Why people disrespect Wing Chun?

Question

Why do people disrespect Wing Chun so much? Whats wrong with it? State your reasons. Please discuss.

Answer 1

Every Martial Art will have criticism. Many of them are not true. For example, people say:



Taichi is not a martial art, it's too slow, it's more for health.

Aikido doesn't work since nobody is going to grab your wrist like that.

Wing Chun doesn't work since it has no grappling.

MMA is limited to rules, it only works in the ring

Kung Fu is too flashy.

Boxing has no kicks.

Taekwondo is only kicks (not true)

Judo cannot handle multiple opponents

etc......



Wing Chun is not alone. Every martial art has critics.



So why do some disrespect Wing Chun?



1. People believe in Bruce Lee too much for their own good! Just because a famous person said something, doesn't mean they are always right. You should find out yourself it it's right! People may misinterpret what Bruce Lee says and it becomes a rumor. Some people think that Wing Chun is bad because the all mighty Bruce Lee quit Wing Chun.



But, Bruce Lee did not had a choice. His father send him to the U.S. There are no Wing Chun classes in the U.S at that time. Bruce Lee was strong and fast, and he can easily just smash through his fellow students in Chi Sau, but one student noticed his weakness. His legs! He over-commit his force, so he could easily be off balance when practicing Chi Sau.



His Jeet Kune Do, either intentionally or by coincidence, covers up that weakness. It's translated as "The way of the intercepting fist or foot". That concept is directly from Wing Chun. They concept of letting your opponent attack first, but you hit him first! This requires A LOT of PRO-TIMING!



Wing Chun is a very personal art. It can and should be adapted to one's environment. Some say Bruce is still a Wing Chun guy since JKD is not too different., but some say he is a JKD guy and banished Wing Chun from his life.



2. Wing Chun's popularity can be it's own downfall. Just like how popular Karate or TKD is in the U.S, there are many people who mis-teach Wing Chun due to their lack of experience and knowledge. So as those mis-teaching get's pass on to the new generation, things go bad! And people then dislike that fake-version of Wing Chun. Chi Sau is OVERLY-emphasized for most classes. While classes do have sparing, some do not. Sparring is important. Some do not even know what the movement of the forms truly mean. No matter how perfect you are at the forms, it's useless if you do not know the purpose of the movements.



3. Some say that Wing Chun is bad since it has no counter towards grappling! However, you do not need to know grappling to deal with grappling, and you do not need to be a striker to deal with a striker. A grappler must close in the distance, likewise, Wing Chun must close in the distance against a long range fighter.



4. I don't know if Bruce really said this. But if he really did say that Wing Chun is incomplete, I don't think he should have said that, since his training in Wing Chun is also incomplete. He never learned the entire Wooden Dummy form. When he went back to Yip Man from the U.S, he wanted to film the old man practicing the wooden dummy, but Yip Man refused. Bruce never learned Biu Jee either, the third form of Wing Chun.



Bruce was a perfectionist, he never rushes. He dedicated months on a single technique while the other Wing Chun students learn 10 moves in a week.



When Bruce asked Yip Man: "Do you still see me as your student?" Yip Man responded: "Do you still see me as your teacher?"

Answer 2

I don't think I disrespect it- certainly, I *feel* no disrespect for it- but I do give a very clinical analysis of its utility, which I think is pretty small, and I think it rubs pro-Wing Chun people the wrong way. But I've spent a few years training it, as well as other martial arts, and sparred against people from different Wing Chun schools, and I honestly feel that it's best as an add-on instead of a primary system. It's very stylized in its approach and for my money, has very little utility compared to other systems. It offers some very specialized skills, but I think they're next to useless unless you have good fundamental... well, let's call them "kickboxing" skills that the WC skills can build on.



I like Wing Chun, but it's limited. This is the conclusion I've drawn after, as mentioned, spending years in the system. That's OK, other systems/strategies are limited too. But it seems to me that the guys who do Wing Chun get very defensive and see an analysis as "disrespect". As if acknowledging the limitations of a system is somehow a personal argument. It isn't.

Answer 3

People in general do not disrespect Wing Chun that much. It is a popular martial art with millions of people practicing it systematically. Yip Man and Bruce Lee (for many two of the most influential martial artists) were among its practitioners among other very good ones.



I have notice that this disrespect comes mainly from some people in the net. I haven't met anyone outside of the net that told me anything bad about Wing Chun. For me Wing Chun can also be good for well being, plus fitness, self-defense and other benefits. Obviously many will search in every martial art, the techniques that they are using e.g the double leg take down and some popular chokes and will find it strange if they do not find them.

Answer 4

I don't think it is disrespectful to call a spade a spade. Some people might state their opinion too aggressively, but I don't believe that I do. I just call it like it is.



I don't believe Wing Chun to be very effective and I find it ironic that so many Bruce Lee fans want to study WC simply because he did, but even Bruce realized essentially that Wing Chun sucks, and decided to try to modify it with his new philosophy of Jeet Kune Do. Many who were close to him, that is trained with him, said he was phasing out the concepts of Wing Chun in favor for other systems.



The hand trapping is next to useless in a real confrontation. When is the last time you've actually seen this done in a real fight? Also, the stance that the WC practitioners use offers no protection whatsoever for a take down. Honestly, I think their stance is probably the easier stance for a ground fighter to get around.



Another thing is to study history. When the white Europeans invaded China, the Chinese boxers tried to fight back but were mostly massacred. If Kung Fu was so great, then what happened? I'm not trying to be rude or anything, but take an honest look at history and ask yourself where was Kung Fu then, when the Chinese needed it the most?

Answer 5

Don't listen to those idiotic trolls theyll lie saying they've dropped so many wing chunners before without evidence and rely on joe Rogan'so video about kung fu the truth is he never criticized wing chun just referenced either way don't get agitated by what others say let them badmouth martial arts all they want they're just showing insecurity and no respect for themselves

Answer 6

They watch demos online where the teacher has a student attack them. Then the student pauses while the teacher explains how the wing chun technique works, and people think that we'd expect a real opponent to freeze like that so we could do our business.

Answer 7

its really sad that Wing Chun has changed. I really wish that it stayed to its true form, I myself learned Wing Chun I was taught Fuk Sao which is similar to the original idea. but yes critics and people that learn from web sites that look at the cons of it will judge.

Answer 8

there maybe some reasons but this one stood out: "it was made by a girl" yes it was made by a girl lets have a little history a shaolin budduist was starting to think her style wasn't effective (shaolin boxing i think it was) so she tried developing a style which combine low medium and high strikes and blocks this resulted in her combining both snake and crane together and added more techniques and this is how wing chun was born but it didn't have a name till later on

Answer 9

I think one of the reasons is that it is a soft style of martial art, and those take many years to get any good at. Also it was geared towards fighting against traditional Kung Fu so it can be weak against other styles outside of the traditional Chinese styles, for example, from all that I understand about it it's very hard fight against American Boxing because they have little defense against Boxing's punching style. I think one of the main things though is that very few classes teach in a way that's helps with actual fighting, they don't do much sparring or training with a resistant partner. I personally think that it can be great if taught well.

Answer 10

Who's Wing Chun?

Answer 11

Probably because most of what the public at large knows about kung fu is through highly choreographed films. There's not much in the way of a public, televised forum to display it's efficacy to the same degree as say jiu-jitsu, wrestling, boxing, judo.

Answer 12

The disrespect comes from lots of people talking big but not showing much for it. It also comes from people who think/believe that ring fighting is reflective of street fighting, and that if you can't survive the ring fight, then it's useless on the streets. Additionally, too many people focus too much on theories and base their opinion on what they see, not understanding that Wing Chun is NOT a "what you see is what you get" style.



Too many people assume that the dummy represents fighting a real person and think it's useless. To give an idea of just how wrong their assumption is, boxers might as well get rid of that speed bag training because "you don't fight like that in real life". If you're a boxer, you will understand what a speed bag is suppose to train. Take that observation and think about what's wrong with assuming a wooden dummy represents a real life fighter to train against.



Chi Sao (aka sticking hands) is in no way a sparring form. It suppose to train sensitivity for feeling when and where an opponent will move, and figuring by feel where there is an opening. Eyes are easy to deceive. It's harder to deceive physical pressure. Do you start off a fight like that? HELL NO! You need to close the gap first and stay close. Then and only then do you take what you learn from chi sao and finish the fight.



Most people don't understand how Wing Chun works. You can't learn it effectively without a live training partner to give you physical feedback. Add in crappy teachers or fakes and you increase the bad name of any style.



Bruce Lee was very prideful. If you insult him, he would be the type to get back at you. If you think about it, Bruce never said anything bad about Wing Chun until Ip Man refused to teach him more. Look for an article by Hawkins Cheung (Lee's friend and training partner during their childhood days). Of all people, Hawkins is probably the only one still alive who knew Lee fully well, from childhood to his death.



Lee didn't have good footwork in Wing Chun. He had great upper body strength, which would dominate in chi sao sessions unless you knew his weakness was footwork. He didn't learn Wing Chun completely, which means his skills would help him in street fights against thugs, but could pose problems when it came to fighting distance fighters (boxers, karatekas, muay thai fighters, etc...).



Wing Chun doesn't teach you to close the gap until much, much later. Initially, you first start learning, you learn the structure needed in order to deal damaging blows without wasting energy. Then you learn to handle incoming attacks. After that, you learn to follow and maintain close range to stay effective. You work on various aspects of Wing Chun until you get good at this (Chi Sao, wooden dummy drills, double butterfly knives drill, kicking drills, locking and breaking opponent structure drills...). Then, after all of that, you learn to initiate closing the gap rather than waiting for the attack. That's the general layout of learning the full system.



If anything, Lee utilized Wing Chun in the end via its concepts. One of the dictating concepts/principles of Wing Chun is to adapt to the situation, most obvious when he made his famous "Be like water my friend" line. His Jeet Kune Do form takes its roots from one of the tools of Wing Chun that he was very proficient at: the Pak Sao.



Too many people don't understand should be learned. When they learn, they try to make the first form a fighting form when it's only just about introducing the tools. Many people think the second form (bridging form) refers to closing the gap when in reality, its just about how to move your tools in regards to your body, to maintain structure for efficient power.



So ultimately in the end, Wing Chun gets disrespected because of lack of knowledge, misunderstanding, loud mouths, and incomplete training.

Answer 13

they don't pull their elbow back behind their body instead its locked sort of against the ribs in that sense

so they use half their arm distance to punch

don't ask me how but they can unbelieavble power behind it.

also by doing so they can attack you with about 10 punches like that.

supposedly the record punches in 1min is 800+ which is like 15 odd punches a second pretty freaky.



i know also they get right up in your face to attack as most people wouldn't punch that close or similar to them (mind you i don't know what stops the kick)

and they intergrate part of your attack to get them off you into theirs

so you back off they step forward, they push you left you just change your angle etc etc.

then they have a thing called ''sticky hands'' from what i understand its a sort of defence/offence by blocking and striking.

and they don't let you recover

Answer 14

Stupidity.

Answer 15

The same reason why people disrespect any martial arts.





Ignorance! It is a lack of knowledge.

Answer 16

People tend to disrespect that which they do not understand.

Answer 17

People are ignorant.... If its not one thing theyre disrespecting then its another.