Gary Lam was taught the first part of Wing Chun’s first form (Siu Lum Tao) by Ip Man. He learned Chi Sao from Wong Shun Leung.
He knew or met all those guys you’ve only read about.
One of the most respected Wing Chun masters in the world, he was for a time head coach for Wong Shun Leung. He was the undefeated champion of the Hong Kong full Contact Tournament in 1978-1979, and a former President of the Hong Kong Wing Chun Society.
And yesterday he kicked my ass.
Bruce Lee was the most influential martial artist of the 20th Century. After his death, the world was flooded with knockoff movies and Hong Kong actors imitating him using names like Bruce Le and Bruce Li and everyone was claiming to have with trained with him or taught him.
Bruce Lee learned Wing Chun Kung Fu from Wong Shun Leung.
“After Bruce died, I had the opportunity to read some of (Wong Shun Leung’s) writings. It was instantly clear that many of the things that were attributed to Bruce were actually things that had come to Bruce through Wong.”
Jesse Glover (Bruce Lee’s first U.S. student)
You are in a fender-bender and the next thing you know, you are surrounded by an angry mob. Then fists start to fly. There are at least five people specifically trying to attack you.
What do you do?
I don’t know the background of this video, but we don’t need to know the context for our purposes. When you are trying to learn to fight, it is instructive to watch some actual fights.
In the old days, the only “real” fights you could see were in person or in a ring. These days, there are too many choices. But half the fights on Youtube are lame pushing matches between kids caught on cellphones.
But here we have an actual fight between one (very well-trained) guy and a crowd.
When the fight starts and when this guy is pressed, note how he slips into his stance, shelling up, and gets his hands up to protect his head. He keeps his feet well apart for stability. He maintains his fighting distance, not letting anyone get too close or hang on him.
And he attacks, hitting his opponents in the head. This is the Western boxing way and this is the Wing Chun way.