Wing Tsun is well known as a self-defense system. It is not well known as an art for ring fighting. Its roots go back hundreds, even thousands of years.

If practiced correctly, it benefits both mind and body. Nobody gets it right at first and continuous study of the basic movements as outlined in the first form is critical. Correct practice does not mean doing it exactly right every time. Humans learn by their mistakes. Each time you do a movement incorrectly, it teaches you something. It might be that you have not absorbed the left-handed, right-handed coordination, or your attention lapsed or there was a distraction or your own fatigue. You are now learning more than just Wing Tsun. You are learning about yourself! Once you are close to perfect techniques, repetition of the techniques, both solo and with a partner, moves those techniques into your muscle memory. Once there, those techniques are hard to forget. They will be automatic in real situations!

The Leung Ting lineage of Wing Tsun goes against some of the mental and physical programming we have received in growing to adulthood. The main one is that superior physical strength always prevails. In fact, superior physical strength does work in the untrained person. Physical size and strength usually work in life with the untrained.

No amount of straining, tension, pushing and shoving will allow a weaker or smaller person to prevail against a bigger, stronger person. Instead, Wing Tsun techniques seek to negate these advantages.

According to eastern philosophy, there are two energies. Those energies are soft and hard which are symbolized by the classic Ying and Yang symbol. In Wing Tsun, we prefer to use our opponent’s physical size and strength against them with a more flexible nature. Our training in Wing Tsun directs your efforts toward this. Combining smaller movements, shorter distances to get an advantage of speed, relaxed movement to get an advantage of instant reactions and explosive power, defending and attacking at the same time, yielding instead of clashing with your attacker’s force, and light sticking (clinging) to an attacker’s limbs and body with forearms and legs add up to an effective approach as well as self-learning.

A student needs to practice and be self-critical. Each time you make an error, you just correct it and keep going. Emotions like self-doubt, anger, sadness, worry, and being too happy* all play a role that can stymie your learning.

Sifu Keith Sonnenberg

*Being too happy is an emotion that can get in the way of your focus. Instead, you just need to be at peace with your activity.

Sifu Keith Sonnenberg

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