Wing Chun Chuan

Wing Chun (also written Wing Tsun, Ving Tsun and Yong Chun, amongst others) is one of the many types of Chinese martial arts known collectively as Kung Fu. Kung Fu means success achieved through hard work and perseverance, and Wing Chun Chuan means ‘the eternal spring fighting system’. It is an extremely sophisticated and effective martial art.

Wing Chun is, first and foremost, a system of fighting, as opposed to being a sport or an art. There are no fancy moves or wasted motion in Wing Chun. It is not as visually appealing as other forms of Kung Fu, but it is extremely effective and efficient. Wing Chun allows the practitioner to defend and counter quickly with as little effort as possible and with almost no regard for the size or strength of the opponent.

For details of our upcoming events please check out our Events & Updates page on FuTube.

Our Classes

Our classes begin by giving you an introductory education into the world of self defence, to raise your self confidence, to generally help you feel empowered through knowledge of what potential threats you may encounter and most importantly to support you in understanding what you are capable of.  The goal is to help you understand how your body works now, and how to make it work more effectively through coordination exercises and drills. We teach you a system to develop your body to become more aware both visually and kinaesthetically.

As you progress, the aim is to teach you a complete self defence system that allows anyone, regardless of size or strength, to defend themselves effectively against the modern threat they may face on the street today. You will become adept at understanding all aspects of modern combat including, range, timing, balance and movement. You will learn how to move softly in the face of superior strength, and to move with power into an opponents weak areas. As you continue your training, your development through the Wing Chun system allows you to grow as a martial artist and as a person.

We will support you in your goals and teach you the beautiful system of Wing Chun, showing you how it can apply to all aspects of your life, which will help you to become a more confident, healthier and safer person. This is the ultimate aim of Wing Chun.

The four main aspects of our classes are:

• Forms: The Wing Chun forms serve as a reference for the principles, theories, and techniques of the system. There are three unarmed forms, one form practiced on the wooden dummy, and then two weapons forms.
• Chi Sau: Translating as ‘sticking or clinging hands’, Chi Sau is a way of training your muscles to respond unconsciously to impulses given by another person.  You are retraining your unconscious mind and physical body to respond automatically in a highly intelligent and strategic manner. Chi Sau can be summarised as ‘tactile training’.
• Lat Sau: Translating as ‘free hand training’, Lat Sau focusses on bridging the gap and making a connection with your opponent through developing hand-eye co-ordination. Once connection is made, you are then able to utilise your Chi Sau skills. Lat Sau can be summarised as ‘visual training’.
• Self Defence: Situation based exercises and scenarios, this is where we put all your skills together in a less structured framework. For each scenario (eg. someone trying to grab and hit you) we will give you different options to experiment with so that you start to develop an understanding of how Wing Chun works outside the contraints of Chi Sau and lat Sau training. 

Our classes also include elements of:

• Pad Work: Striking exercises working with a partner, whereby we will teach you how to use your bodies natural weapons in a relaxed and powerful way. This is a safe way to develop the ability to both give and receive powerful strikes, as well as training how to hit safely.
• Awareness Exercises: Games and exercises designed to raise your conscious and unconscious awareness of both your external and internal environment.  You will learn how to move in a more coordinated, appropriate and relaxed way to potentially dangerous attacks.
• Sparring Drills: Drills aimed as pressure testing specific parts of you Wing Chun, whether is’s a group of techniques, a tactic, or an over-arching concept. Each drill begins slowly and increases in speed, power, or intensity based on the ability and comfort levels of the specific students taking part.

For details of the Wing Chun syllabus, you can check out our online resources at FuTube.co.uk.

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

Grandmaster Wan Kam Leung originally trained Wing Chun under the late Grandmaster Yip Man, and then the late Grandmaster Wong Shun Leung. Teacher to Bruce Lee and generally regarded as one of the greatest fighters of his generation in the world, in Hong Kong Sifu Wan 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, is also a master of Chi Kung.

Master Benno Westra studied martial arts since childhood, has been a champion fighter in Tae Kwon Do and Kyokushinkai Karate, and has also been a special forces soldier and worked in security. He is now a professional Martial Artist teaching Wing Chun, Nei Gong, Escrima Concepts and Brazilian Jui Jujitsu in The Netherlands. 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, as well as training with several other Wing Chun Masters from Hong Kong and mainland China. Sifu Benno is a regular visitor to the UK and conducts seminars for Cambridge Kung Fu.

Wing Chun Instructor Team

Some of the Cambridge Instructor Team:
from L-R: John, Ross, Kieran, Minh, Col.