At first glance, karate and wing chun may seem very different. The mobile dodging of a wing chun stylist seems to have little in common with the strong stances and power strikes of a karateka. However, like all martial arts, karate and wing chun draw from immutable laws of nature and physics. As martial arts historian Dave Coffman says, "There are many paths up the mountain, but there is just one mountain."
Traditional Arts
Karate and wing chun are both traditional Asian martial arts. This means that a student learns not only physical fighting skills, but a system of thought and ethics as well. Both arts were originally taught by small family groups or schools, then spread as Asian immigrants began moving to the West. This is in contrast to sport and combat martial arts such as boxing and krav maga, which focus more on physical effectiveness than on rounded, whole-person growth.
Stand-Up Fighting
Neither wing chun nor karate is a ground-fighting art. Both focus almost exclusively on techniques executed from a standing position. Those techniques performed from the ground are usually designed to escape from a grapple and return to standing as quickly as possible. However, the increased attention on ground-fighting during the late 20th and early 21st centuries has led some karate and wing chun programs to begin adding ground-fighting elements to their curriculum.
Use of Forms
Forms, or kata, are formal practice exercises for the martial arts. When performing a kata, a martial artist executes a series of moves in a prescribed order to learn awareness, body mechanics, meditation and breathing. Although the forms of wing chun and karate do not look alike, they are practiced in the same way and for similar reasons.
Four-Wheel Drive
Unlike boxing, karate and wing chun use arms and legs in their fighting techniques. These include not just hand and foot strikes, but liberal use of the elbow and knee as well. Exactly how these strikes are applied differs: wing chun prefers low kicks, while karatekas practice high and acrobatic kicks. However, the mindset of using all your limbs in a combat situation is common to both arts.
Rank Structure
In their beginnings, wing chun and karate were both practiced without a belt-rank structure. However, when Gichin Funakoshi formalized shotokan and introduced rank belts, many other martial arts were soon to follow. Although you will find differences in the rank structures between wing chun and karate, they are often smaller than the differences between two organizations that teach the same art.
References
- "The Tao of Jeet Kun Do"; Bruce Lee; 1978
- Dave Coffman; Martial Arts Historian; Hillsboro, Oregon
- "Zen in the Martial Arts"; Joe Hyams; 1982
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