THIS ONE IS FOR THE WORLD.

Wing Chun cannot be all things to all people, but if you find the right teacher it can be exactly what you need it to be.

Emerging from the Covid 19 lockdowns my understanding of the best way to teach people Wing Chun has changed dramatically.

My understanding of Wing Chun itself is unchanged, I just no longer see the value in carrying on the old method favoured by Yip Man and his disciples.

A list that by lineage includes my own Sifu.

Before Yip Man opened his first school he was just as you and I are, a Wing Chun Man carrying his teachers knowledge.

But there is serious doubt that he passed on this knowledge, at least not as he had been given it.

Yip Man changed Wing Chun to such an extent that when his two sons reunited with him after 10 years of enforced separation they did not recognise what he was teaching.

Two of Yip Man’s more renowned students, Wong Shun Leung and Chu Shong Tin made serious departures from Yip Man’s teaching to the extent that they became different enough to be looked at as separate practices.

Initially, my Sifu always taught Wing Chun the way he had been taught by his teacher Chu Shong Tin.

He was a true disciple. If there was ever any doubt during training he would refer to then defer to his Sifu.

But in 1999 he refused to change the direction of his teaching when Chu Shong Tin changed the direction of his Wing Chun.

There is nothing amiss with a Master changing his methods or his way of teaching in his own school, but we should wonder “what was left out that was originally Wing Chun, or what was added that takes things in a different direction”?

And of course, we should ask this of every Master that makes any changes.

This ultimately leads to the question ‘what is Wing Chun’?

There are well-regarded teachers that present Wing Chun as a Combat oriented Fighting Art.

There are well-regarded teachers that present Wing Chun as a Pseudo-Spiritual Self Improvement method.

There are well-regarded teachers that present Wing Chun as a Counter-Attacking Self Defence System.

Can it really be all things to all people?

History paints a very different picture of Yip Man than those silly films.

He lived in difficult times and to survive he needed to make difficult decisions.

We live in easy times, we can make easy decisions.

The first decision is to ask ‘smart questions’ of real people instead of listening to Youtubers.

The first smart question should be to ourselves and it must be “What do I want Wing Chun to be”?

Once we know this we can pose real questions to real people.

Wing Chun cannot be all things to all people, but if you find the right teacher it can be exactly what you need it to be.

The most important attribute for a Martial Artist is honesty.

We begin training in Martial Arts and as such become fledgeling Martial Artists, the moment we decide to seek training.

If we cannot be honest with ourselves, honest about what we want from the training we have no right to expect a teacher to be honest with us.