W.C a purely fighting art, must it be so?

[TwoManSaw]

hello all

W.C has its history in fighting and it appears that most of the great innovators and pioneers of W.C tested their skills in single combat. My personal approach to training W.C, is geared primarily around using it in times of physical conflict, although my training has also given me other great benefits ie. physical and psychological growth ( equally important to development of fighting skills).

My questions for everyone are - What is your approach to training/teaching in W.C? do you think it is a necessity that W.C be learned and taught as a fighting system? considering that the testing of skills via fighting does not occur like it used to, do you believe this means that the W.C system will become obsolete with reference to development of practical fighting skills? how long can we keep using the name/fame and stories of our sifu's, sibak's, sigung and so called grandmasters to prove the relevance of our skill in the 21st century. And finally do you consider these topics important?

thankyou for your input


I believe that everyone has a right to learn W.C with their own motivations

[OdderMensch]

any "fist method" should remain taught and practiced as a "fighting art" It was explained to me like this. Yes learning wing chun has other benifits such as improveing confedince, coordination, plus the simple joy of learning. But if you don't see and practice the fighting aspect you lose the side effects. It's not some much the ego needing to "prove it works" as the mind seeing and thinking how it would work, by removeing it from the mental arena of fighting, you lose context, loseing context diminishs greatly your ability to gain the benifit. It would be like trying to remove yang from yin, it's not going to work the same.

as to the importance of the issue, no not really. As you said you or anyone has the right to study or teach as they see fit, and for there own reasons. But I will continue to practice with martial intent.

[azwingchun]

You know I look at Wing Chun training the same way I look at training myself how to shoot a gun. I may never have to use it (hopefully), but in the time that I may need to I will know what I am doing. And just as OdderMensch stated, this should go with any "fist method".

As far as relying on the famous battles of old, about Sifu's and various situations, well to be honest I don't rely on them at all. I mean they are interesting but, not what I base the legitimacy of Wing Chun on.;)

[wingchunalex]

I think wing chun is a fighting art, and it needs to be tested as one. The styles that are widely considered fighting arts now are BJJ and Muay tai. Wing chun hasn't won any acclaim since the Gong sau match days and leung jan's time.

I think wing chun needs to be tested against other styles, and I don't see that happening enough, I think that people would have a different approach to their wing chun if they competed with it more, in sparring (all kinds) and not just chi sau.

I think wing chun people would beat kickboxing people if the training had a different focus and if more people did harder conditioning.

people need to be able to apply their wing chun under pressure and under many different circumstances (chi sau, kick boxing, mma, point sparring, continuous sparring, fighting, self defence). and different training is needed for that than i hear of most people doing.

however, wing chun is also a art, and a way of life. in the end thats what martial arts is for me, if wing chun loses is status as a fighting art because it doesn't win maa, or other things, so be it.

If its not important to the wing chun community to win events that would give the art a fighting reputation again (mma, ufc etc), then thats okay. it takes a lot to compete in those and many of us doen't have the time or resources to train for them, or willing to risk of getting seriously injured. but on a individual basis I think its important to test your abilities some how, wether it be going as far as maa, or just a local kickboxing tournament, or a friendly compatition between your school and the local karate school. doing some combat oriented thing is important.

for me, in the end its about becoming a better person. i love what i do and thats all i need.

[tparkerkfo]

Just thinking out loud here,

Yes wing chun is a fighting art. I don't think there is any way around this simple logical conclusion. But I am not so sure that that is the correct way to approach the training. By this I mean that I don't think we train in attributes that are used in fights and reject those we deem not worth or applicable in a fight.

My position, as I formulate it as I write, is that we need to develop specific specialized skills. A parrallel I draw is army rifle training. When you learn to shoot, a lot of time is put into the mechanics of firing. You have to learn how to position your body. Sounds simple, but there are many differnt positions. Prone, standing, kneeling, supported, etc. Then you need to learn how to hold the weapon properly. Then you need to learn to breath properly and how to squeeze the trigger with the proper body part. Once all this is done, you have to learn to aim. Then how to reaim after you just fired. Then there is shooting multiple targets. etc. blah, blah, blah.....

These techniques are tought for specific reasons so a recruit, and even an experienced soldier will have a better hit rate. Of course, one may argue, most of this goes out the window in combat. But that doesn't make the training less effective or obsolete, but even more important to ground the person in a set technique he can fall back on. One of the greatest hero's in WWII was a turkey hunter how kept his cool and imployed basic rifle shooting skills. He single handedly killed many people and capture huge amounts of opponents. I can get the exact details latter.

The whole point here is that yes wing chun is a fighting art. But like the army, one will fight like one trains. By practicing diligently and adhearing to your training, you should be able to relay on that in actual combat. So, I feel attention to detail and working perfect form and the less fun stuff is very important than many other traits I see some people working.

But in any case, as long as you can use it, it counts.

Tom
________
FFM VINTAGE (http://www.****tube.com/categories/558/vintage/videos/1)

[red5angel]

TwoManSaw - are you looking for religious guidance? Or perhaps getting into shape? There are other ways to find both of these, more efficiently then learning wingchun.
Wingchun is a fighting art and should be taught and approached as one, anything else and you are shortchanging yourself.
I would like to point out that while things sort of fall a part when a confrontation happens, the more precisely you train, the less things will fall apart for you.