wing chun memories

It may be a stereotypical thing for an Chinese guy to be interested in, but when I was younger, I used to love watching martial arts movies, especially kung-fu. My favorites were always the ones where heroic monks or renegade rebels fought against oppressive government forces or imperialist invaders like in The 36th Chamber of Shaolin or Once Upon a Time in China (go Jet!). As a kid, I also for a short time took some Wing Chun kung-fu lessons from a family friend, though because of he was a busy guy, my lessons stopped after I learned just the basic stance, punches, and blocks.

According to legend, Wing Chun was created by woman, a Shaolin nun who was inspired to invent a new fighting style after watching a fight between a crane and a snake. Wing Chun is unique among Chinese martial arts in that its focus is on fast, efficient, and lethal extremely close-range fighting. The ideal distance for a Wing Chun practioner to be with his opponent is pretty much arm's length. Its movements are categorized as straight and direct, with emphasis being on maximum amount of force with the least amount of exertion - economy of motion.

Anyways, when I found some videos of Wing Chun on YouTube, it brought back those memories of my younger days. Some of the best ones:

• Wing Chun teacher - Demonstrating a basic attack & counter combo. Notice the short, direct movements.
  
  
• Nike Commercial - Asian girl kicking a white girl's butt. Sorta funny, in a commercialized kinda way... her face is so serious! (until she starts laying the smackdown)
  
  
• Drills demo - Two guys showing some traditional Wing Chun drills designed to teach tactile, motion, and space awareness with timing and anticipation.
  
  
• Wooden Dummy form - It starts after a 20 second intro in Chinese... the guy demonstrates an advanced Wing Chun skill, where a wooden dummy with pegs representing arms and legs is used to perfect technique and speed. He's crazy fast!
  
  
• More Dummy form - The two guys at the end of the video (about 50% to the end) are also using Wing Chun techniques, though it's on a non-traditional dummy.
  
  
• Technique Demo - A video of what looks like a public demonstration of various Wing Chun techniques. Old Chinese guys rock!
  
  
• Bruce Lee One Inch Punch - Probably the most famous Wing Chun student ever to live, though when he developed his martial arts philosophy of Jeet Kune Do, he incorporated techniques from other martial arts like karate, boxing, judo, fencing, etc.

posted by G at 11:20 PM   |

in?scrip?tion (n-skrip-shun)n.
1. The act or an instance of inscribing.
2. Something, such as the wording on a coin, medal, monument, or seal, that is inscribed.
3. A short, signed message in a book or on a photograph given as a gift.
4. The usually informal dedication of an artistic work.
5. Jeremiah 31:33