Women in Wing Chun

stickarts

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is wing chun really so unknown in the states! it is fairly popular here in Nz though not as prolific as the various styles of karate my suburb has at least three kwoons from seperate lineages that i know of!
Although its fairly well known among martial artists in my area, its not one of the more popular schools or clubs that you see around.
 

naneek

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seems a shame that so many miss out on such a rewarding art, wing chun does not always look pretty or graceful compared to other chinese systems perhaps this is a contributing factor to its lack of popularity?
 

mook jong man

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is wing chun really so unknown in the states! it is fairly popular here in Nz though not as prolific as the various styles of karate my suburb has at least three kwoons from seperate lineages that i know of!

Naneek , would you be from Sifu Kevin Earles academy by any chance ? Wing Chun is very popular in Australia and New Zealand , a couple of my instructors were kiwis , very tough blokes .

One of them ran his own security company working the doors of some of the toughest pubs and night clubs in NZ all the bouncers that he employed would learn train under him.

He said that his Wing Chun techniques worked great against the huge Maoris , indeed one of his students was a Maori who even as a relative novice went into open tournaments in NZ just walking through opponents destroying their legs with his hook kick because that was about the only technique he knew .
 

theletch1

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seems a shame that so many miss out on such a rewarding art, wing chun does not always look pretty or graceful compared to other chinese systems perhaps this is a contributing factor to its lack of popularity?
I don't think the gracefulness, or lack thereof, is much of a contributing factor. The US is very much about the current fad in the media. While we, as martial artists, are familiar with the great range of different arts out there the average person generally lumps ALL martial arts into the same catagory. Right now BJJ and MMA are all the rage. Why? Because these are all over the television now. If you were to come up with a prime time tv drama in which the protagonist used wing chun to defeat the enemies you'd have folks knocking down you door soon enough. Most folks don't really take the time to research an art before they study it. They see it on tv and think "Wow, that'd be so cool if I could do that" and go try it out. Hopefully, once they've tried a class or two they'll be interested enough to do some research and find a style, school and instructor that suits them.
 

mook jong man

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I don't think the gracefulness, or lack thereof, is much of a contributing factor. The US is very much about the current fad in the media. While we, as martial artists, are familiar with the great range of different arts out there the average person generally lumps ALL martial arts into the same catagory. Right now BJJ and MMA are all the rage. Why? Because these are all over the television now. If you were to come up with a prime time tv drama in which the protagonist used wing chun to defeat the enemies you'd have folks knocking down you door soon enough. Most folks don't really take the time to research an art before they study it. They see it on tv and think "Wow, that'd be so cool if I could do that" and go try it out. Hopefully, once they've tried a class or two they'll be interested enough to do some research and find a style, school and instructor that suits them.

Yeah imagine if you could be a writer for some of those hollywood shows i would have each episode involve Wing Chun in some way for eg in sex in the city instead of the girls going out shopping all the time buying shoes and hand bags i would have them join a Wing Chun school and do hard chi sau sparring for an hour.

What about desperate housewives instead of spending all their time trying to seduce the young gardener they could be critiqueing each others sil lum tao form . These are just a few of the ideas i have for when i break into
hollywood as a writer. :BSmeter:
 

theletch1

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Yeah imagine if you could be a writer for some of those hollywood shows i would have each episode involve Wing Chun in some way for eg in sex in the city instead of the girls going out shopping all the time buying shoes and hand bags i would have them join a Wing Chun school and do hard chi sau sparring for an hour.

What about desperate housewives instead of spending all their time trying to seduce the young gardener they could be critiqueing each others sil lum tao form . These are just a few of the ideas i have for when i break into
hollywood as a writer. :BSmeter:
Sil lum in the city? Desperate chi sau? ;)
 

naneek

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mook man im not from sifu earles academy, my sifu is anthony george. i dont have too much trouble with the maoris they are big but generally a nice bunch of fellas, tongans or samoans on the other hand can be nasty when they are drunk like everyone else can i suppose, just a lot bigger lol
 
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Si-Je

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The metroplex, sadly, is probably what it's going to take. Aikido enjoyed a huge take off after Seagal hit the scene. Karate took off after Norris hit the scene. Kung fu took off after Carradine hit the scene with the tv series. Sad but true. It's just nearly impossible to get the attention of the american population with out sticking commercials in the middle of it. There's an idea... you could stop your demos for 30 seconds and have someone try to sell something. ;)


HAHAHHAHA! This demo has been brought to you by,.. MIKE, just do it, and Condom Inc, when you need it, we have it! LOL!
(sorry, watching UFC, they have an add for condoms on the butt of their shorts. killing me! I'm dying here, I'm dying! The world is too amusing!)
I thought that after Kung Fu Hustle, people would like, "get it."
 

Tez3

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mook man im not from sifu earles academy, my sifu is anthony george. i dont have too much trouble with the maoris they are big but generally a nice bunch of fellas, tongans or samoans on the other hand can be nasty when they are drunk like everyone else can i suppose, just a lot bigger lol


We have a lot of Fijians here who've joined the British Army, we have had loads of trouble with them sadly. As you said when sober great guys, brave soldiers but drunk they are a nightmare. They drink spirits and being big rugby players ( the main reason I have to say the army recruited them) are hard to take down.
 

ArmorOfGod

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I see too many women in MMA and BJJ and I'm having a hard time understanding, why?
On myspace I ..... wonder how to attract more women to the art of Wing Chun.

I have always felt there should be more emphasis place on the fact that a woman founded the style. There is a little bit of argument out there that Ng Mui did not create wing chun and someone else did, but there will always be someone to argue every single fact in every single book.
I can't think of any other style created by a women any way about it.

AoG
 

Tez3

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some food for thought about female fighters



Incidentally the MC on the second video is the ' arrested gentleman' I mentioned in my post on Si-Je's thread on self defence.


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-AaZ5kfXUj8&feature=related


there are very few women in MMA btw, only 15 active female fighters in the UK plus a handful of women more who train but don't fight. Very few women take it up, there will be far more women in WC than MMA.
 
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Si-Je

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My husband and I have resolved the issue with self-defense. It's a very serious problem in our area. There was a serial rapist that was climbing to the second and third story to enter in women's apartments through the patios just a couple of months ago.
This type of weirdness is pretty constant. I really don't need to throw staticts at the ladies, they've heard them all.

We're going to teach self-defense as a free class to the local churches (gas prices being a big limitator) and the gear hubbie will use when he's the "punching pad" will be the gear we work out with now. (+a groin guard, and a throat guard)
This will give him more manuverability as an attacker, to be more realistic for the ladies.
We'll see what happens from there. If they want a longer or on-going class, we'll offer that as well.
And as soon as I get my butt in condition these next two weeks, I'll start the cardio class (WC style) and see what we've got to work with then.
 

JustAVisitor

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I'm a woman.
I started kungfu awhile ago, simply because i wanted to experiment 'something/whatever' chinese. It had to have a really 'asian' flavor, meaning be as much traditional as possible. My knowledge of martial arts then was limited to the TV show 'kung fu' with David Caradeen... I had no clue of what to expect, but i knew i was not interested in learning to fight unless there would be some sense in it. The philosophy, the ideal, the understanding that accompanied the training are what made me stick to it for so many years. The pains, bruises, injuries, humiliations (occasionally), calices, had a meaning, a purpose, a value.
I would never endure this type of training for a medal, for pleasure, to defend myself or to be social. No f___ way. What i value the most in this type of training is the challenge, the constant learning, the rewarding work, the discipline, the humanity, the humility, the perspective on life. Learning to fight is part of the deal, and it is a very interesting aspect of the art. What i dislike about sparring though is the 'i'll beat the crap out of you and we'll figure out afterwards what works and what does not'. I guess i am more a 'theory-to-practice-to-theory' person than a 'practice-to-theory' person... As a woman, using my brain before my muscles has always paid off... just using my muscles usually result in a lesser success rate.
 

The Last Legionary

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You know, I really thought you were a very smart guy in all of your other threads/postings...then you posted this, the most ignorant statement I have yet to read on Martial Talk.

You ever think they wrestled naked because they didn't have the hang ups on nudity modern society does, or that spandex wasn't invented yet???
Yoshiyahu has some serious hangups and is a petty blatant homophobe.
For his thoughts on what one should do with anyone who is gay, you might want to read this bit of "Wizdumb"
 

MJS

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ADMIN NOTE:

ATTENTION ALL USERS:

Please return to the topic of this thread, which is Women in Wing Chun. Also, please take note of the forum rules, specifically sections 1.8 and 1.9, which can be found here.

Mike Slosek
MT Asst. Admin
 
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Si-Je

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We don't use muscles in Wing Chun, you use your brain to outsmart the one that is "fighting" you. This is why I'd thought women would be more attracted to Wing Chun than it seems is the response in the States.
Overseas classes are filled with women. Here it's almost nil.
Maybe more exposure and education of what Wing Chun is all about is necessary, and that will most likely take years. :)

Oh, to respond to a way later post. I teach women's self defense to teach self defense, not to "trick" them into taking the regular classes. The self defense class is far different than the regular classes. I do encourage them to take more classes than just the one time self defense class, though. Whether from us or some other style. The more training the better the success rate in an attack.
 

Eru Ilúvatar

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Damn, they deleted that post allready. I just wanted to link it to my friends :) But good job at keeping the forums clean moderators!
 
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Si-Je

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Eru Ilúvatar;1099576 said:
Damn, they deleted that post allready. I just wanted to link it to my friends :) But good job at keeping the forums clean moderators!

I must have missed something good. Ignore list working well I guess. :)
 

tellner

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Si-Je, sorry to have missed so much of the thread.

If you live in Texas and are at real risk of violent crime you might want to consider backing your Wing Chun up with appropriate tools. Texas has very liberal concealed carry laws, and a .45 makes an unmistakable "Bang means No!" statement in flawless English, Spanish, Mongolian and !Kung click-dialect :)

For a self-defense program, especially for beginners you have to give them as much as possible as quickly as possible. If they're interested there's time later for refined technique. What they almost always need is disinhibition, increased capacity for violence and a few simple tools. Chainsaw rather than rapier. It will make them less likely to be targetted, more able to flip the switch and fight if they are and more likely to do what they need to when they do.
 

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