Page 34 - Martial Science Magazine Aug/2014 #4

WHAT IS IP MAN WING CHUN? “There’s nothing wrong with
First of all Ip Man Wing Chun is a Mar- that but Wing Chun did not
tial Art, a combat art not a sport. Many evolve into a sport. It stayed
Martial Arts have evolved in becoming
sports for entertainment and to fight a very compact
in contests. There’s nothing wrong with self-defense system”.
that but Wing Chun did not evolve into
a sport. It stayed a very compact self-de-
fense system.
It is indeed a system, a system with
concepts. Like you have kata’s in Kara-
te, Wing Chun also has forms. In these
forms you learn the techniques, the
positions, the structure, develop energy,
develop power and learn how to put it all
together.
Grandmaster Ip Man is responsible for
further developing the system into what
we call now the Ip Man Wing Chun. If
it weren’t for GM Ip Man, Wing Chun
would not be known in the Western
world and probably not even in Hong
Kong and many parts of China. It is
thanks to his teachings in Foshan, China
and especially Hong Kong that the stu-
dents who he taught were able to spread
Wing Chun all over the world.
We owe him everything because without
him Wing Chun would not have beco-
me one of the most popular Martial Art
systems in the world. Of course it helped
a lot that one of his students became very
famous and was initially responsible for
Wing Chun to become known to the
general public. It also has been through
the teaching of today’s masters like GM
Ip Man’s sons, Ip Chun and Ip Ching,
that we have the full knowledge of this
system.

345