Created by Woman for Women
Simple, Effective, Efficient & Practical
Economy of Time, Strength & Motion

WING CHUN is a southern style Chinese Martial arts system created about 350 years ago by the legendary Buddhist nun, "Ng Mui ". She conceived of a simplified, streamlined martial art that would quickly enable a practitioner to defend him or herself against attackers from any other martial art styles of the day. Her first student was also a woman, the girl "Yim Wing Chun" after whom the new system was later named.

Created by woman for women, this new system was revolutionary in that instead of relying on the age-old method of using strength, stamina, physique and pre-determined set of movements to overcome his opponent, Wing Chun capitalizes on an ingenious method of "controlled yielding" using constant, pro-active, forward energy that allowed her practitioners to literally feel out an opponent's attacks by sticking to his arms and legs, deflect his attacking strikes and unleash it all back at him with accelerated fury and magnitude using structural strength and internal power.

Wing Chun is generally characterized by small body movements, triangular postures & structures, center-line & spiral concepts and deflection to neutralize attacks.

Simultaneous defensive and offensive strikes, narrow stances, agile footwork and low kicks that rarely go above the waist are the signature moves of the Wing Chun system. Explosive power, commonly known as the Inch Punch, is generated from a very short distance using structural strength and internal power just like a sudden release of a compressed spring. Sticky hands training requires a woman to position her arms and legs in a position that enables her to react automatically with continuous flow of simultaneous defensive and offensive actions so that the attacker with superior strength is prevented from ever using his size and power to his advantage. It eliminates the need for second guessing of her opponent’s intentions and next maneuvers. 

In a violent engagement situation, back to its origin being a created by a feminine gender without the benefits of brute strength, muscles, stamina and physique, Wing Chun practitioners are taught to engage in close range combat, be efficient, practical and quick on their feet. Believing in the use of the least amount of force is the best way in battle, Wing Chun practitioners seek out the quickest way to take down an opponent with lethal strikes aimed at the opponent's most vulnerable areas and breaking the opponent's standing structures taking him to the ground quickly with low kicks.

Wing Chun is not just a collection of unrelated forms and techniques. It has a core set of guiding principles which allows practitioners to decide what correct or incorrect Wing Chun is. It is an extremely logical, scientific system which always makes use of skill over strength, economy of motion over fanciful motion and is well suited to someone of smaller stature and strength. Therefore, Wing Chun practitioners pride themselves on plain-looking but deadly effective techniques.

Special exercises called " Chi Sao " or Sticky Hands develop this kind of sensitivity from the very early stages of training, and slowly nurture and hone it to a very high degree. In the advanced stages of training, a student often learns to "listen and sense" to an attacker's intentions almost before he himself becomes aware of them. This is the very thing that allows higher level Wing Chun fighters to literally fight blindfolded. Blindfolded "Chi Sao" practice is a normal component of Wing Chun training.

In practice, the techniques of Wing Chun may be interpreted and understood either in terms of body mechanics. Softness (but not weak or limp) via relaxation is fundamental to the style, essential to deflect and return the opponent’s power against him. Many people who are new or have little knowledge of Wing Chun usually question the practitioner’s ability how to generate powerful strikes via softness and relaxation during the training. Being relaxed while training does not mean that Wing Chun strikes are soft.

It is also a proven fact that women often learn the principles and movements of Wing Chun faster than most men. This is because women in general are " smarter " in that they habitually do not rely on their (brute) physical strength in trying to make a movement work. Wing Chun teaches exactly that. 

Most men have a difficult time with the fact that, in the first phase of Wing Chun training, they are literally asked to " lose their strength ". 

This, of course, does not mean that students need to become physically " weak " in order to learn Wing Chun. They do, however, need to shed their habit of using or relying on their external strength too much when practicing and applying what they learn in class. The normal progression of Wing Chun training goes like this:

Phase 1 :     Learn to " lose " your own strength

Phase 2 :     Learn to " divert " your opponent's strength

Phase 3 :    Learn to " borrow " your opponent's strength and use it against him

It is this aspect of Wing Chun training that makes it especially well suited for women who need to learn to fight back. Women are often more intuitive than men in their approach to problem solving. In the end, Wing Chun is nothing more than a " new " way of problem solving. You learn to solve the problem of (usually male) violence. Developing the confidence, and the natural fighting spirit that goes along with that greater confidence is a natural part of Wing Chun training. Wing Chun builds upon the student's existing strengths to produce a more well-rounded, secure and aware person. Everything depends on how much you put into your training. But Wing Chun can literally set you free from fear of violence, from your own bad mental and physical habits, and from restrictive, counter-productive beliefs and attitudes.