Would Wing Chun Work For Me?

Often we hear of people stopping their previous training in a style because they have a dodgy shoulder,

Or perhaps someone quitting another style because of their knees not being what they once were,

Maybe potential bad backs?

The rigours of age, and so on.

To me this is one of the wonderful things about Wing Chun, not only can you train this to a ripe old age, but you can also start then too.

It’s not just because we do not kick above knee height or that we do not rely on muscle strength, but mainly because it is designed to work in harmony with your natural body reactions (and here’s the best bit) and it molds to the individual.

This means that if something is feeling difficult or uncomfortable, change it!

It is meant to be adapted, it is meant to develop as you do, and not to be stuck in its ways with a rigid regime of:

‘If you cannot do 50 push ups and 50 sit ups then you cannot train here’

‘If you cannot kick high you’ll be no good at this’.

Actually that’s not completely true..

This is not carved in stone you understand but I would say, ‘If you cannot relax, you may not find your Wing Chun as effective’.

This is not as strict as to say, if you have muscle this is bad, you just need to be able to distinguish between muscle strength and power through energy.

Having lots of muscle could be tricky to switch off when in the search for energy, especially when you compare with a person who is (for want of a better phrase) ‘weak to start with’.

So if you are struggling with any part of your Wing Chun, try to look at how you are doing it, what feels wrong to you, then discuss this with your teacher (if your teacher is not me) and work together to alter things slightly in order to make a solution to fit your needs.

We are not all made the same and you should use the Wing Chun system (when taught properly) as a blueprint or default setting and something to refer back to.

For instance we know that a Tan Sau can vary in its uses by being higher, lower, stronger, softer, moving out, absorbing in, turning, stepping etc. BUT, before we start changing something we need to know what it was in the first place.

This is how we teach at wingchun.online , so you can later analyse your technique and not only ask the right questions but also learn to answer them too.

The better you understand a technique, the better you can make it work for you.

Remember this:

“If it’s not comfortable, it’s not right.”