The Wing Chun Compendium Author: Visit Amazon's Wayne Belonoha Page | Language: English | ISBN:
1412028191 | Format: EPUB
The Wing Chun Compendium Description
About the Author
Michael Gora is the Middle Bass Island Historian for the Lake Erie Islands Historical Society, and also operates the Middle Bass Island web site. A long-time summer resident, his goal is to spend more time on the island every year. A retired software executive, software developer and physicist, he is the author of over 30 technical papers and three technical books, and has also produced four reprints of Lake Erie Islands historical booklets. He is also the editor of the most complete history of the islands ever published, Lake Erie Islands - Sketches and Stories, which is available from Trafford.
- Paperback: 528 pages
- Publisher: Trafford Publishing (May 7, 2004)
- Language: English
- ISBN-10: 1412028191
- ISBN-13: 978-1412028196
- Product Dimensions: 9.8 x 7.3 x 1.2 inches
- Shipping Weight: 2.2 pounds
Mr. Belonoha's book 'The Wing Chun Compendium" is outstanding. The writing is concise and very informative.
It is the most well thought out martial arts book I've ever seen. Mr. Belonoha starts exceedingly clearly, defining the core principles of the Wing Chun system within the first page and 1/2.
The next 100 pages or so then go into the expanded theory and technical aspects of the Wing Chun system. The
book is layed out in a fashion that it can be read cover to cover or, it can be opened randomly at any page throughout and the content makes sense. Nothing is left out. (Note: this book does not cover Wing Chun's wooden man dummy form or the weapons
forms - hopefully a subsequent book will follow shortly).
The next 300 pages deal in great detail with the first three (non weapon) Wing Chun forms: Siu Nim Tau, Cham Kiu and Biu Ji. Pictures of Mr. Belonoha, a previous gold medallist at multiple national and international level competitions show every detail of each form. Each photo is accompanied by equally detailed descriptions of proper technique and points to emphasize and, common mistakes to watch out for. His web site has live video of the forms. It is important to note that the videos are the exact same instances that the still photos were derived from so no gaps are left for a reader to figure out.
The final 100+ pages cover pressure points, health and fitness, and Wing Chun terminology (Chinese terms define into
English terms). The finale is a deeply revealing article called "Reflections of Siu Nim Tau After 30 Years by Grandmaster Sunny Tang". Grandmaster Sunny Tang has been Mr. Belonoha's Sifu since 1992 and, Mr.
First let me state that you cannot learn wing chun from a book, you really need a qualified instructor and you must test ideas continually. That being said, this book is fabulous as reference material which seems to be exactly what it was supposed to be. It has the common terms listed in English, Cantonese and Mandarin as well as key to pronunciation.
It is laid out very simply and concise, much like the art itself. It covers the core principles of the system and it does a good job of explaining chinese ideas in english. It has a pretty in-depth explaination of meridians (channels of chi) that would appeal to anyone trying to understand the difference between chinese and western thinking on the human body.
It does about as good as is possible in a book at describing the art itself, which means it beats anything I've seen previous. Little philosophy quotes/ideas are listed throughout the book along each page...a very nice touch. It allows a mix of the philosophy into the work without making the direct content become too flowery. It stays on topic and is very efficient at describing the system.
I'm sure various wing chun students will have minor changes in the forms and such, but overall the work is invaluable to students of the system. This means it doesn't try to be a learning manual for the untrained but more a reference book for those that do. Instead of listing the specifics of one lineage it sticks to the core ideas which is a challenge that most books seem to fail on. A lot of MA books focus on trying to sell as the new and best "secret" system to overcome all other fighting arts...this one does not. The author achieved his goal of providing a thorough, accurate reference text on Wing Chun.
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