wat do ppl think of Jim Fungs wing chun school etc...

[friday]

hi ppl just wanted to know what wing chun ppl thought of jim fungs wing chun schools

i only went to a freebie recently

i'm not a wing chun practitioner only talked and tried a bit with a good friend.

i did notice their stances seemed to be a bit wide which contrasts with my friends wing chun from America. i thought it was meant to stop kicks to the groin as well. having it so wide seemed to invite an attack to the groin.

the class seemed ok
ppl were ok too.

[anerlich]

Where do you live (in Oz, I assume)?

Jim Fung is very successful commercially (arguably more so than any other Australian WC teacher) and has lots of schools and students of all backgrounds and ages.

There are many other WC teachers in Australian cities. You would be advised to check them all out for yourself if you want to find the best - for you. Everyone's desires and needs are different, and different schools may suit different students best.

I went to a number of WC schools when I was looking for a good KF school in Sydney, including Jim Fung's (his advertising profile makes him impossible to ignore). I ended up elsewhere, but that's me.

With regard to the stance, many WC lineages, mine included, use that as a training stance, not a fighting stance. The ability to catch kicks between the knees or whatever is not something we attempt (personally I find the notion preposterous, YMMV). Rather we would use the structure of our front stance with the knee angled in, and leg checks or deflections to prevent groin kicks.

[TjD]

my stance HAS saved my balls a few times

now i know i shouldnt do chi gerk without a cup...... but sometimes you just dont have one and you feel like kicking anyhow kicks to the balls make you stronger right?

my side stance and forward stance aren't at all different, the side stance is just the front stance with the waist and one foot rotated. instead of having two trunks to root with, theres one.

i like to think theres only one stance, its just modified depending on where your facing... excluding the horse stance that is

[friday]

sorry i shouldve made this clear.
i'm not actually interested in learning wing chun right now.
i just wanted to know what ppl thought of that schools wing chun and whether it reflects the standard most wing chun schools have thats all
thanks

[S.Teebas]

Very big school, very comercial.

I dont train there but train a stance similar in width. Dont be fooled into thinking the groin is so vunerable becasue of appearances. Actually you only have to rotate your leg (where it conencts to you hip) a few inches and your goin is protected. Becasue the rest of your leg is connected to this top part of your leg it follows naturally and provedes prtection. (dont think of moving your foot to protoct your groin) Increase relaxation and its much faster to move the joint. It's a lot quicker to move a joint maybe 1 or 2 inches that it is for your opponent to move his foot from the ground to your groin.
Theres alot you can do from here which puts you in an advantagious position, eg having redirected his leg (provided your structure is stable) you will have a clear path to attack their now exposed groin.

As well as the fact there is only one entrance to attack the groin in this stance, as opposed to a side on stance where there are 2 entrances (arguable of course).

[edward]

are we talking about ygkym being able to protect the groin?

[straight blast]

I love it!

Classes are well structured, instructors are friendly and encourage students to question, and their Wing Chun is excellent. I've never enjoyed any martial art as much as I have learning Wing Chun through the Jim Fung school.

'Nuff Said!

[jon]

To the best of my knowledge... and thats not much.
Jim Fung himself is quite good, if VERY finacialy orientated.
He proberly has about 2-3 GOOD students, one of which i think still works the front desk. He has about 10-15 assistant instructors and many of them have only been with him a few months within his instructor training program. These people are a real mixed bag with some being not so bad and some being outright unqualified to be teaching.
Ive been there a couple of times and had a few lessons just for the pure heck of it and also when i was considering there course.
To be brutal i simply didnt really find many who's level of skill seemed truely up to scratch and the ones that where dont really have the time to teach the classes and if they do dont stay for long. They( the better instructors ) seem to play more of a supervisory role for the junior assistants who actualy teach most of the class. This leaves the class with an odd feeling of to many cooks and not enough chefs if you catch my meaning.

The flip side is becouse its such a large school it attracts students from all walks of life and many are very dedicated to there training.
Seems like the kind of place where you could get a solid level of skill but also somewhere it would take a very long time.

Im only speaking for the Chinatown branch when i say all of this and im proberly being a little unfair as well.

The best Wing Chun ive felt (and his students love to show trust me ) is from Rick Spains direct students. His students are very hands on and application driven and seem to have a solid mind (if a little closed) when it comes to combat. I have a good friend who is in the higher levels of that system as well as studying the internals with me. He is also my main sparring partner and always gives me a very good run for my money.

[anerlich]

I have a good friend who is in the higher levels of that system as well as studying the internals with me.

Jon, I'm one of Rick Spain's more senior direct students. I was wondering who your friend is, not to be confronting or to get him into trouble or anything, just out of interest. I'd appreciate if you could give me some idea of what sort of things you guys swap info on. If you want to PM rather than do it on the forum or leave names out that's OK.

I really don't think our attidtude to combat is "closed". Since we do BJJ and Hockheim style combatives as well, we normally get told we're too eclectic non-traditional and impure. We don't place a lot of emphasis on the "internal" - which I class as dim mak, pressure points etc rather than softness - though then again I'm currently compiling a compendium of info on TCM and acupressure for the benefit of the student body.

I'm also a part-time student of the ROSS training system and yoga. I can take a bit of criticism, but "closed-minded" is IMO rather wide of the mark.

BTW, I think your comments about Jim Fung's school were pretty accurate, if a bit harsh.

[jon]

Hi anerlich
I think i should have worded myself a little bit better, my friend knows all of the hand forms and is now learning the dummy. Quite wether he would be classed as 'higher level' or not i think would be more a decision for you guys, i class him as higher level becouse he is geninuinly MUCH better than most ive met and also becouse he knows most of the system. If he heard me calling him 'higher level' he would simply laugh and call me an idiot. From what he tells me im sure there is pleanty better than him there.
Still i know he trains directly under Rick when he gets a chance so he cant be too badly down the pecking order.
I would rather not dob him in too much but if your really interested ill drop you a pm.
My comment regarding the 'closed mind' i REALLY should have been much more carefull about. Its really only my friend who i sometimes regard as a little 'closed' and thats mainly becouse he is SO scientific. He is also very set in his ways and sometimes his Tai Chi and Bagua comes out with a definate WC flavor that simply should NOT be there

Still all that being said you are of course DEAD right regarding your system not being closed and infact the way you guys have addapted other arts like BJJ is one of the things i most respect about your school. My appologies if i sounded like i was being critical of your schools approch, infact its the dead opposite and i admire your school greatly.

I would not worry too much about what my friend shows me, he has certainly shown me some of the BJJ but most of the time im on the recieving end of his WC in sparring sessions its not like he is teaching me the ins and outs.
We both study the internals but we are also both trained in other areas, becouse our skills are reasonably on par we have a good time training together.

Anyway hope this clears up some things and if your really keen to find out more about my friend i can 'proberly' get away with that via PM. Still i should really ask his permission first, im not even sure if he tells his training partners that he trains in other styles.

[anerlich]

Jon,

that's OK, I see where you are coming from.

It's not my place to act as some sort of inquisitor, so I don't need to know who the person is. There would never be a problem with people training informally with other stylists, indeed this would probably be encouraged. Sifu does and has done plenty of that himself.

If your friend is taking formal lessons with another teacher and a conflict of interest arose for whatever reason, he should tell his Sifu, or Sifus. But that's his business, it's not my place to act as some sort of enforcer.

We've had a few guys that have trained at other BJJ schools as well as ours and it gets a bit problematic when they want to compete, perhaps against one of their own schools. That's why Sifu is just a little sensitive about such things. But not if people are honest.

Rick still takes more than 2/3 of the classes at the school himself, including beginner's classes, so really anyone that joins becomes a "direct student." These days, there are only Grandstudents in QLD, TAS, and WA, but the instructors there are top notch and Rick oversees them with a keen eye for quality instruction.

Good luck to you both.

[straight blast]

Hehehe...I can't testify to the quality of his Sydney kwoon but the instructors up here on the Gold Coast are top-notch.

We have everything better on the Gold Coast!

[sammac]

Originally posted by straight blast
Hehehe...I can't testify to the quality of his Sydney kwoon but the instructors up here on the Gold Coast are top-notch.

We have everything better on the Gold Coast!

wow Straight Blast, good to know but the video on Jim Fung homepage wasnt all that....heehe how i know ur not an instructor Yes, there are only 2 WC Kungfu schools on the GC, the other guy is David Mcdonald.

http://www.combatcentres.com/sifudavemcdonald.html

cheers
Sam

[YongChun]

Originally posted by anerlich
The ability to catch kicks between the knees or whatever is not something we attempt (personally I find the notion preposterous, YMMV).

Another good technique is to catch a sword thrust to the throat between the two palms held in a prayer position. It doesn't work that well if the sword blade is horizontal though. So you need a quick eye for stuff like that.

A muscular guy here visited Jim Fung's school. He reported back that he met a 110 pound lady who told him to swing a strong hook punch at her head. At first he did a half hearted one but she kept telling him to go harder and harder. He said his arm just got sorer and sorer until he eventually had to stop. So he was impressed with that anyway.

Ray

[russellsherry]

hi guys just to be a melbroune b oy for a moment the three best
kwoon in sdney not in any order barry lee ving stun derek fung
rick spain and also probley steven fishers wt school i would not be interested in any one else in sydney peace russellsherry i put steven fishers kwoon in because rick spain might not let me in the door Ha Ha private joke between me and anerlick peace russellsherry