I am well aware this topic is somewhat touchy, but I’ll attempt to talk about it regardless. We’ll discuss it and then leave it to your judgment. Competition Wing Chun can expose you to different wing chun lineages, real self defense techniques, your own weaknesses, and general modern combat rules. Is it necessary to engage in competition Wing Chun in order to succeed with the style in learning self defense? Possibly not, but you do need to regularly engage in some form of contact sparring and active testing of your skills and drills with various partners and students.

Lately, for reasons that I’m not sure, Wing Chun Kung Fu has recently been brought into contests and competitions with the apparent objective of taking it to the masses and raising awareness. And really, taking any kind of martial art form to competitions will have some positive and negative effects on your training. You have to decide which is best for you and weigh the decision.

Always a staunch supporter of Wing Chun Kung Fu, I feel that whatever kind of martial art you practice, you need to decide what it is you want to attain overall. Aside from this general concept, first and foremost we have to ask what Wing Chun is—and why are you taking it. Ask and answer the following questions:

• Is Wing Chun Kung Fu a technique of getting fit? There’s no doubt it will make you fit, however robustness is for the most part a side-effect of the action and is not the solitary reason for learning.
• Does Wing Chun Kung Fu lead to a “path of spiritual clarification”? Even as there are many different religious philosophies, this typically isn’t the main goal a person being trained in this art form will seek.
• Is Wing Chun Kung Fu a system for learning self defense? Of course it is, and I feel that this is the primary objective of the martial art. The sheer soul of Wing Chun Kung Fu is to teach you to be competent, efficient, and—at the same time—learn to handle realistic self-defense situations.

Competition Wing Chun Kung Fu Benefits

• Wing Chun is for fighting and real self defense it is key and what Wing Chun aims to do so you could use this in competition continuous sparring (depending on rules)
• Competition Wing Chun can expose you to different wing chun lineages, techniques, weaknesses, and rules of combat.
• Encouragement of students to train and push themselves and increase skill versus other arts.

Competition Wing Chun Kung Fu negatives

• It is competely subjective, the judges make decisions based off of what the “feel” wins, or thinks is good.
• Even when you do exceptionally well you may not even place in your division
• Usually costs about $120- $200+ dollars for entry, then add on travel, flight and food expenses (possible $200-700)

Competition wing chun can be good and bad depending on the rules, how your expected to react and every competiton is different tournaments you may find that it matches or is completely different from your current training.  Not to mention that it is not guarenteed that you will win even if you listen and try to do everything they tell you they want you to do.  So is it good, yes in some ways, is it bad, yes because you may not be training to actually use and execute what you would want to do in a real situation.

Competition Wing Chun Kung Fu – No Game.

So, now I can ask you – is Wing Chun Kung Fu a game? I can say positively no. The sort of states of affairs that a self defense arrangement manages cannot be repeated in the competitive field but can be attempted.  Reaction is key, striking and growing is essential.  Hence the philosophies, theories and the principles of such organizations do not intersect well. Since competition is not a part of the objective of this martial art, to bring in amendment of such qualities merely for the sake of competition is to wonder if you are bringing the best or worse part of the art itself.

Is it feasible to crop up with a stunning competition featuring wing chun which would turn out to be motivating for contemporary society, yes and they do it in China.  Can you envision a Competition wing chun where competitors execute pushing workouts and attempting to follow all the rules, yes but every school is different and every competition is different and requires different rules.  Will your school be able to follow these rules or will it hinder your growth.  Will you rise to new challenges or will it restrict your growth?

Are you all the same ready to compete? No matter your position at some point you will have to use and apply your Wing Chun in realistic self defense.  Every Wing Chun scholar has to carry out fighting under the scrutiny of their teacher to truly know if they can use what they know. It can be in the school or outside of it.  It is a check to measure one’s Wing Chun awareness in addition to skills, speed, power and the truest sense of Wing Chun is combat application.

As you can tell I am giving you both sides, no official opinion as I want to hear yours.  Tell us what you think.