Wing Chun Fut Kung Fu: Respect

Character qualities are integral to your development in the martial arts. The mind and body are trained to work seemlessly in any situation. Developing your character while developing your skills keeps the body and mind connection harmonious. One character quality we stress in Wing Chun Fut is respect.

We have four rules to follow for respect in our school. The first is lower ranks must respect the calls of higher ranks. There is a lot of work, study, and experience that go into each belt level. In our school, you earn your rank; therefore my master has the higher ranked student in a match call the strikes for the match. Lower ranks must respect the calls made because the higher rank has more experience differentiating a strike from a move that was blocked.

The second rule is higher ranks must respect the skill of lower ranks. Higher ranks must avoid becoming prideful. We should be happy when someone gets a strike on us because now we can learn a defense to a new attack. Your skill will grow from this and you will gain respect from others.

The third rule is we must respect women. It's hard for a woman to come into a martial arts school. We have to welcome them in comraderie and not try to intimidate them.

The final rule is to respect the power of women and smaller fighters. We have to encourage these people and try to overpower them if they have good defense. Use attacks grounded in skilled not power.