Northern Ireland Wing Chun Kung Fu

**uneasywerewolf** · Posted On: 12/08/2007 10:32am

This is a review of my own school, so I can understand that some people will take with a pinch of salt. I am new to Bullshido and think it is a great idea.
Anyway, to my school. It is a small one for students at the University Gym. The two instructors have regular jobs and hold evening classes a couple of times a week. They were taught their Wing Chun by Master Ting who moved to Northern Ireland from China.
The class is informal, there is respect for the SiFu, but not overly so.
The warm up is fair though is being improved.
Every week we practice Siu Lum Tao, the first form, and the more senior students practice the other forms, including the wooden dummy. We use punch and kick pads to improve our striking and go through applications of Wing Chun for self defence. We try and use hard punches and kicks against someone learning a self defence in order to test the practicality of it. The class ends with a mixture of Chi Sau or sticky hands and free fighting, depending on where you are at in you training. Junior students practice Chi Sau with senior ones, but junior students do not free fight.
The weapons training begins with Nunchaku, which Master Ting has learned from Karate. After this you can train in Butterfly Knives and the long pole, though the main focus is on empty hand.
There are some hip throws and locks that we learn, but nothing very advanced in that area.

There are gradings, Yellow, Blue, Green, Brown, Orange and Red. There is no pressure to take them and if you request to take one you may be advised against it if the SiFu feels you arent ready. The grading costs £20 ($40?) and includes the price of your sash. Insurance, T-Shirt (only uniform needed), manual and licence costs £40 ($80)?, renewal of insurance costs I think around £13 ($26?) with classes at £2 ($4?) a week, you dont pay if you dont turn up.

**variance** · Posted On: 12/08/2007 12:10pm

What is "free fight"

and do you actually spar with weapons?

**Ming Loyalist** · Posted On: 12/08/2007 12:46pm

i'm interested in hearing more about the striking instruction which is rated at "9"

according to our ranking guidelines, that means your school is putting out fighters who compete and win at the top levels of amateur competition. in kung fu that usually means that you compete in sanda/san shou and/or lei tai.

i have seen wing chun schools compete in these venues and do well, so i think it's possible, but unfortunately quite rare.

**uneasywerewolf** · Posted On: 12/08/2007 6:46pm

Yeah perhaps that 9 was a bit ambitious, but I do think the teaching we get in learning how to punch, kick, knee, elbow, palm strike etc. is very good. Free fighting usually consists of two people begnning from the right fighting stance, circling, then as soon as they are in range trying to strike the opponent with punches or kicks. This is supposed to be semi contact and usually is, though we are sometimes a bit rougher without going too out of control, basically bruises but no broken bones (not that I claim to be able to do that yet!)

We dont spar with weapons and dont learn many weapons, which is why the rating is lower, but the reason it is not very low is due learning the Nunchaku and Knives in particular to a high degree, if you pursue the art for longer. After hearing about some of the Wing Tsun schools I must stress there is no extra charge for learning the weapons, wooden dummy or the second or third forms. It is recommended that when you get into all of that you buy your own, but the school wont push their own gear (theyre too small!) It really is a very small school but it is fun, relaxed, practical and I believe it is teaching me very well. After I have done it for a bit longer I am hoping to train on other martial arts, probably a grappling one as Wing Chun has no groundwork

**Cullion** · Posted On: 12/08/2007 7:01pm

troll job. admits to a 9 rating being 'maybe over ambitious but I think it's still great' before describing shitty semi-contact sparring, and then talks about not learning any weapons before bringing up their high degree 'knife and nunchaku' training.

3/10, must try harder.

**uneasywerewolf** · Posted On: 12/08/2007 7:53pm

I am sorry if I am not clear enough. I dont think we have 'shitty semi contact' sparring, the sparring tests ability very well, through going at each other with punches and kicks for minutes at a time, with the intent to hit someone, just not to badly injure someone. When I did boxing training in Secondary (High) School it was the same scenario, it is possible to learn effectivley that way. I was unclear about weapons. We learn nunchaku from early on, then can go on to Buttergly Knives and The Long (six and a half point) Pole. I didnt think this was many weapons so I scored low. But if you want to you can learn the weapons to a good degree.

Im not used to this site yet, so maybe I am a 'troll'. I was simply trying to provide a basic, first time review of my school which I had hoped would help counter act some of the knocking Wing Chun gets.

The striking ablilty learned is very high, I was wrong to put nine because as it was pointed out to me I shouldnt do this unless I could prove this had been shown in competition.

**Das Moose** · Posted On: 12/08/2007 8:15pm

uneasywerewolf, I train BJJ in queens, whats up?

**uneasywerewolf** · Posted On: 12/08/2007 8:27pm

hey, thats cool, I know the BJJ school in Queens is really good. Have you seen the Wing Chun training at all? I know there arent many of us compared to the BJJ school.

I think all the martial arts societies are of a good standard at the uni. Do you think it would be worth it for me to come along for a couple of lessons at this late stage, just to try it out? I do want to be based in Wing Chun, but as I said before I should train in grappling at some point.

**Das Moose** · Posted On: 12/08/2007 9:15pm

I haven't seen the QUB WC club but I trained in WT with tom lamont for about 3 years.

I think if you want to learn grappling you should definitely come along. It's not going to interfere with your WC - I train Muay Thai for striking and becuase the two are completely different ranges getting confused between the two isn't an issue. The only thing that would affect either one is simply the division of time - and if you keep the same number of WC classes and just add BJJ classes you're not going to have an issue. Classes are on Sunday 1-3pm and Wednesday 7.30-9.30pm both in studio 5 which is the downstairs matted area. It's not really a late stage either - while the christmas break is starting soon we fully intend to keep training over xmas and there'll still be 6 months until the end of the uni year after this if you don't stay around belfast during uni hols. And don't worry about being less experienced than anyone else, we regularly get new people and are more than happy to ease them into things.

If you have msn messenger i'm dasmoose AT gmail DOT com.

**uneasywerewolf** · Posted On: 12/11/2007 7:52pm

see here for more details:

http://www.bullshido.net/forums/showthread.php?t=63694

theres video of me getting my ass kicked, albeit in a friendly fashion, woo!