Wing Chun vs Choy Lee Fut...whats the difference?

[Immortal_Dragon]

Hi, a while back I asked for some info on some Wing Chun Schools that might be in my area. I think I found a good school to join, however, I noticed the sifu also teaches Choy Lee Fut with Wing Chun. My question is, being that I will be a newbie in the world of Wing Chun but not MA, is what is the difference between Wing Chun and Choy Lee Fut?? Are the principles/techniques similar?? Little confused if someone can clarify this. Thanks in advance.

[southernkf]

Hi,

Choy Li Fut and Wing Chun are very different. Choy Li Fut is closer to the stuff you see in Kung Fu Movies. It is very dynamic with lots of motion. They whirl fist around and move around alot. They use lots of horse and front stances with lots of full arm strikes at many angles. Choy Li Fut is a "traditional" style. They have lots of forms and weapons, typically. SOme lineags claim over 100 while others only have 3 or so hand forms. To me these look more like shaolin.

Wing Chun is a bit different. Wing Chun faces the opponent and has relatively few types of attacks. It is much more compact in function with lots of shorter range attacks. Wing Chun may perfer to launch an attack in straighter lines, sending out from where the hands are, usually inside the body line. Choy Li Fut may bring attacks from all sorts of angles using various arcs.

Basicly they are very different in ideas, principles, application, and virtually everything. Back in the day wing chun and choy li fut had some rivalry and competitions on the roof tops of hong kong where they fought.

[sihing]

Hi,

Choy Li Fut and Wing Chun are very different. Choy Li Fut is closer to the stuff you see in Kung Fu Movies. It is very dynamic with lots of motion. They whirl fist around and move around alot. They use lots of horse and front stances with lots of full arm strikes at many angles. Choy Li Fut is a "traditional" style. They have lots of forms and weapons, typically. SOme lineags claim over 100 while others only have 3 or so hand forms. To me these look more like shaolin.

Wing Chun is a bit different. Wing Chun faces the opponent and has relatively few types of attacks. It is much more compact in function with lots of shorter range attacks. Wing Chun may perfer to launch an attack in straighter lines, sending out from where the hands are, usually inside the body line. Choy Li Fut may bring attacks from all sorts of angles using various arcs.

Basicly they are very different in ideas, principles, application, and virtually everything. Back in the day wing chun and choy li fut had some rivalry and competitions on the roof tops of hong kong where they fought.


Oh Oh, here we go...Let the games begin:cool:

With today's technology this is a easy question to answer for yourself to make up your own mind. First, go to a website like Youtube.com and search both CLF and WC videos to see what the difference is. Second, go on forums like this one and search the posts/threads, do the same on a CLF forum and with enough digging and investigations you will come up with your own answers. Otherwise you will be at the mercy of peoples personal opinions, prejudice and understandings of different Martial Arts systems.

J

[Immortal_Dragon]

First of all, I have no intention of being a troll or turn this into a flaming thread....there is enough of that going on already. Even if I do a "forum search" I will be still be reading people's opinions and prejudices. I was hoping to hear from practitioners from both arts post about this topic. While I did do some research over the internet its not the same just reading about the styless than to talk with people who actually train in both styles.

The reason why I am asking is because before I make the commitment to this school financially and time wise, I would like to visit the school with some basic knowledge about the styles. I wont be able to visit the school until the weekend. With that being said, I just wanted to know if it's out of the norm to mix these styles. Respect to all.

[anerlich]

Hey Dragon,

My first KF instructor teaches both CLF and WC. It's not the norm, and the styles are quite different in terms of techniques and principles, but in his view they are highly complementary. His stuff certainly works.

WC tends to emphasise straight line techniques and works best at a fairly close range, CLF has a lot more bigger, circular, swinging and twisting techniques and is about as well suited to multiple opponent situations as any style, working best at mid range.

This is not to say that WC doesn't have long range or circular techniques or multiopponent strategies, or that CLF doesn't have close in or straight line techniques, just that they concentrate, and are better suited, to different ranges and aspects of H2H fighting.

There was intense rivalry between the two styles during the last century, particularly in HK and amongst expatriate Chinese. One of my sihings made the mistake of wearing a Wing Chun T shirt when going to a herbalist aligned with a CLF school. They were NOT impressed, though they eventually ended up giving my sihing the right stuff and not poison (unless it's one of those 30-year delay jobs) ;), as well as a tightly delivered lecture on respect. This historical rivalry is the main reason IMO why the styles are not often taught under the one roof.

Some say that some CLF techniques, the swinging punches to break down the WC guard or the twisting punches to snake around it, were specifically developed to beat WC. But that's largely conjecture IMO.

The ability of the teacher to help you develop defensive skill is FAR, FAR more important than the actual style(s) he teaches.

The best instructor is the one that suits you. You can only find that out by going there and watching him (or her) teach and talking to them.