Customer Reviews

Yuen Kay-San Wing Chun: History and Practice

5 star:		(6)
4 star:		(0)
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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.

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 :)

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.

I got the more from this book than any other wing chun book, (and I've got them all).

The structure is well laid out. Intorductory information is well presented. The actual technical sections could have done with better and larger photography. The use of 'motion-lines' like those in Wushu books from China would also have been useful.

The dominant line of Wing Chun in the world today is the Yip Man line from Hong Kong. This book is a good introduction to another line. It is no more or less in depth than many books of this nature, but printed materials can only convey so much. An accompanying video would have been great. How about that for the next book. Could certainly have done with a page-numbered index for quick reference

I think the book thoroughly deserves a 5 stars rating and the contents justify the tilte. An all round better and more mature effort than the authur's last book. It sets out to introduce the history and foundation and it accomplishes that without getting too complex.

Ritchie does a tremendous job providing the historical background of the Wing Chun style. In addition, his pictures bring clarity and demonstrate the applications of this system well. This should be on every students bookshelf.