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CONCEPTS AND PRINCIPLES OF WING CHUN 1. Radial
positioning Area Principles of Wing Chun Receive What Comes The saying "Receive What Comes," or "If the Attack Comes, then Meet it," means that if the opponent initiates the attack then you should meet the attack with an attack response of your own. For example, if the opponent throws a straight punch, then meet the punch with a thrusting hand or Bil sau movement directed towards the opponent's center. Alternatively, you can apply a palm up hand (Tan sau) and punch. If you immediately counterattack, then the opponent risks getting hit. This places him on the defensive and slows down his attacking action. By meeting the opponent's attack, you are simply engaging the opponent's force so that you can determine the next actions based on what you feel. When you feel the opponent's force,you can tell if it is strong, weak, stiff, sticky, soft, centered, off-centered, etc. Your next action depends on what you feel. Follow What Goes The saying "Follow what goes," means that if the opponent withdraws his force, then you must stick to the opponent and hit. As long as you are sticking with the opponent, you are unlikely to lose. If you do not stick with the opponent, then you have lost an important indicator of what will happen next. The indicator is your sense of touch. Upon loss of contact, the opponent can kick or perform many kinds of deceptive hand techniques which are bound to succeed. If the opponent retreats the stance, then you rush in with your stance. If you just stand there, then you will get kicked. If you decide to retreat, then you must again close the gap between you and the opponent. Since this part is less scientific than sticking hands fighting, you risk getting hurt in the clash. In the sticking hands training, you can practice retreating while your partner chases and sticks. No Contact - Rush In The saying, "Rush in upon loss of contact," means to hit straight if arm contact disappears. Imagine being blindfolded. Your hands are in contact with the opponent's hands. You can detect and feel every movement that the opponent is about to make. Now imagine that there is a loss of hand contact. You do not know where the opponent's hands are. You have no sensory clues about what is going to happen next. You are bound to get hit. Close range fighting is often like the blindfolded case. Your visual system can't always see what is going on because the action it too rapid or the vision is blocked (the action is too close). If you maintain a slight forward pressure directly towards the center line of the opponent and strike in a straight line upon loss of hand contact, then you will hit the opponent first. The reason is that a straight line is shorter than a curved line. If you are in the center, the opponent must travel a curved line to disengage. Make The First Move The saying "Make the first move to have control," is also expressed as "If he stays I go." What these expressions mean is that, if the opponent is facing you and does nothing, then don't hesitate, but attack right away. Otherwise, you may be tricked by an opponent who has figured you out. The intention of your attack is to make contact with the opponent. Once you have made contact, then you can use your knowledge from the sticking hands to win. What the above saying does not mean is to just rush in recklessly without fear of getting hurt. If you are weaker than your opponent or slower, or if you don't know anything abut how your opponent fights, then you stand to get hit. In Wing Chun, advance slowly and cautiously toward the opponent, always threatening him. At the right moment, suddenly charge. The right moment may occur during an attention lapse or during the time an opponent tenses up, or at the completion of an opponent's movement. Lift the leg immediately against a low kick. Use Proper Timing The saying "Attack according to timing," is meant as a caution to not just blindly rush in. The Wing Chun idea of how to attack is like a cat trying to get a mouse. The cat sneaks up very slowly to the mouse. The closer the cat gets, the more careful the cat gets. Once the cat is close enough, then the cat does an explosive forward springing action to get the mouse. Keep Calm and Relaxed One of the hardest things to master in Wing Chun is to stay calm and relaxed in a pressure situation. If you are not relaxed, then it is more difficult to change quickly. Also, you will tire at a much quicker rate. When you are tense, you can easily be controlled by the opponent. Wing Chun relies on suppleness and sensitivity of touch in order to detect what the opponent's next action will be. When you are tense, this is no longer possible except in a very crude way. A relaxed martial artist is much more effective overall. The idea of learning fighting as an art is to be in total control of yourself, as well as your opponent. The best way to master the relaxed way of combat is to practice slowly and accurately. Try to understand your art completely and experiment with forces in a controlled manner. Don't Telegraph An unpredictable attack is much harder to handle than one that is prearranged. If you know what the opponent is going to do, then it is easy to find a solution. The Wing Chun sticking hands training develops a soft sensitive force detection system which lets you know everything about your opponent's intentions, without letting the opponent know anything about yours. In this way, your opponent's moves are predictable but yours are not. In order not to telegraph, you must stay very relaxed at all times. Never pull your hand back to hit. Don't wind up. Hit from wherever your hand is. Attack only when the opponent has made a mistake. This gives you a timing advantage. Always monitor your own muscle tenseness. Ask yourself if you are relaxed or tense. Abdominal breathing helps to stay relaxed. Keep to the Center Wing Chun seeks to dominate the center. This is done by always keeping a guarding hand in the center and also by keeping the elbow in the center. It is advantageous to attack the opponent's center, because it is easier to hit the target. Also, the full force will be received instead of being deflected. An additional advantage is that a shorter distance is traveled. It is advantageous to defend the center by occupying it, because two things can't occupy the center at the same time. If you occupy the center, then your opponent can't. By defending the center, you can defend each of the four quadrants in the same amount of time. Try to use footwork to control the center, and not brute strength. Remove the Obstruction Wing Chun attacks by sending a straight force towards the opponent. If that force is obstructed by some kind of a block, then remove the obstruction. Use the techniques of : Pak sau - slap off the obstruction Lap sau - grab the obstruction Huen sau - go around the obstruction. If you cannot remove the obstruction, then try to stick to it. Attack and Defend Wing Chun is based on the theory of economy of motion. The idea is to move as little as possible when defending, so that your energy is conserved and your actions are quicker. A principle in Wing Chun is to attack and defend at the same time. Try not to employ two or more steps to handle an attack. The more complex an action, the more chance that the opponent will counter your action before you complete it. The sooner you can counter-attack your opponent, the safer it is for you. It is much easier for the opponent to keep attacking you than it is for him to also defend. Hit Continuously In movie style fighting the opponent throws a punch, the defender blocks the punch, hit back and then stops to await the opponent's next move. In realistic fighting this two step stop and start action is too slow. Wing Chun employs continuous non-stop hitting. Once you hesitate, even for an instant, you are bound to get hit. Continuous fighting is developed in the sticking hands training. First you learn simple techniques; then you learn to string them together into sentences or continuous sequences; next you learn to apply these sentences in accordance with the opponent's movements. Whenever you are stuck, don't hesitate, change immediately to another movement. Four Quadrant Theory An attack can be defined as any kind of force coming your way. Your opponent is unpredictable, meaning that an attacking force can be directed to any area of the body. Wing Chun reduces the complexity of trying to intercept an attack by dividing the upper body into four quadrants or regions. The four quadrants are defended by the arms which are strategically placed so as to reach any quadrant in the same amount of time. With the elbow remaining fixed in the center, the time to intercept an attack or to recover from a mistake is reduced. The region below the four quadrants is not defended by the hands, but is defended by means of intercepting leg movements or by means of moving the stance to evade the force. From a side view, Wing Chun further divided the body into a front guarding region and a rear guarding region. An attack which slips past the front guard is caught by the rear guard. Have A Guarding Hand In Wing Chun we normally have two lines of defense in the form of a front guarding hand and a rear guarding hand. In Cantonese, the guarding hand or hand of protection is called a Wu Sau. If you occupy the center with a guarding hand, it is difficult for the opponent to attack. The opponent must somehow go around the guarding hands to attack. If the opponent attacks to the upper left or right gates, we can use the Tan Sau, Kwun sau, Bong sau or a center line palm hit to defend. If the opponent removes the guarding hand, we replace it with the other hand. If both hands are trapped, then use foot work or elbow techniques to break out. If this still fails, then wait for an opportunity to attack. Use Structure to Defend "The muscles are used to attack, the structure is used for defense". What does this mean? If you use your muscles to push against an incoming force, your muscles are tense and cannot be used for attacking until they relax. Therefore, Wing Chun likes to keep the muscles in a relaxed state at all times. If you place your bones at certain angles, you can deflect an incoming force while still keeping your muscles relaxed. Therefore, they are always ready to hit, grab or jerk. Against a strong forward force, use a structural technique and not a pushing force to control it. A Fook sau is an example of a structural hand technique which can be used to control a strong force while keeping the muscles relaxed. Hit the Shadow There is a Wing Chun saying, "To hit the middle of the shadow." By shadow we mean the attacking object's profile. If a right hook punch comes, the middle of the shadow is at the inside of the elbow. If a right roundhouse kick comes, the middle of the shadow is at the opponent's knee. Sometimes you do not have time to identify the kind of attack since it is so quick that it looks like a blur or shadow. The above Wing Chun saying advises to just hit it as if swatting a fly. This is at least safer than letting the shadow hit you. Don't Think - Think Beginners are often given two seemingly contradictory pieces of advise. They are told not to think because thinking is too slow: Just react to the opponent's movements. At other times, they are told to think about what they are doing: Don't just do actions without a purpose. A beginner often makes two mistakes: he thinks too much and therefore his actions are always too slow, or he doesn't think at all and uses his techniques in a non-intelligent way. During the learning process, you must always ask how and why the techniques work. When don't they work? When do you use them and when don't you use them? How do you perform them correctly? What happens if you don't? When you know the answers to these questions, then trust the technique and apply it without thinking. The slightest hesitation will make a technique fail against an experienced opponent. Use Structural Breakdown The concept of structural breakdown is one reason why Wing Chun adopts a square-on stance. Consider the Bong sau. It is a technique which is designed to withstand a maximum amount of force after which the technique breaks down in a planned way. The Bong sau is known as a weak but versatile hand because there are other techniques such as the Karate upper level block which can withstand a stronger amount of force but cannot be changed as easily to other techniques. What makes the Bong sau work is the angles of the bones in the arm and the weight distribution of the feet. If you use a left Bong sau, the weight is on the left foot. When you do this, an excessive amount of force will automatically cause your body to pivot out of the line of the force. If the weight were on the other leg, your whole stance would collapse under excessive force. The Bong sau must be held firm but supple at the wrist for this planned structural breakdown to occur. If the Bong sau sucks back or the weight is on the wrong foot, an injury could occur. Simple - Variety When you are doing sticking hands, keep your actions simple. A beginner often tries to use movements for which he doesn't have the skill level to make them work effectively. This is also referred to as being too fancy in your movement. Fancy, complex actions are likely to fail unless they are performed precisely in the intended manner. Once you can get your basic WORDS to work in simple situations, you can attempt to apply them in more complex situations. Don't just do the same movements over and over again, use variety, and the movements from all of the sets. Against an advanced practitioner, the more you know, the better chance you will have. But if you have not mastered the basics, your advanced techniques will likely fail. Make Only One Sound There is a principle in Wing Chun stick-fighting which says, "The stick only makes one sound." What this principle means is that stick-fighting should not be performed in the clashing fashion as is done in the movies. The idea of the stick is to use smooth flowing and sticking actions. When the opponent's stick attacks, you meet the attack with an intercepting stick which clings or sticks to the opponent's weapon. Once contact is made your stick does not disengage from the opponent's stick until the opponent is hit. When in contact you use feeling combined with the various techniques such as circling, off-centering, and jerking to hit the opponent. If the opponent disengages, you will have a good opportunity to hit. This same principle can also be applied to hand-to-hand combat. In tournament fighting, many opportunities are missed when the two opponents disengage. In Wing Chun, once you make contact, you stay with the opponent until he is hit. Elbow - Wrist 1.
Always compress at the elbow. Some Wing Chun schools say to always apply the slapping hand to the elbow or else you will lose. Others apply it at the wrist. However, every application of a movement has its pros and cons. The use of a particular movement often depends on the circumstance. Applying the wrist slap you gain more leverage, and you keep further away from the opponent, but you must also be ready for the opponent's arm to collapse into an elbow strike. Applying the elbow slap avoids this elbow attack, however, a smaller person may not be able to reach or to compress the opponent's elbow. Firm - Mobile 1.
Keep in a very firm stance. Don't move. Beginners often move their stance too much. Every hand technique is preceded by a telegraphing movement from the stance, thus, the techniques are always too slow. Weak stances cause beginners to be easily off balanced by their opponents. It also reduces the force of the beginner's attacks. In Wing Chun, you learn to use your body structure to its maximum force receiving capability. If the force is still excessive, the stance gives way. The collapse often happens so rapidly that the opponent is thrown off balance for a short duration. This gives you a chance for attack. Wrist - Whole Arm 1.
When you do the Chum sau, just use the wrist, don't
use the whole arm. When the beginner is taught the Chum sau in the single sticking hand exercise, he is instructed to use only the wrist action. Instead he often uses the crude action of pushing down stiffly with the whole arm, and therefore, is not learning to use the force of the wrist. Once you are able to generate force from the wrist joint, only then do you add more joints to increase force. Critical Distance: Critical distance is that distance where whoever throws the first attack will succeed. If someone holds his hand in front of your face and you have your hands down by your side, then no matter how fast you are, you will get hit by the person with his hand in front of your face. The reason is that you have to visually detect the opponent's movement and respond with an appropriate movement. If you are too close to an opponent, and if that opponent throws a non-telegraphed kick at your leg, you are bound to get kicked. Two people can perform an experiment where they stand one foot away from each other, both with their hands at the side. One partner, without warning, touches the top of the other partner's head. You will find out that it is impossible to stop the hit. By increasing the distance between your partner, you will discover the critical distance from which you are just able to defend. There is a Chinese saying that whoever attacks first, wins the fight. There is another Chinese saying that whoever attacks second wins the fight. The missing information is the critical distance factor. If you are too close to your opponent and he throws the first punch, you will lose. If he attacks from a long range, you will have a good chance to defend. The critical distance theory, therefore, offers a strategy for fighting. What you are trying to do is to get inside the opponent's critical distance and then make the first move. If you do, you will win. If you get too close and wait, you will lose. The quickest kicks come from the pose. Don't pose when you are defending. Move around your opponent. Charge in after you have made him uncomfortable. Treat a kick the same as someone swinging a sword or club at you, evade or charge in quickly at the right time. When the opponent fakes, treat it seriously and answer it with a serious technique. Don't rely on just one technique. If one technique does not work, try another. Basic principles In Wing Chun Kung Fu you don't need to be very strong or very flexible. You need to learn a few basic techniques and principles to defend yourself effective. Wing Chun is not a style that is beautiful to look at, but it's effective and sneaky. You learn to attack and defend at the same time with both arms. That's why Wing Chun is twice as fast as the most fighting styles. Wing Chun Kung Fu will fit into most fighting styles, but the best way is to learn from the beginning so then you don't have to break down your old habits and manners. Wing Chun Kung Fu can be very effective in a short learning time. Stance In Wing Chun Kung Fu, as in almost all fighting methods, the stance is very important. Without a good stance it is very difficult to coordinate the hands and feet in the proper way. When you do not have a good stance you are out of balance. You can practice for a lifetime but if your stance is poor you have wasted all your time and effort. Stance training, such as stepping and turning is very important. When you have achieved good arm coordination and good standing, switching and walking stances you start learning the basic kicking techniques. In your stances you have always to remind the following points:
Forms In Wing Chun you learn a few forms, as logically, you start with the first form. The first form, the Siu Lim Tao, is the most important Wing Chun form. The Siu Lim Tao is the basic of Wing Chun, it is the library of Wing Chun. In the beginning practice the first form every morning and evening so you know the movements in the right order. When you have the movements and the timing correct you add power and speed. You will build up some invisible muscles in your knees that are needed for a strong stance. By practicing the Tan Sau movements you will also build up very strong elbows and lower arms. Practice the first form slowly in the mirror and watch that the shoulders stay back. Always be concerned about your stance. After practicing the first form a few times you should feel warm. When you master the first form you will start learning the second and the following forms. At our school you will also start learning the knife form (Baht Cham Dao) in the first year because we think that it is a very good way to learn your coordination between both arms. Also by using knives you start building up a good coordination and strong arms. Feeling You have to practice a lot of Bong Sau - Lap Sau drills and Chi Sau exercises to learn the "feeling" of Wing Chun, and to perform your techniques at the right moments. You have to practice these exercises also blindfolded because it will also improve your "feeling" By practicing a lot you will learn to feel forces, and learn how and when to react. Sparring and fighting Sparring is very important in Wing Chun Kung Fu or every other fighting style because you build up some stamina, so you can take more. It also improves your self confidence. You will also build up some condition and fighting experience. You always have to remember the following points: Acting: Don't act before you know what is going on. You must feel what is happening first.
Punching:
Kicking:
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