Customer Reviews

Tao of Wing Chun Do: Mind and Body in Harmony (Volume I, Part I)

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I took Wing Chun Do in Hawaii under Kimo Wong for a few years, who was Demile's Student. (Demile himself was one of Bruce's first assistant instructors in his Seattle days.) In early editions of this book, it is Kimo's body flying through the air from Demile's 1 and 3-inch punches. I felt those punches from Kimo, and often trained at his house in private lessons, and have seen clearly what Demile intimates -- his version of this punch, which he passed down to Kimo, was even more refined than Bruce Lee's, involving far less body motion and commitment. The stories of people "flying" from a mere tap that barely moved the puncher's body are completely correct. And Demile and Kimo both got it down even notably better than Bruce.

This art is Bruce Lee's art, refined from Wing Chun by the addition primarily of fencing footwork for more mobility and much aggression, the inclusion of the backfist(a natural for Wing Chun), and a very strong form of sticking hands that classical Wing Chun students can find irritating and overly aggressive which Bruce learned and adapted from his own sifus in Hong Kong, Wong Shun Leung among them.

Demile adds psychological principles that may or may not be your cup of tea, but one must praise his organization and clear conveyance of Bruce's ideas and the great practicality of the system, which comes in no small part from the rare direct logic inherent in a system that believes utterly in simplicity as opposed to formality and mysticism. Wing Chun, the father style, is an excellent core style that teaches core principles of combat readily adaptable as the student grows, even to other arts, rather than emphasizing an endless litany of techniques that may never apply and may never end.

Demiles' excellent teaching potential I can vouch for, being one generation removed from his teachings myself and two from Bruce. After some small experience in Karate and then gaining a third degree blackbelt in Okazaki Kodenkan Jiu-Jitsu, I came to first classical Wing Chun under Robert Yeung and then Demiles' style of modified Wing Chun in the late 70's, and felt like I was starting to learn all over again. Jiu Jitsu gave me a strong and well-rounded group of core skills, but Wing Chun did the same in a quite different way, emphasizing hand striking and refining natural reactions and timing according to an especially severe and exacting logic and practicality, constantly tested and adjusted in sparring and sticking hands. Learning such different styles at the same time was quite a trick and sometimes felt like a real mind-bender, but it is a testament to the strength and subtlety of Wing Chun Do that the system's value was immediately apparent even to someone who had had plenty of time to build up layers of the kind of chauvinistic prejudice that is the norm rather than the exception between many martial artists, and moreover usually heartily reinforced and encouraged by every new link in a chain of fools thousands of years long.

Wing Chun cannot be learned from a book; it looks as flat, dull, and simplistic that way as it does in a movie, where we all want spinning kicks and maybe wire work. Much of the training involves the interior control of the mind and the body's energy. The process is not easily conveyed or learned, and the result is rarely pictorial in any way and certainly not screenworthy. But Demiles' book is a great spark to the inquisitive mind and far clearer than most. Highly recommended -- let me assure you that the stories of Wing Chun men practicing and fighting blindfolded, and effortlessly shooting men through the air with bizarrely powerful punches from an inch away are quite true, and I've experienced them numerous times -- but they are just the appetizers to the intriguing system of Wing Chun and its various modifications. Demile's book conveys reasonably well a very interesting modification of Wing Chun, very substantially based on it, but with interestingly flexible additions Bruce Lee added to give the initially defensive Wing Chun system some welcome mobility and flexibility.

And critically, whereas anyone can learn Wing Chun and Wing Chun Do, Jeet Kune Do is infinitely harder both to teach and learn, and Bruce Lee himself also admitted he began to hide some of his techniques when he taught his later arts, and told his assistant instructors to hide them. (Pak Sao/Biu Jee combo being an example he at one point forbade assistant instructor Dan Inosanto to teach.) So if you'd like an interesting introduction to Wing Chun general concepts and a greatly overlooked glimpse into a point of Bruce Lee's development that still holds great value for students without the world-class level of experience, instruction, and natural talent that eventually led him to the intensely idiosyncratic development of his own personal Jeet Kune Do, this book is a both a great historical snapshot and a clear, practical guide that still has a good deal of valuable and rarely seen knowledge to convey more than 30 years after Bruce's death regarding the path he took to get there.