Wing Chun Kung Fu is a Traditional Chinese Martial Art specialising in close range combat, it is known for being economical, direct and efficient.

Chinese Martial Arts encompass hundreds of different fighting styles and have been developed over the centuries in china, these fighting styles are often classified according to common traits, identified as “families”, “sects” or “schools” of martial arts. Examples of such traits include physical exercises involving the mimicry of Five Animals or training methods inspired by Chinese philosophies, religions and legends.

Styles that focus on Qi manipulation are called internal arts while others that concentrate on improving muscle and cardiovascular fitness are called external. Geographical association, as in “northern” and “southern”  is another popular classification method.

Chinese Martial Arts are often named under the umbrella term of Kung Fu, therefore when you hear the term Kung Fu you can relate to any Martial Art that originates from China, Kung Fu itself can have various translations, however in Chinese, the term Kung Fu refers to any skill that is acquired through learning or practice. It is a compound word composed of the words (gōng) meaning “work”, “achievement”, or “merit”, and (fū) which is a particle or nominal suffix with diverse meanings.

What is Wing Chun Kung Fu?

Wing Chun is an efficient form of Chinese martial art developed through Kung Fu. It is an effective, streamlined and highly simplified combat art, with only three open handed forms within the system. The Wing Chun System is the only Martial Art created specifically for Women and was reportedly developed by the Shaolin nun Ng Mui who was a senior Kung-Fu practitioner. Ng Mui taught her Kung Fu methods to a young woman named Yim Wing Chun and the name of this young woman was then adopted as the name of this Chinese Martial Art.

The system of Wing Chun combined the best techniques from the broad array of traditional Shaolin Kung Fu and other 5 Animal style movements and through the generations the Wing Chun style was then passed on with the addition of many new thoughts and improvements such as to include the butterfly knives and pole forms.

The most recent person to bring the Art of Wing Chun to the forefront was the late Ip Man who taught Wing Chun Kung Fu to many people including his two sons Ip Chun and Ip Ching and also famously Bruce Lee. Through these practitioners the system of Wing Chun was introduced to the western world.

 

Wing Chun in the Modern day

Our organisation stays true to its thoughts on what Wing Chun is and its definition; first and foremost Wing Chun is a collective set of Theories, Principles and Mottos. It is these Theories, Principles and Mottos that the Wing Chun student and practitioner is working to master in their every day life, the collection of these however cannot be seen other than in ones imagination and therefore we must place them in the context of application to combat to practice and understand this collection.

Wing Chun was invented as a self defence fighting system and in the classroom environment the Theories, Principles and Mottos are taught while learning to defend ourselves through the 5 physical elements of the system; Forms, Sparring, Chi Sao, Punches and Footwork.

Wing Chun, like many Chinese Martial Arts, is also practiced to maximise ones health and fitness, such as improved posture and increased self discipline, this is directly linked to the philosophies of the Mind, Body and Spirit elements of our training.

Wing Chun is a soft art meaning force is of second nature to us, we learn to become soft in our body first and utilise our Qi (internal understanding) over the physical (external) although we do utilise the external when the time is correct.

Following the self defence and health reasons for learning Wing Chun Kung Fu, the third element is to bring our Kung Fu into our work and personal life, through applying to these the Theories, Principles and Mottos of Wing Chun, it becomes an integral part of our lives and not just one element, in this way it is a complete Martial Art that can have a significant impact on our mind, body and spirit.

 

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