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Wing Chun is a fine martial art when taught and used effectively. There are many folks who call it garbage because there are so few good Wing Chun instructors, and so many bad ones. Look on the internet, and you'll see people ridicule "Chunners" as being weak and innefective.

From personal experience, I think Wing Chun is a good martial art in certain situations, but you have to be really dedicated to it. Learning to protect the centerline effectively while penetrating your opponents defense is really really difficult. This is furthered by the fact that Wing Chun attacks are meant to be short, close range, and quickly delivered multiple strikes, so you don't really see KO punching or kicking in WC.

Also, many of the more dangerous parts of Wing Chun can't be practiced on a fully resisting opponent - biu gee (fingertip eye strikes) and the groin strikes are central to the effectiveness of WC. But if you were to spar someone and poke their eye out or kick them in the crotch you could cause serious injury. My belief is that practicing against a resisting opponent is vital to muscle memory, which is what you resort to in a pressure situation.

So on the down side, if you can't practice it, it's hard to use it in combat. It's like firearm practice by pointing an unloaded gun and saying "bang". What happens when you have bullets? The guy may work, but you might end up just pointing and saying "bang" like you practiced 10,000 times...

So my comment is that it is most effective as a defensive art - blocking, evading, and countering. It is my experience that it has limited use in the striking or punishing realms of combat. Just find a good teacher whatever art you decide to study, and you'll be happy with it.

Good luck!

If you're going to learn Wing Chun, let me give you this advice: Do NOT start learning the 1st form (Siu Nim Tao) as if it's meant to be applied to an opponent. LOTS of people make that mistake.

Focus instead on where your arms, elbows, and hands should be, where you should be directing your energy, and how your stance should feel. You will never use that stance in a real fight, but you will flow into it and out of it in a real fight when you're applying your tools.

Do not focus too much on speed. It's not exactly F=ma, where faster means more power. While that may be true, the real power comes from your body as you move in with your punch. Ever walked into a door, pole, or corner of something? Ever wonder why it'd hurt soooo much when you weren't even walking that fast? It's because of your whole body mass going into it as you walk.

Focus on closing in when fighting. Don't try to keep your distance like a boxer because that's not a game that Wing Chun is good at. When you get to a certain point (generally wooden dummy form and 2nd form), start practicing crashing into an opponent while keeping your structure. Do not be worried about taking a hit. In some sense, you can only become good at deflecting ALL hits by learning through taking hits.

Wing Chun actually has kicking, but you need to stick with it long enough to advance into learning it. If you can find a Wong Shun Leung school (Gary Lam, David Peterson, Greg LeBlanc) or a Hawkins Cheung school, you'll learn it for sure through them. I'm not saying other schools won't teach it. I just simply don't know whether they do or don't teach it.

My experience of Wing Chun has been that every teacher, no matter how closely related, seems to have a world of difference from the next. You can't really get a sense of one WC teacher by going to another. That is the best and worst part about it. You can have as many different takes on Wing Chun as you can on any instrument. Wing Chun only means anything when it is reflected off of one human after another. When opportunity fades with your Sifu, there is no picking that trail up with another.

Wing Chun is a great martial art and I have seen that it can be very effective in a street fight. I personally do NOT train in Wing Chun, but I am huge fan of Ip Man and Bruce Lee. Here is a video of a Wing Chun vs Muay Thai fight:

http://mmakumite.com/2013/10/02/wing-chun-vs-muay-...

I have trained wing chun at http://www.londonwingchun.co.uk/ and can tell you on the first day i realized i didn't even know how to throw a punch. with only one lesson you would learn at least something interesting and usefull. They will teach you some of the very best concepts and principles that will help you effectively defend yourself. You wont learn these ideas anywhere else!

The London Wing Chun Martial Arts Academy teaches one of the best Systems for Self Defense in the World. They will teach you how a smaller and weaker person can defend themselves against larger stronger opponents. You'll learn to move efficiently with phenomenal speed and directness in order to save valuable energy.

With its emphasis on easy-to-learn techniques rather than force, it is suitable for both men and women, young and old, and for all levels of physical fitness.

Well, any art is going to have benefits, so yes it is good. It is lean on kicking, and uses a lot of dflection and angles. It was created as a way for Chinese nuns to defend themselves so it has a lot of techniques that are designed to negate size and strength advantages. Quality art all around, good luck, and remember that Wing Chun, like all martial arts, will give you back as much as you put into it.

I teach Taekwando, I'm a Wing Chung student now and find it great. Here is a site to find out more. It is the Official site of the World Wing Chun Kung Fu Association. http://www.cheungswingchun.com/

Wing chun schools different significantly in approach and philosophy. Check as many schools as possible and ask lots of questions.

I am ｉｎｔｅｒｅｓｔｅｄ in it also. I'm doing Shotokan but after I get first dan I am going to train in Wing Chun in Orange County.

I did wing chun before and thought it was very good... most people would say it sux because they dont think to use it in a fight, Bruce Lee used wing chun and he was small but effective