Self Teaching Wing Chun..

[Snake77]

Since there are no Wing Chun schools with in 60 miles of where I live:( I am trying to learn through books,dvds and some help from freinds. Does anybody have some advice that will help me progress??

Thank You

[PangQuan]

if at all possible.

while you are trying to learn on your own. it would be helpful if you could possibly travel (every now and then) to that school 60 miles away.

explain your situation and hopefully you can get some tuning in every now and then from that school.

at least this way you can learn some of the aspects, and principles that can be hard to transmit without direct physical contact.

just a thought

good luck with your studies.

[The Xia]

Look for a good teacher of another style.

[PangQuan]

Look for a good teacher of another style.

rofl...ya thats probably the BEST advice.

[The Xia]

Thanks PangQuan :D

Snake77,
I wouldn't recommend trying to learn martial arts without a teacher. A good teacher doesn't just show you a bunch of drills and forms. He teaches you those forms and drills. You get corrected. There are subtleties that need to be felt in order to be learned. Without this, you just have a collection of movements without substance. You can also hurt yourself.

[Katsu Jin Ken]

a book or video cant correct your forms, posture, ect...you need someone with some knowledge to help correct the little mistakes all beginners make or your just going to practice wrong.

[anerlich]

Look for a good teacher of another style.

It's impossible to gauge the subtext of this statement, but it's actually not bad advice if there is a good school of another style close by.

IMHO there is a fair amount of commonality between martial arts, so learning one will often assist in learning another more quickly when circumstances change. Some will throw up their hands in horror at such a notion, but IMO they are wrong.

Other advice? Move.

It would be very difficult to become proficient in WC without a qualified teacher. Without a training partner, it would be impossible.

[The Xia]

It's impossible to gauge the subtext of this statement, but it's actually not bad advice if there is a good school of another style close by.
I would give that advice to anybody who doesn't have a teacher of his preferred style available to him.

[AmanuJRY]

It would be very difficult to become proficient in WC without a qualified teacher. Without a training partner, it would be impossible.


That's the key, right there.;)

[Snake77]

Look for a good teacher of another style.


I've been getting tai Chi and Xingyi instruction. This is the ONLY kung fu school in my city so I frequent it as much as possible. However,I do a lot of "side study and training". I'll look for Wing Chun instruction,but in the meantime I will study and practice Wing Chun with the available books and videos.

Thank You all for your comments and advice.

[Lugoman]

There are two guys at my school who live an hour and a half away and only come to the Saturday classes. They're actually pretty good but they've been at it for awhile. They split the gas, take turns driving and practice together throughout the week.

If you really want to learn WC it may be worth your while to go once a week if possible. Find a friend who's interested too. It's probably a slow process, but it seems to be working for the two I mentioned.

Oh, and don't sign a contract if the school has one just in case you decide it's not working out for you.

[Hendrik]

Since there are no Wing Chun schools with in 60 miles of where I live:( I am trying to learn through books,dvds and some help from freinds. Does anybody have some advice that will help me progress??

Thank You



Cant learn WCK via books, dvds and some help from friends.

one needs atleast a solid year of training before one could starts making sense out of books and dvds. and even then it is still "speculation" stuffs.

So dont kidding ourself.


In the old time it takes six months to learn an equal shoulder stance with 1 hours daily practice...


See, it is not the posture the move. it is what is it inside one that is what count. and those
stuffs doesnt come easy or cheap.


if you have the will and discipline to learn it doesnt matter the school is in MARS. one just goes there.

[ZenMindT]

Snake 77,

I also tried leaning WC from books and videos before I had a chance to attend a school, and let me tell ya, it did little good.

I also studied XingYi from books and vids, and currently also take Tai Chi. So if your looking for a good substitute for WC that's probely on of the best routes IMO.

Also, have you looked into private lessons with the sifu at the 60 mile away school. If your were only to attend once a month/ week, what ever, you'd probly get the most out of it that way.

[Chuanfa@sbcglob]

You might want to visit the Wing Chun school just to check out the quality. Maybe you can arrange it where you can train there one or two times per week.

I drive 40 miles (each way) three to four times per week to train with my sifu which is about 1.5 to sometimes 2 hour rush hour commute and I LOVE IT!!

The commute is well worth it because I am getting absolutely top notch training that I wouldnt trade for anything else.

[AndrewS]

One of my bros, Tommy Galloway is teaching in Indiania, about 2hrs south of Indianapolis. He hasn't listed classes on his site yet, but he's there. Tommy also has been doing some Thai boxing with Master Toddy, BJJ w/ Caique (I think) and shuai jiao with David Lin, and got some ring time at a decent boxing gym. His students get good basics and are treated well. He's one of my closest friends, and I recommend him highly. His escrima is pretty tight, too.

<http://southernboxingalliance.com/>

Andrew

[Mr Punch]

If you've got a good Hsing Yi school, I'd just stick with that myself. Great style.

And try and find an open mat/some folks willing to roll full-on and safely nearby.

[YungChun]

Sent some info..

Check your PMs..

[A Soave]

Since there are no Wing Chun schools with in 60 miles of where I live:( I am trying to learn through books,dvds and some help from freinds. Does anybody have some advice that will help me progress??

Thank You

Much as the previous posters, I concur. As a matter of fact, if there was a way to learn DIY or without instructors, I would have found it. But the Sifu's are so essential to fine tune, correct, and essentially provide you with the knowledge they have that you don't have, it seems an impossibility to me. I also agree with the posters who assert that you might just have to drive - one guy drove over 120 miles, one way, 2-3 times weekly for several years. I think a more pragmatic approach would be to find another teacher in a related form, with an excellent reputation and go with that. I'd like to box, learn muay thai, BJJ, etc.

Hope this is a little helpful

A.S.

[southernkf]

Since there are no Wing Chun schools with in 60 miles of where I live:( I am trying to learn through books,dvds and some help from freinds. Does anybody have some advice that will help me progress??

Thank You

I'll add my two cents.

What is it you want to learn? What is it you think wing chun is?

I would say there is absoultly NO way to learn wing chun(maybe any art?) from a book. I am sorry if that isn't what you want to learn. But all isn't lost. What you can do is become familiar with wing chun from books and videos. Though, you will no doubt misunderstand things and pickup bad habits. You can find the closest wing chun teacher in your area even if he is far away. Try to train with them as often as you can, then practice what you learn until the next time.

The problem with this is wing chun is about acting to stimulus, at least in part. Without a partner you wont ever feel this and solo training wont train it.

I agree with an earlier comment, if you can't find a wing chun teacher, find another school. Perhaps you have a good or even great teacher in your area from a different area. I would prefer to learn from a great non-wing chun teacher over a crappy wing chun teacher any day.

Martial arts is partly about sacrifice or atleast dedication. The often road isn't easy or convenient. If your serious about training you will find a way.

Tom

[SAAMAG]

Just to be the devils advocate here...how many of you believe that some of your great grandmaster founders were all learnt by someone else? I've heard things here and there that some of the great fighters of old were self taught.

Highly unlikely to gain a high level of skill, but not impossible to gain a useable amount. Just won't be wing chun--just wing chun-esque.

[southernkf]

Just to be the devils advocate here...how many of you believe that some of your great grandmaster founders were all learnt by someone else? I've heard things here and there that some of the great fighters of old were self taught.

Highly unlikely to gain a high level of skill, but not impossible to gain a useable amount. Just won't be wing chun--just wing chun-esque.

HI,

I don't believe fighting and martial arts are unnecessarily the same thing. Funny comment, huh? Fighting is something that one can naturally do and may not have anything to do with martial arts. So great fighters can "teach" themselves. Some people know how to be aggressive and deliver solid shots while being able to take them. Martial Arts is more about gaining the skills to hopefully be a better fighter. Not every one makes it. Wing Chun is a skill that seems to me to have been designed in the past and honed over the years by various personalities. Can you figure this out yourself? Probably. Just the same as enough monkeys can get around to typing a great, or even not so great, novel.

Choreography and some ideas, principles, techniques, and other items can be taught in a book. But receiving energy, rooting, dissipating, yielding, sensitivity, etc cannot, right? Or can they? If you take the same book, one with substance, and pass it around to people with various degrees of knowledge of the art, I think they will all understand that book to different degrees. So how would someone without knowledge of the art fair without guidance other than the book itself?

I wish I was like Chan Wah Shun or someone who could learn a art by just waching through a peep hole. :)

[White Crane]

Er....Move out of the boonies.