martial method. Practices like these make simple sense in the martial arts. You never have to ask, “why do I need to be in good physical shape” ,” “Why do I actually need to test my skills against someone”, or “why do I need to train so much”. The reasons are clear, if you want to be good, you’ll have to do these things. You must use your spirit to get through these rigors, this trains the spirit. It’s hard to hide behind lies, and clever excuses, if you’re not training hard, it’s clear that your spirit is not in the practice.

The great thing about spiritual training is that it will naturally start to spill over into the rest of your life. When you honestly take on training in the martial arts, you take on a spiritual practice that makes you a stronger person. Dealing with things directly and honestly starts to be much less challenging. When you willingly participate in physical conflict, dealing with the rude woman/man who suddenly isn’t a big deal. When you force yourself to joyfully except vigorous exercise, doing yard work is no problem. A strong spirit is useful in all facets of life, and will do far more for you then make you a good fighter.

You must pay attention to this You must actually make Spirituality a practice. If you fight simply because you’re mad, or “want too” you’re not training your spirit. You are simply giving in to an indulgence. If you show up at your Kwoon and simply go through the motions, you’re not training your spirit. If you get excited and feed your ego every time you hit someone, or give them a kick, complaining every time you are hit, you’re not training your spirit. You must stay ever mindful, taking care in all of your training. This will make your practice something phenomenal. Something that will strengthen your spirit, and increase your martial ability. Eventually there will be no more “spirit of giving,”, or “fighting spirit”, because everything you do will involve spirit.
In summery I believe that knowing your skill as a martial artist, knowing the damage, pain, suffering that you can cause some one (it does not just start nor stop with them, it effects family and love ones and there lives) not only brings you closer to spirituality but compassion, love and forgiveness.

Why we cannot get a clear names of Wing Chun movements.

2011-05-20T09:05:00.000-07:00

I will do my best to explain this in my view of Teaching, learning and understanding Wing Chun.

The "transliteration", or how the names are spelled using Roman letters i.e. A, B, C - doesn't matter since they're all written the same in Chinese itself.

The different spelling is a result of dialect, accent, and history. People, usually Westerners, wrote what they heard i.e. Peking instead of Beijing. And what they heard differed based on what part of China their sifu came from.

Even up to 50 years ago there was no accepted "transliteration" from Chinese into Roman letters - Romanization. Today, however, Pinyin is the standard accepted transliteration method used.

Yet a problem still exists for many Westerners. Pinyin is used to transliterate the standard Mandarin dialect - known as PuTongHua. In the West, Kung Fu words didn't come from Mandarin speakers. Rather they came from other dialects such as Cantonese, Fujianese, and others.

So if you get confused by all the different spellings and pronunciations and want to get it straight … all you have to do is learn to read Chinese or better yet learn calligraphy)

Remember that much like the system of Wing Chun the Chinese written language uses Characters, the meaning of the character can change with a slight but simple stroke intended or not.

The names may sound the same, but how they’re executed, such as the angle, direction and complete movement will change the meaning of a familuar block, strike, kick etc. Example, Jum sau In Sil Lum tao it is simple to see and be done, but as you advance to more complex movements and combinations, what looks like Jum sau now is called something else. Why? you may ask well......this is where it all gets a bit sticky (no pun intended) from my research, alot of it is a mix of dilect differences, how the movement is done, and above all the idea behind the movement. Idea you ask?, meaning.... that what we call Tan sau for example is only an idea of the movement none specific to a certain strike. Another example of this would be a Tae kwon do outer forarm block, what does this tell you? automatically you think the block is used for an out side attack with the forarm, now to cover an inside attack another name has to be given inner forarm block once again depicting that you must use a different tool for a strike to a different area the list goes on, in contrast sticking with Tan sau this cover (in my Linage of Wing Chun we call it a cover not a block) covers both areas but is not limited, the tool of Tan sau can be used in many ways without using different names. Whats the idea behind it? it all goes back to Wing Chun principles, concepts and ideas.

This does not mean that the blocks of Tae Kwon Do or other arts using this method cannot be used for something other than it's name, but in my opinion it limits thought process and cognative expansion.

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2011-04-27T07:38:00.000-07:00

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2011-04-20T10:38:00.000-07:00

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Post workout Recovery

2011-03-22T22:37:00.000-07:00

You've just finished another Denver Wing Chun gruelling workout.

Now what?

If you’re like most, you’re going to stagger into the change-room change out,get in your car and grab a quick burger, pizza, or some quick fix.

When it comes to getting fit/healthy/buff/ripped/sexy/etc, your workouts are only half the equation.

The other half of the equation is Workout Recovery and what you eat.

And because I love you guys so darn much, here are my top Post-Workout Recovery Techniques.

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* Post-Workout Carb/Protein Shake
* Hot/Cold Contrast Showers
* Fish Oils
* Meditation / Sleep
* Epsom Salt Baths
* Ice
* Massage
* TENS
* Chiropractic / Acupuncture
* Traumeel
* Yoga
* Magnesium glycinate

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Post-Workout Carb/Protein Shake

I have talked about this technique before. Simply put, it’s a no-brainer.

Post workout and your muscles are screaming for nutrients.

Ignore that message and your workout recovery goes into slo-mo.

Heed the message and the repair goes into overdrive.

More info here.

Hot/Cold Contrast Showers

Alternate between 30 seconds of cold water and two minutes of hot water. Perform this shrinkage inducing protocol three or four times.

While most of the claims about this recovery technique are anecdotal, there is some research showing that alternating hot/cold showers post-exercise is effective in lowering both heart rate and the levels of lactate in your blood.

Anecdotally, contrast showers have been said to improve athletic recovery via increased blood flow and possible nutrient and waste product elimination (lactate). There may also be a psychological benefit and an increased feeling of alertness and fatigue reduction.

In my personal experience, contrast showers help reduce my post-workout DOMS (delayed onset muscle soreness) as well as perk me up for the rest of my day.

Fish Oils

Your workouts cause inflammation.

Localized inflammation in joints and muscles. Systemic inflammation throughout your body.

Fish oils are a great, natural, anti-inflammatory.

Add some to your post-workout shake. If you already have issues with chronic inflammation, you may want to consider adding some Turmeric/Curcumin or Zyflamend into the mix.

Meditation / Sleep

High intensity workouts can be tough on the CNS (central nervous system)

And while there are lots of supplements (natural adaptogens & pharmaceutical agents) out there that claim to help repair & restore the CNS, I don’t feel comfortable recommending any of them.

However, I am willing to push meditation & sleep as the two best CNS treatments ever invented.

Sleep – You probably don’t sleep enough already. Add in a tough workout routine and you’re looking for trouble. Get your 7-8 hrs.

Meditation – There are lots of ways to meditate. There are crunchy-granola yoga meditative techniques. There are medical based mindfulness meditation programs. Praying is a form of meditation. There are even mp3s you can buy that claim to help sync your brainwaves into the pattern best suited for meditation. But the simplest method may be to just sit or lie down, put your hands on your belly and focus as your breath flows in and out.

Epsom Salt Baths

Epsom Salts (magnesium sulfate) are another anti-inflammatory agent.

When added to a nice hot bath, they are absorbed through the skin and helps reduce muscular pain and general “achiness”. It also helps increase your levels of magnesium and may help reduce water retention.

Ice Massage

The benefits of ice massage are questionable at best. But, I know a lot of athletes who swear by it, so I figured it best to include it in this review.

Most of the pro-Ice Massage evidence is anecdotal. The main claim is that ice massage is an effective method for reducing localized inflammation and reducing the symptoms of DOMS.

However, the clinical research doesn't agree. In fact, some researchers feel that ice massage should be contraindicated when it comes to preventing post-exercise DOMS.

So, I leave the decision up to you.

Personally, I will skip the post-workout ice massage. If you need more info, click here.

Therapeutic Massage

There are many different types of massage.

Medical research has shown that the benefits of massage include pain relief, reduced levels of anxiety and depression, and temporarily reduced blood pressure, heart rate, and state anxiety.

Plus, it just feels gooooood.

Get a massage every month or so. Your body will thank you.

TENS

TENS is a non-invasive, medically tested, safe nerve stimulation intended to reduce pain, both acute and chronic.

It’s also the subject of cheesy late night infomercials.

And that’s too bad. Because, in my experience, TENS is a great little tool for reducing muscular pain.

I bought a unit two years ago after a car accident screwed up my neck, back, shoulder & knee. It wasn’t my only treatment modality, but it was convenient, effective and relatively cheap.

For post-workout pain, a TENS unit is probably overkill. But, for those older trainees who have a few chronic aches and pains, a TENS unit might be worth it’s weight in gold.

Acupuncture/ herbology

I group these two treatment modalities together. I don’t get one without the other.

I go two days a week or what ver is needed if I have injured myself.

45 minutes later and I am a new man.

Hebs with this is also a great combo, it helps supplement the treatment and recovery.

Traumeel

Traumeel is a homeopathic anti-inflammatory.

And, according to researchers, it works better than NSAIDS at reducing chronic inflammatory conditions as well as systemic inflammation caused by exercise.

Plus, you get none of the unpleasant side-effects associated with NSAIDS.

Magnesium glycinate

Workout can cause oxygen deprivation to their tissues, Oxygen deprivation can lead to muscle pain and tenderness as well as fatigue. Mag Glycinate helps with the oxygenation to the muscles allowing faster recovery. (Caution to much may cause diarrhea)

Yoga

* Increased circulation, which supports health in myriad ways
* Increased lubrication of joints and connective tissue
* Increased breath capacity
* Detoxification
* Balanced strength and flexibility

Yes, there’s a difference between just stretching and doing yoga. Simply stretching is often something people do without really knowing how to use breath or awareness to make the stretch more effective. Though yoga includes stretches within it, it’s a much more potent practice that can really affect the way you feel.

Well, there you go. There’s my list of Post Workout Recovery Techniques.

I hope this helps!

Sifu Joel

An Artical from Sifu Allen Lee

2011-01-28T09:11:00.000-08:00

About Wing Chun Kung Fu
Generally, everyone knows learning a martial art helps to improve your physical fitness, develop discipline and gain knowledge of self-defense. However, the main purpose of practicing Wing Chun is to learn practical combat applications for use in dangerous situations.

We must always expect our opponent to have advantages over us, such as size, speed, and power. By using the practical and effective method of Wing Chun we can overcome the adversary.

Wing Chun Kung Fu, a branch of Siu Lum (Shaolin) Kung Fu, is a style that emphasizes economy of movement and combines the practical applications of using both defense and offense simultaneously.

While Wing Chun offers practitioners practical combat skills, the true essence of the style is to develop your character, discipline and dedication to stand firm in all situations. It teaches you how to accept, analyze and understand other ideas and philosophies.

One style of martial arts is not better than another. The most important thing is to gain the skill and proficiency of the style. It all depends on how the instructor guides you through the system and how you adapt the style to fit you.

In a nutshell, all martial artists agree that (1) confidence, (2) power and (3) technique are the three pillars of all martial arts. Our school has all the training to develop these three elements along with many others. Without training in this manner you will never realize the potential of any Kung Fu system.

Learning how to fight is easy; however conquering your fear is difficult. Hitting the opponent is easy, but learning to hit without exchanging blows is hard.

I thought this was a great way to summarize what we all hope to learn from our training.

The begginers guide to Wing Chun (In Short)

2010-12-18T12:50:00.000-08:00

The Beginner’s guide Wing Chun
In theory, Wing Chun concepts and ideas should be easy to grasp for beginners. Wing Chun is based on the natural body structure and common sense found in fighting. However, in reality beginners can be overwhelmed with the amount of information, theories, strategies, and ideas that Wing Chun has to offer. Wing Chun taught properly is not simply, follow me and do this. So, the path it takes to training will be foreign to anyone who has never experienced it before. Here are several tips and suggestions to help you the beginner, in you're Wing Chun training.

1) The best way to improve quickly is to focus on the basics.
Most new students come to Wing Chun with a teach me something I haven’t seen, done, or heard of mentality. This can and in most cases slow the students learning down,the key thing to remember is that if you want to get good and improve quickly, you need to focus on the basics. Its not how much you know, but how much of what you know that your personaly comfortable with and perform in any instance regardless of situation. All to often I see individuals doing many techniques and fancy moves, when they don’t even truly understand the most important concepts SLT along with the back bone of the system centerline. Simple questions such as how do you move within your center, how does my center relate to others, and where is my center in relation to a different situation Thus, focus on the basics! The key three basics would be that of kim yeung ma, the punch, and SLT. The order is important since each one builds upon one another. Much like the triangle theory of the system you must lay a good foundation, the rest of what you learn must have equal sides as the foundation to complete the true structure. Take this path and you're skills will grow faster than most.

2) Concentrate on what you have to train, not what others are doing Sometimes in your training you’ll get that itch of curiosity, and see your older brothers and sisters working on other things. Focus on what’s at hand, not what others are doing? Everyone learns at their own pace, studying Wing Chun is not a race to see who learns the most quickly. This in the long run will set you back as you may have missed the other parts needed to truly apply the advanced techniques, in example it looks good but it does not work, this causes disillusion for the beginner. Your teacher has designed drills for you specifically for a reason. Don't sway of the path.

3) Don’t waste time Sufring When you first start Wing Chun, it seems like you can’t get enough information about it. So, you spend your time reading and checking out more information about it from videos, books, and the net. While all these are good ways to spend the time, don’t focus too much on it. The time spent reading on the net could be time spent practicing Wing Chun. The only true way is to think, practice, apply reading and watching only classifies you as a couch potato or a theorist.

4) Listen and trust your teacher If you picked your teacher, than trust him. It’s okay to ask questions, but if you keep second guessing him, you’ll stall your own progress. Listen to your inner self, if you don’t trust what he’s saying, then its time to leave and find someone you do.

5) The Journey As far as I know there is no ranking in Wing Chun.Thus, goals of belts, sashes, certifications, or levels should not be your motivating factor to push you forward. The fact is all those are meaningless measures of determining ones ability. I believe its okay to say, “I want to learn this or get good at this particular drill or exercise within, such n such a date” But there is other things you have to have to make your goal complete and real.

6) Single man technique is golden The drills are specifically designed to help sharpen motions as well as get familiar with application of each hand technique. The first goal is to be able to do them stationary. But, eventually adding footwork to the hand technique is a must. Knowing the proper motion leads to the correct structure. Without being able to perform this correctly at regular speed, you'll end up using a brawlers mentality, raw strength and uncontrolled actions/reactions.

7) Focus on one thing at a time Especially in the beginning, the feeling of being overwhelmed is a common thing. If its not one thing its another, there’s tons of drills, techniques, theories, strategies to the details of what makes Wing Chun tick. Trying to get it all down in the beginning will be impossible. Try keeping things simple in your practice, by focusing on one thing at a time. I have found that most students don’t even practice/train what was taught in classes, they are there only to get the next best thing. Being overwhelmed is a suffocating feeling, and especially in the beginning with all the information.

8) Be consistent in your training Whether you show up once a week, or three times a week the key is being consistent. Everyone has busy schedules and I have found many students asking fort little tips, hints or other “secrets” there is no secrets only your willingness to practice, learn and apply. Coming to class and then letting a month slide brings you back to the beginning every single time. Its understandable that this will happen on occasion, but the 5 to 10 minute practice is doable by all.

9) Vacation to detach It’s sorta hard to describe the feeling you get when you start Wing Chun. I’ve come to believe whether your beginner or advance the roller coaster of emotions will hit you every single time. By that I mean, Wing Chun is like a good recipe In the sense that, there are times things go so well with them and you think you’re really getting the idea behind the techniques, and then the next day when you think you’ve gotten it, it does not turn out right. Thus, I guess what I want to say that something this good, can also be as frustrating as well. Every time you’ve think you’ve climbed a pinch of that mountain, only to realize it’s bigger than you thought it would be. This frustration is common, is consistency, sometimes taking a break (1 day) on the days that your not in class and think and do something other than wing chun, and just letting things sink in, is sometimes the best thing.

10) Regardless of the lineage, stick to it in the beginning You’ve chosen a teacher that means you’ve also taken a specific line in Wing Chun. You’ll come to realize that there are quite a few different lineages in Wing Chun, applying and doing wing chun in many different ways. Regardless of what line you picked, the worst thing you can do is mix and match different theories and ideas together. Especially in the beginning it’ll just confuse the beginner. Thus, what I say is in the beginning stick to what your learning, if in your gut you feel there are things that just don’t appeal to you then look else where. Create a solid base of something regardless if its right or wrong. You don’t want to be doing several versions of SLT. I’ve read and talked to people who do that. When I hear that that means he knows of several versions, learned none, and mastered zero.

11) Method to the madness Everything you do in Wing Chun serves a purpose. In my beginners class it gives me the chance to test the character of the student before introducing new concepts, theories, and application. Asking questions helps big time, but make sure you know the why in things you do and that you have actually practiced it before the 20 questions, scenarios begin. Wing Chun is not parroting your Sifu, and copying what he does, I have experienced this first hand when I started WC, as this was what I was told I needed to do. Later on I asked the head Sifu of our linage while training with him why every thing I was doing did not work, and what he was teaching/doing did. Long story short, the Sifu I had learned from prior only chose to teach his students the how to do it but not the why and the what if’s. Find out the details in the structure and the motion. Knowing why you do the things you do gives it deeper meaning.
12) EgoAlmost everything that you do always comes full circle. A ego plays an important role, there is no such thing as having no ego. Having no ego in itself is an unnatural balance in things. But, the ego's job is to push you to want to be better, to drive you further. At the same time you must learn to control it, ego uncontrolled only slows your progress. There is always work to be done, you can always improve. Appreciate the gains from hard work, but don't rest on it.

13) Don't be so concerned with fighting You train in the beginning to unlearn what you think you may have learned. Just because you can whack each other in the ring for 5 minutes, does not make you a better fighter. Without structure in the training first you will not ever achieve the proficiencies of being a good fighter, meaning why you got hit at this point or what went wrong when I did this or that. Imagine if I told you to give a 100 people a presentation on a punch and just a punch, and on day 1 I say, okay I want everyone to give this presentation to all the new students. Sure you can whip something up, but that doesn't mean you know what your doing. Bottom line, beating on each other doesn't mean your developing fighting skills.

14) Stay out of the politicsOnce you enter the world of Wing Chun you will learn one thing right away. Wing Chun is riddled with politics. My best advice is to stay out of it. And, don't think you'll be the one individual to convince other lineages that your way is the right way. Spying and other unscrupulious activities will only make you, as a beginner a target and scape goat for thing to go wrong. Understand that as a beginner you will only be marking yourself as someone who wishes not to learn. Many Sifu’s for the past 50 or more years have dealt with this problem. My thought on this is, once you have studied WC for many years you come to an understanding that it’s all WC and as my Sifu told me, if an argument is made “argue the principles of the system” anything other than that is ego and personal gain of power or control. In short you can’t argue the principles.

2009-04-17T19:19:00.000-07:00

Wing Chun is a very unique martial art known for attention to and control of the centerline, trapping, vertical chain punching, and sticking hands (chi sao). There is a great deal of contraversy regarding different styles of wing chun and the trapping techniques, forms, and training methods used in the majority of wing chun styles. My personal opinion is that much of the controversy regarding wing chun is based on a lack of understanding, as are most controversies. All that aside, there are a number of techniques, training methods, and concepts in wing chun that are valuable for self-defense.

Although simple trapping is not quite as effective in a competition with both participants wearing gloves, it works fairly well in a no gloves environment. Complex trapping, or multiple traps before striking, may work against a completely unskilled and uncoordinated attacker, but not against an athletic person or a good fighter. For self-defense or mixed martial arts it would be wise to stick to simple trapping. Trapping is best used to open up a path to a target, to prevent an opponent from blocking a strike thrown to an already open target, to prevent the opponent from using a limb to attack you, or any combination of the three.

The trapping combinations are all possible to pull off in hard sparring in the right situations, but are more for developing the ability to use the simple traps at the right time, and get used to the idea of trapping. The solo drill is useful for practicing the basic techniques of wing chun when you don't have a partner.

2009-04-08T11:37:00.000-07:00

I would like to thanks the Editor and staff at Asian avenue magazine for their interest in Wing Chun, and what we offer at the Kusa facility. Most recently AAM has published an article in collaboration with myself and others about women in Wing Chun. The article touched on a bit of history, and women who have played a role in developing the system to those who study it to date, I have found the article to be exceptional. Although I would like to clarify that I had no part in the editing process of this article nor the pictures chosen to depict the story. It has been brought to my attention a few informational mistakes have been made, i.e the picture on the bottom left side of the page, the picture shows William Cheung, although a great person and well respected individual in the art of Wing Chun I would like to clarify that Mr. Cheung is not my Sifu/teacher. I have never trained, studied, worked with nor been affiliated with him and his schools. As you read on in the article, our Lineage if of the Duncan Leung lineage always has been, always will be. The other is a typo, stating I also have studied with the late Grand master Yip Man. I find this amusing but at the same time disturbing. I would have loved to studied with Grand Master Yip Man but as fortune has it I was born several years to late.