These are official product reviews done by professional 3rd party reviewers (typically from magazines or other websites). Unlike customer reviews, these reviewers typically get the videos for free and in return write and publish a review. In order to solicit a more honest review, EWC will sometimes send DVDs out to be reviewed by a professional so that the reviewer does not feel obliged to say only good stuff about the Sifu/Publisher. Hopefully this give you, the customer, a better idea of the content.
Chi Sau, without question, is a hallmark method of training in the Wing Chun system. It is a method of development that challenges one’s structures and activity in developing proficient and effective actions that will be practical and effective reflex reactions when employed against an attacker.
A traditional training apparatus that has roots in many Chinese Gung Fu styles is the Saam Sing Jong, translated as “Three Star Dummy,” is broken down, explored, and worked with Sifu Ian Protheroe at the helm of this instalment. Bringing over two decades of practising and teaching this scarcely practiced method of developing an aspect of one’s footwork and kicking capacities, this live-seminar presentation is straight and to the three points. For a short and sweet continuous 33-minute runtime, the audience is provided information that covers the necessities for practical understanding and application from post-to-post.
How does one go about taking on the challenge of compiling a complete discography covering the entire Ip Man Wing Chun system? Sifu Wayne Belonoha submits a comprehensive overview through nine Blu-rays covering more than 13 hours of information and demonstration of Siu Nim Tau, Cham Kiu, Biu Ji, Wooden Dummy, Long Pole and Butterfly Sword forms. This review takes on the challenge of breaking it down for our readers.
Crucial to becoming proficient in any martial skill, or personal discipline of any form of artistry, are the correlative elements of speed and timing. “It’s a combination of multiple skills: balance, reaction, coordination, distance, and speed,” opens Sifu Larry Saccoia’s dialogue in this video installment. In particular, it relates on multiple levels of practice and understanding when talking about their relevance to Wing Chun. There are the elements of the physical, of distance, of readiness and reaction, and structure that comprise that spectrum of how speed and timing are relative to each other and their application. The following 53 minutes will move from formula to function through demonstration and application.
A staple found in every Wing Chun training environment is the wall bag, a traditional training resource that comes in the form of one, two or three-pad configurations that allow one, “to train in (any) place you can hang a wall bag.” Sifus Taner and Graziano explore this heritage instrument, made uniquely popular by the system to improve one’s overall understanding, practice and conditioning over this concise 34-minute volume.
Hand skills are the preeminent feature of the Wing Chun system and Sifu Wayne Belonoha explores, refines and demonstrates the specifications that develop dynamic movements built with firm foundations. Produced in conjunction with Wing Chun University, this volume, in a series of installments, is very slick in production value with on-screen footnotes relative to the, pun intended, subject at hand.
The history of Wing Chun continues to be documented, evolve, and written with a greater preservation of accounts and moments with today’s technological resources. None are more important to the martial arts realm than that of videos of patriarchs and figureheads that are/were historical ties to significant moments in the history of their respective art. Such is the case in having an opportunity to see one of Ip Man’s first generation of acclaimed students, who was a contributing individual in the propagation of the system’s successes from its earliest days to present, namely the late Sifu Chu Shong Tin. This video installment is one of the last recordings of the “King of Siu Nim Tau” in which his 50 years of learning, experience and teaching are shared with an abundance of detail and passion.