But what has WingTsun ever done for me???? Barry Wells 1st TG (Aug 08)

I was about 21 years old when I happened to meet up with some old school friends who mentioned that they'd started practicing JKD.  This aroused within me an interest in Martial Arts and I decided to go along to the local WingTsun class in Tonbridge. Six years on I can say that this was the best decision I've ever made.

My life had been in a pretty sorrowful state; I had no goals, no sense of purpose and, inevitably, I found myself drifting along switching from one poor job to another.  Needless to say, all of this was impacting on me in a bad way, manifesting in such delights as low self-esteem, low self-confidence, boredom, frustration and not a little anger.  Inside, I knew that I was capable of more than I was achieving, and was quietly determined to put this right.  I resolved to find the means through which I could achieve the ends, and decided that the means was to be WingTsun.

Had I been asked at that time, I would almost certainly have stated that my motivations in attending the class were the typical ones, such as a desire to be able to protect myself and my loved ones as and when the need should arise, and to become physically fit.  However it did not escape my attention that practicing Martial Arts would probably also develop within me a Unity between my mind and body, and I found this idea both intriguing and attractive.  I believed that from this would grow self-awareness and self-confidence, and that the negative feelings with which I'd been plagued would be dispelled. There are, of course, a multitude of different styles of Martial Arts and it could be argued that any or all of them could have fulfilled my wishes and needs, but WingTsun alone was (and is) a complete system of simultaneous defence and attack, and this unity chimed well with what I felt I was looking for.  

I did not have to wait too long before I began to feel the benefits of my decision to take up WingTsun.  Certainly, I became immeasurably more capable of defending myself and physically fitter, and as a direct consequence I acquired a quiet, calm self-confidence; a fact commented on by a good number of friends.  In turn I found that my relationships with others improved immensely, no doubt due to the fact that I felt better around other people and they in turn enjoyed my company.   I would go so far as to say that this has been one of the most significant ways in which WingTsun has changed my life; there is simply no comparison between my ability to network well with others since I started WingTsun, and how I was beforehand.  Good relationships with other people are a hallmark of a healthy, well-balanced, confident and independent person, and if I now possess these qualities then I can say with certainty that I owe a great deal of it to my decision to commence WingTsun.

I also found myself meeting a good deal more decent, intelligent people than had been the case beforehand, and found myself quite capable of engaging with these new friends.  In turn this led to me being introduced to other areas of self-improvement and I found this both stimulating and rewarding.  I am still a reader of self-improvement literature, such as 'Stop Thinking , Start Living', by Richard Carlson, or 'Gung-Ho', by Ken Blanchard, and the work of Dale Carnegie.  I feel that I have benefited greatly from such reading, and once again this is a consequence of my decision to take up WingTsun.  It would appear that the old adage that ' success breeds success' is based on truth.

After just six months I was instructing WingTsun to children and young people; by anybody's standards it is no boast for me to point to this as evidence of me having made good, rapid progress.  Anyone who has any experience of teaching youngsters will confirm that it's an area of work that calls for good character and a decent personality, but I would again attribute my skills on this regard to WingTsun!  

In the fullness of time my thoughts turned to the idea of becoming self employed and running my own  WingTsun classes, and having carried out a good deal of serious research I came to the decision that I could be successful in this, and that I would find it enjoyable.  In the springtime of 2007 I made the move, I and have not looked back since.  Long gone are the days of drifting from one poor job to another, and never are they to return.  My life now has a purpose, I have goals, and I am now in a position to realise them.  I take great satisfaction from all aspects of running my business and have acquired many useful skills in areas such as planning, organisation, sales, marketing, finance and human resources.  I feel that I am now in control of my own destiny, that I can achieve what I would like to achieve in my life and, moreover, that others will benefit from my success.  

I now know that my decision to take up WingTsun over and above other Martial Arts was correct.  WingTsun is a complete, unified Martial Arts system and it has given me Unity between my mind and body, and between myself and the Outside World.