So, whats the new dance step youre doing, Yoshi?

Yeah, I hear that all the time. Even from people who should know better. You probably do as well, particularly if you do footwork for Wing Chun. Wing Chun, or Chinese Dancing is a soft style with a strong philosophical bent to it. The name originally came from the ideograms for Ever Spring, and its appropriate. I was getting tired of walking with bruises and pulled muscles, and needed to switch to a softer style while I was recovering. I like Kung Fu styles, so learning Wing Chun was like falling off a log. Only without as much falling, or as many punches to the sternum. Though the joint locks did remind me I was doing a real martial art. (One piece of advice anyone who says Hey, let me show you a joint lock! is a sadist. Just say no. Really.) In some ways, Wing Chun is like the early forms exercises you do for Kung Fu, only carried to their logical extreme, rather than used as the fundamentals of a hard style.

What drew me to Wing Chung, aside from the sprained wrist on my primary punching hand, was the fluid footwork that its practitioners had. Well, OK. It was the fluid footwork that I saw in Jet Lis movies, while waiting for the cast to come off. Even so, just from watching the movies, I could see immediate uses for Wing Chun footwork in my repertoire of techniques once my wrist healed. Wing Chun footwork focuses on balance more so than with a strong kicking style, which can leave you very exposed trying for a circle kick.

In particular, the footwork demands that you settle in a low stance, but not one thats so low that your mobility gets hampered. Now, I know, everyone who does martial arts has heard about this stance, or that stance. And unless youre working in front of a mirror, youll do the sloppiest stance you can get away with without your sparring partner kicking you a new one. What I found interesting about Wing Chun is that the form drills (San Sik is what theyre called) REALLY emphasize fluid motions. Let me tell you, doing it right youre going to sweat. And the muscles in your quads and hams are going to burnbut my word, is the end result worth it. Those forms become second nature, like theyre learned by your knees and hips, and you just do them once the pain has gone away.

Of course, everyone will be talking about your new dance steps, but Wing Chun footwork pays for itself nicely since going into it, Ive been much more conscious of how my bent knees increase my reach with punches and elbow strikes, and its been a lot harder to throw me to the mat in Jiu Jitsu. The parts Ive had to compensate for from the footwork Ive learned have been in mobility. Its sometimes possible to plant too hard which makes it tempting to break stance to give pursuit, particularly when youre flowing from a down block and trying to transition into a kick at that point, the Wing Chun footwork has to kind of skip a beat while you move back to a harder Kung Fu kick.

Either way, Im glad I took the time to learn this. Its given me a good base to work from, and a few more tricks to throw into sparring matches. Particularly fun is when someone makes fun of the dance steps and then comes up to me and says Howd you do that, Yoshi?

Two of our beginners, Richard and Marian, completed with results including 2 wins, 1 draw and 2 losses.

Although a beginner, Marian was put up against 2 Shorinji Kempo black belts and was slightly injured as a result. In Marian’s 3rd fight he came back hard with viscous punches and scored a draw, although some thought the match was his. Marian was awarded a certificate for fighting spirit while Richard was awarded a medal for winning BOTH of his fights.

Well done warriors!

In 2011 Chien-Sifu published an astonishing ebook which detailed the heart of Wing Chun’s Siu Nim Tau form and explained the previously undiscussed Triangle Theory. “An Introduction to Siu Nim Tau” was ONLY made available to students of Chien Wing Chun and participants of Chien-Sifu’s “Wing Chun’s Most Important Set of Techniques” webinar.

Now one of Wing Chun’s most valuable and well-guarded ebooks is available to you right here on the Chien Wing Chun web site for just $27. The first 100 copies sold here will also receive a copy of Chin-Sifu’s 3-minute Triangle Theory video.

Download your copy now before this offer is removed forever.

Tokyo, Chuo-ku, Ginza 8-18-3, “Kato Bldg” 6F
東京都中央区銀座8丁目18-3 加藤ビル 6階

Monthly Training Fee – ¥12,000
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With a keen interest in learning to fight well, a love of Chinese Kung Fu movies (some of which he has starred in himself) and a long career In the film and television industry, Sifu Chien Yen has practised Wing Chun for about 40 years and has taught the style In Japan for about 30 of those years. He currently teaches In the Kanto area of Japan and frequently travels to Taiwan to continue his relationship with his teacher Lo Man Kam.

Image via Wikipedia

Wing Chun Kung Fu has existed for approximately 300 to 400 years. Stemming from Southern China it spread to Hong Kong during the last century, and asserted itself as being the most efficient fighting style. Grandmaster Yip Man was responsible for the emergence of Wing Chun in Hong Kong. He is famous not only for his fighting skills, but also as the teacher of many renowned fighters. He taught Bruce Lee, Wong Shun Leung and William Cheung among others.

Wing Chun has many features which make it practical and reliable in physical combat. Wing Chun is extremely economical and compact. There are no excessive or flamboyant movements. Essentially Wing Chun is simple, effective and direct. Wing Chun is designed for use at close quarters, which is the fighting range most commonly encountered in reality. Attack and defence are simultaneous and use is always made of the shortest distance between one and one’s opponent.

Wing Chun is not dependant on flexibility, size, weight or strength. The original founder of Wing Chun was a woman and the best practitioners are often only slight in build. In Wing Chun strikes are delivered in a relaxed manner. The power of these strikes is generated from technique, using the strength inherently found in ones joints and skeletal structure.

Rather than being premeditated the use of techniques is determined by reflex and opportunity. This is a factor which makes Wing Chun seem so fast – one does not ‘think’ about what one is doing, movements are made upon feeling what the situation dictates one should do. Essentially they are automatic. These reflexes are developed through a unique training method called ‘Chi-sao’.

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One of them is that the nun Ng Mui visited the Shaolin Temple and learnt some high level kung fu to add to what she possibly already knew. Later, when the Manchu’s raided the Shaolin Temple and burned it to the ground, she went into hiding. Some time after that she taught what she had learned to a young woman named Wm Wing Chun who was being bullied in her small village and so the name of the style was born.

There is another story that Ng Mui watched a between a crane and a snake and incorporated some of the movements she saw into her kung fu. lt’s fairly certain that Ng Mui was a knowledgeable woman who crafted her kung fu to suit her stature as a woman.

So we believe that Wing Chun has it’s roots in the higher levels of the Shaolin Temple, perhaps even in the tall pagoda which houses the Buddhist scriptures and ancient teachings of the temple.

Email : chienwingchun@gmail.com

Phone : Japan (+81) 090-9966-7728

Skype : chienwingchun

Chinese, Japanese or English language are all ok.

Yokohama-shi, Kohoku-ku, Shinyoshidahigashi 8-35-1, ”Daian Dream Factory” 1F
横浜市港北区新吉田東8-35-1 大安夢工房

Monthly Training Fee – ¥20,000
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Map to the Tsunashima School (Zoom out to see where the blue marker is from you!)

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