Can you really learn Wing Chun online? Wing Chun uses a sensory based reflex training within its chi sau training tool. It gives the practitioner exceptionally fast reflexes which respond to contact based stimulus. Real live training with an experienced practitioner is the only real way to learn and master the art of Wing Chun. Without hands on training, how can you learn how to react to live events which unfold quicker than the eye can detect?
This is what chi sau can give you after years of practice with other experienced Wing Chun practitioners. Each individual training parter will give you something different too. Everyone has different techniques and strategies they gravitate towards. With 100 training partners you get thousands of unique experiences within the safe training practice of chi sau. Actual fighting can cause injury and there’s greater risk. But with chi sau, you get to “play” within the confines of the game and its rules. This gives you experience in close quarters and with actual hand to hand contact.
To simulate what’s going on in chi sau and in a live class online can’t be done through online videos alone. Just like you can’t learn how to ride a bike by watching videos of other people successfully riding bikes! Even with a willing partner who has zero experience of Wing Chun, it is near impossible to learn Wing Chun from videos without an instructor present, correcting your mistakes.
Can Your Really Learn Wing Chun Online? – No
If the answer is no, you can’t learn Wing Chun online through watching videos, not properly, then what’s the value in bothering? Well there’s plenty of value actually. Even without live training and learning chi sau, you can still learn a lot and practice for the time when you can join a class. When our class shut down in 2020 due to government lockdowns, we moved online.
Some students kept up their training by joining the weekly webinars and some did not. When we returned shortly afterwards, before the second lockdown, there was a growing gap of skill between those who had kept up practice and those who had not! It was pretty apparent that the people who only trained in class, and didn’t join the webinars to continue online had fallen behind.
This could have been because those people (the lazy ones!), tended not to train as hard as the others anyway, and this of course is probably true. Some training is definitely better than no training at all! But these students all had received actual live training before switching to video and zoom class learning. What about those who have had zero class training in Wing Chun? Is it worth them learning Wing Chun online?
Well doing something is nearly always better than doing nothing. Some fans of Wu Wei might disagree of course!
What Can Your Learn Online From Wing Chun?
There’s plenty you can gain from Wing Chun even without learning the combat element of it. It is after all an art, and not just a fighting system. Learning the concepts and philosophy can help you understand how effective it can be in combat, even without practicing the actual practical elements such as sparring and chi sau.
In First form you’re learning a number of elements which can help in combat but also in daily life. The Siu Lim Tao benefits are huge. Just the stance training element on its own can give you a much lower centre of gravity and a great leg workout. The mental focus you develop from practicing first section is hugely beneficial for mental awareness and health. First section is similar to meditation which has been shown to reduce the heart rate and boost the immune system.
Second and third sections of the form teach you the use of explosive energy and block and counter techniques. First form alone can be very beneficial to your health and understanding of Wing Chun as a whole; theoretically containing the entire system hidden within the moves, (at least in principle).
Since going online with classes since lockdown I’ve personally benefitted from focusing on improving the forms within the Wing Chun system, mentally and physically. Exercise of the mind and body is hugely important (especially during a pandemic) to boost the immune system and create good exercise habits.
What Martial Aspects Of Wing Chun Are Useful Through Video?
Without considering the obvious health benefits of daily exercise, is there any point training Wing Chun through videos without practical training from the point of view of fighting? If you want to learn to fight, you really need to actually fight! Like with swimming, learning from the pool side will likely not help when you fall into the water!
However, there are aspects of Wing Chun you can learn online which can help you become better coordinated and focused. Some training is better than no training. Training exercises designed for fighting have their limitations too – even sparring has rules for safety. Chi sau is a good exercise but it can give you a false sense of security and it’s still ultimately a drill with its own limitations.
In real fighting you prepare to react to things automatically and instantaneously. Here lies some of the problem of learning from videos. With videos and no training partner there’s no live feedback loop which gives you better understanding. However, you can learn some beneficial drills and movements which will definitely help you in a combative sense. Chain punches are an aspect of Wing Chun you can learn alone. You can increase your speed and coordination through practicing from videos.
Lowering your stance is another useful training exercise you can learn alone too. You’ll need to be hugely disciplined to practice regularly and to a good level. It’s all too easy to let yourself off the hook when training alone, or get an element wrong and drill incorrect technique.
Use Of Weapons
The pole and knives are useful for training elements of Wing Chun while developing strength and stamina. The wooden dummy form too can be learned mostly remotely and drilling the dummy form is a good place to start if you’re training from home.
On the whole there’s many aspects of the Wing Chun system you can learn from videos which can help you learn some basic fighting moves and techniques. You can improve stamina and maintain your physical and mental health using the forms and drills.
In terms of actual combat, learning from videos brings certain challenges which you simply can’t deny. Wing Chun’s most beneficial “ace card” is through hand sensitivity and that comes only through training in sticky hands (chi sau). But you can certainly learn some useful techniques and movements which may help you when the chips are down.
At the very least, learning Wing Chun online will help you stay in shape, boost your immune system and keep you in good mental health when practiced regularly.
If you’re passionate about learning Wing Chun, you can get started here with the free video series on this website.
