This page is about Dragon Family Wing Chun, the name of the Wing Chun taught at The Dragon Institute, founded by Sifu Adam Williss. Not to be confused with Dragon Wing Chun, Dragon Wing Chun Kung Fu School or Dragon Wing Chun Hong Kong.

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Dragon Family Wing Chun is a community, a family and the name of the art taught at The Dragon Institute. However, Dragon Family Wing Chun is also outside of the walls of The Dragon Institute. It is practiced by people around the world, in small groups in parks, garages and individually at home.

Here’s what Dragon Family Wing Chun is…

• a martial art
• an association
• a community
• a family
• a practice
• a meditation
• an effort
• an art
• a science
• a philosophy
• a system
• a teaching
• a discipline
• a ritual
• a habit
• a process
• a vehicle
• a humbleness
• a patientness
• a calmness
• a way of life

All of these things can describe Dragon Family Wing Chun.

That’s why…

Dragon Family Wing Chun is Way Beyond Fighting

Our fighting practice is meant as our vehicle for expansion and self-growth. We’ve found this particular art which we practice (Dragon Family Wing Chun) to be the very best vehicle we’ve ever come across to do just that… sincere and honest development of one’s potential.

Based on our experience, no other activity (martial art or otherwise), has the genuine power to transform our lives on so many levels.

That’s why we’re so passionate about our practice… its the integrated practical improvements for our lives (mentally, physically, emotionally and spiritually).

Here’s why…

The principles within our specific martial arts practice, the same concepts used for simple, efficient and practical fighting, are also meant to be applied as a philosophy for life.

Our art is meant as a process of transformation toward higher levels of efficiency and effectiveness in everything we do.

That’s why we say…

“Wing Chun makes everything else better.”

Because it changes the way we look at things. And because of that, the way we approach everything changes.

Through the concepts of Dragon Family Wing Chun, we learn…

We learn…

• How to let go of our ego to become more honest with ourselves
• How to become more mindful, present and purposeful in our thoughts and actions
• How to “be like water”, embrace change and let go of the things that hold us back.
• and learn how to flow with natural laws
• How to simplify and clarify our thoughts
• How to be patient and have more control of our emotions
• How to go beyond our fears and have less limitations in our life
• And much more!

Dragon Family Wing Chun – A Fighting Art

Now simply because we do this for deeper meanings doesn’t mean we can ever disregard fighting as the actual vehicle for our self-growth. This means sparring, hitting and getting hit is a required part of what we do. Too often people want the life-changing benefits without the sincere willingness to do the hard work. It’s the genuine and practical ability to apply our arts scientific principles in a real world fight which is the catatyst for honest growth in all areas of our lives.

Dragon Family Wing Chun is predominantly a stand-up fighting art for realistic self-defense. Primarily focused upon practically applying efficiency, Dragon Family Wing Chun focuses upon a seemless integration of both striking and grappling elements through use of angles, leverage, pressure, position, precision and timing, while constantly seeking weaknesses within our partner/assailant. Unlike other martial arts that focus on physical techniques and attributes of speed and power, instead, Dragon Family Wing Chun focuses on energy-based concepts of efficiency, fluidity and centerline occupation.

A multi-range system, Dragon Family Wing Chun fights in longer boxing-type ranges as well as clinch and grappling ranges. The ability to seemlessly flow between different ranges is an important attribute of a good Dragon Family Wing Chun practitioner.

Because of this multi-range fighting ability along with its obsession upon efficiency and practical application, Dragon Family Wing Chun students have experienced consistent success in dominating black belts of other martial arts in sparring (this includes both traditional arts and modern combat sports).

In fact, many students have switched to Dragon Family Wing Chun after having practiced other martial arts for years. Quite a few of them with blackbelts in other martial arts.

Dragon Family Wing Chun: Traditional or Progressive?

Dragon Family Wing Chun is both a traditional martial art as well as a modern progressive art.

How can it be both? By seeking the center.

We practice time-tested traditions for development of the full mind, body and spirit. However, unlike many other traditional martial arts and other types of Wing Chun, Dragon Family Wing Chun is not fixed or bound by tradition. Instead, we seek the center. Dragon Family Wing Chun is a practical philosophy backed by universal principles.

The sad reality is that too many in Wing Chun believe that merely tradition makes something worthy. Or because Ip Man did it we should do it.
But for us, tradition is appreciated in order to inspire us to seek more and go deeper.  Rather than worship ashes and attempt to mold ourselves into what was, we seek to preserve the same spirit and fire with which tradition was created. In other words, we don’t walk in the footsteps of Ip Man, seek what he sought.
On the other hand, unlike other modern progressive arts, Dragon Family Wing Chun is not a mix of many different martial arts or a “sport” oriented practice. Its principles are time-tested with a strong spiritual philosophy of character, integrity and humble compassion. However, as a fighting art, it is about always being tested through alive-based training such as sparring and never simply looking to preserve for tradition’s sake alone. So this makes Dragon Family Wing Chun neither solely traditional nor solely progressive. Instead, we believe in a centered approach… a type of calm, balanced equilibrium which doesn’t go to extremes. 

Dragon Family Wing Chun – An Integrated Approach

Dragon Family Wing Chun is an integrated system with aspects of both internal and external martial arts, Eastern and Western fighting arts and deeply rooted in traditional experience yet with realistic progressive training methods. Over the years, we’ve found that having such an innovative spirit coupled with the depth of our traditional knowledge is extremely rare. This is why we are both traditional and progressive and yet cannot solely be labeled either!

To those doctrinal traditionalists who say what we are doing is not traditional, we more than likely have more traditional experience than them. The only difference is we aren’t bound by it. We ask them to try to go beyond a rigid outlook of what martial arts can be. Based upon our hands-on experience, combining deeply rooted traditional knowledge with innovative outside-the-box thinking and modern training methods consisitently dominates a rigid approaches.

To those die-hard progressives or MMA-minded folks who disregard us because of our traditional name. We say, its just a name, don’t get hung up on it. Unlike many traditional martial arts, we believe in honest application through sparring. Based upon our hands-on experience, our approach is very effective against all kinds of threats including modern combat sports (MMA, boxing, muay thai, jiu jitsu, etc.). Several of our students have substantial experience or blackbelts in different combat sports. They’ve chosen to dedicate themselves to Dragon Family Wing Chun due to its efficiency and practicality.

Regardless of your past experience, we welcome all with an open mind and an empty cup!