just wondering what people think of wing chun and how applicable it is in a real situations.
Personally, I think it’s great. I’ve been training in it for over a year. It’s right on track with what I’m looking for in a system, still traditional, but at the same time right to the point.
I went from studying a system of Kempo at the mother of all McDojo’s. After 5 years of studying I left with over 30 forms, 200 punch techniques, at least 50 club and knife techniques. I felt that I knew too much for actually application, and it felt that way when I was sparring. After my first class of Wing Chun my teacher made all the kempo I took look like childs play and I was hooked.
How applicable is it in street situations, I can’t say since I haven’t been in one while studying Wing Chun. I’ve goofed around with a few friends that new martial arts though and from what I’ve seen I’d have zero problem going into a fight against somebody who had no martial arts training. Too bad people are too laid back on the west coast 
“But some apes they gotta go, so we kill the ones we don’t know” - ‘Ape shall never kill Ape’ by The Vandals
Most wing chun that I have come across hasn’t impressed me much. The Wing Tzun orginization lead by Emin Boetzepe seems the most practical.
I haven’t been impressed with Emin Boetztepe from the demos I have seen in the downloads section here … not that they were horrible. They just weren’t anything different from what your average dojo teaches … except for the girl slapping. No offense to WT intended. I haven’t researched it that much.
I do have respect fot William Cheung and Ip Man. Wing Chun has some interesting concepts.
>> Perhaps it was because I had an inherent skill for the science and never deviated from natural principles. - Miyamoto Musashi 1643
I’ve studied it for just a few lessons and liked it–it’s my first experience of a MA, though. Not knowing much about martial arts (I’ve mainly boxed), I’m not sure about the contact level, though. They seem to like to go really, really easy on one another. What level of contact is typically considered “full-contact” in MA in general and in WC in particular? Surely you people don’t kick each other in the teeth, but do you typically put on headgear and go full speed? I don’t see them doing that in the class I’m attending.
Other than that, the school I’ve attended stresses chainpunches to the face in self-defense situations, and no one can really argue about the effectiveness of that strategy. If you hit them hard, they will fall.
Hm.
But are those chain punches really hard then?
From the clips I have watched it just looks like waving to me. Distracting, sure, but knockdown…?
Disclaimer: I have never fought, seen or talked to a routined WT fighter, so what I know Is what I saw from the same clips 9chambers seems to have seen. Girl slapping. Heh.
9chambers,
Just Curious, why do you have respect for William Cheung?
My main focus in training now is the WT from Sifu Boztepe. I also like to work out with boxers and wrestlers because of the conditioning. (Most the people that are attracted to WT/WC aren’t willing to really put in the effort to get in good shape. Sad but true.)
In principle, I think WC is a great system. Somewhere along the way, just like everything else that collides with capitalism, most of it became about money.
Everyone who ever met Yip Man started a wing chun school and was suddenly a grandmaster.
Just like in every training, be it martial arts or mathematics, there will be A students, C students and F students. IMHO there are a lot of D- Wing Chun masters running around. (there are a lot of D- martial artists running around, but that what mcdojo is all about)
The lineages I’ve been most impressed with are Boztepe and Wong Shun Long. The lineages I’m least impressed with are Ip Chun and Ip Ching. There are probably worse, and perhaps better, but I haven’t seen every possible lineage.
My advice is that same as it would be for any martial art. Go see a class, if it looks like something you want to do, go for it. If there is more than one school, visit them all. Pay more attention to the students than the teacher. It doesn’t mean jack if the instuctor is great, if his students have no skills.
T tsuguri does the T stand for Takuma? If so you are the man! 
I recently heard something that will make me use A LOT of respect (the bit that is left) for William Chueng
Xiao Ao Jiang Hu Zhi Dong Fang Bu Bai (Laughing Proud Warrior Invinsible Asia) Emporer of Baji!!! THE FIRST LINE OF DEFENSE AGAINST THE UNITED AUSSIE FRONT!!
Hm.
But are those chain punches really hard then?
From the clips I have watched it just looks like waving to me. Distracting, sure, but knockdown…?
I assume they are as hard as the person throwing them is athletic. Being a former boxer, I have a keen respect for athleticism. Many boxers are in very good physical condition. Sadly, I’m getting too old to meaningfully keep up. In WC class, there are women and very small men. This is great if their opponent is of like size and athleticism–I don’t completely buy the idea that it’s about skill and not size. If you do, then a visit to an innercity boxing gym and a short session with 6’3" 220lb boxer in top condition and with great physical skills may be time well spent for you. Maybe I’m wrong and all the Kung-Fu people here would take the boxer down immediately on skill alone. I have a strong suspicion which way it would go, though.
All things being equal, there is obviously much more science applied to self-defense in WC than in boxing. The emphasis on protecting the groin against kicks via proper stance, the no-wasted motion approach to punching, the very direct and unrelenting movements toward the attacker, etc. Given equal athleticism, I would take the WC guy. The only thing that catches my attention as a WC negative is that the boxer is absolutely used to something close to actual fighting at real speed. I have yet to see this in WC class.
WC is a great ma when you put it in context. It’s purpose is to teach the average person do defend themselves under the most likely situations. Like someone else pointed out in another thread, the average bjj student would probably spank the average WC student. Although from the theoretical aspect WC could be very effective, most schools don’t really train that hard. I’ve been to some classes and seminars and never even broke a sweat. As far as lineages go, I’ll have to agree with Little Idea. WC masters are a dime a dozen, just having had your picture taken with Ip Man seems to be enough to proclaim yourself a grandmaster. Ip Ching’s organization and his gaggle of phoney masters is pretty lame. I’ve heard nothing good about Augustine Fong and Leung Ting’s organization in the US has gone totally fat and lazy since Boztepe left. Wiliam Cheung… we won’t even go there… you can just order his correspondence course on line.
I’ve heard great things about Kenneth Chung. Wong Sheung Long was a bad ass fighter in his day, supposedly he taught his students aggressively. Emin Boztepe teaches a much more aggressive and athletic version.
I’ve been doing WT for about a year now and love it. However, I know someone who has been trained to fight in MMA for the same amount of time would hand my ass to me. Why? Not because WT is useless but because he would have trained harder. Not everyone wants to do weight training, take creatine, do loads of cardio and spar full contact just so they can do a martial art. Most people who do WT do it for self defence, fun and to meet people. I believe WT is good enough for the average person to be able to defend themselves if someone threatens them on the street, in a bar or club. It covers all ranges of combat (unlike WC) kicking, punching, elbows, knees, grappling and groundfighting. Psychological aspects of a fight are also covered.
I love watching MMA but it is not the be all and end all of martial arts. I’d like to do BJJ (cos in some respects it is similar to WT) but their aren’t any schools in my area.
Demo vids of Boztepe are just that, demos. He’s not going to punch his students at full power in the face. Chain punches are very effective when done properly with foot work and forward pressure.
Just my 2 cents worth
This message is to city guy…
In respect to contact sparring in wing chun it all depends on what school u attend. The school my sifu (a senior at the time)attended as well as my brother in the past had one of the fiercest training regiments in a martial art that was not going to be used for competition purposes. There are stories (myths maybe) from the seniors that the average classes as well as the sparring sessions were deadly (headgear and gloves used obviously). There was even a story about a level 8 testing which had sparring for a solid half an hour against multiple attackers. This was due to the intensity of the sifu who used fear to motivate his students. Trust me when i say he used fear…is that not the emotion you’ll be feeling when under life threatening attack? So why not train and learn to cope with it, it will only make u a better fighter. He would purposely put on harder more fatiguing classes whenever a new student came in for a trial lesson so only the strong stayed. I’d say if ur happy at your current school set up some sparring sessions with some fellow martial artists. Just a coincidence but my sifu also used to box. And why are u guys hating on GM William Cheung? did u not know that Bruce Lee himself regarded William as the ‘deadliest man on earth’? Did u not know it was William who taught Bruce after Yip Man refused to teach him because he was a quarter white (German on his moms side to be exact)? Don’t disrespect other styles, humility is key to a good martial artist.
Show me a reference where Bruce Lee said William Cheung is the deadliest man on earth.
That isn’t from a William Cheung website or book.
The retarded thing is that if you look in the back of Leung Tings “Dynamic Wing Tsun” book you’ll find some quote from him to the effect of “until you practice your techniques with full speed and force against another person with protective gear,you won’t really know how good your technique is.” Yet so many WT schools DON’T do that.
I have to say that Emin Boztepe’s branch by far has impressed my the most…in fact I may be going back there to train again.
>Just Curious, why do you have respect for William Cheung?
Because in his youth, Will Cheung accepted and participated in many challenge matches and won. (Much like the Gracies or even Bruce Lee) Maybe Emin has done this as well but I have never heard anything about it.
The only match I have heard of is when Emin ran up to the stage area during a demonstration and ambushed a man twice his age (20 years older than him) and in doing so failed to use any WC (or WT) techniques but instead just tackled the old man like a kid on the playground. Pretty weak. Sorry.
I’m sorry 9, but you are really in a different world than me.
William Cheung may have fought a few times but the real WC fighter from his generation was Wong Shun Long.
William Cheung challenged anyone in the Wing Chun world to fight him any time, any place, Emin showed up. There was no stage area, it was not a demonstration. Cheung was ostensibly there to teach.
I’ve ask Sifu Emin about this event and he told me that one thing that pissed him off even more. He went to the seminar and started training like he was a student, and purposely did the movements as awkwardly and incorrect as possible. William Cheung told him he was doing it perfect.
There are things a lot weaker than this, like maybe spitting on people in competitions or stepping on them after the fact. Who would do that?
My two cents on WT: I think it’s the most self defense focussed style amongts the ones I have tried (JJ, BJJ, Shotokan, boxing, kickboxing, chuteboxe, judo), in the sense that you only train to do the maximum damage to the adversary with the minimum effort.
There’s alot of science in it (cinetic, anatomy) but all the study has been devoided to eliminated non practical thing and stress the efficent ones.
Of course you can train in a “soft” way without athletic preparation, full contact sparring, cross training, which in my opinion is wrong for seklf defense purposes, but this means that you are training incorrectly, not that the style is not efficient.
One thing that I do not give a s#*t about is all the lineage, german incident, yip man lineage trash: personally I only look at the class, teacher, training and effect on myself of the art, and leave all the rest to people who like to talk about it.
Go and find a school of WT or WC, try it, broaden your view doing some other styles (from boxing to judo to etc…), make your own opinion and choices.
Ciao
I agree with bncwd when he talks about not getting wrapped up in the politics of the art but i can’t help asking these questions. In respect with the Emin/Cheung fight i just wanted to try and decipher what happened according to the footage. Why did the tape only start running when Emin had William in a side choke? there must have been some sort of build up to an accepted challenge match. How did a fight between two ‘Striking’ masters degrade into a grappling match? Why weren’t there any wing chun techniques buy Emin? did he not blatantly through over extending round punches while in the mount? I just want to bring these to light objectively. I am not disrespecting anyone, i just want these questions answered.
I agree with bncwd also. I don’t give a sh*t about the politics either, I just enjoy training in WT. I went to a Leung Ting seminar this year in the UK. It was really good with loads of info and some advanced stuff. But the best thing was when LT said “Don’t believe me, don’t believe your instructor, believe in reasons and the logic in the system”. I don’t give a damn who LT was trained by cos WT makes sense.
I don’t think we are ever going to find out what really happened that day Emin and Cheung fought. What I can tell from the clip though is that Emin attacked Cheung’s weaknesses. Cheung is a striker so Emin grappled with him and took him to the ground. As I said before, WT covers all ranges.