Over the time I have trained in Wing Chun I have come to think of it as simply this: A method to remove chance from a striking match. I have come to resent the popular mma adage: a puncher's chance. On the other hand, I know this saying is well founded. When you put two amateur strikers in a ring together, both of them clash together like a couple of stags. Predetermined combos flying, the winner is usually decided by the stronger, faster, more athletic, or more determined opponent. If you watch fights with great champion strikers (styles aside), the win is much less often decided by that chance contact between a fist and chin - which is why these guys are champions. I think the founders of Wing Chun wanted to systemize a way to reduce or remove chance from a fight (ie take combos out of the equation). After they had a goal, the principles then followed naturally - most significantly economy of movement and interruptability. Its easy to reject a lot of this stuff as dogma when you first start, but after several years in training I've come to realize many of the above principles on my own as truth.

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