What is Wing Chun? Wing Chun is a very unique and scientific form of martial arts. Wing Chun is a style of Kung Fu that originates from China, then it was later refined in Hong Kong. Wing Chun's specialty is in close contact combat, using quick punches and kicks with a tight defence, coordinated through agile stances and footwork for a quick advance. The effectiveness of Wing Chun is achieved by well coordinated attacks with simultaneous defence and vise versa. Due to its effectiveness this martial art makes for an effective form of self defence. The student must learn to deliver the correct amount of energy, while staying relaxed when possible. A good Wing Chun Sifu (instructor / Master) will teach the student to overcome force with positioning and turning rather than meeting it head on. The style also uses kicks, sweeps, palm strikes, punches, trapping and control techniques as part of its fighting.                            

Chi Sau Unique to Wing Chun is "Chi Sau" (or Chi Sao), a form of training to help develop and put into practice your techniques and theories you learn during your training. Chi Sau teaches and helps the student to develop a responsive reflex, along with good position, how to overcome your opponents strength, correct usage of energy and taking advantage of the shortest possible distance between you and your opponent. Chi Sau will also help with sensitivity, or "reacting to feeling rather than sight". In addition to this Chi Sau helps students learn to react to unpredictable movements as there is not set of predefined movements. The Forms The principles, theories and techniques of Wing Chun are founded on the three hand form and the wooden dummy techniques. Training begins with Sil Lim Tau (little idea), Chum Kiu (bridge seeking), Biu Gee (thrusting fingers). Then the serious of students will learn Muk Yan Jong; (wooden dummy), Luk Dim Boon Gaun (six & a half point pole) and finally Bart Cham Dao (eight cutting double knives). Wing Chun or Ving Tsun? The martial art Wing Chun is sometimes referred to as Ving Tsun, Wing Chun Kung Fu (or Gong Fu),Wing Chung, Wing Chun Boxing, or even Wing Chun Kuen (fighting) amongst some other names. More recently research shows people write Wing Chun Gung Fu and Wing Tsun. The reason for these differences is because Chinese text does not translate precisely into Western letters or even western speech. However the name is not the important thing. The most important thing is that the student learns an effective form self defence and fighting. The martial art is a style of Kung Fu. Kung Fu roughly means time and effort and originally referred to any skill painstakingly developed.

Yip Man (1893-1972) was the first martial arts master to teach the Chinese martial art of Wing Chun openly. He had several students who later became martial arts teachers in their own right, including Bruce Lee. When Ip Man was thirteen years old he started learning Wing Chun. At age sixteen, Yip Man went to attend school at St. Stephen's College in Hong Kong, which was a secondary school for wealthy families and foreigners who lived in Hong Kong. According to some traditions, one day one of his classmates challenged him to try his martial arts skill with an older man. The man beat him with a few strikes. It turned out that the old man was his sibak Leung Bik, son of his sigung Leung Jan. After that encounter, Yip Man continued to learn from Leung Bik. At age 24, Yip Man returned to Foshan, and his Wing Chun skills had improved tremendously while he had been away. In Foshan, being a police officer, Yip Man didn't formally run a Wing Chun school, but taught to several subordinates, his friends and relatives. After the war, he returned to Foshan to be a police officer again. At the end of 1949, being an officer of the Kuomintang, he decided to escape to Hong Kong without his family, when the Communists had come to Foshan.