jacksawild

I'm not sure I like the snobbery involved in one school over another based on lineage and closeness to the greats. Here are my reasons: When Ng Mui developed what we call Wing Chun she didn't see any importance in calling it one thing or another it was simply a collection of scrapping techniques which proved effective against larger adversaries. This is clear because when Wing Chun (the person) asked Ng Mui the name of the style she invented Ng Mui revealed that it had no name and so she named it after her first student. With this traditional story the knowledge being given to us is that it does not matter what we call it or where we learned it, what is important is that it works. The philosophy of Wing Chun is more important than the techniques. The shortest distance between two points is a straight line and thus the direct route is the fastest. This simple saying is full of wisdom, it tells us to cut away the chaff and concentrate on our goal which is improving in our fighting. I can understand why people want to differentiate between classical wing chun and what has been added since. Bruce Lee, for example, broke away from wing chun and reluctantly named his own style something else (like Ng Mui, he would have preferred not to get bogged down by styles and systems). All this energy in arguments is wasted, wing chun is tested in the field, it is a combat art and not a dance or set movements.

The ultimate system of kung-fu is Tai Chi but you can expect a decade of diligent learning before acheiving any martial skill. Wing Chun can be learned in 6 months and is very scientific and difficult to beat. The classical styles (animal styles, drunken etc) are interesting observations on the nature of energy. The old Shaolin styles like Longfist and Phoenix Eye Fist are hard styles, requiring hard conditioning but it will make you a superior fighter. As for Karate, for me, the only style I would consider would be the old Okinawan style which is highly respected by martial artists. I may be biased of course seeing as O.Karate is based on Tai Chi and Dim Mak brought over by the Chinese. I have seen (sport) karate 'experts' dealt with by extremely simple and efficient techniques while they're still lifting their feet off the ground. People seem to think that martial skill is equivalent to being able to lift your leg in the air and it is not so. I can only recommend that you accompany any hard training with soft training; after all, you wont be strong forever.

It's English Wing Chun

Our school has a belt/sash system but I do not know how it works as I opted to disregard it upon advice from sifu, it's nice for the kids. As for the 5 animals, expect variations on the theme. 'Shaolin' is such an all-encompassing term that it would be difficult to define it by certain styles. Some schools will not teach Dragon for example because: "Who has ever seen a dragon?". Shaolin, Kung/Gong Fu, Wu Shu, Chinese Boxing.. all these terms can mean the same thing. Wing Chun, Choy Li Fut, Hun Gar, Mok Gar, (all the Gars).. all these systems were developed and refined either in the Shaolin temple or by temple trained monks (or a nun in one case). In short, to want to 'learn Shaolin' is a tall order and reminds me of that scene in the Matrix where the guy sits up and says: "I know kung-fu" The way I view Shaolin training is you can learn all the fancy moves and stretches and increase your chi, but the real power comes from the conditioning both internal and external. Condition your arms and hands in the traditional way, strengthen your horse, increase your speed and the martial arts will flow easily from there.

When you feel the power of real masters it isn't so surprising that they can hurt you irrespective of where they hit you.

I'm new but if I may... The Wing Chun basic Horse (stance) is not going to be identical for everyone and it is intended to be that way. The beginning of siu lim tao when we spread our feet first outwards then inwards is designed to program into our memory a good centred stance based on our individual stride length and foot size. Being a soft style you shouldn't be over-exerting in order just to stand still although a small amount of discomfort is expected at first as you are perhaps engaging muscles which have been neglected by our stiff western ideas of posture. In Tai Chi they speak about posture and they say to imagine your back as a string of pearls dangling from the top; this should create a very relaxed and aligned uper-body posture. Breathing from the dan tien also helps.