# Why did you guys take up Wing Chun?



## british12 (Jan 17, 2007)

I do Kamon Wing Chun and love it, I previously did a bit of JKD and it was ok, I prefer this better.....I think it improves my stamina and gives me the right skills I am looking for.   

What were your reasons?


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## monji112000 (Jan 17, 2007)

I grew up around Wing Chun for many years but never had the guts to train with them. I started a Shoalin form of martial arts. It was more based on forms and wushu. Duncan Leung (one of Ip man's disciples, not a student) Had a school that he and his senior students trained at.  I often watched portions of  people training in Wing chun. It was a very inspiring time for me, because this Chinese man wasn't that big or strong, but by just watching him train.. you really experience allot.   


 I was horrible at fighting, but I had learned from talking to people that Sigung Duncan was famous for his abilities in Gung Lik (application and hard training). They were a tough group, and I wasn't ready to jump in and bleed with them at that moment. By chance a senior student of Duncan re-opened the School after Sigung Duncan retired.  


 Its very easy to get into Wing Chun when you have most of your teen years filled with memories of Duncan and his students. I only needed some people to talk about training with another of Sigung Duncan's senior student , to force me to start training.


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## Dave Leverich (Jan 17, 2007)

With me, simply because there was an opportunity to learn.
Steve Goldman's student, Roger Harvey, a friend of a friend, decided he'd show me and my friend some WC. That lasted for a couple years after our regular TKD classes. I'd love to learn more, I really enjoyed the Chi Sao (sp?).


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## bcbernam777 (Jan 18, 2007)

I had the opportunity to study under one of Yip Mans students


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## Ali Rahim (Jan 18, 2007)

I was basically adopted by my teacher (Woo Fai Ching) he studied with Yip Man for two years and then Leung Sheung (Yip Mans first Hong Kong student) from 8 to 10 years, he is my grandfather, and I had no ideal that wing chun was always there.

Ali.


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## almost a ghost (Jan 19, 2007)

I did Shaolin Kempo Karate for about 5 years. Had a butt load of techniques and forms I couldn't apply because it was about about the forms you knew, not how well you know them.

Did a brief stint with Shaolin Kung Fu, but again, it looked like I would just be learning form after form.

So I did some research online, decided to read up on Wing Chun, tracked down a teacher and was hooked


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## profesormental (Jan 19, 2007)

In 1992 I started reading up on several styles and saw some videos and I just gravitated to Wing Chun. The complex simplicity of the principles, applications and training methods just drew me in...

At the time I didn't know why I wanted it, I just did. This was after studying Karate, Shaolin Chuan, Kenpo and combat sports for some time.

This was during a time that I really needed the skills since I had to walk some miles through "tough" neigborhoods to get home after school.

Juan M. Mercado


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## barnaby (Jan 20, 2007)

Wandered into a school marked "Tai Chi," and "Chinese Boxing" and didn't have any idea what Wing Chun was -- I was simply bored and wanted to watch other people in motion.  Had a conversation with who would become my Sifu about his experience, my background, and like many of you never looked back at anything else.


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## british12 (Jan 21, 2007)

Ali Rahim said:


> I was basically adopted by my teacher (Woo Fai Ching) he studied with Yip Man for two years and then Leung Sheung (Yip Mans first Hong Kong student) from 8 to 10 years, he is my grandfather, and I had no ideal that wing chun was always there.
> 
> Ali.


 

I had never heard of wing chun until I finally took up the challenge of doing a martial art..............there was a local club in glasgow that I was doing it....i went round to a few places that did martial arts but wing chun genuinly excited me.......i felt I had missed out all these years and should have started earlier.


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## Ali Rahim (Jan 21, 2007)

british12 said:


> I had never heard of wing chun until I finally took up the challenge of doing a martial art..............there was a local club in glasgow that I was doing it....i went round to a few places that did martial arts but wing chun genuinly excited me.......i felt I had missed out all these years and should have started earlier.


 
You got that right, far as being exciting; I was going on 14 years of age when I started in 1978, now Im 43, and didnt have a clue that Bruce Lee did this art, or anybody else for that matter. At the time when I started there wasnt any wing chun school in the State of Michigan. But down the line I was able to work with some of the best master that wing chun has to offer within my 27-28 years of wing chun experience.

Ali.


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## british12 (Jan 25, 2007)

profesormental said:


> In 1992 I started reading up on several styles and saw some videos and I just gravitated to Wing Chun. The complex simplicity of the principles, applications and training methods just drew me in...
> 
> At the time I didn't know why I wanted it, I just did. This was after studying Karate, Shaolin Chuan, Kenpo and combat sports for some time.
> 
> ...


 
Thats remarkable, despite studying different arts you felt wing chun was right for you.............there is defeinetly something about wing chun that is charasmatic.........dare i ask did you have to use your skills in reality? since you had to walk through tough neigbourhoods.


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## profesormental (Jan 25, 2007)

Greetings.

Yes. Yet fewer times than you might think. This is because I developed a very, VERY keen sense of situational awareress. I avoided rather artfully and/or stealthily.

Also, you can hide under the sheeps fur or walk like a Tiger.

Once I was walking with lots of stuff, and a guy came to take my money. He asked where I was from (to check if I was from a "caserio" or low income to no income housing project that I could get backup from... I lived in the house just beside the caserio). Interestingly enough, in the 1950's the governor decided it was a good idea to mix caserios with urbanizations (suburb type housing) as to create fraternization among social classes. How do you think that worked out...?

Anyway, I had about $2.50 or less. I took off all my bags, 1 books, 1 for training gear, went to my pockets and gave him the money.

I really didn't care, I was just alert and calm.

He said "That's it?" I said "yep, look at my pockets (they were out) and here's my wallet (empty)".

He gave me back the money and patted my shoulder as he walked away.

I took my things and went to the gym. This was at about 4:30 pm in a busy avenue.

Great awareness, great decisionmaking, astute intuition, solid mental control, and I got what I wanted. Nothing more you could askfrom training.

Why did I decide to write this story instead of showcasing the times of violent, presicse, powerful and bonebreaking physical prowess?

Enjoy!

Sincerely,

Juan M. Mercado


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## dmax999 (Jan 25, 2007)

Different from the others here, I do Tai Chi now (With Shaolin Kung-Fu).  I started with Tai-Chi, decided where I was going sucked, and found a Wing Chun school.  Since then back to a better Tai Chi place.  I personally feel Tai Chi is a "deeper" MA and I will be able to practice it to a later age (Which may or may not be true)

However, nothing is wrong with Wing Chun.  I would go back if I needed to.  My problem with it was I just didn't comprehend how well it worked at the time and I just thought all CMAs were that effective.  Wrong...  Wing Chun is among the top of all MAs, and I've tried a lot of them.  I've learned that a lot of stuff that didn't make sense at the time was actually prue genius.  I learned by figuring out Tai Chi (Ohh, if I do this posture similar to Wing Chun I can make it work better)  Knowing what I know now, I probably would have never stopped, but my Tai Chi is making such good progress I'm going to stick with it for the time being.


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## Si-Je (Feb 2, 2007)

I took Japanese Ju-Jitsu in High School mainly because I didn't like the striking arts.  For my petite size they weren't practical for me.  The Ju-Jitsu school I trained with incorporated some Wing Chun in its charts.  

But it was a fellow student that got me really excited about WC.
He trained himself from WC books and came by to do the drills he read with me to get a feel for what he had read.  We did this for two years on the side in class.  

They were just flow drills, not street practical but they caught my attention and imagination.  I'd never even heard of WC until I took a Japanese art, ironic! lol!
The WC punching style is the only way I've ever been able to produce real power in a strike and I wanted to learn more from a dedicated teacher and school.  Plus, the re-direction of attacks was a new and exciting concept for me.  I thought of it like striking judo, re-directing a persons body, force, and momentum just as effectively as a judo throw.  

11 years later, I finally found a teacher.
I could never make it to Plano or Dallas and finally there were some folks teaching in my neck of the woods. 

The first class I was hooked.  (and my legs were sore from the stance!)And realized that I had finally taken an art where I was truely going to have to "empty my cup".  All my other training really got in the way and frustrated me and my instructor.  Muscle memory can really work against you too! lol!  And I came to realize that this is an art that was made exactly for someone like me.


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## KamonGuy2 (Jul 3, 2007)

I do wing chun under Kamon and teach one of the classes. I used to train in Karate, boxing and MT and was never a big fan of kung fu. I went to the Kamon demo and was blown away. I have been doing it ever since

I find a lot of martial arts will give you something and the way forward is to know about all the martial arts rather than just have blinkers on and claim that the art you do is the best. 

For a while I thought nothing could rival karate, but I found that there were areas where the karate I had learnt just wouldn't work. 

In Kamon I still manage to train BJJ, boxing, MT, escrima and TaeKwon Do
But primarily I have found that there is a lot of easy fast flowing techniques in wing chun that help me a better fighter at close range as well as having the ability to relax and sense/control your opponent

I would reccomend it as a first art to anyone starting off in martial arts. It will help you in other arts like grappling where you might come across a stronger opponent etc


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## Changhfy (Jul 22, 2007)

I started Wing Chun when I was 12 years old.
After checking out TKD when I was 8, Japanese Karate, Judo, Ju-jitsu, and while studying Wing Chun I also trained in Aikido, Arnis, Pak Mei, Qi Xing Tong Long, Taiji, Cuong Nhu, Tong Bei and Bei and Nan Shaolin, some Bagua and Xingyi(not much).

For me Shaolin was what really clicked for me, and being that Wing Chun stemmed from Shaolin I could relate to it.

I had studied Ip man Ving Tsun, Chi Sim Weng Chun but then I found Hung Fa Yi Wing Chun and it really broadened my horizons (even though Ip Man and Chi Sim are awesome systems in their own right).

So it was a long process but I found I could really relate to Wing Chun overall. But I still have an amazing interest in all other Chinese Wu Gong.


take care


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## qwksilver61 (Sep 23, 2007)

Take really good traditional Taekwon-Do (old school the way that it was taught in Korean schools)5yrs. of brutal training. Shantung black Tiger and some real world encounters on the street,meet someone (Steve Brandon) who trained directly under Brendan lai,who later dropped a Kick butt Mantis system for Wing Tsun.Attack him several times,get whipped to the floor by smaller students then by him.That was enough to convince me,also the fact that i did some research into the style.So...I had to un-think
hard-power-through with sheer force,and rigidity.


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## bully (Oct 28, 2007)

I studied Wu Shu for a few years in my teens. Unfortunately, i stopped as i got into  wine, women and song.

In my early 20´s i went back to martial arts and saw a guy i used to train with teaching Wing Chun. Due to a motorcycle accident i lost alot of flexibilty in my right leg. Wing Chun looked to suit me as i didnt need to be overly flexible.

Trained until my late 20´s but had a bit of a bad time life wise so ended up giving up again.

I am now married and 37 years old. I have a bad prolapsed disc in my back, but doing WC seems to be ok for now. One of the guys i used to train with is now teaching Kamon. He only started a few months ago and i have only been up once. But i have been practising at home. I really enjoyed it and hope i can stick at it this time.


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## CatNap (Oct 30, 2007)

Maybe I'm the odd woman out - I wanted to do what Bruce Lee was doing.  I did a lot of research in the library on him when I was a teen and learned what style he trained in.  I was impressed how a little personcould throw people about.  Later, I heard about a Wing Chun guy in my neighborhood from a Kenpo teacher of mine.  I dropped Karate like a hot potato and never looked back.  I loved the sensitivity training and Chi Sao.  I've studied all over: Kenpo, Aiki, Uechui Ryu, Arnis, etc.  Wing Chun was the most effective and praticle.


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## hungfistron (Nov 1, 2007)

Honestly I would have to say I began to study Wing Chun because of the fluidity of the art.  

I wanted to be able to continuously flow from one punch to the next, and trap suddenly, and finally to reach the temple or target.  The beautiful and simplistic approach to close quarter engagement was too good to ignore...


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## BFL (Dec 10, 2007)

Bruce Lee.  I found out that his foundation art was Wing Chun so I felt in order to understand JKD, I'd have to understand it's foundation art.  I began my W.C. training later in life at the age of 32, in '92.  Needless to say, I'm not in JKD but still learning and exploring W.C.  An outstanding journey that I pray will last a lifetime.
Peace,
BFL


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## titoisme (Jan 1, 2008)

I'm totally new to WC training.  I'm 37 years old and not very tall, pretty powerful build though, but pretty short reach arm and legwise.  I researched which style of martial art would be most practical for a 5'3 guy and I kept coming up with WC.  I also came upon this show on Saturday mornings on my local cable access channel called Grados Street Combat where the sifu would apply Wing Chun forms to everyday practical situations.  Unfortunately, I think it's been canceled or something.  I spoke to a friend who does NPM and he corroborated my research and said WC was definitely the way to go.  So I looked around discovered a Ving Tsung school operating not too far from me in Brooklyn, I spoke to Sifu and he invited me to come in.  I've been in the class for just about a month and I love the interactivity and spacial awareness you get from the drills.  I'm definitely hooked now and will try to document my progress on these forums.


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## Seeker (Jan 1, 2008)

I've been in the MAs since I was 13, I am 40 now. In my quest of finding a style that could be practiced into the later years, I looked into WC and was most impressed that WC is one of the few striking arts that I saw (outside of Boxing, MT) that actually could use what it practiced in fighting.

I did Shorin Ryu for many years (among other things), this is no ding on the style but after so much kata, 1 step and individual technique practice moving up and down the Dojo floor, when it came to sparing everyone always came out looking like sloppy kickboxers. I never could get all those blocks to work in sparing, the best I could manage was to cover or parry.

I've been doing WC for a year now and upon sparing my old Karate and Kickboxing (PKA rules) friends the result have been somewhat eye-opening. I am a much better in-fighter (an area I've always sucked at), my reflexes have improved (and they scoff at chi sao :shrug and instead of covering and countering I'm more prone to arresting my opponent's attacks by angling and trapping.

Also, WC shapes actually come out (of nowhere) while sparing, e.g. I can actually use a tan sao, bong sao, jum, jut, etc.

I'm not saying WC is the be-all-end-all, but it really seems to be coming together for me better than before. I believe many of the attributes of WC exist in other arts, but seldom do they seem to be the focal point to the extent they are in WC. I'm often told that WC isn't about the technique but the attributes. I wish I had started this sooner.


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## Brian R. VanCise (Jan 1, 2008)

Seeker said:


> I've been in the MAs since I was 13, I am 40 now. In my quest of finding a style that could be practiced into the later years, I looked into WC and was most impressed that WC is one of the few striking arts that I saw (outside of Boxing, MT) that actually could use what it practiced in fighting.
> 
> I did Shorin Ryu for many years (among other things), this is no ding on the style but after so much kata, 1 step and individual technique practice moving up and down the Dojo floor, when it came to sparing everyone always came out looking like sloppy kickboxers. I never could get all those blocks to work in sparing, the best I could manage was to cover or parry.
> 
> ...


 
That is awesome that you are making it work for you.  I have trained some Wing Chun way back in the day and definately came away favorably impressed with it's directness.


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## bigbadade (Jan 9, 2008)

WIng CHun. At first I thought it was no good, then I started to think about the techniques and practice with a unknown (to me) master. He really opened the door to me, and since then never looked back.


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## qwksilver61 (Jan 12, 2008)

The shortest distance between two points,rapid fire chain punching,re-routing on coming attacks,springy power,45 deg.soft, yet not weak power.( hard/soft drills of course) more area covered by fist,sensitivity training (eventually on a subconscious level) What else?


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## retsaM (Feb 5, 2008)

When I was 18 (back in the mid 80s) and starting my career as a DJ in some seedy clubs I saw lots of fighting in the clubs and on the streets. The bouncers were mainly Zen Do Kai (spelling?, a combination of Karate and kickboxing). Many of the bouncers would demolish ne1 who stepped out of line. I had no idea how 2 fight and thought the only way i would b safe in the clubs is if i became friendly with some of the senior bouncers, as it turned out i did, 1 of them even offered 2 train me. I didn't accept as most of his students were almost twice my size. I met another DJ who trained Wing Chun and seemed 2 have the respect of many of the bouncers although he was much smaller and didn't seem 2 b agressive @ all. Luckily we became good friends and i became a casual private student of his, when he could spare the time. I was hooked on Wing Chun and loved it. A year or so later i jumped in2 help 1 of the senior bouncers who had been jumped by 4 thugs, 1 with a weapon. I managed 2 do enuff 2 help him get control of the situation and also gained some respect. At that point i knew Wing Chun was 4 me. I've helped out on many occasions in various clubs and it's funny 2 c the reactions from guys when they find out the DJ threw them out. lol I don't jump in much nemore, 2 old.


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## tenth1 (Feb 8, 2008)

i had had a break in studying mas for about 5 years and wanted to improve my in fighting skills which were not great, after doing some research decided to give wc a try and have been hooked on it for the last year and look forward to each lesson with enthusiasm.


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