There are many reasons people have for wanting to learn a martial art. The main reasons are for Self Defence, Health, Fitness and for Fun. When you decide you want to learn a martial art, you are faced with a number of choices. Do you learn Kung Fu, Karate, MMA, Taekwondo, Jujitsu, Judo, Boxing, Hapkido… and the list goes on. How can you decide?
The main questions you want to ask of these styles are:
1) Can you do your chosen art into old age without losing your skills?
2) Do you have an job where you can't go to work covered in bruises?
3) Are you mainly interested in fitness, or do you want to learn the real thing?
4) Are you looking for a system that teaches you many techniques, or one that relies on feel?
5) What is your phsyical size? Which arts rely on skill rather than size, do you want to rely on your physical strength?
6) What is the reason for training for years for a self defence situation that may never happen?
I will go through each of these points in relation to the internal method of Wing Chun Kung Fu.
1) As Wing Chun does not rely on the muscular strength of the practioner, where muscle strength deteriorates into old age - one's skills can increase even well into old age. A good example of ths is Chu Shong Tin, our Grandmaster. As Wing Chun Kung Fu focuses on the Spine being straight, this allows for an upright bodty into old age, negating the effects of spine curvature.
Wing Chun allows for Self Defence, and increased health into old age.
2) As Wing Chun is learned mainly through Internal awareness, body mechanics and small movements, the focus is towards increasing the amount of power your body can generate. As the skills take time to acquire, you will not be going home with bruises on your face, or cauliflower ears from wrestling or boxing.
3) Some people are not interested in learning an entire art. They are more interested in getting fit. Some places accomodate this, such as fitness boxing. In this they learn fitness, however rarely learn real boxing.
For Wing Chun Kung Fu, the focus is more upon internal development and body awareness. Drawing the power of the body out to your arms for when you one day might need it. Wing Chun teaches you to conserve your energy, not use it all up for fitness purposes.
4) Some systems have many many techniques. Students constantly practice drills, over and over, different scenarios are trained repetitively. This works for people whom already know how to defend themselves. They gain more techniques, which is great. For many people, this way does not work, they end up learning many techniques but will apply it at the wrong time under pressure.
Wing Chun Kung Fu teaches very few technniques comparitively. The main idea is that it teaches you power and principles so the right move will 'just happen' at the right time and moment due to a feeling, not due to set moves. This helps in pressure situations as you do not need to memorise techniques for each situation, you just need to understand the concepts and principles.
5) The focus of the internal method of Wing Chun Kung Fu is to teach how to get the power of your whole body into your limbs. This means a person weighing just 50kilos could possibly use that weight in his or her strikes. Therefore this system is based on skill, not size. Bigger people are not always more powerful, smaller people with more ability will be able to ward off, or have a better chance against a larger attacker.
This gives people with smaller builds a greated chance.
6) This is a common question. The main answer to this is that it is just training, and training is fun and a form of personal development. For example, why go running every day? Is it in case you might really need to use it one day? No. With swimming, perhaps you will need to use it, but some basic training in swimming is enough to save your life, not endless training. People do this for fun, fitness, body development and personal development. All similar reasons one might choose to do Kung Fu. Read the article on the benefits of Wing Chun Kung Fu here.
This question is a common misconception of why people dedicate years to martial arts. Another question similar is that the bad guys carry weapons these days, your Kung Fu will not work against that! Overall martial arts are all about YOU, and your development.
