Wing Tsun Az

Special Meetup

Sifu Sonnenberg — Thu, 17 May 2012 13:28:37 +0000

A special introductory class in WingTsun takes place on Monday, June 4.

Join the Meetup Group and RSVP for this FREE opportunity:

WingTsun Arizona Meetup Group

A WingTsun™ store

Sifu Sonnenberg — Sat, 05 May 2012 03:58:22 +0000

The WingTsun Kung Fu Souvenir Store for the IWTA-NAS is now open! < Link

The battery powered wall clock clock is also available with a red design at the online store. Either one is $14.99.

International shipping is available.

Also available: WingTsun design t-shirts, drink ware, car accessories and hats.

Late GM Yip Man’s words

Sifu Sonnenberg — Mon, 23 Apr 2012 05:14:43 +0000

The late great Grandmaster Yip Man wrote the following words at the end of his historical account on the origins of Wing Tsun:
“Leung Yee Tai passed the kungfu on to Leung Jan, a well known herbal doctor in Fat Shan. Leung Jan grasped the innermost secrets of Wing Tsun, and attained the highest level of proficiency. Many kungfu masters came to
challenge him, but all were defeated. Leung Jan became very famous. Later, he passed his kungfu on to Chan Wah Shan, who took me as his student many decades ago. I studied kungfu alongside my kungfu brothers such as Ng Siu Lo, Ng Chung So, Chan Yu Min and Lui Yu Jai. Wing Tsun was thus passed down to us, and we are eternally grateful to our kungfu
ancestors and teachers…

- translated in the book Wing Tsun Kuen by Leung Ting, 10th Level MOC

Intention with SNT

Sifu Sonnenberg — Mon, 23 Apr 2012 04:22:25 +0000

The mental and physical health benefits of regular WingTsun™ training go beyond heart rate, respiration, muscle tone and confidence. The WingTsun system fits in with the characteristics of several other “internal” martial arts. Many internal martial arts spend a great deal of time developing the internal energy. This is a worthwhile pursuit.

WingTsun is normally classified as an external system because, in addition, it pursues practical fighting applications and striking rice bags. However, WingTsun’s movements are largely internal in nature – that is, they do not appear powerful. The center of the bone structure is used and body structure, not muscular strength (a characteristic of external styles) is used to develop power. Many martial arts including the Chinese styles have internal and external elements within them and WingTsun is no different in this respect.

The Siu Nim Tau form represents WingTsun’s internal elements. The practice of the form using proper breathing enables the practitioner to develop “intent” behind the movements. It is important that a practitioner use “intent” to form the movements. This creates the important mind-body connection. A practitioner can use visualization to make the movement come alive in later applications. If you imagine using the techniques in reality, the movements become ingrained and real. The mind should be emptied except for the techniques when practicing. The mind drives the movements and connecting the mind to the specific movement is the most important thing in forms practice. Unlike applications, the mind is specifically engaged in each movement in forms practice. In application, the techniques need to become automatic and work without conscious thought. The mind must stay connected to the movements in forms practice. You will find that when the mind wanders, the connection is broken. In fighting and chi sau practice, you will quickly learn that this is how you get hit! How very different this kind of activity is from a modern person’s daily activities of talking, watching, starring at computer screens, typing or negotiating with others. Human beings cannot thrive on solely these activities. One’s batteries will only be depleted. Regular WingTsun training can re-charge one’s “batteries.” The main battery is the mind. The mind drives the body. If the mind is tired, re-charge it with Siu Nim Tau and practice movement with intent.

A Journey . . .

Sifu Sonnenberg — Thu, 05 Apr 2012 03:39:39 +0000

Many laypeople believe that a martial art is just for self defense. Others say “If you are so worried about somebody attacking you, why not carry a gun or stay out of bad neighborhoods.” Others believe that martial arts are some kind of cult, or “fight club.” Until you begin the training at a true martial arts school, you may not understand the personal benefits of WingTsun™ training that go beyond self defense. Many believe that if you start martial arts training, you must think you are tough. Surely it must be the opposite. By starting martial arts training, you must think you need some toughening! “Tough guys” usually do not last with an instructor who was properly taught by an instructor with a traditional attitude. The traditional societal attitude was that martial arts were for personal and family protection, not for bullying others and so bullies are screened out in a good martial arts school.

Like any journey, one’s martial arts training is bound to meet bumps in the road, set- backs, advancements and victories. After a few months of training it should become apparent that the reason for all of this training is the training itself and not the rank or the “graduation.” Tests are just mileposts and ways for your instructor to spot training difficulties and help the student overcome them.

You may know that people learn differently from one another. What is difficult for one person is easy for another and vice versa. WingTsun training focuses on many authentic and traditional Chinese martial art skills. If it were easy, every second person would be a high ranking WingTsun practitioner! If it were easy, would you really be interested in WingTsun training? It would quickly become boring.

A key word in your WingTsun training that you must understand is repetition. Through repetition, skill is attained. The body cannot build real skill without repeating the same movement many, many times. Some people will need more repetitions than others in perfecting a movement. It has been said that one must “do a movement 1000 times wrong before doing it one time right.”

One young would-be Tang Soo Do practitioner watched fascinated as a class performed high kicks fast and furiously all the time thinking that he could never learn to do such amazing things with his feet! Or could he? Once in class, he passed his first two ranks and then- things got tougher. He was asked to throw difficult kicks and to try to maneuver and score against the black and red belts in sparring. He asked himself “How could I ever even BEGIN to throw a kick like that?” Three years later he was kicking like that and passed his black belt exam in front of the Korean grandmasters. He was this author.

The phenomenon above is like a traveler on a journey who looks down the road and cannot see the destination. Because he cannot see the destination with his eyes does not mean he cannot visualize the destination in his mind’s eye and it does not mean he cannot arrive at his destination.

The Siu Nim Tau form is the beginner’s road map in WingTsun™ kung fu. The words Siu Nim Tau mean the “Little Idea Form.” In the Chinese way of thinking, these three words have multiple meanings. The meaning we are concerned with now is that in practicing this form and its applications, the beginning student must think about the “little idea,” not the “BIG idea” or the future idea. One must think about what one is doing NOW, not about future movements one may learn. If a student keeps this in mind, taking each movement as it comes—you guessed it—the next thing you know, you’ve mastered the techniques.

Inside the young martial art student’s beginner handbook was a proverb that has been often repeated by this time but perhaps the reader has never read it, “A journey of a thousand miles begins with the first step.”

- by Sifu Keith Sonnenberg

Wing Tsun Kuen

Sifu Sonnenberg — Sun, 01 Apr 2012 20:52:13 +0000

Here is a cover picture of the 1978 edition of the book Wing Tsun Kuen by Leung Ting, 10th Level M.O.C., Grandmaster of WingTsun. This is the book that got me and thousands of others around the world interested in his system!

Grandmaster Leung Ting was the first person to use the spelling Wing Tsun in preference to Wing Chun to describe his system. His system, Wing Tsun, has unique functional and technical features that others do not. He has claimed trademark protection on the words WingTsun™ and Wing Tsun™ and registered the words Leung Ting WingTsun® with the United States Patent and Trademark Office.

- Sifu Keith Sonnenberg

Thank you

Sifu Sonnenberg — Mon, 26 Mar 2012 00:22:37 +0000

I would like to thank all those that have clicked “like” on our Facebook Like button and have expressed confidence in our school. I would also like to thank the great many who have contacted us recently with their interest in joining! – Sifu Keith Sonnenberg

Quote

Sifu Sonnenberg — Sun, 25 Mar 2012 00:48:19 +0000

“If ignorant both of your enemy and yourself, you are certain to be in peril.” – Sun Tzu

Beginner workshop

Sifu Sonnenberg — Wed, 21 Mar 2012 07:09:43 +0000

Sign up for the free Wing-Tsun-Arizona Meetup Group and keep posted for periodic workshops. The first one is this coming Monday 7-9 pm. Click on the logo:

For this two-hour workshop, I will assume you have had no experience in martial arts. We will cover the concept of this martial art, punching, upper and lower defenses, stance, footwork, concept of simultaneous defense and offense, breathing method, some very basic anti-grappling and more.

Sign up in advance on Tuesdays and Thursdays, 8:10 pm – 8:30 pm at Jeanne’s School of Dance 1337 S. Gilbert, Mesa, AZ 85204. Authorized to accept payments, check or cash: Keith Sonnenberg or John Brusstar. If for any reason you cannot come in at this time to pay in advance, let me know.

- Sifu Keith Sonnenberg

DEFENSE, OFFENSE

Sifu Sonnenberg — Wed, 07 Mar 2012 00:06:12 +0000

Traditional martial arts by definition, stick to a time honored method to convey the full learning experience to a student. Defending (blocking) is taught first. This is the most frustrating aspect for a beginner. This is not the glamorous thing he or she imagined. This kind of practice does not release the frustrations of everyday life. In ancient times, this was the way that instructors weeded out the student that would be a trouble maker and misuse the knowledge. Such personalities normally would not do blocking techniques for several months and so they would leave the training.
However this method of training instilled a keen sense of the most obvious purpose of martial arts training and that is self-defense. Without this training, a student would unerringly find his enemy’s fist with his nose on a more or less repeating basis.
Another training method in traditional arts is the stance training. A student is required to stand motionless or move through a series of stances for several months. This insures that in a real fight, the student will not be knocked down. A bigger, heavier or stronger attacker has an even greater advantage when on the ground so it is wise to learn how to keep standing. Wing Tsun has always been known as a non-traditional, traditional martial art. Wing Tsun breaks with some traditions because it was always taught in a narrow line of successors that were handpicked more carefully with no concern about how many students the instructor could attract up until the time of Ip Man, better known in WingTsun circles as Yip Man. In addition, it was taught as a shortened version of Shaolin kungfu to speed up the learning process. This means that a modern student has to learn defense and offense at the same time!
WingTsun does not have 10-50 different choreographed forms (kuen, kata, hyung) with 50 to several hundred movements in each form to learn. Consequently the focus is more on whether or not a student can defend in the most economical way possible. Even the few techniques that a beginner has to learn in WingTsun can be tedious. However each simple movement works in great number of common situations! This makes the art of WingTsun a very practical concept for a real attack. The tendency is to try to remember what you learned in class other than just the chain punches. However when a “haymaker” is aimed at your head, the wisest thing to do is go straight in and hit your attacker early in the execution of his punch with chain punches. No two situations are the same, however. If your attacker has a weapon, if there are obstructions, if he has friends, or if he has the momentum and not you, Leung Ting WingTsun® has so many more advanced tools and that is why we are here!
© Copyright 2010, Keith Sonnenberg. All Rights Reserved. No Reproduction With Out Permission.