What Made You Switch?

[Nobody]

I still do my old arts of Hsing Yi, Bagua, Taichi just added wing chung. To say it changed my overall approach to each of the others, how i simplify the movements in like Bagua now is different, though it has more of a Shui Jow style for its throws than Wing Chung. Hsing Yi an Wing Chung physically feel like the very same art when i do them. I do not know which had influence on which but it is very aperant they had been connected somehow. Hsing Yi stance in essence the same stances as Wing Chung, the axe effect or metal in Hsing Yi the same. There must have been alot that crossed over way back when between them.

 

[larry]

In all martial arts you use the mind to learn the techniques. As you develop in practice, the body begins to instinctively know and automatically react without first thinking. That is the first goal. I personally switched from other interests to wing chun after seeing it used to easily beat an opponent in a fight. But meeting his teacher, and then becoming his si-dai in that family, was what changed my life. A good teacher and "family" are almost more important than the art you are learning. When you feel that you belong where you are, then stay. LL

 

[Nobody]

A good teacher and "family" are almost more important than the art you are learning. When you feel that you belong where you are, then stay. LL

Agree that is it exactly, even with the some 500 hundred mile between me an the people i use to train with they are going to always be family.

 

[Zenaphobe]

I did a couple years of Hung Gar and felt like it was more "art" than "martial" the way the sifu was teaching it.

I learned the first two hand forms Gung Gee Bok Fu Kuen and Fu Hok Suen Yen Kuen and the staff and broad sword forms, along with a couple two person drills and felt like I was being drowned in learning movments but not in application or fighting principals.

I really became discouraged when the Si Gung came to the school and began correcting the things we had been taught. I figured that if my Sifu couldn't remember all these forms correctly, then how will I ever do it.

Aside from that, there were the continual demonstrations and lion dancing we were encouraged to participate in. I am not much of an exibitionist and these were just sources of immense stress for me.

So, I left there and began looking around for another school and didn't want was being offered in the area, like Tae Kwan Do and Karate. I tried out a Systema Russian MA school, but they were too pricey for my budget.

After a lot waiting and looking I fianally came across a Wing Tsun teacher in this area and tried a sample class today.

I believe this is the type of system that I have been looking for and I plan to dedicate my self to mastering it.

Zen

 

[tenth1]

i started training aikido about 4 years ago but time and money became difficult to find so i stopped training, then i started to get fat and out of shape so looked for a good school of ma to train in, happily i found a wing chun teacher practicly on my doorstep and began training with him, that was six months ago and i am loving its concepts and hard training and really feel that it is more easily applicable than a lot of other things i have trained in. in short wing chun has been the best thing that ever happened to me!!

 

[roninsensei]

Ive been doing Martial artd for going on thirty years now. I started with kempo then jujutsu then Aikido then Daito ryu, but my punching and kicking was alway sub par so a friend recomended wing chun. My punching and kicking have dramatically improved I trained for three years in wing chun but it is not the end all. Aikido is O.K. but if your interested I would look for a yoshinkan school, Aikikai tends to be to hippie in the U.S.

 

[Kensai]

I'd trained in Karate as a child, for a few years, then later on in my late teens, I spent several years doing ju-jitsu. I just felt that I was learning very robotic movements, some of which I felt were too complex to condition into my automatic reflexes. I'd heard about Wing Chun, and its simplicity, and decided upon checking it out.

My class, whereby admittedly I've not trained now in over 8 months, my work shifts have changed, and being a dad to a new born has kicked the crud out of my energy levels, I'm getting to the point where I can go back. For me, the simplicity, the aggression and directness of it, combined with a very hard edged approach to training (occassional bare knuckle, full speed training, contact made, get on with it approach). Combined within a 2 hour class, we'd do around 20 minutes of nasty aerobic, basic fitness building work. It's truly amazing how many sloooow, good form press-ups you can fit in, along with stomach crunches, running, and chain punches you can do in that short period of time, just to get you warmed up for the rest of the class. You can see why I've not had the energy/inclination to go. There's only so many sleepless nights you can have before you're totally drained.

I also felt much more at home with the CMA too. They have a bad press sometimes for a variety of reasons, but I found the informal training approach combined with obvious results too much to ignore. For me, having done other arts originating from a certain island off the coast of mainland China, I found the bowing constantly and silent atmosphere of the training hall to be offputting, so that was another reason why I changed over. I agree to an extent that WC is something that would generally be the kind of art/system to complement another. And for that reason, I'm hoping to start sun style tai chi very soon. Just my tuppence.