Hong Kong Wing Chun

HK Wing Chun 詠春 (also known as Ving Tsun, Wing Tsun, and Ving Chun) is an efficient and effective system of close-range combat suitable for all body types. Unlike other martial arts that may rely on muscular strength and athleticism, Wing Chun's effectiveness relies on perfecting one's body alignment and control. The focus is on striking the opponent’s centre of mass, redirecting the opponent's energy and stealing their balance to inhibit them from further attack.

Wing Chun’s movements are tactically offensive and defensive at the same time and includes many fail-safe mechanisms. Wing Chun is so effective that militaries and law enforcement agencies around the world have adopted its concepts and techniques to inform their training (e.g. Germany’s SWAT teams). Having a qualified Wing Chun instructor is integral in obtaining functional ability because the system requires the practitioner to be precise and have proper bodily alignment.

Popular depictions of Wing Chun have consistently been inaccurate due to a misunderstanding of the system or due to dramatization. As a practitioner and an instructor, I place high importance on using an evidence based approach and ensuring students are correctly learning the movements, body mechanics and forms.

Empirical studies done on Wing Chun’s effectiveness have focused on the following:

• The impact of Wing Chun’s palm strike as being more effective than a straight punch for new learners

• Elder Chinese Wing Chun practitioners having higher radial bone strength, hand-grip strength, and better standing balance control

• The practice of Wing Chun being positive for fall prevention particularly for seniors

• Wing Chun has been considered a suitable exercise for the elderly, helping to improve their physical health and well-being

• The practice of Wing Chun showing positive improvement in balance and gait performance for individuals with Parkinson’s disease

The relevent portions of these studies can be found in the scientific evidence and research page, in addition, other studies on the positive and holistic benefits of gong fu and qigong are also found there.

Bodily Awareness in the Wing Chun System by Stuart MacFarlene

Stuart MacFarlene’s scholarly work encapsulates the effectiveness of Wing Chun’s practical and ingenuous approach to combat:
"Bodily awareness in the Wing Chun system." Religion 19.3 (1989): 241-253.

“Wing Chun as a system is characterised by its simplicity, directness, and subtle use of economy of motion and effort. It avoids the use of sheer muscular strength. And to counter strong, forceful attacks, it uses subtle body shifting through footwork, along with deflecting and intercepting moves. Nearly all Wing Chun techniques involve the generation and focusing of power at the specific point and at the instant it is required, and then reverting immediately to a relaxed "soft" state.

Wing Chun is particularly noted for its cultivation of reflex sensitivity through the practise of Chi Sau (sticking hands). A high degree of sensitivity, concentration, and awareness is important in Wing Chun because it is primarily a close-quarter short-range system in which contact with an opponent is actually turned to one’s own advantage by feeling directly his intentions and moves. At normal, realistic, i.e., close, fighting range, the possibility of seeing an opponent’s attacks and moves is quite limited. The faster and more skilled an opponent, the less value sight-based anticipation has. Hence the need for skills based on contact and sensitivity to "feel" and anticipate attacks and counterattacks. What the Wing Chun trainee is developing in the Chi Sau exercise is non-discursive bodily awareness and sensitivity.”

Five key essentials can be identified in the development of reflex sensitivity in Chi Sau and Wing Chun techniques.

“1. A relaxed state, free of tension, physically and mentally; even when the pressure of an attack and fear of injury would normally cause stress, and the instinctive reaction is to tense up and to resist by using muscular strength. The overcoming of fear, anger, and aggression is an indispensable part of Wing Chun training.

2. An attentive and concentrated state in which the exact position and condition of the body, specially the limbs, is known or rather felt by the Wing Chun practitioner, while at the same time attending to the moves of one’s partner or opponent.

3. A controlled state, in which the movements and positions of the limbs and muscles is achieved effortlessly and instantaneously within very narrow margins of error. This control is achieved largely by the training in precise positioning and movement through the constant repetition of forms.

4. A flexible and fluid state in which the practitioner can move freely from one reaction and technique to another without relying on consciously remembered learnt responses. In a real physical attack or even sparring, one cannot fight according to a pre-arranged plan, or with the predetermined intention of using certain moves or techniques. One’s opponent’s or partner’s moves and attacks are unpredictable and one has to respond instantly and usually automatically to any form of attack. One also needs the flexibility to let go of tension in the limbs as soon as they have been used in striking or deflecting, as well as the ability to let go of fixed attention to one’s opponent’s or one’s own moves and techniques. Focusing too much on any one attack, punch, or kick, will lead one to overcompensate in a defensive counter and expose oneself to another attack. The first kick or punch might have been a feint or distraction as traditional Kung Fu systems use many of these.

5. Efficiency and economy of motion and effort”

Redirection of an opponent’s energy

“Returning to some of the practical and psycho-physical implications of Wing Chun, the system does not use hard, exaggerated blocks in defending. Instead Wing Chun uses deflecting moves which disperse the energy of an attack rather than trying to stop the attack using an equally great opposing force. The deflecting move in Wing Chun, in combination with the footwork, will often seem to go with the momentum of the strike and then subtly redirect it, exploiting the attacker’s energy in the process. Such moves tend to be less obvious and more efficient than heavy blocks, but they have to be precise, as there is a very narrow margin for error: the difference between successfully deflecting a punch and being hit is a very fine one. Hence the emphasis is on precise positioning, balance, and footwork, as well as knowing the precise degree of tension to use. This precision and control is achieved through the repetition of the Wing Chun forms, so that eventually the correct positioning and conditioning of the limbs under pressure becomes automatic.”