Many have asked “Of all the martial arts you’ve trained, why Wing Chun? What’s so special about it that made you stop your search?“
Good question. And for a while, I asked that myself. It is a weird feeling to actually “find” what we are looking for, and even when I did, I didn’t know it. Even when I realized first-hand how effective it is, there was still always that doubt of something being better.
Many of us have been involved in the martial arts for years, some even for generations. My own training started in 1976 with taekwondo and it is hard to believe sometimes that it has been over 30 years since that time.
Being in the military and having the opportunity of experiencing a variety of other fighting methods, you would also think that I would recognize Wing Chun’s effectiveness much sooner, too. I did, but at the same time, I was also conditioned to always look for the best, to never “settle.”
Well, after 20+ years, I can honestly say that with Wing Chun? There is no “settling.” I don’t have to look anymore because I found what I have always wanted in a fighting method: the tradition of a proud history, the “moderness” of being useful in today’s world, an art that is not afraid to change something so that it remains effective, and just an absolute blast to train!
Sure, some Wing Chun practitioners might be a bit “staunch” when it comes to what they do. They work their drills as they were taught and never break out of that. And sometimes what they do just really will not work in today’s world. But that goes without saying for all arts, too.
After all, look at the Shaolin methods. How many of them still cling to the notion that they will use their forms in real fighting, just “speeded up”? I even heard a well-known Shaolin master tell me point blank “We work our forms at full speed in real fights, and that is how we fight. If you look closely, you will see the form point-by-point, just in full speed. Regardless of what is happening, we work the form… and we win.”
The interesting thing is that later that evening (this was at a seminar) when we were demonstrating Wing Tsun (I was training in Master Leung Ting’s WingTsun at the time), we were asked to “have a go” for light sparring with one of their fighters to see how Wing Tsun would fair against them. Immediately after starting, the opponent started a fast version of the form he just demonstrated, and all I did was launch forward with steps and chain-punches. A few Pak-sau’s here and there, as well as a Gaun-sau, but the majority was nothing but advancing steps and chain-punches.
And the opponent dropped. Quickly. All he could do was cover up. Why? Because he was enacting techniques against something I was not even doing. He would throw an arm up for a side defense, even though I was coming in from the front. And as his form continued and he defended to the front, I had already side-stepped and was coming in from the side.
Needless to say, that particular school lost a lot of students that evening. They saw the reality of what someone “thinks” will work vs. what someone “shows” them.
I have also worked with many others from a variety of arts, including boxing, Thai boxing, jiu-jitsu, TKD, JKD, karate, Shaolin methods, aikido, and even other WC/ VT/ WT styles. I learned something from all of them, but I also learned that Wing Chun kept me on top. Is it because I was better? Was it because Wing Chun was better? That is something that I honestly cannot answer and it will be something that probably for the rest of my life I will think about.
But on those days, with those opponents, Wing Chun saw me through. It has kept me safe for the 20+ real fights I have had since opening the doors to the AWCA, too, so all I know is that if it did not work, I would have continued my search a long, long time ago.
And that has been Wing Chun’s legacy. This art is all about reality and effectiveness, but only if the practitioner approaches it from a real-world mentality. The drills in class? They are useless unless we get real about it. Light punches, “nothing” kicks, and training half-assed brings nothing but a false sense of security and half-hearted results.
But when approached with real use? When you work your concepts for what might really happen and in the way it is intended to be trained? You will find that Wing Chun is more than capable of protecting yourself.
Why Wing Chun? Because quite frankly I just do not need to look anywhere else. “Flavor of the month” arts come and go, and every ten years or so we see something new that everyone jumps on the bandwagon to learn. And then you hear the “experts” say that such-and-such art is the best, that if you are not doing this art, you are wrong.
If that is what you think, then good luck. Really. I hope you find what you are looking for. As for me? I found it. It is called Wing Chun Kuen.
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