Kenpo(with a good teacher) or wing tsun?

Hi, i have a choice of two schools, both which i have seen the classes The kenpo school i went to gave me a private lession, and the instructor seemed to be teaching a practical style. And the wing tsun school i went and watched also seemed good. which one would generaly be better for self defense? and which one could be picked up quicker?

Thanks in Advance

I've not trained in WT but I'd have to say that American Kenpo has a good edge on learning effective stuff pretty quick so I'd have to disagree but like I said I've not trained in WT.

GOU RONIN® - The Unforgiven... ICQ# - 49024165

Good question, and so deserves a good answer.

Normally I would say Wing Chun 'hands down' , however, recently I have seen many wing chun classes sprouting up all over the place (at least here in the UK) one I have noticed which is quite distressing is that the Wing Tsun org of GB told me over the phone that if I picked it up quickly (pretending to be a beginner) I could be teaching for them in 12 to 18 months running my own classes. This I presume is because they want to cover the country as quickly as possible with their instructors so as to corner the market. They will have a lot of cleaning up to do. I have observed many of their classes in an attempt to find one for a colleague and quite frankly I was disgusted at the lack of knowledge and discipline of the instructors. Also my colleague asked how long to be a master and was told 10 years. So in china it takes four years to be GOOD seven to be a master and yet in England you can teach in 18 months but your not a master for 10 years , surely you have to be a master in order to run classes ? I also have to say that these schools use a get out statement of 'We teach you to fight in a realistic street fight situation rather than strictly Wing Chun in the pure form' ' we have made it better' normally follows - they must be geniuses. What actually happens is that they teach you almost like a Karate class doing loads of punches etc - all very useful I am sure but only if taught correctly and practised slowly first to increase the likely hood of muscle memory. What happens in a 'real' situation is that the man/woman whom has trained in 'pure wing chun' (and not the sloppy undisciplined street fighter improved version) will easily beat any of these guys without breaking in to a sweat.

So be very careful when picking a Wing Chun school - they also say that picking an Asian instructor won't make any difference but in this case I believe that it would.

Now with kenpo , although I hate Katas and crap like that and the fact that it is a hard style with little flexibility I have to say that you probably can go to any school and they are of the same quality with little variation between Instructors. Kenpo is easy to learn and will keep you fit. But always check the school first.

dunno dude, i have seen both, taken a smidge of each, i think wc has more natural movement and principles..... seemed way easier to learn to me, but , it does lack in soem respects, not too many thorws till much later in training, and just about zero ground fighting, i am goin to also say grappling, but i dont mean push hands type, i mean soem bozo locks a bear hug on you type stuff... but i only took a smidge so i could be wrong....