My Wing Chun is better than your Wing Chun...

The never ending debate of who's Wing Chun is "real" or "better" will never go away, nor will it help you in your journey for making yourself the best martial artist you can be.

In the Wing Chun community, we are all victims, and sometimes contributors (myself included at one point) of the mud slinging game of saying, "oh his/her Wing Chun is wrong...its garbage!"

I have been exposed to some fantastic Wing Chun and some sub par Wing Chun. What makes it fantastic or sub par? My opinion and my opinion only. And this is something that we should all keep in mind when we continue our training.

I have had great training experiences in Wing Chun. Who is to say that person A's Wing Chun is better than person B's? And if one person's is better than the other, is it Wing Chun or is it the practitioner?

Keep in mind, that styles and systems do not make fighters...fighters make fighters.

Just like art, the artist uses paint to create the image of his or her expression. In doing so, how can we accuse him or her of using the paint wrong?

Yes, in Wing Chun we have certain guidelines to follow...obviously throwing a hook punch cannot be called a centerline punch, and if someone shifts with their weight placed on their front foot, we cannot consider this correct... But how can we say that someone's Wing Chun is bad or wrong simply because our perception of it is wrong?

Master Michael Wong of youtube fame has a great philosophy...he has no opinion.

Some would consider that his Wing Chun, in point, is wrong... And in some frequent cases I agree. He mis-translates what some terms mean, uses drills that do not make sense for Wing Chun and has forms that aren't exactly traditional. But, his goal is to make people fighters.

He uses the core concepts of Wing Chun to promote fighting and self defense...and his fighting ability is impressive. So, is his Wing Chun wrong or is it HIS Wing Chun?

Or Leung Ting and how people criticize him openly for saturating and demeaning the art... Has he not directly or in part produced some of the most deadly Wing Chun fighters?

Ip Man taught several students... Why do each of them have different abilities? Wong Shun Leung did the same and so on. Why are each of us open to the interpretation of Wing Chun, yet people still will say, "Oh, his Wing Chun is bad?"

Personally, I do not care who a person trains under, I care their ability and understanding. One of my former Sifu's had an impressive Wing Chun resume...however a man who is 6'3" can never understand the needs of Wing Chun for shorter person, therefor his understanding was muddied. My current Sifu does not train directly under Ip Chun or Ip Ching as others do plaster their resume with...yet my Sifu's ability is second to none in direct combat applicability, his reflexes are surgical and deadly and his Chi Sao is devastating.

Wing Chun is for Self Defense and Combat. I enjoy Chi Sao greatly, however Chi Sao is the tool and not the goal of Wing Chun and many of us forget that.

In David Peterson's book about Wong Shun Leung, he commented how his Sifu evolved his Wing Chun through constant thinking, training, and expression. That is your responsibility as well.

We must criticize ourselves so that we never end the journey of our training.

All of your opinions help me to become a better Wing Chun fighter and I hope to do the same in return.

Dominick Izzo
Chief Instructor
Izzo Training Systems
www.izzo-training.com

Wing Chun Self Defense Chicago and the Northwest Suburbs

Perfect One Thing

As Americans we have this fantastic sense of entitlement in the notion of "instant gratification."

Kung Fu means skill developed through hard work. Kung Fu is NOT instant gratification and when choosing a self defense program, you as a student have the responsibility to keep that in mind before you walk through the door of someone's school.

You have to be willing to dedicate yourself in exerting effort toward learning a new skill.

Take pride in knowing that the basic movements and techniques you will be initially learning are no different than when an art student first learns how to hold and use a paint brush.

Through time, dedication, patience and practice, the artist learns his or her own ways to use the brush, paints, lighting all to create what they see as art.

It is the same with Martial Arts.

In my Wing Chun classes, my students learn the Wing Chun Centerline Punch on their first class. It is the very same punch that they will be doing throughout their Wing Chun training even if years pass.

Students must understand that like the brush, the punch is only one of many tools the artist has at his / her disposal and must learn different techniques for using it.

Come to class with an open mind, but more importantly a strong drive to master one thing at a time.

If you have a brush but no paint, you cannot express yourself.

The same holds true for Wing Chun training. Master the punch, the stance, the footwork and all the tools we use in Wing Chun. Master the concepts. The time spent training should be something we look forward to as advancement in our skill...and not the advancement itself.

Dominick Izzo
Owner, Chief Instructor
Izzo Training Systems

Wing Chun Self Defense in Chicago and Northwest Suburban Area

Range

In today's world of self defense training you have what we call "ranges".

There is kickboxing range; a range where you are several feet from your attacker, allowing you to use your longest weapon, your kicks.

Close Quarter Range; where you get to use strikes and elbows while in a balanced standing position and your attacker is also standing.

Clinch / Tie Up Range; the range which gets you closer to your opponent allowing you to "tie up" and hold your attacker, transitioning into taking him down.

Ground Fighting Range; grappling and striking while on the ground.

Broken down these ranges can absolutely be trained within their specific conceptual ideas... but the problem becomes the "concern" a student has then on capitalizing on a specific range in actual application of techniques.

In other words, if you break down these ranges for your students, teach them the very nature of each one as a separation from the whole (the fight itself) the student loses the fluidity of the whole and focuses on what his or her strengths are, thus giving them an insecurity in one or more ranges. I.E. why I disagree with most Women's Self Defense programs starting their female students on the ground rather than on their feet. One nationally known instructor commented on the fact that women should practice on the ground because that is where they will end up. My question, is why plant that seed of insecurity in your student's head instead of turning their weakness into strength?

Example:

When I was a collegiate wrestler I knew that the "whole" was the 6 minute match and the outcome of me winning or losing. The "ranges" were NEUTRAL (take down range) TOP or BOTTOM where either myself or my opponent was on top of the other. I excelled at bottom, I was keen on feeling the movement of my opponent and had the ability to use his movement against him to generate a reversal for points or a pin. I was recognized as one of the most tactical bottom wrestlers in my region because of my ability. I used my explosive leg power, strong back and positional awareness to win. But why was I only able to use these tools on the bottom? Were they not applicable in all three ranges?

The psychology of that was when the first whistle blew, I wasn't thinking about taking down my opponent for the win, rather how I would get to the bottom position so I could use my strengths.

If I had take the same tools that I had successfully employed in the bottom position (leverage, sensitivity, foot position, etc.) and applied those to the neutral or even top positions, I would have been a more well rounded wrestler.

The issue was that when broken down I was defeated mentally in a specific area...NOT the whole, rather the area; the range.

Students must understand that the nature is to win the fight at all cost.

I understand that lesson plans and outlines break this goal down to a training point. However, this is where Wing Chun Chi Sau training is elite self defense training amongst all other forms of training.

If you have an enemy who is 5'7" another one who is 6'2" and one more who is 6'5" would you train to fight them differently?

Some may answer of course.

But I propose this; you will always be the height and physical structure you are (based on physical maturity of aging.) Your three enemies all have to use their weapons (hands, feet, elbows) to reach you. Your enemy must adapt to you...you must not fight their fight, rather make them fight yours.

You need to be confident that no matter what the range, your physical dynamics will remain the same and ALL your tools of fighting can be used in ALL the ranges you train in. You must discover how to use these tools.

Wing Chun allows students superior understanding of their ability better than any other training system available.

Ground or standing up, Wing Chun gives the student the skills and understanding of those skills and furthermore the creative evolution of their skills for any fighting circumstance.

Dominick Izzo
Chief Instructor
Izzo Training Systems

Wing Chun Self Defense in Chicago and the Northwest Suburban Area

www.izzo-training.com

Thoughts on Wing Chun Concepts

Concepts and thoughts of Wing Chun Self Defense.

Keeping in mind that when we refer to "defense" in Wing Chun, it is somewhat contradictive in that we never really defend. Even our movements which are defensive, we still apply the mindset that we are attacking an incoming attack. Hence on of our concepts, "Attack the Attack".

Also, the concept of exploding energy (your strike) from ANY position. In a real fight, you will not have time to wind up or crank your fist back before launching your strike, so you must develop this skill. This means having the ability to fire a punch from any distance, be it 2 feet or 2 inches. Anyone who has seen Bruce Lee do his 1 inch punch would marvel at someone who can do such a transference of energy...but know that you have the same ability.

Train over and over, and SLOW. The slower you train the more you will understand your capability and speed will become a byproduct.

Also, your mindset when we train must be relaxed YET aggressive at the same time. The more you train, the more this concept will make sense.

Wing Chun is a very internal art in that you must concentrate on YOU more than the attacker or the incoming attack. The more you focus on your structure, form, centerline, concepts and principles, the more you will negate incoming attacks with ease and economy of motion...and fire off counter attacks with devastation and ruthlessness.

I cannot stress it enough...Please, PLEASE, do the form. Pick it apart, do it section by section over and over. Sil Lim Tao is everything. It equips and prepares you with the tools and understanding of how to use them. Trust yourself, train and be patient...in time everything will just click and make sense.

Dominick Izzo
Izzo Training Systems
Wing Chun Self Defense for Chicago

The strength of 90

There is a concept of not letting your guard getting outstretched or drawn past the point of 90 degrees.

In Wing Chun we offer our Man Sau / Wu Sau guard hands a bit further outstretched than most other fighting styles do.

Consider the close guard of the boxer or the drop guard of some kickboxing styles. Even Muay Thai has a high guard, yet the position of the hands in relation to the elbows are within the plane of a 90 degree angle.

The goal of an attack on our enemy is to strike their body (centerline) and not their arms. After all, the arms are controlled by the body. If I hold my hands up in a guard position, the initial point of contact for my torso from my guard is a matter of inches, however, if I hold my hands up in my Wing Chun guard, the span of safety I have from contact with my hands to my torso greatly increases.

The issue then becomes being aware of our greatest strength and balance within our arm's reach.

Learning to feel energy (be it incoming or pulling) and the effect it has on your balance is necessary to understanding how much you can take with your body as a unit.

Have your training partner place his/her hands on your forearm and begin to slowly push into your core. Starting from a Man Sau guard, allow the energy to come into your core and determine how far past 90 degrees before you start to feel uncomfortable with your balance.

Do the same with a Wing Chun Lap Sau from your Wu Sau position...feel how far your balance will hold with increasing pulling energy before you start to fall forward.

You will learn how far forward and how far drawn in you can be before your fighting balance seems to suffer.

Dominick Izzo

For Wing Chun Self Defense Classes in the Chicago area visit, www.izzo-training.com

Don't Force the Bong Sau

When deploying your Wing Chun Bong Sau (Wing Arm Block) you cannot and should not "just throw it out there."

What I mean by that is the Wing Chun Bong Sau is the best and worst move in the Wing Chun system.

Speaking of the Bong Sau being the worst move, based upon the angle of the position, it leaves your entire rib section exposed.

Speaking of the Bong Sau being the best move, it redirects energy allowing the incoming energy of your enemy to be cast aside like a matador does with the rushing bull.

The issue most of us had in our early Wing Chun training is that we thought the Bong Sau looked so cool, so Kung Fu, that we just "threw it out there" to block an incoming attack.

The misunderstanding most Wing Chun student must learn is that we are "forced" into Bong Sau and must not arbitrarily cast this move. Bong Sau is a transitional move and for the most part, must never even be detected by our enemy.

Think of a straight punch coming right to your face. Why take the chance of shortening your response distance with a Bong Sau (think of the bend and angle of your arm) allowing the punch to come within inches of your face?

Instead, your initial response should always be a linear attack response and once contact is made (based upon incoming energy) you then apply your Bong Sau, thus allowing your natural responses to take over and buying yourself proper time and distance to recover from your enemy's punch.

Again the Wing Chun Bong Sau is one of the signature movements in the Wing Chun system and is fantastic to apply...just apply it correctly!

We will be filming a short instructional video on this topic from our Wing Chun Self Defense class in Chicago and posting it on our Izzo Training Systems Youtube channel!

Dominick Izzo
Lead Instructor
www.izzo-training.com

Wing Chun Self Defense for Chicago and the NW Suburban Area

Wing Chun Drills

Doing Wing Chun drills "in the air" along with foot work training, hand movement training or any type of form work is essential to understanding your body and its relationship to fighting.

Dan Innosanto said that Bruce Lee did not teach forms because students would not understand the applicability of the movements unless they were exposed to physical contact from a mock attack.

While I understand this, I believe there are times, post understanding the context of the movement, where you must explore and solidify YOUR understanding of YOUR movement.

You are the only denominator which will not change in a fight. It is as simple as Sun Tsu's comment on knowing an enemy and knowing yourself. Doing Wing Chun drills are not about the movements so much as they are about understanding how your physicality affects and is affected by the movements.

Bruce Lee also advocated punching in the air (or hanging sheet of paper) to build tremendous punching power.

I encourage and ask my students to do their homework daily if they are to improve their Wing Chun Self Defense skills.

Understanding your body is paramount if you are to learn how to defend yourself. Do not discount the real meaning of drills.

Dominick Izzo

Wing Chun Self Defense Chicago
www.izzo-training.com