Wing Chun

Wing Chun Kung Fu:

At Cambridge Kung Fu the principle martial art we teach is Wing Chun Chuan, which approximately translates as the 'flowing verses of springtime fighting system'.  It is difficult to translate exactly, but with a bit of thought this translation really epitomises Wing Chun.

Our Teachers:

At Cambridge Kung Fu we are very fortunate to have experienced Wing Chun from some of the Top Wing Chun Masters in world, including Sifu Leung Ting and Sifu Keith Kernespect and their Wing Tsun system.  We now practice Sifu Wan Kam Leung's Practical Wing Chun under Sifu Wan's Private student; Sifu Benno Westra.

Grandmaster Wan Kam Leung:

Sifu Wan is a man in his mid sixties who has studied Wing Chun everyday for over forty years, in Hong Kong he is known as 'the Master of Masters' due to his incredible fighting skill, and his ability to communicate his Wing Chun.  In addition to being a master of Wing Chun, Sifu Wan is also a master of Chi Kung.  Sifu Wan Kam Leung originally trained Wing Chun under the late Grandmaster Yip Man, and his Sifu was the late Grandmaster Wong Shun Leung.

Master Benno Westra:

Sifu Benno is a private student of Sifu Wan, and is a Wing Chun master in his own right, having studied martial arts for nearly thirty years.  He has been a champion fighter in Tae Kwon Do and Kyokushinkai Karate, and he has also been a special forces soldier and worked in security.  He is now a professional Martial Artist teaching Wing Chun, Escrima Concepts and Brazilian Jui Jujitsu.  Before discovering his Sifu (Wan Kam Leung), Sifu Benno also completed the Leung Ting Wing Tsun system and the traditional Wong Shun Leung Wing Chun system.  He has also trained with several other Wing Chun Masters from Hong Kong and mainland China.

The Benefits:

Wing Chun is a highly sophisticated and effective martial art.  You will learn how to effectively move and coordinate your body in an efficient and dynamic way.  Through greater awareness of how your body and mind work and interact, you will develop into a strong, balanced, and successful person.

Wing Chun teaches correct posture, structure and alignment, and as with anything in the universe if these things are balanced effectively you will be strong.  One of the key benefits of Wing Chun training is that due to the way that you achieve strength, you will also become more relaxed and responsive.  Often strength is associated with hardness, and stiffness, but through training in Wing Chun you will learn to become stronger, more relaxed and more responsive!  This means that you can keep getting better throughout your whole life and not reach your peak in your twenties or thirties.

Wing Chun employs the strategies of the Chinese classic General Sun Tzu's 'The Art of War', making it a highly effective martial art for self defence.  You will learn to understand where you are intrinsically strong and weak, and be able to identify this in others, allowing you to be successful in whatever conflict situation you find yourself in, by the most efficient means possible.

'If you know yourself and you know your enemy, one hundred battles may be fought without fear!'
General Sun Tzu's 'The Art of War'

The above quote epitomises the goal of Wing Chun training, which is to live your life freely, full of confidence and without fear.  This is possible through understanding who you are, which will enable you to see others as they truly are.  Although this is a difficult path, it is one that leads to you achieving your goals and living a happy life.

Wing Chun training is intrinsically healthy, the way you will learn to move will make you stronger, fitter, healthier and more relaxed.  You will learn to be able to defend yourself and to be successful in any environment you are in.

The Wing Chun Legend:

The history of Wing Chun is very interesting, and it was Bruce Lee back in the seventies who first brought Wing Chun to prominence in the West.  Since then Wing Chun has grown into probably the most known Kung Fu style in the world, through other students of the late Grandmaster Yip Man, such as Sifu Leung Ting and the late Sifu Wong Shun Leung.  The legend of Wing Chun goes back about 300 years to the Shaolin Temple, one of the spiritual homes of Chinese Wu Shu (Wu Shu means martial arts and these days Kung Fu, which means hard work will be rewarded, is usually used in it's stead).  It is said that around this time five masters of Kung Fu came together to create a new martial art, one that would revolutionise combat, that through it's principles and the philosophy upon which it is based, it would be able to defeat all the styles of Kung Fu created up until that point.  Before the system could be completed however the masters were betrayed to the Chinese government, who feared the power of the Shaolin Monks and their Kung Fu.  The Emperor sent his army to destroy the temple and so the five masters separated and fled.  The greatest of these masters was known to be a nun named Ng Mui, she left the Shaolin Temple and found a safe place to continue developing this new and revolutionary martial art.  Some time later she came across a lady who wanted to learn Kung Fu in order to defeat a local bully, who was terrorising her, and her family.  Ng Mui taught this lady her new Kung Fu system, whose name was Yim Wing Chun, and Yim Wing Chun taught the system to her husband, who named the system after his wife upon her death.  The system was passed down through the centuries from master to student undergoing continual development and refinement until the present day, where we train and continue to improve Ng Mui's revolutionary Kung Fu!

Wing Chun Philosophy:

It seems that many people believe this to be a factual story and this may be the case.  I however believe it to be an allegorical story that teaches much in terms of what Wing Chun is about and what it aims to be.  The fact that Ng Mui was a women and her first student was a women teaches that muscular strength is not the key to success in Wing Chun and that men, who traditionally took part in combat should explore femininity if they want to be ultimately successful in life, as only through leading a balanced life can you reach your true potential.  The story about Yim Wing Chun wanting to learn so she could defend herself and her loved ones against a bully is also very important.  This bully can be external or internal, but each of us faces enemies of one sort or another on a daily basis, and Wing Chun offers guidance for all those who no longer want to be intimidated by fear and who want to live a life of freedom, success, and happiness.  The story of the masters choosing to leave the temple and avoid the conflict with the Emperor is also important;  Sometimes it is important to realise and understand when someone or something is currently too powerful to deal with, and so a tactical retreat is required in order for you to be able to continue what is important to you, and to have the opportunity to be ultimately successful in the long term.

Our Goal:

At Cambridge Kung Fu we hope to embody this philosophy of relaxed and responsive strength, through living intelligently and with awareness.  We can learn to understand ourselves, everyone else and the universe in which we live.  In this way we can live our lives as we choose and create the life we want to lead.