So guys, what do you think about wing chun being taught to children?
This topic's been debated within wing chun circles, some say yes as it teaches them discipline, confidence, etc and others say no as the awkward stance may inhibit proper growth, others think the deep wing chun concepts and theories are lost on children.
What's your take?
Personally, I don't think I would send my kids to learn wing tsun at an early age. Instead, I'd send them to karate, or wushu or BJJ or something where kids can just run around, learn some cool moves, get a great workout and release pent up energy. Also, those arts would be great to help them with their lower body flexibility, strength, and physical stamina of which some times, wing chun ignores or doesn't emphasize so much.
Once they hit mid to late teens, then i'd be all for them learning wing chun. With their foundation in other martial arts, wing chun would make a lot of sense to them and their previous experience would only add to their growth.
So what are your thoughts? what's been your experience?
Until then.
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2 comments:
I mostly agree with you on this. Wing Tsun is far from an "easy" art to learn or master, it requires some really focused practice and understanding of concepts, which I think most children aren't ready for.
I myself practiced 1 year of tai chi, 6 years of capoeira, a little taekwando and a year of kickboxing and shootfighting before I arrived at Wing Tsun. I think these previous experiences actually allowed me to appreciate Wing Tsun more for what it is, the simplicity and ingenuity behind it.
So I agree that practicing a more "vibrant" form of martial art or sport is probabyl better for children or young teenagers, and giving them the option of developing Wing Tsun later on.
Related to this, I think that it's positive in any case to have practiced a different martial art before doing Wing Tsun for another reason too: it allows you to be able to attack in a more realistic fashion. How can you train against low kick or a good jab, cross or hook if your training partner has never properly trained such movements? A good grounding in other martial arts helps you train your WT more effectively, in my opinion.
Kids are just little people. They are much smarter than we give them credit. Don't hold your child back from an opportunity to fall in love with Wing Chun, let them have the opportunity we never had and give them the chance to start learning early. It's never too early to begin your journey, after all, it's a life-long process!
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