Dynamic Defense Wing Chun Academy, best Kung Fu in Victoria

Frequently Asked Questions

I'm looking at various martial arts & schools. Why should I choose Dynamic Defense?
Your time is precious. Our classes make the most effective use of your time to improve fitness, strength, confidence, balance and teach the world's most effective martial art. Space is limited in our classes because we keep classes small, everyone gets individual attention. If you become our student, you won't be lost in the crowd. You become an important part of a community of students who help each other and your success is personally important to the instructors.

Faster training time makes our classes more valuable because time is money. The experience of doing our classes is more than just learning technique. Yes, it's powerful and effective kung fu that could save your life, but we structure the class experience to yield huge benefits immediately. Our classes relieve mental and physical stress in a holistic way that improves fitness, balance, strength and confidence. For self defense, we offer the fastest and most complete training system, but many people come and enjoy our classes because it's fun, the people and atmosphere are great and you happen to get a great workout and skills at the same time. Have fun becoming the best you can be.

If you try our Intro Program, you will be convinced of the unique benefits we offer. Click here for details. Trying it is the only way to know what we offer. You don't have to wait for certain dates to start regular classes. Call 250.721-2206 so we can set up a day and time to come in and try it.

How should I start Wing Chun?
If you've decided to try Wing Chun, do it now. You can start any time and we have lots of classes through the week to fit into anyone's schedule. Take advantage of our easy Intro Program! Click here for details. It's a great deal that will get you fully comfortable with our classes. After the intro, sign up for regular classes to continue. We keep class sizes small to better serve our students. A small number of students who get high value is more important than a lot of paying students who do not. The more you attend, the faster you learn and your confidence will grow. You can start whenever you're ready to begin so do it now! Call 250.721-2206 for more information.

What do I wear to class? Is there a uniform?
Yes, there's a uniform for kung fu but you don't need one to start. Just wear comfortable clothes that allow full range of movement to your first class. We have uniforms for sale which are ideal for this activity but you can start with just wearing light workout clothing.

Do you teach Women's Self Defense?
Yes, we teach Women's Self Defense seminars & group classes. We can accommodate large or small groups. We teach a top-quality self defense course to prevent attacks, empower women to be more assertive and in control under stress as well as deal with physical attacks very effectively. Not everyone has time to take Wing Chun on an ongoing basis, so our self defense short course is for groups of women who want to get the most essential life-saving skills and training without taking an ongoing course. The tools we teach can not only save your life in extreme situations, but also empower you to be more confident and assertive in everyday conflict resolution with co-workers, clients or family. This compact course is ideal for companies, organizations or groups of individuals, such as a running group.

I want to learn self defense but I'm not into fighting. Is Wing Chun for me?
Yes, Wing Chun is ideal for non-violent self defense. This does not mean it is watered down. We can scale it up to challenge trained athletes and fighters, but it also scales so that anyone can get useful value from it. Words cannot describe what you will experience doing our class. Many times, women are reluctant to learn a martial art because they mistakenly believe that martial arts require leaving your femininity behind. This is not the case with Wing Chun. Wing Chun has a yin and yang aspect and was originated by a woman, but is also the system Bruce Lee trained in. We enjoy having a wide array of students, often equal numbers male and female, sometimes people looking to get in shape, but also serious athletes who view it as great cross training while learning powerful self defense. Wing Chun is the most effective self defense system that is very safe and easy to learn. Encouraging a fun, teamwork-oriented environment is a big part of that. We take self defense very seriously, but it's serious fun, too. The best way to defend yourself is prevention. We teach you skills to avoid and prevent combat situations as well as move, deflect and dissolve any attack from any size opponent, using their size and power against them. See our Intro Program for details.

What are the benefits of Wing Chun?
We offer a variety of benefits. We teach authentic Shaolin Wing Chun Kung Fu, but the most important reasons are to relieve mental and physical stress and improve fitness, balance, strength and confidence. Our classes offer a combination of conditioning, stretching, and effective self defense that reduces stress, boosts wellness and energy and teaches you real-world skills that can protect you and others. Each class starts with a full body warm-up and stretch so your body and mind are prepared. We then do conditioning, real-world self-defense skills and energy training (chi sao). Each class ends with a breathing & stretching cool down so you leave feeling better than when you came to class. Trying a single class will make this all clear.

Why should I do Wing Chun instead of another martial art?
Wing Chun is very efficient, it's a fun way to get a workout, its the most effective self defense system. Almost anyone can get a lot of benefit from our classes, but there are some people who are not a good fit. We turn away prospective students who want to get bruised or practice hurting people in class or wish to vent their anger and lose control. We keep it real, but we also cultivate a nurturing environment where every student feels safe and accepted so they can learn, challenge themselves and grow within the art. When students wish for more challenge and realism, including ground fighting, grappling, weapons training, we can scale up in a way that ensures you REALLY know this stuff works while still keeping it safe. Very few places can offer such a balance.

Wing Chun can enhance your life in many ways. We are selective about who we accept. Fitness level is not important. We can scale it to fit anyone who wants to do it. We don't need students to be athletes or have any prior training at all. We look for good intent to improve your life and contribute to our positive atmosphere.

While martial arts are a great way to improve health and learn self defense, Wing Chun is the easiest and fastest to learn, it's the most effective martial art for people of any size or physical condition and has fitness and energy level benefits you will see right away. It is the most complete and direct path to self improvement. When you decrease stress, improve the operation of both mind and body and increase confidence and self esteem, your whole life improves. Wing Chun is a system that was designed specifically by Shaolin masters to take less training time and be more effective than any other fighting art. Click here for the history of Wing Chun. Click here for testimonials from Wing Chun students.

Progressing to true confidence in less time saves you time and money, these factors make it an excellent value. Try one class and you will see for yourself what we're talking about.

Am I too old to learn Wing Chun?
We have successfully taught students from ages 12-70. You take from Wing Chun what you put in. Being over a certain age isn't a big problem. If you are an active person, you can learn and enjoy Wing Chun. However, we also enjoy teaching younger students. We can push even hard-core athletes and personal trainers. Everyone gets challenged at the level they need. It's scalable to fit different people of various ages. The only way to gauge how our class fits for you personally is to try a class. We encourage everyone to call and schedule a time to try a class. Then you will know if it's for you.

I'm a student of another martial art. Can I take Wing Chun just for close combat?
It is not a good idea to try to learn just the close combat part of Wing Chun and ignore the rest. We teach a complete system for handling stand up fighting, long distance, close combat, ground fighting, grappling and weapons. Not everyone has to learn every aspect of Wing Chun, but we teach a whole system, not just a few bits that are in fashion. We have great respect for other martial arts, but we will only teach students who give us their full attention, both to show respect for what we're teaching and to learn properly.

Can I take Wing Chun plus another martial art elsewhere?
A student who tries to learn two styles at once ends up mastering nothing. However, we enjoy teaching students who have taken other martial arts. If someone comes to us with no experience, it's good because we get a clean slate to start from. However, previous training is also good. It can give students insight into what we offer, sometimes enhancing what we teach you.

The scenario that doesn't work is where a new student is trying to learn several martial arts at once. UFC fighting has created the cultural myth that no martial art can be complete, that only mixing martial arts gives one all the tools. While I understand that point of view since some martial arts are indeed incomplete, it's truly wrong. Dabbling in several martial arts only makes you mediocre at a bunch of things. Spend the same amount of time on only Wing Chun and you will have vastly better competency than the dabbler. Experimenting with other martial arts only makes sense AFTER you spend years and really master one first. Don't make the mistake of thinking MMA is the only way based on watching caged sport fights marketed as entertainment. In the real world, you don't need a lot of technique from different systems, you need to have the confidence and lack of hesitation that come from focus on one system.

What will Wing Chun teach me to defend?
Wing Chun will allow you to dissolve almost any conceivable open-handed or weapon attack. Wing Chun improves awareness and teaches you positioning so that you can detect attacker intent early, avoid positioning pitfalls that put you in danger and generally avoid needing to use the superior combat skills we do teach. Of course, sometimes people get attacked even if they do everything right, so we also teach students how to handle all manner of kicks, punches, knife attacks, club attacks, baseball bat, sword, staffs and other weapon attacks as well as defenses for grappling techniques such as grabs, chokes and tackles, ground fighting and other variations. We start with the basics and build upon them as students progress through the levels. We teach joint lock control moves to non-violently control opponents as well as staff, wooden dummy and sword applications. See our Skills page for details.

Wing Chun covers almost anything an attacker could try either with bare hands or with common weapons and is therefore an extremely complete system. Wing Chun will improve fitness, flexibility and energy level but one of its unique aspects is that it allows you to easily defend attacks from faster, stronger attackers. In fact many defenses are easier if the attacker puts a lot of energy into their attack. This makes it uniquely appropriate for women concerned about attacks from men, but as the system which Bruce Lee learned, it is also appropriate for men of any age.

Is there a belt system to Wing Chun? How long does it take to advance?
We use colored belts for our kids classes but for adult students, Wing Chun has 10 levels, progressing from beginner to master of the entire Wing Chun system. All adult students wear a black sash. Level 7 is equivalent of black belt in other martial arts. Each level is a meaningful achievement, but all student uniforms look the same to recognize the basic equality of all students who, regardless of level, are all learning and improving themselves. After coming to Wing Chun class at least twice a week for 2-3 months, you will be ready for your first grading if you wish. At that point, you will be able to comfortably defend a good number of common attacks from any size of attacker. You do not need any previous experience with martial arts to progress. While students could choose not to grade, it's a great idea to solidify your achievement by grading and progressing to new material when you're ready.

What if I want to learn it but I don't want to grade?
We don't force people to grade but it marks milestones in your achievement. It is an important part of progressing that we strongly suggest when students are ready. Grading is revelatory, showing what you need to improve as you move forward to more advanced techniques. We also reserve our Advanced classes for students who have graded to a certain level.

Why am I asked for my goals when I start?
We are in the business of helping people achieve something for themselves. Different people want different things. If you know what you want and we know what you want, we can effectively help you achieve your goals. If you state and review your goals occasionally, you will find yourself achieving them and being very satisfied with the process. Whether looking for increased confidence, strength, fitness, self defense skills, a way to decrease stress, endurance, self control or just the fun of kung fu, we want you to be very satisfied. Very simply, goal setting leads to satisfaction and that's what we're about.

What are the school & instructor's credentials?
Dynamic Defense Wing Chun Academy is a part of the Canadian Wing Chun Kung Fu Association as well as a member of NAPMA (National Association of Professional Martial Artists). Our Wing Chun Academy is run by the Dynamic Defense Kung Fu Association, a non-profit organization. There are different branches of Wing Chun with different styles and teaching methods. Sifu Bill Stewart trained under Grandmaster Brian Lewadny with a combined lineage of Traditional Soft-style Wing Chun traced from Yip Man through William Cheung to Grandmaster Lewadny combined with Hard-style Wing Chun from Samuel Fong to Grandmaster Lewadny. Sifu Bill has been doing Wing Chun for 16 years and apprenticed under Grandmaster Lewadny. See the History page for full details tracing Wing Chun from it's origins directly to today at our school. See the Testimonials page for kudos from students and other instructors.

Is Wing Chun a soft style or hard style?
There are variations of Wing Chun. What we teach is the best combination of soft style and hard style with simultaneous deflection and counter attack. By soft style, we mean that we use the opponent's energy against them and we use footwork as part of avoiding attacks instead of using force unnecessarily. The easiest way to defend oneself is to not be where the attack is headed instead of trying to do a hard block. A good Wing Chun practitioner need exert very little energy to defend attacks from bigger stronger opponents. This makes Wing Chun safe and uniquely practical. Any defense system that requires the practitioner to be superior physically to the attacker is not very useful. However, Wing Chun is not all deflecting energy. It also includes simple and powerful hard style techniques to maximize your strength and speed when counterattack is needed to end a conflict quickly. We will show you how to maximize your power so that you can easily put down larger attackers when needed. As such it is a complete system for any defense situation.

Are joint locks and submission moves taught in Wing Chun?
There are many submission moves taught as part of the Wing Chun system of defense. Too many to list here. In this respect, it is similar to Aikido and Jujitsu except it includes so much more. However, Wing Chun does not depend on joint locks. There are many other ways to dissolve an attack and to counter attack an aggressor. Joint locks give a Wing Chun practitioner options in dealing with an opponent in addition to many other techniques, offering a complete, well-rounded system of defense and counter attack.

I've taken Wing Chun or Wing Tsun somewhere else. Will this be the same?
It depends on what you've taken before. We are part of the Canadian Wing Chun Kung Fu Association. If you have learned Wing Chun at any other school in our Association, you will fit right in. Otherwise, you will find that what we teach differs somewhat from what you have learned before. We teach the complete Wing Chun system which includes footwork for every defense (not just turning in place), physical conditioning and real combat practice. If you're used to doing mostly Chi Sao and hardly any conditioning or combat, you will be very surprised that there is a lot more to Wing Chun than you realized. "Everything is Chi Sao, but Chi Sao is not everything. "If you're good at Chi Sao, you need to use it in real combat (as we do) to really apply it. While we have respect for other Wing Chun schools and methodologies, when you come in our door to learn, you must be open to how we teach. Students who follow what we teach will get very good at chi sao and quickly master many combative defenses.

What martial arts movies can you recommend?
Yes, we can recommend many movies starting with Ip Man, Dragon, the Bruce Lee Story and Enter the Dragon. They are definitely the best to start with for Wing Chun students. There are many other great martial arts movies we recommend. Click here for our martial arts movie list, skewed from a Wing Chun perspective.

Want More Information? Call Us
For more info, see our Frequently Asked Questions page. To contact us, see the Contact page.

See the Schedule and Skills pages for class times/locations and more details on the skills we teach.

* Class Times & Locations
* Skills & Levels
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