You may have heard a woman created Wing Chun or Wing Chun is for women. Wing Chun Kung fu is an excellent art for anyone young, old, tall, short, skinny, overweight, male or female.
Five masters created this incredible kung fu style and one of them was a woman. She was a nun and her name was Ngi Mu.
Over 300 years ago five masters had to come together to develop a system of Kung Fu to survive. This martial arts style had to defeat all existing styles of kung fu and martial arts, it had to be learned in a short period of time and it had to not rely on size and strength.
They were basically turned into peasant farmers, they were not well feed, nor were they allowed to train or practice martial arts. So the five masters, in the secrecy of their temple, created this art to teach everyone for survival and to be able to overcome evil and take back control of their lives.
These same concepts hold true today, you cannot defeat a larger, stronger well-trained opponent if you rely on force and have no training. I always assume my attacker is not only trained in combat but also bigger, strong, possibly armed and most likely not be alone. Thus that is what I train and teach to defeat.
Wing Chun works so well for woman because it is an art that has no blocks, does not rely on brute strength, rather works off realistic principles of deflection and redirection. It works with proper body mechanics and technique not physical strength.
With nearly two decades of teaching experience I have trained numerous men and women. Female students do tend to pick up two aspects a little quicker than most male students at the beginning and that is deflection and footwork.
Guys usually have more fighting or martial arts experience so the concept of deflection takes a little longer as they are so used to trying to block and use force. Where women come in with the understanding they cannot beat up big attackers and are looking for something that can do to defend themselves. So once they see the deflection in action it is like a light bulb goes off right away, “sweet that works!”
The footwork in this system is very simple and extremely important. Everyone gets it although some female students grasp the footwork at the begging a little faster, maybe from more dancing and less over thinking. When I show the footwork to a new male student they tend to over think at the beginning, because it is “Kung Fu Footwork” it is harder and there has to be something more to it that I am missing. When I show a new female student the footwork she usually looks at like a dance step and says “that’s easy.”
That is why when a couple comes and wants to join the school to learn kung fu, I look at the guy and say “don’t worry if she gets it quicker than you.” ☺
I had a guy once trying to push my buttons by telling me wing chun is only for women. I got the biggest smile and said, “YUP, if a 90 pound female can kick your ass with it, then image what I can do!”
So is Wing Chun for women, sure, it’s for everyone.
