"Your way of WC/WT/VT is so stupid..."

[Kung Fu Wang]

1) Ask "what am I supposed to do?"

When a student asks question like this, it means that the teacher has taught him any strategy yet. IMO, that should be the teacher's fault.

 

[Forwardpower]

Have any of the rest of you encountered this? How do you respond to people who practice WC/WT/VT very differently than your sifu?

Well, i heard it more then not. But I'm confident enough in what I'm doing that I don't really care. The forms are what they are but the tools are versitile enough to get a variety of applications that differ wildly. So i think it's fair to say "I don't recognize this ect." If you can back up how it's supposed to be wing chun and you can make it work, then where is the problem. If you want to apply or compete with your Wing Chun then there is no way around pressure testing it, crosstraining and sparring. Then it should obvious if it works or not.
Everybody should know for themself what their goal is. If you just what to go through the motions or do more the "art" aspect of the martial art then you shouldn't be surprised if it doesn't resemble what you're used to when others train for applications in fights.
It depends what your goal is and if you honestly did your due diligence.

Many times I've seen wing chun instructors use 'kickboxing' as wing chun, but their students don't know any better. They would start to bob & weave, with their hands by the side of their heads, throwing 'jabs' and 'hooks'.

As for jabs and hooks. I'm of the opinion that they are a integral part of Wing Chun. The bobing and weaving not that much but sometimes, especially if you fight in MuayThai with Wing Chun, you get into the same rithm when they start with their traditional thay music. Not ideal but it happens really fast. Sticking your hands to your head is just common sense when fighting with big gloves. You can still execute most Wing Chun from any guard your in anyway.

 

[Gerry Seymour]

Have any of the rest of you encountered this?

Nobody has ever called my WC stupid.

I have seen a bit of this in other arts, but in my time lurking (and sometimes trying desperately to contribute) in WC forums, I've seen much more of it there than elsewhere. But it seems to be a minority of people who do this, at least what I've seen. It was certainly that way for a long time in the WC forum here. A few people made a lot of noise about how broken other lineages are, while most of the rest seemed to be able to have reasonable discussions about differences.