Week of Martial Arts: Wednesday Wing Chun
Last night was the third night of my Week of Martial Arts, where I attend a different martial arts class at my nearby Gloucester GL1 Leisure Centre every night this week, and then pick my favourite to devote 6 months of study to. After the mix up with Tai Chi on Tuesday, I’m rather glad that I called the Wing Chun club at the weekend to confirm class times, so that I know that it will be taught as advertised.
Training Times
The GL1 class runs for 2 hours every Wednesday at 7:30pm, but is organised by Cheltenham Wing Chun Kuen who also have classes in other relatively nearby locations on other days of the week. The first lesson is free, followed by 10 weeks of associated membership that requires only the £7 lesson fee. If the Instructor and student then agree that they both like to continue training, an invitation to join and become a full member of the school is given. I’m impressed that the organisation is candid about having a vetting process, and this immediately reassures me that people who are attending for antisocial reasons will be quickly weeded out.
Lesson Structure
Often, I’d find an especially small class size off-putting, but since training here is by invitation only, the small class of 8 students translates to a lot of individual attention from the instructor and a very high quality of training. I first came across this idea when I made my twice monthly pilgrimage to study Jeet Kune Do (itself a Wing Chun derivative) in Coventry a few years ago, and benefited from the same advantages then too.
Thankfully, the first ten minutes of the class involved warming up and stretching, which is an important aspect of avoiding training injuries and muscle cramps (which was neglected in the Monday Ninjutsu class), before practising sets of Wing Chun’s characteristic straight blast punch. We then progressed to a “sticking legs” exercise, the like of which I have never seen before, and had a lot of fun with.
Students and Instructor
The Instructor apologised for being a little late at the start of the class, but that gave me a little time to meet the other students, who were welcoming and friendly. Again, much like JKD, street attire including trainers, but with a club shirt, was the norm, which set the informal tone of the class. After around half an hour to get the class underway, the Instructor very kindly handed over to a senior student and spent the rest of our time there demonstrating and explaining some of the core principles of Wing Chun to me. Everything he said was clear and explained in straightforward English — no mysticism, obscure chinese language or alien Eastern concepts to get past.
Style and Techniques
Although it’s been a couple of years since I had the opportunity to train in JKD, I could soon tell how closely related the two arts are. Emphasis on directness, protecting the centre line and scientific body mechanics to use minimum effort for maximum effect are key. Wing Chun does have kicks, but due to the very close quarter range at which it is most effective, kicks are nearly always aimed at the knee or groin. By far most of the techniques in Wing Chun are various hand and arm shapes that often work as a simultaneous block and attack — it’s hard to get more efficient than that! In some of my old blog posts about JKD’s hand training benefiting my Tae Kwon Do competition performance, I already hinted that this type of training was a good complement for my TKD kicking.
I already own all Alan Gibson’s Wing Chun Books, and have trained in Jeet Kune Do for 2 years with the incredible Andre Martin, so I feel comfortable with Wing Chun as a style already. Despite that, I’ll try to remain objective while I attend this Week of Martial Arts and make a selection to study until we move to the Philippines in the Autumn.