When it comes to Wing Chun breathing, simplicity, patience and grounding are the keys. Its quite natural to think that there is exactly scripted breath work which must go with each move of the form. But there’s not. That would cause too much focus on the breath and trying to combine it with the form would create a mechanical feeling which deviates from the real purpose of the forms…. to get out of your head. Or as Bruce Lee said, “don’t think, feel”.
With that said, there are several pattern-based breathing exercises which are used by different Wing Chun teachers. These methods do everything from breathing along with your movements to reverse breathing. Despite what some may try to sell you on, one particular breathing method is not more correct than another. Nor are they wrong, as long as you look at them for development, not for how you will apply your breathing.
For the most part, we want to breath in a calm, relaxed way. And we want to maintain this calm, relaxed breathing throughout all Wing Chun training to the best of our ability… including hard sparring.
Here are some tips on Wing Chun Breathing for Beginners. As we look at Wing Chun as an internal art, you’ll notice several references to cultivation of energy. Wing Chun beginners should just think of this as developing higher abilities to relax and become more aware.
