Class Structure
Wing Chun is one of the four foundational arts in the Inosanto Blended Martial Arts class. The classes consist of 55 minutes of drills and theory. When space and time allow, students may participate in structured sparring after we bow out of class.
Wing Chun
Wing Chun became well known in the US largely because of Bruce Lee. It was the first art he studied and loved.
The Wing Chun offered at Ethos combatives is the product of a blended lineage. Sifu Nathan and Sifu Adrian were taught Wing Chun by Sifu Johnny Beheler, who’s two primary instructors were Sigung Bill Wong of the Yip Man / Moy Yat lineage and Sigung Francis Fong of the Jiu Wan lineage.
It bears mentioning that many “traditional” Wing Chun students care very deeply about lineage; and while we agree that it’s always important to “consider the source of the water as you drink it”, we believe that the primary weakness of “traditional” martial arts stems from the tendency of practitioners to lean too heavily on the authority implied by their lineage, rather than on the value of experimentation and the application of the principles of the system they study. Respect for our elders is important, but when taken too far it also becomes a limitation.
Wing Chun, like many other forms of Gung Fu, emphasizes the importance of body structure and position over strength or physical prowess. However, unlike many of the forms of Gung Fu, Wing Chun is designed to be an in-close, direct fighting system. The art represents the quintessential essence of “trapping hands”, which consists of removing and immobilizing an opponents obstructions (guard). The trapping developed in this program lends itself extremely well to students interested in learning similar trapping techniques in Jun Fan Jeet Kune Do, Filipino Martial Arts, Maphilindo Silat, and even Jiu Jitsu.
Another hallmark of effective Wing Chun is something commonly referred to as inch-power. Bruce Lee was rather famous for his ability to send a person sailing with his “inch punch”. He learned the principle during his time with Yip Man. Intuition tells us that hitting hard requires blows that swing wide and far, utilizing as much strength and determination as we can muster. The truth is actually the exact opposite. Power comes from position, timing, and (counter-intuitively) relaxation.