By John Crescione

Wing Chun Kung Fu by R. Clausnitzer and Greco Wong. Published in 1969 and reprinted in 1973! 80 pages and the first book ever written in English on Wing Chun. Yip Man was still alive and Bruce was doing his thing. It starts with a brief introduction on Kung Fu, the difference between it and Karate and then lists some other forms of Kung Fu like Praying Mantis, White Crane, Drunken style, Eagle Claw, White Eyebrow and "..lightning fast Wing Chun." There is a one page historical outline on the system as mentions its forms, weapons dummy and history.

Clausnitzer talks about his meeting with Yip Man in 1960 and how Yip Man regarded Wing Chun as "modern Kung Fu." He also shares some Wing Chun war stories about a Sydney, Australia Karateka fighting a Wing Chun man whom was blindfolded. The only proviso was that the karate man attack from the front. The fight resulted in the karate man being knocked out!

(I have heard the same story from other sources. Jessie Glover also mentions it in his first book about him and Bruce Lee. This has to have been either William Cheung or Wong Shun Leung.)

He then mentions other Wing Chun instructors like Leung Sheung, Moy Yat, Wong Shun Leung and Mak Po.

The next section is on Wing Chun Theories. Straight Line Punching, (he tells a story about how in 1964 Wong Shun Leung gave him a 9'' punch through 2 cushions and it felt like an electric shock!), Simultaneous Attack and Defense, Attack rather then Block, Going forward instead of Retreating and various Stances. He uses 2 stances, the square horse stance and their "sparring" stance- a rear weighted stance that is used for leg propulsion.

He covers body shifting by sliding the feet over the ground equal distances and pivoting on the heels while having the soles of the feet maintain equal pressure on the ground. There are photos of the above demonstrated while using kwun sao to the left and right.

Next, Punching is covered. He advocates the tilt up and hitting with the bottom 3 knuckles and discusses "empty" vs. "solid" hitting and the need to practice both. Single hand chi sao follows-"Dahn Chi". He talks about the 6 position-tan sao, palm heel strike, bong sao, fook sao, depressing palm heel strike and punch. All with photos. He also adds tips as to be forward, but not too much and not use the shoulder. He follows up naturally with double chi sao rolling and lap sao. In chi sao he shows the basic luk sao roll and comments on using circular, forward movement, no strength and getting a feel for close range. All with photos. The next section covers Wing Chun self defense techniques. He defends against hooks (roundhouse punch), high and low jabs, intercepting with the bridge and hitting/deflecting a full thrust to the body countered by huen sao/hit, punch to the face answered with lop dar and counters to wrist grabs with variations of tahn/pak dar. He briefly discusses kicking methods, kicking with the heel and kicking straight off from the floor. (I would surmise this is where Bruce got it from). He concludes with a demonstration of Siu Lim Tao done by Greco Wong. All of the photos are of Clausnitzer and Wong in the back of a building in an alleyway, giving it a real Hong Kong fighting flavor.