Wing Chun Sucks ?

[Togo]

Hey whats with the seriously bad rep wing chun has around the world ? i've been on a few forums such as martial arts planet, defend.net, martial talk and quite a few others and the general view of wing chun is that it sucks...

so many say its useless and flawed and doesn't hold up on the street or against other arts, many of these claims are from people who have studied the style for a few years before moving on to the mma scene.

So my question is why does it have such a crap rep ? I've seen other styles and schools that are quite frankly a joke and i've studied in a few of them. I'm still not too far into my training but i think the style is a lot more effective in principle alone at saving ur a$$ on the street than half the crap out there. i'll admit at first doing the first form and being shown things like "fook sau" where coming across as a bit pointless really but after a bit of application i think it works very well so i can't understand why people are so anti-wing chun

[bigtouch]

i kno its terrible, i was talkin to someone the other day whod heard how brutal wing chun was n i was supprised as ppl dont normally think too much of it.
it could be due to the lack of entertainment value, i mean in mma n the like its all very head on n makes a good fight, dont think itd last very long with ppl usin wing chun on there, itd be ova too fast.

tho it does seem strange it not bein popular as one of the most famous ppl to bring martial atrs to the west had it as his main base of his whole fighting style. he

[rosenrot]

From what I gather most of this seems to come from the US where there are a lot of bad Wing Chun schools conning students out of money. Also over there BJJ and MMA schools are plentiful and judging by the comments on bullshido.com (highly recommended) the bad image of Wing Chun maybe derives from WC students faring rather badly when put up against guys from these establishments.

[Togo]

I suppose entertainment value is limited, the style isn't pretty especially in real time application but i have to admit i like watching some people on youtube etc. who know what they are doing when training, some of the videos on the ukwca site are bloody amazing, especially the breaking demo's

I can see the point of other styles from the mma scene looking down on wing chun, especially with all the mcdojo's out there and petty bitching about lineage etc. (which i don't really see much point in to be honest). As far as i can see wing chun does what it says on the tin. realistic self defense on a street level, not comps, trophies or titles, just the skills required to get you home in one piece.

On the note of mma etc. has anyone ever tried wing chun against any other styles during a sparring match ? i'm interested to see how wing chun would stand up against a half decent boxer for example, i'd like to try it out for myself but i think i'll wait untill i've trained a good bit more before i go getting my ass whooped by my mates ;D

[rosenrot]

Wing Chun v. Boxing is the same as any martial art v. another martial art: success all comes down to the individuals involved.

That said, since boxing involves constant one-on-one sparring, a boxer will probably be a bit tricky for most WC students who tend to do far less in the way of contact practice.

[Dan]

Im always confused as to why people hate Wing Chun then I go on the internet and see why, most WC schools don't teach to a high standard. Due to the "efficient movement" and "economy of motion" theory's in WC most Wing Chun practitioners and even instructors think its ok to be a fat Bastard. And basically there are as Phil said lots of people who give WC a bad name. If someone trains hard at a martial art for 15 years it dosent mater weather they do WC Tai Chi Wushu MMA boxing whatever they will be able to use it. it is down to how the individual uses what he knows. But if I didn't know people like Sam Kwok Ip Ching Billy Davidson and Paul Simith i would think WC sucked to....

[rosenrot]

Paul Smith is the man to up the rep of WC. I mean come on... are you going to insult him?

[superfoot]

mr scotland ftw, billy is awesome too

[Tom]

Yeah, it seems pretty simple to me. Wing chun gets a bad rep because there are so many clowns out there teaching it badly. It's not like TKD, that has independant governing bodies that regulate teachers and schools. Although that said, a lot of TKD schools are belt factories, so maybe that's not the best example.

A regulatory body in Wing Chun would probably help boost it's rep worldwide, but then I don't think most Sifus would be too happy about having to report to some higher governing body. Plus many, like Sifu Kwok, have their own associations as a sort of built in governing body.

I think the only way to really improve Wing Chun's rep would be to get rid of all the jokers. But that's not ever going to happen.

Besides, let people think that you suck because you do Wing Chun. Surely that level of underestimation can only work in your favour?

[superfoot]

lol ye tkd is the worst of the worst