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Purpose

Purpose

Wing Chun Defense Against Kick

Our Wing Chun Path

The following are comments made by Kenneth Chung at a Victoria seminar. Kenneth Chung is a  master of Wing Chun who has been practicing for more than 35 years. He studied ten years under Leung Sheung, the first Hong Kong student of the late Grandmaster Yip Man.

 "When studying Wing Chun, you should always bear in mind that it is a woman’s style. A woman tries to use the opponent’s energy. If a woman or a smaller person can do it, then you are close to the Wing Chun concept.  Yip Man brought the art to Hong Kong from mainland China in about 1949. Yip Man was a small person, about 5 feet 4 inches tall and weighing about 125 pounds. Despite his small size, he was never intimidated by anyone. Obviously it was not because of his power or muscles that this was the case. Many students of martial arts are overly concerned with physical speed. This is fine when you are young and in your prime but what happens when you get older? When you are old, you cannot rely on swiftness

 Yip Man met Leung Sheung (my teacher) when Yip Man was 50 years old. My teacher was 20 years younger, 190 pounds and 5 feet 11 inches tall.  This is big for a Chinese person. Leung Sheung was an expert in Dragon style, Choy Lay Fut and White Eyebrow style.  Yet Yip Man had no problem to handle him.  So Leung Sheung  cast away what he learned and started over again. Leung Sheung started learning at age 30. It’s never too late to start learning Wing Chun. However, many people carry a lot of chips on their shoulder. They think to themselves, why should I give up all that I have learned before? Leung Sheung, who became one of Yip Man’s best students, had great insight and gave all the other arts

 I am trying to stay close to the principles of Wing Chun and am not deviating from the method that Leung Sheung taught.  Leung Sheung did not advocate the use of power. If you use the powerful approach, then you are away from Wing Chun.  The only change I make in teaching is to explain things in modern terms. I try to explain it in a way that people can relate.  For example what I am trying to do is to build up your basic hardware. The beautiful hands are the software. But the hardware is very important. You are now a 286 computer and need to be upgraded to accommodate the software. You can’t run Windows 95 on a 286 computer.