IP MAN

Grandmaster Ip Man 1893 – 1972

Ip Man (Yip Man) starting learning Ving Tsun when he was around 13 years old. His teacher, Chan Wah-Shun, and at the age of 70 years, lived only three more years, but near his death asked that his second eldest disciple continue to pass on skills to Ip Man.

Coincidentally, a short time later, an older man heard about a particular encounter Ip Man was involved in, where Ip had used his Ving Tsun to successfully knock down a police officer. The older man met with Ip and asked all about his martial art. The man then challenged Ip to a test of skill. Though Ip was very confident in his ability, and thought of this as a good opportunity to prove it, he was defeated by the older man within only a few strikes.

The older man then revealed himself to be Leung Bik, Ip’s original teacher’s senior, and the son of Chan Wah-Shun’s teacher, Leung Jan! After this encounter, Ip continued to learn from Leung Bik.
In around 1950, due to financial hardship, Ip Man opened a wing chun school, and over the next few decades taught a number of renowned students such as Wong Shun Leung. Ip is said to have tailored his teachings to each student, but also favoured those that displayed the best understanding and ability. Through his students successes over the years, including Wong Shun Leung’s many rooftop challenge matches, Ip Man built a strong reputation for the Ving Tsun system, and took it from a relatively little known style taught behind closed doors, to one of the worlds most practiced martial arts today.

In 1972 Ip Man was diagnosed with cancer, and died in December of that same year.

Ip Man Movies

The Ip Man film series starring iconic Donnie Yen are loosely based on his life events, and have proven highly popular. Ip Man (2008), Ip Man 2 (2010), and now Ip Man 3 (2015) entertain and inspire many people around the world to try Ving Tsun, and experience how its smart design makes it such an effective martial art.