# Wing Chung questions from the Home of the Museum -- Dayton



## Ravensign (Jul 6, 2002)

Hello.

I am 30 years old, athletic build (although I have gotten out of shaped), and 6 foot 2. Never had any MA, and lookign to rectify that. I am mostly looking for self defense and a long term "hobby" and form of recreation.

I have always been attracted to Wing Chun and I think I am ready to begin actually doing it.

I have a couple of questions.

1) First of all I understand WC to be a more circular art than linear, to be an art about exploiting openings, an art dealing with hand work in close, and an art that can be honed to some degree (ala wooden dummy) alone. Is this view correct?

2) I am 6 foot 2, so I am relatively tall, and I have always (for right or wrong) thought of WC as being for shorter or smaller people. Will I have trouble at my height? I am generally trying to avoid MA that are linear (blech) and kick heavy.

3) I am fortunate to live in the hometown of the VT (WC) museum but I cant find any net info on Meng's school, only his museum. Does anyone have info on the school in Dayton as opposed to the museum. All my net searches point to the museum and not the school for finding out about schedule info.

4) If Meng's school doesn't work out, what other WC schools are in the Dayton, OH area, anyone? I am only worried that Meng's wont work out because of my odd schedule, not for any other reason. Being the home of the museum I would love to learn there.

5) I really think WC is for me. I want a MA that emphasizes reaction time, clever response, and hand work, and must be internal and external both, and have a more circular flow, am I on the right track?

6) Does WC have "forms"? Form competitions? To me forms are attractive, and interest me.

Thanks for any info!


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## arnisador (Jul 7, 2002)

> _Originally posted by Ravensign _
> 
> *I am mostly looking for self defense and a long term "hobby" and form of recreation.*



Martial arts are for you then--the hobby/activity aspect is certainly an important one for me.



> *
> 1) First of all I understand WC to be a more circular art than linear, to be an art about exploiting openings, an art dealing with hand work in close, and an art that can be honed to some degree (ala wooden dummy) alone. Is this view correct?
> *



There are people here much more knowledgeable about Wing Chun than I am. But I would agree with all you've said save to note that there are many very linear aspects of WC and that WC proponents might add _making_ openings to exploiting them. Note that there are 3 open-hand forms in addition to the wooden dummy form and two weapons forms so there are many ways to do solo practice. Partner practice is essential as well though (trapping hands, sticky hands).



> *
> 2) I am 6 foot 2, so I am relatively tall, and I have always (for right or wrong) thought of WC as being for shorter or smaller people. Will I have trouble at my height? I am generally trying to avoid MA that are linear (blech) and kick heavy.*



I too think of WC as being more oriented toward shorter people--the legend of it being founded by a woman--but I do know that tall people also practice it. There are many ways to functionalize the art and you might find that the Jeet Kune Do approach would be insightful in developing an appraoch to using WC that works for you. I don't think your height will cause you trouble in WC.

It is _not_ kick heavy--there are a very few low kicks. Strikes are fairly linear, defenses often circular. In WC strikes it's emphasized that the shortest distance between two points is a straight _line_. This is not an animal style of kung fu with exaggerated, beautiful movements. It's fast and hard, intended for effective self-defense--another story of its origing is that it was intended to be an art that one could gain combat-effective proficiency in relatively rapidly, as opposed to more formal, classical kung fu systems.



> *
> 3) I am fortunate to live in the hometown of the VT (WC) museum but I cant find any net info on Meng's school, only his museum. Does anyone have info on the school in Dayton as opposed to the museum. *



See these links:
http://home.vtmuseum.org/information/hours.php
http://home.vtmuseum.org/information/location.php



> *
> 4) If Meng's school doesn't work out, what other WC schools are in the Dayton, OH area, anyone? *



I don't know, but there are web sites listed in this forum that have lists of instructors.



> *
> 5) I really think WC is for me. I want a MA that emphasizes reaction time, clever response, and hand work, and must be internal and external both, and have a more circular flow, am I on the right track?*



In my opinion there's relatively little internal work in WC, and again the responses are quick because they're linear in many cases. But overall it's hands-oriented and focused on fast-paced, effective fighting. The trapping is a relatively intricate technique.

In WC one is trained to begin one's response when one feels the opponent's technique, leading to the simultaneous block-and-punch. it's good stuff.



> *
> 6) Does WC have "forms"? Form competitions? *



Most styles of WC have three open-hand forms, two weapon forms (staff and butterfly swords), and the wooden dummy form. The empty-hand forms of WC do not really lend themselves to competition, in my opinion. Of course, someone may well disagree with any of my opinions stated here.

There are a ton of books on Wing Chun/Wing Tsun/Ving Tsun/etc.; check one of the online web sites. Good luck! Let us know how it goes!


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## arnisador (Jul 7, 2002)

Check out the several threads in this forum that have video clips in the subject line to get an idea of how the art looks and moves.


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## theneuhauser (Jul 7, 2002)

i totally agree, wing chun is very good stuff and like arnisador said, it really is a little more linear in its attacks. for self defense its greatly effective. unfortunately, if you like forms practice, or the idea of practicing, you wont get alot of it with wc. dont worry about your size, im also 6'2" 210 lbs. and any of those excercises will work well for you. i havent trained wing chun, but many praying mantis drills are similar to wing chun's sensing hands drills, and the kicks up close are the same. 
with most cma's the closer the fighting style is, the shorter the techniques get, so they seem a little bit more linear and not as big and circular as the northern styles. 
but if you are considering alternatives, tiger and southern dragon style are very effective and they have more forms to practice. also southern mantis.
by the way, welcome to the boards!


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## OldBean (Jul 26, 2002)

I am a Wing Chun guy and Arnisador gave a good summary.
Forms in WC are the building blocks of WC and should be practiced every day. While they look simple a great deal of hard work is required to get them right. They are not flowery - they are hard work.

Competition is usually in the form of Chi Sao -reflex training or in full or semi-contact fights. Some schools may not do this

Don't worry about your height - you'll be ok.

As for hard/soft linear/circular - well the method of training may emphasize one approach over another particularly in the early days but as you become more proficient you learn to adapt.

WC adheres to the KungFu maxim Defeat Linear action with Circular action - defeat circular action with linear action.

Some schools will also teach anti-grappling but generally it's not taught until you are an advanced student -  the anti grappling may be traditional Chinese Chin Na or may be based on BJJ depending on the teacher.


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## thatoneguy (Oct 26, 2002)

hi ravensign
I live here in dayton and go to the museum
as for if the school doesnt work out ummm it should work just fine
there are 3 styles at the VT museum  so that shouldnt be a problem  
also every one is pretty nice and all

as for grappeling/antigrappeling
we do learn that some early on  but only in self defese sort of training like bearhugs and how to get out of them

as for the thing on forms oldbean is deffinatly right
we also get some basic 3 gate training as well as 4 and 6 gate training
so although i dont think there are any styles that are better than the others i have to say this is a good style to learn for self defense or hobbies but its not really sparring oreinted in my opinion
by the way im not a master of WC so if you disagree feel free to say some thing


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