“KUNG FU WITHOUT A SYSTEM IS NOT KUNG FU.
KUNG FU DEPENDENT ON A SYSTEM IS NOT GOOD KUNG FU."
— Grandmaster Moy Yat

Ving Tsun System and Origins

Learn about the training and history of the Ving Tsun Kung Fu System

The Ving Tsun System

The only way to learn Kung Fu is by doing. Traditional Ving Tsun training has 3 branches of exercises:

Forms, Partnered Drills, and Conditioning.

Forms Training

The classical exercises of Chinese Kung Fu, perfected by generations of masters since antiquity. Learned in class, practiced individually, they develop the stance, posture, techniques, and power dynamics of the fighting art. This concise system consists of three basic (empty-handed) forms, three advanced sets. It is a relatively simple set of tools that may be learned quickly, applied broadly, and can provide a student with years of rich discovery as the mysteries of Kung Fu reveal themselves.

Partnered Drills

The Ving Tsun system has a carefully constructed set of collaborative, hands-on exercises in which students are partnered to practice specific techniques with varying intensity and levels of resistance. The drills enable students to condition the body and develop Ving Tsun reflexes, with minimal risk of injury. In a typical class, a student may train with his or her Sifu (Teacher), Sihings (Older Students), and Sidai (Younger Students). Students will frequently have opportunities to train with students and instructors visiting from Moy Yat Ving Tsun Kung Fu schools throughout the country as well.

Conditioning

'Conditioning' exercises are true to every sense of the word. They improve physical health, develop mental toughness and grit, and also ingrain trained responses to serve the needs of the student. When forms or training partners show us where our technique is lacking, conditioning gives us the meaningful repetition needed to sharpen a technique and to make it a part of the student. Don't be surprised to find dedicated students throwing hundreds of strikes and kicks in a single class. There are no shortcuts to good Kung Fu; only Hard Work!

The Ving Tsun Legend

Ving Tsun (pronounced "Wing Chun") Kung Fu is an ancient Chinese martial art which traces its beginnings to the Shaolin Temple through the Legend of Ving Tsun. According to the legend, a Buddhist nun named Ng Moi trained at Shaolin, where she developed a martial art based on her studies at the temple.

A young woman named Yim Ving Tsun sought Ng Moi's help in turning away the unwanted attentions of a bully who was going to force her to marry him, and became a student of Ng Moi. Using Ng Moi's teachings, Ving Tsun was able to defeat the bully in single combat and later marry a man of her choosing. She then completed the martial arts system which now bears her name.

Yim Ving Tsun and her husband, Leung Pok Toa, were the first masters of the Ving Tsun System, and since their time the system and its traditions have been preserved by generations of Kung Fu masters. Ving Tsun Kung Fu continues to impress martial artists the world over. It is a remarkably effective form of physical development and self defense as well as a beautiful and simple martial art.