Victor Kan Ving Tsun – Brisbane Wing Chun

A few months ago I started training Wing Chun kung-fu after a 3 year hiatus from it and I have to say: it’s good to be training again. I have been training with Sifu Mark Lamkin who was taught by Grandmaster Victor Kan, who in turn was taught by Yip Man himself (the instructor who taught Bruce Lee and a few other well-known practitioners of Wing Chun).

While Wing Chun might not be for everyone, I highly enjoy it and Sifu Mark is an excellent teacher. He won’t let you progress onto anything new until you’ve proven you’ve learned what you were taught prior, which means you actually get an understanding of the martial art and learn it properly. Nothing is rushed, you move along at your own pace until you’ve got a particular move down-pat and then you move on. Heads up though, the training stance will make your legs hurt for the first few lessons, but you will be surprised how quickly you get used to it.

I didn’t choose Wing Chun because it was the martial art Bruce Lee originally learned before creating his own, I chose it because the Wing Chun system intrigues me greatly. The premise of devastatingly fast and effective strikes and kicks is unlike any martial art you’ve seen. The training stance is a good work out on your legs as well, and it’s fantastic cardio.

I am still a while away from truly being effective at it, but within your first month you will learn enough to defend yourself (fist and palm based moves). But I will be sticking this out for the foreseeable future because I think Wing Chun is heavily underrated and often overlooked because it isn’t about theatrics and replicating martial art movie moves.

There are quite a few academies and studios teaching Wing Chun in Brisbane, and while I can’t personally vow for their teaching methods or authenticity, Sifu Mark is the only teacher in Brisbane, Australia (as far as I am aware) who is teaching the authentic original art of Yip Man Ving Tsun (Wing Chun) kung-fu as intended by the late Yip Man.

Check out Ving Tsun Brisbane here and if you’re interested, give Sifu Mark a call and come along to a lesson and see if Wing Chun is something you would like to learn.