Relay-Version: version B 2.10 5/3/83; site utzoo.UUCP
Path: utzoo!linus!genrad!decvax!harpo!seismo!rlgvax!cvl!umcp-cs!israel
From: israel@umcp-cs.UUCP
Newsgroups: net.sport
Subject: Re: Wing Chun Kung Fu
Message-ID: <268@umcp-cs.UUCP>
Date: Fri, 17-Jun-83 19:01:32 EDT
Article-I.D.: umcp-cs.268
Posted: Fri Jun 17 19:01:32 1983
Date-Received: Sat, 18-Jun-83 16:04:45 EDT
Lines: 54

Well I don't know too much about Wing Chun Kung Fu, but I would be
interested if someone more knowledgable were to post some information
about it.  I study a Japanese style of Karate called Goju Ryu in
the Washington D.C. area.

Go means 'hard' and 'Ju' means soft, so Goju Ryu is "the way of hard
and soft".  This means that there are both "hard" techniques (meaning
power-oriented and straight-line techniques, e.g. Taekwondo and Shotokan)
and "soft" techniques (continuous, smooth and circular techniques,
e.g. Kung Fu, Aikido etc.).  We do high, fancy kicks to advanced
students, but we primarily emphasize hand techniques and the basic
kicks (front kick, round kick, side kick).

One major difference is that we highly emphasize breathing.  Goju ryu
is symbolized by two major katas, which are breathing katas.

The kata sanchin is a hard breathing kata and is taught at the
green-belt level.  This kata is one of the hardest katas to do, though
it is extremely simple technically, having no kicks in it at all and
primarily using a thrust punch and middle block.  The reason it is so
difficult to do is that the kata takes about two minutes to do, and
requires complete tension and lockout of every single muscle in the
body, including arm and leg muscles, neck muscles, stomach and
buttocks, etc.  Along with this breathing is consciously controlled by
forcefully expanding and contracting the diaphragm, which results in
the breath coming out with a roar.  Because the stomach is completely
tightened, it pushes up into the bottom of the chest cavity, limiting
the amount of air that can be taken in with the breathing.  The tension
and the breathing result in making it a very difficult kata to do
correctly.  (I've rambled on this long enough, so for more information
see the latest issue of "Black Belt" magazine, or an issue of Kick
Illustrated a few months back with an article called "Sanchin:  the
Kata and its Principles".)

The other breathing kata is called Tensho, which is taught at the
purple belt level, and is a soft breathing kata.  It is similar to
sanchin, but is done with less tension, and more relaxed breathing.

Because of these things, I feel that we are more similar to Kung Fu
styles than are most Japanese and Korean styles of Karate.  I include
under Korean styles of Karate, Taekwondo and Tang soo do.  I have heard
that some (or all?) Korean stylists consider their arts to be separate
arts from Karate, but based on what I've seen of the arts, I would call
them Karate.

By the way, the above letter can be construed as an emphatic yes vote
for net.rec.martial.  Since we need to get the discussion rolling,
the above paragraph is a deliberate attempt to get it going by picking
a fight.  I would like some Korean stylists to say how they feel on
this subject.

~~~ Bruce
...!seismo!umcp-cs!israel (Usenet)
israel.umcp-cs@Udel-Relay (Arpanet)