Sadly a lot of Wing Chun students are very lazy, focusing on Form practice exacerbates this.
As a generalisation Wing Chun players are the least fit and most ill conditioned of any Martial Artists that I have personal experience of, part of this stems from the misunderstanding about do not use Brute Force.
There is a consensus that just becoming proficient at Wing Chun will be enough to get the job done, this is a BIG call, dangerous ground.
Let’s look at it through a different prism.
I can swim, I have been able to swim for so long that I do not remember learning, there was one period of my life that I swam a kilometre every work day in my split shift, I would use different strokes for different laps, freestyle, breast stroke, backstroke even butterfly so there is no doubt about my ability. I no longer swim with this intensity but I still have the physical skill.
Today if I fell from a boat just half a kilometre from the shore would I be able to swim to safety, I have the skill, but I do I have the conditioning?
It would not be the best time to find out.
I have played a great deal of sport that required running, when I was involved in these sports it was standard to run 3 to 5 kilometres per day at a reasonable pace, easily enough to escape a gang that meant to hurt me and maintain the gap between us ’til I reached safety.
Could I do that today? Anyone could find themselves in the middle of a riot, or even more scary in this day and age a terrorist attack.
It would not be the best time to find out.
Just training Wing Chun will be fine and dandy if all you need to deal with the problem is Wing Chun, but it wont be, just Wing Chun is never enough, violence is complex.
How about the whole do not use Brute Force? Often misunderstood as do not use strength.
The argument for not using strength is not very convincing, why should we not use strength?
The standard answer is that if we do a stronger man will always win, I have to call B.S. on this one, yes he would win if it was an equal test of strength, but it will not be, it will be a fight, first in best dressed.
How do we know he is stronger?
Looks cannot be trusted, many well muscled, strong guys that lift metal do not know how to use that strength in other situations, like a fight.
If he is weaker why chance the odds on having more skill when we can pick him up and throw him out the window?
With regards to smaller opponents Manny Pacquiao is a smaller man, how would our skill go against him?
One of the main reasons serious Martial Artists laugh at Wing Chun is because of the lack of physical conditioning required to reach the intermediate and advanced levels of Wing Chun training.
The overwhelming reason when Wing Chun fighters lose to other styles is always conditioning, never skill, this calls into question the value of a high skill level in Wing Chun if there is no conditioning to go with it. Fighting and training are two very different things.
Sadly a lot of Wing Chun students are very lazy, focusing on Form practice exacerbates this.
Wing Chun Sydney, Australia 