2 Hour Intro to Wing Chun Class

[wingchun100]

I will be teaching a 2-hour Intro to Wing Chun course at a local college. I'm assuming that the attendees may be newbies not just to Wing Chun, but to martial arts in general. I'm trying to come up with an outline for the class, but I need some suggestions because I am not sure if what I have will last 2 hours.

*Warm-up and stretching (15-20 minutes tops)
*Describe what I feel are the 3 main features of the system
*Run them through a handful of basic techniques. One would be the punch, of course. Then I was thinking of doing 3 blocks: Pak Sao, Gan Sao, and Biu Sao.
*Practice these in the air, then with a partner.
*Practice the blocks in the air again while adding an attack. Then do it with a partner.
*After that, I was thinking of doing 3-5 self-defense scenarios. ("How would you use Wing Chun if someone did ______?")

Does anyone else have any ideas? I was thinking forms would NOT be important, since it is just a 2-hour, one-shot class.

 

[Gerry Seymour]

I will be teaching a 2-hour Intro to Wing Chun course at a local college. I'm assuming that the attendees may be newbies not just to Wing Chun, but to martial arts in general. I'm trying to come up with an outline for the class, but I need some suggestions because I am not sure if what I have will last 2 hours.

*Warm-up and stretching (15-20 minutes tops)
*Describe what I feel are the 3 main features of the system
*Run them through a handful of basic techniques. One would be the punch, of course. Then I was thinking of doing 3 blocks: Pak Sao, Gan Sao, and Biu Sao.
*Practice these in the air, then with a partner.
*Practice the blocks in the air again while adding an attack. Then do it with a partner.
*After that, I was thinking of doing 3-5 self-defense scenarios. ("How would you use Wing Chun if someone did ______?")

Does anyone else have any ideas? I was thinking forms would NOT be important, since it is just a 2-hour, one-shot class.

That's an ambitious amount to fit into the 100 minutes you have left after stretching. Remember, there will be questions (maybe a few, maybe a lot - depends upon the group). Remember, also, that to teach blocks and have them work with a partner, you'll have to teach at least some rudimentary striking principles at that point (some will be just awful if you don't). Imagine you had a brand new student who came to class, who was going to work with another brand new student. How much could you cover with that student in the first class?

Have you decided what the desired outcome of the class is? Do you want them to understand WC, or do you want them to have a taste of self-defense? You seem to be trying to reach both, and that (IMO) is too much for 2 hours. If the class is supposed to be an intro to WC, then I'd omit the SD scenarios at the end. Instead, with each technique you teach them, you can demonstrate the self-defense usage for them. They simply aren't going to have any skill in that amount of time.

Here's my primary concern: if you put them through those few techniques, then have them try to defend even a very slow attack, most of them are likely to still be very bad at it - improper structure making the blocks feel weak, etc. So, at the end of 2 hours, they don't feel the effectiveness and don't get a good feeling for WC. On the other hand, if they learn two good blocks and two good strikes, then they can actually get to feel what a good block/strike feels like. Let them get a little bit of a feel for the repetition. Still include the talk about the features of the system. If you want to save some time, you could actually reduce the warm-up. You are unlikely to get them moving much in that amount of time (footwork adds to the learning times), so they have less chance to hurt themselves. Show them a form that has all of the techniques (hopefully there is one) you'll be teaching. Show it with some speed and fluidity to make it more interesting. Then, as you teach each technique, you can point out where it is in the form.

Now, all that said, whatever you plan for, have an extension plan in your back pocket, too. As sure as I am of what I've said, sometimes you get the freak group of people who learn really fast. So, in this case, maybe be ready to teach a short sequence of the techniques they learned. Or just keep those SD scenarios handy, just in case.

 

[wingchun100]

I want to give them an overview of WC so that I can maybe get some people to hang on as future students. As for the SD scenarios, that is because people often wonder how WC would be used against this or that attack. So I wanted them to see how it would work by having them finish the question, "What if..."

The first form does indeed have all the techniques in it that I wanted to teach (the 3 blocks and the punch).

Last but not least, I was thinking for the SD scenarios that I might just have them watch me defend against whatever they suggest. Then again, I don't want to do too much of that (putting them in positions where they just watch) because this class is going to cost them some money. They don't want to pay and then just stand there watching me. They want to get a feel for it themselves.

 

[Gerry Seymour]

I want to give them an overview of WC so that I can maybe get some people to hang on as future students. As for the SD scenarios, that is because people often wonder how WC would be used against this or that attack. So I wanted them to see how it would work by having them finish the question, "What if..."

The first form does indeed have all the techniques in it that I wanted to teach (the 3 blocks and the punch).

Last but not least, I was thinking for the SD scenarios that I might just have them watch me defend against whatever they suggest. Then again, I don't want to do too much of that (putting them in positions where they just watch) because this class is going to cost them some money. They don't want to pay and then just stand there watching me. They want to get a feel for it themselves.

I wouldn't take the SD situation suggestions from them, for reasons I mentioned before. Pick a few you consider valuable, fairly common, and good illustrations of how WC is used in SD. Don't be afraid of them standing and watching you - that's literally the only way they're going to find out in 2 hours how WC actually works.

Here's an idea - start with a brief demo of using WC in a defensive situation. Plan it so you can use in that one situation all the strikes and at least one of the blocks you're going to work with. Yeah, it'll be overkill (remember to restomp the groin), but it lets them see at reasonable speed what the stuff looks like. Then you can explain the points of the art and how forms fit into the training. You can show them the form (again, at speed), then highlight the first technique they're going to learn. One way to pair up the techniques would be to teach a strike first, then teach a block they can use against it. Now they have a workable pair of techniques for a short drill. Repeat.

Of course, if someone asks a specific scenario - and it's a reasonable one - then you can go with it. Just remember your demonstration partner isn't trained in WC, so anything outside the stuff you've practiced might get an unexpected reaction from him.

 

[Danny T]

Stance, Structure, Centerline & Gate theories, Punching.
Pak Sao, Bil Sao, Pak/Sot, and countering.

 

[Juany118]

Is this differ by than the 6 week course you already asked about.

 

[Kung Fu Wang]

You can teach them how to deal with:

- straight punch (jab, cross, ...),
- circular punch (hook, uppercut, ...),
- straight kick (front kick, side kick, ...),
- circular kick (roundhouse kick, spin kick, ...),
- foot sweep,
- leg shooting,
- ...

Teach your new students how to solve those problems before get into more detail.

 

[JowGaWolf]

I will be teaching a 2-hour Intro to Wing Chun course at a local college. I'm assuming that the attendees may be newbies not just to Wing Chun, but to martial arts in general. I'm trying to come up with an outline for the class, but I need some suggestions because I am not sure if what I have will last 2 hours.

*Warm-up and stretching (15-20 minutes tops)
*Describe what I feel are the 3 main features of the system
*Run them through a handful of basic techniques. One would be the punch, of course. Then I was thinking of doing 3 blocks: Pak Sao, Gan Sao, and Biu Sao.
*Practice these in the air, then with a partner.
*Practice the blocks in the air again while adding an attack. Then do it with a partner.
*After that, I was thinking of doing 3-5 self-defense scenarios. ("How would you use Wing Chun if someone did ______?")

Does anyone else have any ideas? I was thinking forms would NOT be important, since it is just a 2-hour, one-shot class.

Keep in mind that you are doing an Introduction to Wing Chun so your 2 hours is better spent on educating the people about the system. Show a couple of basics and let them play around with the basics. Talk about the fighting theory of the system, the advantages, the disadvantages, and benefits. Explain the difference between Chinese Martial Arts, Japanese Martial Arts, and Korean Martial Arts people get those things mixed up big time.

Explain the concepts of the basics (stance, basic punch, and basic movement) and what is learned as an advanced student so they can have a comparison. Talk about the type of training that is done at your school. Give them a chance to experience doing some of the basics. Don't forget to mention that intermediate students learn how to generate power with their punches so that they don't think that their weak punch is all that's to Wing Chun

Give a little general historical background about Wing Chun talk about the famous people who practice Wing Chun which helps people to create some kind of connection about what you do. Ip Man, Donnie Yen, Bruce Lee.. go for the big names because they many won't know anyone beyond the big names.

The other thing you can do is teach them a basic escape move and let them work on that. with each other. Make sure they walk away from your Intro course with something that they can actually use. If they can walk away with something they can use, then they will most likely come back to you to learn more.

If I had 2 hours to do a Jow Ga Course I would use those 2 hours to educate the participants on the reality and myths of kung fu so that they can at least recognize legitimate kung fu for fighting vs kung fu for entertainment.
I would explain the training, let them experience part of the training. Maybe do a horse stance challenge to see how long they can maintain their stance. Anything that would help make Kung Fu less mystical and more practical and realistic. Then I'll teach a really simple technique, explain how to do it correctly and explain when it fails. Let them learn that so that they can go to their friends and to the grabbing scenario with their friends.

I would also ask them to leave their emails if they want to receive my newsletters. Even if I didn't have one, I would still send out an invite to watch sparring at the school or to be part of a special event or beginners class. People who have contacted me in the past about Jow Ga but didn't join gets an email every time a new student joins.

 

[Gerry Seymour]

Keep in mind that you are doing an Introduction to Wing Chun so your 2 hours is better spent on educating the people about the system. Show a couple of basics and let them play around with the basics. Talk about the fighting theory of the system, the advantages, the disadvantages, and benefits. Explain the difference between Chinese Martial Arts, Japanese Martial Arts, and Korean Martial Arts people get those things mixed up big time.

Explain the concepts of the basics (stance, basic punch, and basic movement) and what is learned as an advanced student so they can have a comparison. Talk about the type of training that is done at your school. Give them a chance to experience doing some of the basics. Don't forget to mention that intermediate students learn how to generate power with their punches so that they don't think that their weak punch is all that's to Wing Chun

Give a little general historical background about Wing Chun talk about the famous people who practice Wing Chun which helps people to create some kind of connection about what you do. Ip Man, Donnie Yen, Bruce Lee.. go for the big names because they many won't know anyone beyond the big names.

The other thing you can do is teach them a basic escape move and let them work on that. with each other. Make sure they walk away from your Intro course with something that they can actually use. If they can walk away with something they can use, then they will most likely come back to you to learn more.

If I had 2 hours to do a Jow Ga Course I would use those 2 hours to educate the participants on the reality and myths of kung fu so that they can at least recognize legitimate kung fu for fighting vs kung fu for entertainment.
I would explain the training, let them experience part of the training. Maybe do a horse stance challenge to see how long they can maintain their stance. Anything that would help make Kung Fu less mystical and more practical and realistic. Then I'll teach a really simple technique, explain how to do it correctly and explain when it fails. Let them learn that so that they can go to their friends and to the grabbing scenario with their friends.

I would also ask them to leave their emails if they want to receive my newsletters. Even if I didn't have one, I would still send out an invite to watch sparring at the school or to be part of a special event or beginners class. People who have contacted me in the past about Jow Ga but didn't join gets an email every time a new student joins.

Some great points in here. Do give them some info about what they should expect from training in WC, and specifically in your school. I like the "horse stance challenge" - especially if this is something you guys train at your school. You could do that during the intro - talking in horse stance while they try to match you. It becomes part of the warm-up, then.

Be willing to mention some of the limitations of WC, and why those are an acceptable compromise for you (and, in your view, for the art).

Definitely invite them to the school. Have flyers, or at least business cards for the school.

 

[JowGaWolf]

Have flyers, or at least business cards for the school.

definitely make sure they walk away with one or both of these things. Even if they don't join, they will have enough information to refer someone and an experience to share on what you were like as an instructor.

 

[wingchun100]

One thing I am leaving out: I have no school yet. I was offered the chance to teach once a week at a gym not far from me, but I don't have the amount of rent he needs up front. I was trying to build up a possible student body BEFORE I tell him I want the space. (What if I tell him yes, and then a month later have to stop because no one comes to class and I can't afford it anymore?) This way I could get people interested ahead of time and, if they want to join, I could give them a discount on that first month for having attended the one-shot college course.

 

[wingchun100]

As for explaining differences between other styles...I think that would be better suited for a longer class. If someone comes in and they have never done a martial art AT ALL, then they won't even know what differences I mean. I think this 2-hour class needs to focus simply on Wing Chun. Like GP said, in the name of transparency I could go over Wing Chun's flaws and explain why the systems still works (in my opinion).

 

[Gerry Seymour]

One thing I am leaving out: I have no school yet. I was offered the chance to teach once a week at a gym not far from me, but I don't have the amount of rent he needs up front. I was trying to build up a possible student body BEFORE I tell him I want the space. (What if I tell him yes, and then a month later have to stop because no one comes to class and I can't afford it anymore?) This way I could get people interested ahead of time and, if they want to join, I could give them a discount on that first month for having attended the one-shot college course.

Have you looked into rec centers and the like? There may be a place you could hold classes for the interim (and which may even turn out to be a good long-term home). Give me a holler if you want to talk about some of those possibilities. It will be difficult to gauge what your actual student body is before you open. There will be many who say they are interested, but who won't show up and pay for classes for a variety of reasons.

 

[wingchun100]

Have you looked into rec centers and the like? There may be a place you could hold classes for the interim (and which may even turn out to be a good long-term home). Give me a holler if you want to talk about some of those possibilities. It will be difficult to gauge what your actual student body is before you open. There will be many who say they are interested, but who won't show up and pay for classes for a variety of reasons.

The rec centers around here are even worse when it comes to money I will need up front. First, they are more like $50 per hour, whereas the gym is more like $25. Second, they want me to have insurance up front too. The most affordable I have found is $350 per year. I know having insurance is important, as well as forming an LLC, but I don't have that much money ahead.

The good news is, I don't need to pay rent for this college course, nor do I need to worry about insurance because, for those 2 hours, I am considered an employee of the college and therefore covered under THEIR insurance.

 

[Danny T]

As an intro I think it important to give the attendees something that:
1. Makes them excited about having attended
2. They walk away with something that they can actually do within the short period of the session.
3. They gain a bit of understanding of the training system.
4. They know where and how to get more information/training.

 

[wayfaring]

How did this opportunity open up for you?

As far as approaches to one-day seminars, the best I have seen is Grandmaster Garrett Gee. He takes one concept and unpacks it, working throughout the day. Some of the day topics have been covering: pak sau, the backfist, yjkym and footwork, chi sau are a few of the topics I have seen him cover. The days start out with building concepts. Sometimes we demonstrate how another art does a technique. Then the explanation of the art and how the technology in the art handles this particular concept. Then there are specific drills to build up an understanding of this not just conceptually, but in body expression. Several drills are done in succession, each one building upon the last one, and there are checkpoints built into the drills to show the student when they are wandering off track, like there are certain points where you can hit, or take someone's balance to illustrate the boundaries of the exercise and expression.

If I had to put together a 2 hour seminar I would completely model one of those Saturday workshops and try and break it down similarly.

 

[wingchun100]

How did this opportunity open up for you?

As far as approaches to one-day seminars, the best I have seen is Grandmaster Garrett Gee. He takes one concept and unpacks it, working throughout the day. Some of the day topics have been covering: pak sau, the backfist, yjkym and footwork, chi sau are a few of the topics I have seen him cover. The days start out with building concepts. Sometimes we demonstrate how another art does a technique. Then the explanation of the art and how the technology in the art handles this particular concept. Then there are specific drills to build up an understanding of this not just conceptually, but in body expression. Several drills are done in succession, each one building upon the last one, and there are checkpoints built into the drills to show the student when they are wandering off track, like there are certain points where you can hit, or take someone's balance to illustrate the boundaries of the exercise and expression.

If I had to put together a 2 hour seminar I would completely model one of those Saturday workshops and try and break it down similarly.

I remembered that, when I went to college, they had several martial arts classes on campus in the evening. So what I did was call around and ask all the local colleges if I could hold a class on campus. With Hudson Valley, they said, "No, you can't hold a regular class. However, you could recommend it as a course for our Continuing Education classes." The rest is history.

 

[marques]

I think it is ambitious for a 2 hours class. Besides, I like it. Warm up and cool down will consume some time. I would consider also a 5-10 minutes interval (drinking water, toilet, chatting...). About 1.5 hours remaining.

If you are afraid of showing too little, perhaps you can find a trained partner (did you get better friends lately? ) just for showing the potential of WC (several techniques, drills, sparring...) perhaps in the last 10 min, when they are less motivated and concentrated to train theirselves.

Ask them their emails (for inscription). And invite them to your school, when it happens.

 

[wayfaring]

I remembered that, when I went to college, they had several martial arts classes on campus in the evening. So what I did was call around and ask all the local colleges if I could hold a class on campus. With Hudson Valley, they said, "No, you can't hold a regular class. However, you could recommend it as a course for our Continuing Education classes." The rest is history.

Thanks for the tip. I have a small local club I have just started up in the last year or so. I have been teaching privates and in the park. I also train ground at a BJJ school, and spar at a MMA school. Those are more my test labs than they are a club co-host, but as things progress I will keep options open.

 

[wingchun100]

Thanks for the tip. I have a small local club I have just started up in the last year or so. I have been teaching privates and in the park. I also train ground at a BJJ school, and spar at a MMA school. Those are more my test labs than they are a club co-host, but as things progress I will keep options open.

I wish the weather around here was good enough year-round to teach in the park. Right now the weather is miserable, so I have run out of options...except for things like this.