Thanks your interest in WingChun. I can help you learn about WingChun to increase your Self-Defense skills, knowledge and confidence. Reading my articles will give you insights into WingChun theory, technique and training.
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Train Well,
Sifu Paul Wang
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The question is not what you look at, but what you see.
— Henry David Thoreau
The time is now. Life has its ups and downs, its highs and lows. Things start and end, people come and go. But there is an eternal constant, which is the chance to change.
That means no matter how hard or bad the moment is, there is always a way to keep going, to keep growing. We can dig down into our own inner resources to survive. But to thrive, allies really help.
These can be your family or friends. On the martial path, they are your students, colleagues, and teachers. Without them, we cannot get far. With their support, our path towards mastery can endure with fun, progress, and meaning. They reflect parts of ourselves we need to look at, including our very thoughts. Continue reading
The system of nature, of which man is a part, tends to be self-balancing, self-adjusting, self-cleansing. Not so with technology.
— E. F. Schumacher
Occasionally I get emails from all over this Earth asking me about WingChun technique. These inquiries hail from India, Jamaica, the Philippines, Canada, Australia, Taiwan, Germany, and many more countries, let alone numerous cities throughout the United States.
That is the beauty of the so-called World Wide Web. I enjoy hearing from my readers and fans wherever on the planet they are. In appreciation for them reaching out, I always do my best to answer their questions.
Increasingly, I receive requests for online training. Unfortunately, I have to decline them. Perhaps I am conservative but I don’t feel like it is possible to responsibly pass on our teachings without being in the presence of my students.
I agree that some knowledge may be transmitted via the internet. But there is so much that cannot be absorbed. First and foremost is the utter lack of tactile feedback. You must feel, rather than just see, or hear how WingChun works.
That is an easily forgotten side effect of online communication. We fall into the seductive illusion that it is a suitable or sufficient substitute for direct relationship. But it is far from it. Continue reading
Sihing Ayron Johnson guest posts his tips on correctly doing one of our fundamental stances in IAW WingChun.
I sometimes call the Jing San Ma (Frontal Body Stance) the “mother stance” from which the other stances are derived. The subtle adjustments you need to stabilize it seem easy, but the key is to find the feeling. Sihing Ayron details the main things you should consider to stand strong.
Enjoy the read, then train well!
— Sifu Paul Wang
by Sihing Ayron Johnson
Academy Leader of the Academy of WingChun Atlanta
The Jing San Ma (Frontal Body Stance) is the stance that we first learn in WingChun starting from the beginning form, Siu Nim Tau (Small Intention). The stance looks simple, but its most basic function — proper alignment of the legs, hips, and torso for stability, tension, and power generation — is used in all of the other stances and footwork. However, the stance may look awkward and can be difficult for most people to understand. Continue reading
I am pleased to share a guest post by one of my students. Evan has been training for about a year and is currently preparing to test for the 5th Student Grade. I admire him for the consistency, attitude and intelligence he brings to our class. Read about his experience so far integrating the lessons of WingChun to his life in the new year.
— Sifu Paul Wang
On Becoming WingChun
by Evan Muzzall
As a WingChun practitioner entering intermediate levels of study, I have had moderate time to reflect on the significance of my training. I have started down the long, winding path to personal growth through “becoming” WingChun. There is no end to this road, no material rewards, and no easy answers. What it offers instead is the opportunity to “learn how to learn”, so to speak.
While the hundreds of thousands of arm and leg collisions have improved my capabilities for physical self-defense and altered the constitutions of my bones and muscles, they have also taught me an emotional intelligence that I would not have acquired anywhere else. Continue reading
“Forget not that the earth delights to feel your bare feet and the winds long to play with your hair.”
— Khalil Gibran
Sifu Paul Wang with Dai Sifu Klaus Brand at 2014 Spring Camp in the Marin Headlands, California.
Have you noticed that, for all its vast benefits, technology feels draining at times? Perhaps you are better adapted to it than me. I admittedly have a limited capacity for digital distractions.
Then I begin longing to roam sun-speckled trails, especially those decorated with carpets of spongy moss and fungi-rimmed logs felled to earth by lightning. For me, an elemental elixir of sun, wind and dew must occasionally pour into my pores. Otherwise, without this primal nutrition, my modern existence insidiously fades to robotic routine.
It is easy to forget that we are humanimals possessed of powerful intellects that nonetheless often distance us from our biological selves. Our minds can virtually abstract us from the animal immediacy of our senses and surroundings. This creature instinct starves if it is not unleashed to range freely once in a while. In fact, left confined too long in the claustrophobic boxes of civilization we have built ourselves, this part of you may perish without you even realizing the loss. A sort of inner mass extinction parallels the worldwide decline in ecosystem biodiversity. Continue reading
Sifu Paul Wang 