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39 of 40 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
no macho, pure energy, September 21, 2000
This review is from: Wing Chun Kung Fu: Traditional Chinese King Fu for Self-Defense and Health (Paperback)
So much of martial arts is degraded in the Western approach-- it becomes all about physicality, muscle and machoness rather than being rooted in energy, personal improvement and spirituality/philosophy. Most martial arts books are titled "the deadly something or other". Maybe it is a marketing ploy to attract all these sweaty pubescent boys who like to pick fights (and those "adults" who still act like that), but they have missed the philosophical/spiritual roots of the martial arts. They have lost the tradition and the honor; so where then is their authenticity? I found this book to approach wing chun from a more traditional, balanced combination of philosophical/theoretical (energy work) and physical. Because wing chun is a combination of both internal and external styles it is essential to understand Qi if you want to improve. Ip Chun addresses that. His analogy as an eighty year grandmaster is that as a young person you can, if you like, focus on speed and brute strength, but where will you be when you are elderly? It is only energy work that will sustain your martial arts into your old age. The first one third of the book is history and background, the second third is sil lum tao with lots of photos, and the last third is one and two-handed chi sao (sticky hands techniques) and practical application of wing chun techniques in self-defense for men and women. And of course, if you want to talk about lineage, then you cannot go wrong with Ip Chun, son of Ip Man (Yip Man) himself. As a practioner of Wing Chun/JKD (taught by the late sifu Akko Nishimura trained by sigung Francis Fong [Yip Man school] and guru Dan Inosanto), I found this book to be invaluable. It is important to understand the traditional roots, even if your own practice is more synthetic. Of course, for all those philes who like their martial arts pre-packaged, glossy and aggressive, Ip Chun's approach will be too traditional for them to handle. They should go join the Billy Banks bootcamp for Tae Bo.
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8 of 8 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
Pretty decent, July 12, 2006
This review is from: Wing Chun Kung Fu: Traditional Chinese King Fu for Self-Defense and Health (Paperback)
At first, I thought this book was kind of "basic". Having studied wing chun for a while under a competent sifu, I went back and the book has some really good stuff in it. First of all, it details the first form well. It also contains clear photos, and explanations from people who obviously have spent YEARS with this art (I can tell, because many of their insights can only be won after long study). I also liked the final section, which shows you the real "street fight" applications of the art, and of the techniques shown in the first form. I liked the discussion of Bruce Lee and his relationship with wing chun (to put it in a nutshell: Bruce never gave up on wing chun, and his Jeet Kune Do had wing chun as its core !). I liked the historical information on Yip Man in Hong Kong. This book really packs a lot into a short book. I really recommend it.
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11 of 12 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Excellent basis for learning Wing Chun, January 10, 2002
This review is from: Wing Chun Kung Fu: Traditional Chinese King Fu for Self-Defense and Health (Paperback)
This isn't the book that will take you all the way to full understanding of siu lim tao (first form), but it will do better than any other single book. Combine this with the video "Wing Chun - Science of In-Fighting," and you will have a complete intructional guide to the first form of wing chun. I agree that some steps seem to be skipped in the form pictures, but this is more than compensated by the additional information about wing chun and how to apply it. Get the video by Wong Shun Leung too.
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