Category: BOOKS

The relationship between Wing Chun and Jeet Kune Do (JKD), Bruce Lee’s personal expression of martial art, is one of the most misunderstood and polarizing yet potentially valuable ones between any arts on the combative spectrum.  So many folks have preconceived ideas to what each art means, what it doesn’t and how each should and should not be trained that a gap has grown between the two.

Bruce himself pinpointed the root of this gulf when he stated, “when you get down to it, real combat is not fixed and is very much ‘alive.’ The fancy mess (mainstream martial arts and how they are taught and practiced) solidifies and conditions what was once fluid, and when you look at it realistically, it is nothing but a blind devotion to the systematic uselessness of practicing routines or stunts that lead nowhere.”

For those willing to put in the time, energy and work, each art contains Continue reading

The real secret to training, skill and mastery is simply this: techniques provide the foundation but mindset and mentality make all the difference between using those techniques successfully or unsuccessfully.  Having been training since 1994 and exclusively in the Wong Shun Leung (WSL) system of Wing Chun (Ving Tsun) since 2002, I have compiled in my personal library a list of the best books on mindset and mentality relating to Wing Chun and self defense.  Each of these books satisfy all of the criteria I feel is essential in a valuable resource that you should make use of and have at your disposal.

When one begins training in any martial arts system or style, in our case Wing Chun, the first type of books he/she looks for are always “technique” or “how-to” books.  Makes sense; you want to know how to do things so it stands to reason that looking for books to teach you a skill set is a natural thing- and it is.

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I am a firm believer in having and building a “success library.”  Anyone who is successful at a certain skill – be it cooking authentic Italian food, playing the saxophone or repairing lawnmower engines- more than likely has quite a few books on the subject.  Training Wing Chun for the purpose of developing and applying simple, effective and practical self-defense skills is no different.

After sifting through my extensive collection of books I have compiled a list of the top 5 best books on no-frills self defense out there.  The books listed on this review are those I feel have the proven to be the most useful and valuable to myself as a Wing Chun guy, specifically as it relates to integrating my Wing Chun training into the matrix of simple, effective and practical self defense, thereby making Wing Chun work for me as a system of pure combat and fighting skills. Continue reading