Yuen Kay-San Wing Chun: History and Practice [Paperback]

Rene Ritchie (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: January 1999

Hailing from mainland China, the Yuen Kay-San system of Wing Chun is one of the arts more elusive and rare styles. Included in this book are the history, concepts and foundation of the art, the sup yee sik and siu lien tao forms, and their practical applications. For beginners, it serves as a great introduction to Wing Chun; for seasoned practitioners, it offers a new and unique perspective into the art.

Product Details

• Paperback: 160 pages
• Publisher: Unique Publications (January 1999)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1892515032
• ISBN-13: 978-1892515032
• Product Dimensions: 9.9 x 6.9 x 0.5 inches
• Shipping Weight: 10.4 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (6 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #361,460 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

Rene Ritchie was born in South Africa and grew up in Montreal, Canada. A lifelong martial artist, his interest led him to study judo, karate, wushu, Brazilian jiu-jitsu, and wing chun kung-fu, the last of which culminated in the writing of two non-fiction books, Complete Wing Chun and Yuen Kay-San Wing Chun, and the Chinese martial hero novel, Wing Chun: Embers of the Shaolin.

A graphic and web designer by trade, he currently works at SAND Technology and spends his free time training, and writing about technology as editor of Smartphone Experts' theiphoneblog.com.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

12 of 12 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A splendid introduction of this rare branch of wing chun., May 3, 1999

By 

Terence W. Niehoff (St. Louis, Missouri USA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Yuen Kay-San Wing Chun: History and Practice (Paperback)

This appears to be the first, and only, book published in english on this relatively rare branch of wing chun. It covers, among other things, the history of this branch of wing chun (which may be eye-opening to those of other lineages), the basics, the twelve conceptual methods, and the sup yee sik (the twelve forms) - my favorite section of the book. Coming as I do from Yip Man's wing chun lineage, I've always been intrigued, and never really understood, this training platform.  However, the book's explanations and application photographs finally clarified for me how the concepts are extracted from these general techniques and then expanded and/or linked to create new and surprising applications. 

Two other aspects of the book make it particularly noteworthy. The first was that the demonstration of the siu lien tao, wing chun's first form, was by Ngo Lui-Kay, one of Grandmaster Sum Nung's personal disciples.  And second, the author avoided the hackneyed combat applications that are all too common in wing chun books and instead presented richer, more interesting technical expressions. 

It's really a fine effort - and one not to be missed.

10 of 10 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars If you must choose one book => this one !!, January 1, 2002

By 

nicolas (France) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Yuen Kay-San Wing Chun: History and Practice (Paperback)

Sorry for my english (I'm french). I'm practicing martial arts since about 15 years now (fist/foot boxing + tai chi) and discovered wing chun about 1 year ago. I read lot of books on wing chun (I think "most" of them) because I'm leaving in the countryside and can't get easily class of wing chun (a pity). Anyhow, I manage to train daily .
Rene Ritchie - & Ngo Lui Kay sifu - book is BY FAR the finest I bought. It covers 12 simple attack/defensive mvts + the 1st form. EACH mvt of the 1st form is shown with splendid & reallistic explanations + fighting applications that allow you to really possess the form and to train even if you are no more a beginner. Each applications is VERY cleverly choosen to light a new concept of the mvt of the form.
Thank you so much M.Ritchie for this book. I'm waiting for the next books YOU MUST WROTE : the ones on 2nd/3rd form and wooden dummy :)

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Yuen Kay-San Wing Chun Kuen, December 8, 2004

By 

David Wong Wan Tho (Singapore) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Yuen Kay-San Wing Chun: History and Practice (Paperback)

This is an excellent book on a rare form of Wing Chun. Very meticulous in the instructions given. In my opinion, this may even be superior to Ip Man's version of Wing Chun. Having practised martial arts for the past 18 years, I fell in love with this style of Wing Chun.