Thank you for taking an interest in our North London headquarters of the UK Wing Chun Kung Fu Assoc. The information here is meant to serve as a guide to North London School only. For more detailed information on our organisation, the art of Wing Chun Kung Fu, Self Defence, or Martial Arts in general, please click 'More Info' to visit our central website for the UK Wing Chun Kung Fu Association.
I'm pleased to inform you that we are planning a series of new
beginners courses in Wing Chun Kung Fu at our academy starting shortly.
With that in mind, please follow the below 'Events'
link to find out when our next Open & Enrolment day will be
held at the London Wing Chun Academy. The Enrolment Events typically
consist of a short talk on the world of Martial
Arts, Yip Man Wing Chun Kung Fu, its concepts and applications,
self-defence, and a detailed overview of training at the North London
academy. Potential students are able to ask questions and assess
whether the fighting art of WIng Chun and the school will meet their
requirements to learn self defence. With that in mind, I would appreciate
it if you could inform us of your wish to attend the WIng Chun enrolment
day in London so that we may contact you if the event is cancelled
or postponed. If you would like to reserve a place on the course
beforehand please contact me directly.
Now is an excellent opportunity to join our fulltime martial art
studio and a class that will be starting from fresh. Which means
that you will get a chance to train and progress at your own pace,
building your fitness and confidence accordingly. The instructors
at the academy are some of the very best in UK Wing Chun, in fact
the Chief Instructor of the North London school is recognised as
a leading expert and most senior Instructor in the UK
Wing Chun Association. An association that has received some
coverage in the media, our organisation has appeared on the BBC,
Channel 4, Cable & Satellite TV, even on radio and the
martial arts press. We are now currently featured in the series
the 'Ultimate Warrior' showing on the satellite television station
Bravo.
Our organisation has a progressive policy for developing and maintaining
our Wing Chun martial arts skills. With that in mind we often invite
the very best in the world to teach our students. Instructors such
as Rick Young a student of Danny Insanto and direct linage of Bruce
Lee are regularly invited to our centres to teach. Amongst others
world champions shoot fighters such have Eric Paulson have graced
our mats to demonstrate their skills. Subjects aren't just limited
to Wing Chun, Brazilian Ju Jitsu, Escrima, Shoot
fighting, Vale Tudo, and Pencak Silat are taught by recognised
international experts who regularly expand our knowledge and appreciation
of other arts. We have a great Fitness Centre / gym for all your
fitness training needs we have regular strength & conditioning
classes there are Chinese kick boxing clubs / schools practiced
alongside Wing Chun Kuen (Ving / Wing Tsun Gung Fu).
You will find throughout this website some brief information to
the Wing Chun beginners course, the range of classes that we run
such as the San Shou Kickboxing Class, and additional information
regarding our full time martial arts studio in London. For further
information on our organisation please visit our website www.ukwingchun.com
or follow the link above for 'More Info'. There, you will find additional
information on the history and development of Wing Chun Kung Fu,
personal profiles of Master James Sinclair and Mark Phillips, as
well as extensive information and video clips from our range of
Wing Chun DVDs.
If you have any further questions please feel free to contact me via email.
Good luck in your ultimate journey to self-protection.
Warm Regards,
Mark Phillips Sifu
Chief Instructor (London HQ)
Wing Chun London
Kung Fu is a basic translation of a colloquial Chinese term that means 'hard work'. Kung Fu, therefore, is a pretty generic term that is used to embrace all of the Chinese Martial Arts. There are literally hundreds, if not thousands, of styles of Kung Fu. Many have the suffix 'Kuen' or 'Gar' meaning fist and family. So in China you can simply have Mr X's fist fighting style.
The martial art television series 'Kung Fu' and the Shaolin monks who tour the world demonstrating their impressive skills, are showing many different arts. They can all be put together with the term Kung Fu as they clearly show the hard work that has gone into their mastery, and the reflection that they are demonstrating the Chinese approach to martial arts, but it is an amalgam of systems, styles and ideologies. So, Kung Fu is not the ONE style that most people believe, that does not, in fact, exist. The five animal styles -Hung Gar- will be as close to thei impression of Kung Fu that most people have. Wu Shu is another term that generalises/encompasses Chinese martial arts.
It may also help those that are new to Martial Art if we point out that the term 'Martial Art' is again a generic term for military self defence arts. Therefore, it is easy to see why some approaches are not suited to Western competition with rules, they are in effect battlefield skills, and clearly for life and death situations. They are effective fighting systems and require considerable discipline in order to be able to perform when one is under immense pressure. Life and death is about as tough as it gets! Hence why army discipline is so strict.
However, it should be pointed out that self defence
and martial arts/kung fu are two quite different things. Most people
we meet at the UK Wing Chun Assoc still have an urgent need to learn
how to keep themselves safe and use common sense and good body language
to avoid becoming a target in the first place. Physical confrontation
should always be avoided.
Violence is dangerous and frightening and it takes many years of disciplined training to have any chance if you have to fight back. You can now see that self defence against a potentially hidden threat is very difficult. On the battlefield you will kill the enemy and even stab them in the back, you will hope they never see you before you see them. However, even on the battlefied where stakes are so high you can sometimes engage facing one another. Terrorism is completely different, and is the violence meted out on most women in attack situations. The assailant, terrorised the woman 'approached from nowhere' and ensured his own safety was high.
As you contine on your martial journey your intial
reasons for starting will no longer hold fast. You will change perceptibly
in your manner, confidence and physicality. Martial art training
is hard work. We know you will lose up 50% of your class training
skills under pressure. If you have little skill in the first place
then all you have is fitness and conditioning. This is why UK Wing
Chun Assoc beginners are pushed. If you are a frail or overwieght
individual your chances of survival in a physically violent confrontation
are lessened considerably. You would even find it difficult to hold
out fighting back long enough for the perpetrator to fear being
seen or caught. If you honestly know you could not run from a situation,
please do not be fooled into believing that a few martial art tricks
and skills will save you.
There are many gimmicks claiming to train you in just four hours. Claims to be able to reprogramme your responses in a violent situation in just a few lessons. These are foolish claims from the unscrupulous. You need to learn the skills to stay safe first.
So why learn Wing Chun when self defence is so difficult?
Well Wing Chun is a direct simple and effective approach. It was
designed from the outset to deal with adversity. However, sometimes
the criminal mind is like a Ninja's. They approach and pick a victim
minimising the danger to themselves. They do not wish to be indentified
and if you place yourself as a target to them, you will have little
or no chance. It is clear that for Wing Chun to work there must
have to be a chance. So you will also need to learn how to create
a chance. In the UK WIng Chun Assoc we specialise in teaching self
defence and Wing Chun Kung Fu side by side to help all of our students
have a better chance.
Introduction To Wing Chun Kung Fu
Wing Chun Kung Fu is just one of many styles of martial arts whose origins are to be found in southern China and, compared to other arts, is a relatively new style.
Wing Chun is known as a 'soft' style, but is in fact a blend of both hard and soft techniques. This blending of hard and soft is due to the fact that a sensible balance is necessary. One story is that Wing Chun Kung Fu was originally developed by a woman. It is also said that the originator (said to be a Buddhist nun named Ng Mui) observed a battle between a cobra snake and a crane bird. From her observations sprang ideas to develop this art. Mimicking animal movements is particularly common to Chinese martial arts and stems from a respect for nature.
'Wing Chun is based on three principles, namely:
- Simultaneous Defence and counter attack by Interception
- Economy of motion in every technique
- Centre line
The last point is viewed as being the most definitive part of the Wing Chun system as there are many strikes,which seek to obscure the vision of the aggressor. This 'Centre Line' is also protected at all costs as many of the fatal striking points lie along its path. By protecting the centre line and attacking from it, the Wing Chun practitioner has a good advantage in self defence. Practitioners are not the aggressors in a confrontational situation. Wing Chun is an art of self-defence where one is reacting to an initiated threat. This realistic approach is not a softer option as Wing Chun is a very effective counter striking style.
If one is fighting multiple assailants the situation will dictate the need to attack aggressively. The need to strike and escape as soon as possible is the main objective in such a situation. The Wing Chun stylists' use of finger strikes, elbows and knee kicks is of great value. Even the most skilled Wing Chun practitioner can only fight one person at a time, it is the clever use of footwork skills which help when under great threat.
One of the techniques performed in Wing Chun is called BONG SAU (Wing Arm) - Like a bird's wing. This technique is a major building block in the framework of the style. It is taught to beginners as a basic cover against an attack, and is the founding principle in Lok Sau, Single Chi Sau, Double Chi Sau and the Wooden Dummy (See photo). It is particularly useful to the students understanding of the style. The shape is more important than the strength, it is designed to cover a wide area, to fold under extreme pressure, whilst never allowing the arm to get trapped. It can change easily into taan sau (palm up block) allowing one to slip the hand free, and the rear guard hand (wu sau) can grab and deflect the incoming strike. The bong then becomes an effective throat cutting hand.
This one technique how flexible the Wing Chun system is. It also shows that if one technique can be used in many situations why learn many different moves for many situations? This reinforces simplicity as a main tenant in the system.
For a woman in a street situation a male aggressor would already be considered emotionally unstable. Therefore, the female Wing Chun practitioner has to respond using the skills of Economy of Motion, using his weight, size, and strength and turning them to her advantage. Whilst we may refer to the aggressor being male, there are situations where females are also aggressive, however, the same principle applies whether the aggressor is male, female, smaller or larger.
Wing Chun is suitable for all ages and abilities with children as young as 5 years of age attending classes and developing well. People with various disabilities including the blind, paraplegic and persons with learning difficulties can all find Wing Chun adaptable and suitable. It is a clever, flexible system enabling most people to achieve a reasonable skill even in the face of adversity. |
