Time, age, training

[Grilo]

I am not writing this to call out everyones age or start more arguments. I am wondering how long everyone has been training Wing Chun and/or been training martial arts in general.( I do not care which style this is not a thread for that debate) In your travels do you find that knowing other TMA helped your learning curve or if not knowing a TMA is better for learning a new art.

I have been training Ma for about 12 years. Started with Capoeira, did some BJJ back before ufc. I then trained some Mui Thai, karate, and some more BJJ. I trained a year of Hung Gar Kung fu and some more cCpoeira. Having a base not so deep into the TMA i find formal rigid hand movements a bit hard to get into muscle memory. For example keeping my thumb in when in Wu Sau or Pac Sau. But I guess I understand the theories and fundamental ideas of arts very quickly. Understanding the purpose of movements helps me learn the actual movements quicker.

What are your thoughts on learning Wing Chun?

Patrick

[Egg fu young]

My dad had a Judo dojo when I was a kid (I'm 37 now) you know how kids are. I wasnt all that interested at the time but I did get my brown belt. I started Boxing in 1994 (while in a Seal team SDVT-2) thats also when I began playing around with Tai Chi. Have continued boxing and Tai Chi ever since. I still work on a grapple buddy for my ground game:)

[couch]

Although I was about 7/8 years old when my parents put my into a karate class at the community centre, I think my formal MA training started when I was 14. I watched this white-haired guy beat up two ninjas on a bridge and I was hooked.

It was about 2 in the morning and I called the next day. I spent the next 8-9 years there learning a mix of Kenpo Karate and Kung-Fu.
History of the club is here: http://zenshack.net/martialarts/olafsimonhistory.htm

After leaving Temple Kung-Fu for their continual barrage on spending more money with them, I dabbled in a bit of Tai Chi, Wu Shu and visited a bunch of other schools that didn't feel right.

Then I went to learn TWC for about 1.5 years. Because of my background, they didn't hold anything back and I progressed quite quickly. I had a falling out with the instructor and a senior member. I have since patched things up with both and we all talk openly now. Good school:
http://www.wingchun-canada.com/

After leaving the TWC school, I was bitten by the WC bug and found my current Sifu (who lives across the country) who taught me the rest of the system (non-TWC/modified if you will), except for the swords. I spent about 2-3 years with him. I also had a boxing stint for about 6 months during that time.

I see it both ways:
1. If you have some information about martial arts, it's almost like having a degree: it says you have the ability to learn well.
2. If you have no MA experience, there are no 'bad habits' to break.

Best,
Kenton

[KPM]

In your travels do you find that knowing other TMA helped your learning curve or if not knowing a TMA is better for learning a new art.

---I think its a "mixed bag." It depends on the individual. Having trained something in the past will certainly help when learning something new. The more similar the two activities the better. But then I have seen people do Wing Chun and immediately thought....I bet that guy had a Karate background before learning Wing Chun!" And it has turned out to be true. These people tend to move a bit stiffly and express a "harder" power. I think that Karate "imprint" affected their Wing Chun.

[Graychuan]

I am not writing this to call out everyones age or start more arguments. I am wondering how long everyone has been training Wing Chun and/or been training martial arts in general.( I do not care which style this is not a thread for that debate) In your travels do you find that knowing other TMA helped your learning curve or if not knowing a TMA is better for learning a new art.

I have been training Ma for about 12 years. Started with Capoeira, did some BJJ back before ufc. I then trained some Mui Thai, karate, and some more BJJ. I trained a year of Hung Gar Kung fu and some more cCpoeira. Having a base not so deep into the TMA i find formal rigid hand movements a bit hard to get into muscle memory. For example keeping my thumb in when in Wu Sau or Pac Sau. But I guess I understand the theories and fundamental ideas of arts very quickly. Understanding the purpose of movements helps me learn the actual movements quicker.

What are your thoughts on learning Wing Chun?

Patrick


After you do this long enough it all gells together. Dont try to force the mix. It will happen. Just dont have an ego and decide to try and teach a 'new' wing chun.:p

[anerlich]

Training an MA should give you a base of athleticism, coordination and other general skills and attributes that translate well into the initial parts of learning other specific physical skill sets.

I think any advantage in speed of learning requires the arts to be fairly similar.

I'd done WC for a long time before I took up BJJ. At first, I found that trying to translate the BJJ I was learning into Wing Chun concets seemed to help. But after a year or so I found I learned BJJ faster if I thought of it in exclusively BJJ terms and listened to the instructor as a novice rather than trying to see BJJ through WC coloured glasses.

All part of emptying your cup and leaving your ego at the door.

One of the best martial artists I know says he still asks his superiors in the arts the most basic questions in the most general terms. He says he picks up far more good info this way than he would by assuming he has some knowledge of the topic and being more specific - often he gets new slants on the basics he hadn't thought of or entire new directions to explore that he'd not considered. If they say "you know how to do this, right?" he says "No. Please help me."

FWIW, my training:

1977-1980 Bac Fu Do, a very good eclectic KF system
1981-1986 Xingyi/Bagua/Taiji (assistant instructor)
1986-1989 Surfing
1989 - present TWC ("master" instructor level - note quotatation marks)
1999 - present Machado BJJ (purple belt)

Many oldtime gwailo instructors started with Japanese arts as KF instruction was hard to come by. My first instructor had a Nidan in Goju Ryu and a Shodan in JJJ before he took up WC and CLF. You have to work with what you have, and all of us are products of our history. This guy is as soft and flowing, but powerful, as any Caucasian MAist I've ever seen. His karate background didn't do him much damage. He has a one inch punch like a sledgehammer as well.

My current WC instructor is studying Kyokushin Karate with a local instructor on a reciprocal teaching basis. He plans to grade to black belt in the next year or two, including completing a 40 man kumite. He got his BJJ purple a few years ago and is probably close to brown.

There's oodles to learn. Go for it.

[sanjuro_ronin]

My current WC instructor is studying Kyokushin Karate with a local instructor on a reciprocal teaching basis. He plans to grade to black belt in the next year or two, including completing a 40 man kumite. He got his BJJ purple a few years ago and is probably close to brown.

Ah..I did a 30 man kumite once, fun times, great for the ego too, getting beat down by white belts at the end :D
Kyokushin and BJJ go very well together, but not as well as Kyokushin and judo ;)

[SAAMAG]

Been a long time. I think Greychuan said it right though...after so much time it sort of just comes out however it comes out; and though I think I answered this in another thread a while back, but I'll try again with the other tidbits that I forgot about last time...it's always fun to step back into memory lane.

Let's see, around 5-6 years old: learned some Karate from a friend of the family. Around 9-10 yo, switched to TKD. Did that for a while, went to different TKD schools, eventually got a black belt...started helping out with the teaching duties, etc.

Around 12 yo, started learning Hawaiian based wing chun from my step brother, in addition to muay thai from a family friend from Thailand. Dabbled in some JKD around this time as well.

I think around 16 yo I started going to another class that taught Kung jung mu sul, it's like hapkido or kuk sool won. Basic karateka type kicks and punches, lots of small joint manipulation and throws.

Around 17-18 yo I started studying a Southern "Shaolin" internal style called Jingang Quan. I also started studying a different kind of MT with another local guy. This went on till I joined the military when I was 21.

So after basic, I get stationed in Florida. Started learning a Shaolin Wu Xing Chuan, Tai chi, Shiua Jiao, Chin Na, and chi kung (it was all in one school). Still maintained my MT by finding others that trained in it, and I took on students for wing chun after a while. Attained black belt/sifu ranking and started teaching this system for a while. A guy there had also trained in WC--luckily for me. We practiced and exchanged info...etc.

Took a few months of a trip on one of my deployments to S.Korea, and here I got experience with some of the masters there. Nothing special, I learned what doing movies was like...at least from the stuntman standpoint.

Got back, started playing around with XMA, doing all the acrobatic type stuff...had a website and all for it. Was thinking about going on the circuit for that or do San Shou--but was getting deployed too much to do it.

Trained in BJJ for only about a year. Fun fun fun!

Broke my wrist, had a couple surgeries, had to take some time off. Took some EBMAS wing chun for not long at all, my wrist wasn't able to take it--but it was a **** good class and a very hard workout. Teach knows his shiet, though I didn't agree with all the chain punching all the time.

Anyway...at 31 years old, I'm in school now so I train with friends in maintenance mode, while going to my old MT coach's place from time to time to train and spar. Been looking into a Judo club here that I'll probably go to once a week. Wing chun I practice with old students, or I'll use it when I spar at my MT coach's place.

At this point, I think the things I did the longest were WC and Muay thai--but it's all a mish-mash when I fight. Any bit of it can come out at any time. One something is ingrained, you forget about the classical mess (BL) and just act on instinct. It's been a fun ride, but I'm nowhere near being done yet.

Thoughts on wing chun: I think it is a very effective system, and it has worked well for me. I don't worry about lines or lineages or any of that crap. I take useful information from anyone I meet in those circles, retain it and use it. The wing chun I've learned is almost a mix in and of itself, having learned from a number of sources.