Wing Chun - completely misunderstood

 

From the time Bruce Lee had died, Wing Chun was and still is advertised as the omnipotent style which offers solution for any possible fighting scenario. Marketing is so strong that there isn’t even a smallest piece of truth about the style anymore. Exaggeration, hype and outright lies replaced true facts about the art. Fiction became the truth, people believe instead to test and know. This situation is not a surprise. Wing Chun is  a big business, many people earn good money from it and of course they would do anything to attract as many customers as they can. The other problem that caused unrealistic  view of the art is the fact that generations of “masters” didn’t fight, so they developed the art in the direction completely opposite of the efficiency they claim the art possesses.

All this caused that Wing Chun became a laughing stock in martial arts world. Numerous fights showed that Wing Chun simply can’t resist other arts, that simply has no tools for the real fight, at least that is how other martial artists perceive Wing Chun.

So, what is the real truth about Wing Chun, is it really completely worthless for real fighting? The answer is, yes and no. The way Wing Chun is practiced now makes it completely worthless for fighting purposes, and this is not a consequence of the style’s technical content but complete misunderstanding what was Wing Chun created for and because of completely wrong use of the art. The way Wing Chun is practiced and used now can be described as driving a tractor in a speed race. What most people fail to understand, mostly because mythology built around the art, have completely wrong idea what Wing Chun is. People take is as some kind of supreme warrior art, while Wing Chun is something completely else.

Wing Chun was created by the members of the read boats to be used on the read boats, nothing more and nothing else. It is highly specialized art made for very specific environment, not only physical , but also historical and political  and cultural. Art’s technical content perfectly fits the condition on the red boats, hence, short distance , no footwork, centerline, straight punches, chi sao. These things perfectly work in confined spaces where it is impossible to move, impossible to attack from the side, impossible to use grappling and also very hard to “debridge” once the contact is established. Wing Chun was created for solely for fighting in those conditions, its technical content and fighting strategies are adjusted to perfectly  fork in that environment. It is free to say that there isn’t a better art for fighting in confined spaces that Wing Chun.

On the other hand, if we try to use Wing Chun outside the environment for which it was created for we face several serious problems. All the advantages Wing Chun has when used in confined spaces become its disadvantages when used in different kind of environment. Lack of footwork, centerline, one (short) fighting distance, bridging…

We have to be aware that Wing Chu was not created to be used in open spaces and it is not technically nor tactically equipped to be used outside the original settings for which it was created for. How will practitioners resolve this problem is up to them, and there are several different solutions. What is important is to understand the true purpose of the art and then work on its deficiencies if the practitioner intends to use it for competition or self-defense, or simply work on the art with its original purpose and train other arts for fighting in different environments