Why Wing Chun?

[peace&love]

My old sifu was quite good at Wing Chun, but that was not the main focus of his teachings. I did enjoy "playing hands" and working on the first form which I believe translates into "Little Idea." Please forgive me if I am wrong on that. I'm trying to think of info from over a year ago. Anyway, I have recently visited two Wing Chun teachers and have enjoyed the applications from this style. I wish the training contained more physical conditioning though. Is it normal to not have cardio training? My main point of this thread though is to hear feedback on why my fellow CMA practitioners chose Wing Chun as their main system of study. Also, I was wondering if you cross train in any other styles or conditioning methods. Thank you for the upcoming feedback.

[stonecrusher69]

Some schools have cardio and do not. For me What I'm looking for is a good W.C. not a cardio program. I do that on my own time why waste time doing that in class.

[stonecrusher69]

Myself I believe you have to mix it up with all styles and levels of M.A. to test out your stuff and see what works and what does not. W.C has has the answers if you look hard enough you'lll find it. Why I chose W.C. was simple reason. I found it to be a very practical M.A.

[paulus]

We rarely do any cardio training, but that doesn't bother me as I can do that away from class. We get some physical training in class from doing the forms but it's not your typical TKD workout, that's for sure.

It used to bother me, but I'm more interested in using the class to improve my technique. All the other stuff like cardio, strength, speed etc you can develop on your own.

[couch]

Time is precious. In class, you've got lots of people to train with, perform drills with, Chi Sau with, spar with, etc. That's where the time should be spent, IMO. Do your roadwork at home.

[golgo]

I pretty much agree with everyone else here. I do my weight training and "cardio" (not aerobic - anaerobic) at home. I am also not training for the Lei Tai or the ring (or at least not yet). I also have no misconceptions that my non-MA training outside the kwoon would necessarily prepare me for the rigors of competition fighting.

However, our school does promote a "MMA Conditioning" course that I have never attended. I like the fact that it is available once I become more skilled/confident though.

[Wu Wei Wu]

Is it normal to not have cardio training? My main point of this thread though is to hear feedback on why my fellow CMA practitioners chose Wing Chun as their main system of study. Also, I was wondering if you cross train in any other styles or conditioning methods. Thank you for the upcoming feedback.

The intensity at which you train your Wing Chun SHOULD BE YOUR CONDITIONING! i.e. if you are not pushing yourself hard, then it ain't worth doing.

Suki

[Askari Hodari]

My WC training has never included cardio. It was assumed that I'd pursue this on my own.

I chose to train in WC because of its simplicity and effectiveness. I found the theories of the art intriguing. And I've been able to apply them in real-time via sparring.

I do cross train however. In fact I claim three styles as my main arts. They are WC, Choy Lay Fut, and Capoeira. Each of these styles provides something that makes my martial art practice more complete. WC provides an effective theory for combat and helps me to maximize my use of close quarter techniques. CLF has excellent power generation and multi-directional attacks. Capoeira has superb footwork, take downs, ground movement, and close quarter applications.

I'd suggest training in WC if it a) compliments your existing martial arts practice, b) has theories that you can understand and apply, and c) can be taught by a competent instructor.

AH

[Ultimatewingchun]

My old sifu was quite good at Wing Chun, but that was not the main focus of his teachings. I did enjoy "playing hands" and working on the first form which I believe translates into "Little Idea." Please forgive me if I am wrong on that. I'm trying to think of info from over a year ago. Anyway, I have recently visited two Wing Chun teachers and have enjoyed the applications from this style. I wish the training contained more physical conditioning though. Is it normal to not have cardio training? My main point of this thread though is to hear feedback on why my fellow CMA practitioners chose Wing Chun as their main system of study. Also, I was wondering if you cross train in any other styles or conditioning methods. Thank you for the upcoming feedback.

***ALTHOUGH this topic has been brought up a number of times before on this forum, nonetheless thank you for bringing it up again, p & l .....I started out in wing chun 33 years ago as a student of Moy Yat - and the lack of physical conditioning within his school used to drive me nuts - as did his answers about such things (which were very similar to a bunch of the answers you've been getting on this thread):

He thought it was a waste of time to do stretching, pushups, situps, cardio, etc. in the school. Fortunately when I became a student of William Cheung 25 years ago, his program, especially as it was introduced to us by the visits of his top American student at the time, Blaine Collins - included lots of conditioning...

which I've kept going to this day (have been teaching 3-4 days per week since 1984)...and I ALWAYS SPEND the first 25 minutes or so of every class on conditioning (the classes go from 2 to 3 hours).

IT'S AN ABSOLUTE MUST.

As far as crosstraining is concerned, I believe that's an absolute must also. I do catch as catch can wrestling and a little bit of boxing also - and mix the three into an mma approach - something I've been doing over the last 6 years or so.

The lack of concern for conditioning, and a corallary of this: the lack of concern for consistent hard (full) contact sparring, are two of the biggest weaknesses within the wing chun world (the entire CMA world?), imo....

although fortunately there are some notable exceptions to this general rule.

[jet64]

Why Wing Chun?

Simply because WC is very effective when practiced correctly.

WC is a soft style. A soft style is higher level compare to hard style. IMO

[Grilo]

Why wing chun? Why not? I train wing chun because of its efficiency, easy of use, and easy of thought. What I mean is it is easy to think about all the time. I also love how the theories of Wing Chun can be applied to other martial arts. I do cross train and have trained capoeira for some time and I love taking the theories of WC and applying them to capoeira. There are holes in all art and cross training your mind in each can help fill the holes.

I lucked out big time finding a Sifu that has not only a knowledge of Wing Chun but also a Passion for it that can only be fuelled to love it more by my need to learn. I am not sure my sifu knows how good he is or how much i appreciate him teaching me

P.