Youth Kung Fu - Philosophy

In all the classes Cambridge Kung Fu teaches we aim to build rapport and engage our students in the activities and exercises that they practice in their classes.  Our Youth Kung Fu classes are in some ways the most challenging in this respect, as our students in this class are individually and collectively undergoing rapid growth and development in all aspects of themselves.  This means that we have to be conscious that we are not teaching children but neither are we teaching adults.  So we look to find a middle path that allows our Youth Kung Fu students to let off steam and have fun, whilst simultaneously teaching them the art of Wing Chun Kung Fu and it's practical applications for living successfully, and being able to defend yourself and the people they care about.

Youth Wing Chun:

In the Youth Kung Fu classes we teach the Wing Chun Chuan.  Wing Chun, sometimes spelled Wing Tsun or Ving Tsun is probably the most famous style of Kung Fu thanks to it's introduction to the West by the late, great Bruce Lee.

The Youth Kung Fu classes differ from the adult Wing Chun classes in several ways.  We have developed the syllabus to be more engaging for young people, for example we leave some of the more abstract training such as Chi Sau for which Wing Chun is famous, until the students have passed the Forth Student Grade.  Until this time the training we do is more immediately obvious in terms of application.  From our teaching experience we have realised that in general young people of this age, at least initially, want their training to make sense to them.  They want to understand that this movement can be used to defend against this range of attacks, rather than an abstract exercise that they are told will benefit them at some point in the future.  This is a generalisation but it is not a problem because all the important material is covered, it is just covered in a slightly different order from the adult classes.  Once the basics are grasped and there is sufficient faith in the instructor, more abstract concepts can be taught and accepted.

Fun Games:

The second significant difference is that we play more fun games with the Youth Kung Fu class.  So rather than standing and going through a movement routine to get warmed up we play Kung Fu games, which do a similar job.  The students then get to let off a bit of steam at the beginning of the class allowing for greater focus during the rest of the lesson.

Self Defence

The Youth Kung Fu classes are when the children in our club start to learn explicitly how to defend themselves, we teach them about personal safety, and the law concerning self defence.  We deal with issues of bullying and how to deal effectively with bullies.  Our principle approach is teach that in becoming more confident most bullies will leave you alone, if they do not then you should leave the area (run away if necessary) and tell a person in authority if this is possible.  If however this is not an option, then we teach the children that they must be strong and defend themselves physically.  We teach that as a defender, we should always administer the minimum amount of force necessary to finish the confrontation as efficiently as possible.  This of course is a grey area and we aim to support our students in being able to make the correct choices that keep them safe above all else.