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Body Structure: What Is and What Isn’t

by Robert Chu

Since I have written about WCK power and body structure for may years now, the term “body structure” has become a bit of a buzzword. Since I am now semi-retired and not often teaching WCK, I decided to part with some of the secrets that I have been holding close to the vest…

Many people think, “Because I have a body, and it is a structure, I must have body structure!”

Or they think, “Well sifu, put me in this pose, so this must be what Robert Chu and others are talking about…!”

But what is real body structure is not a form. It’s not even a body, or a structure!

What is it?

It’s energy.

Or rather, taking a person’s energy and intention into the ground to root you and allow you to manipulate it to control a person, break their center of gravity, or throw them about, or issue force on them. It also allows you to pound them at will and control their whereabouts and set up your next shots.

Many have asked me, “Do I have to stay rooted all the time?”

My answer is no, otherwise how can you move?

I often get other questions like, “What is it like?”

Its like a big spring – you press on it, it receives your force; when you let go of it, you go flying or falling down immediately.

How does one do this?

In the first step, it does require a knowing teacher to show you the way. Afterwards, it’s a matter of practice with application. Of course, proper WCK practice is required. If you have unrealistic practice and lack of knowledge here, better to seek out adequate instruction.

Many ask about the leg positions –

I tell them, there are no stances in WCK – it’s a mistranslation. It actually means steps and in WCK it means that the horse is alive, like riding a skateboard or surfboard.

But people will ask, “It doesn’t quite look the same as Yip Man or my sifu or sigung did…?”

Yip Man’s mastery of WCK was very clear. A look see at the famous picture with Bruce Lee in Luk Sao position tells it all. Also, recently, I spent some time with Mark Hobbs, a student of Lun Gai in Futshan, China, and saw the early teachings of Yip Man up close and saw the elements of structure throughout the teachings. Yip Man had it. Now if your sifu or sigung learned from Yip Man, there’s no guarantee you have structure, as Yip Man taught hundreds of students.

Often, my sifu Hawkins Cheung would appear to not have any appearance of body structure at all, appearing to only be standing. When I attacked, it was so real – he was linked from the ground up and rooted so that the direction of my force would be dissipated into the ground and neutralized.

Many mistakenly take the external shape and forms of WCK and can’t see the real teachings. Its just about the same as reading about the real teachings and not having an idea of what they are. If you have real body structure, you know exactly of what I am talking about, and if you don’t, well…perhaps its time to seek adequate instruction.

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The three ranges of Wing Chun

written by a student of Sifu Tom Wong

Short range is the range that is most associated with Wing Chun, even with those who are only remotely familiar with the style. This close range infighting is very advanced and can only be properly learned, practiced, and understood after the longer range concepts are fully grasped. This distance is also commonly known as trapping range. In Wing Chun we practice sticky hands, or chi sau for this.

My teacher has a specific and unique method for teaching sticky hands.

First, the preliminary training for long range and mid range techniques teaches students in our family to close the gap, move in and “stick” to our opponent. Easier said than done. We spend a great deal of time perfecting our mobility, foot work, not wasting movements, stamina, speed, timing and agility.

This is the forward energy often mentioned in Wing Chun but hardly understood. Students in our family “bug the opponent like a bee or a fly or a hummingbird”. Starting from a distance, as most confrontations do, and then ending up “too close for comfort to the opponent”.

Every technique we use, every weapon we use, and every principle we follow carries this spirit. The close range principle is easily understood by soft style practitioners, but it seems to be mysterious to some Wing Chun artists. I will adress this later because it is very fundamental.

Once after sparring 3 or 4 people in a row, Sifu asked me, “Now, what do you think you can do better next time?” I thought for a second. Then I said,”Workout harder!”, because I was completely out of breath. He said, “Hmm…no that’s not it…once you get in, you don’t know what to do!” At this point I am familiar with the long and medium ranges but the short range I have yet to master.

In application, from my past experiences with other challengers and Kung Fu brothers from other schools, I see people often neglect this part of Wing Chun principle that is vital to a Wing Chun practicioner, or they demonstrate actions that are different than what they preach about Wing Chun.

My teacher says sticky hands is a fragmented part of Wing Chun training. There is more to Wing Chun than just that. As a result, Wing Chun has gotten a bad reputation for only looking good but with no practicality. That’s why people try to mix it with Muay Thai or some other hard style of boxing when it comes to real fight training.

Totally incorrect.

Everyone who practices martial arts, has had a few fights, or is fairly intelligent when they start martial arts always gets the idea to take the best stuff from every style and create their own personal superstyle. In fact this is how martial arts evolves. But most people are not qualified to do this for one reason. In order to get the best from every style you practice requires years of training. But most people study only short while, or even worse they study for years but never fully grasp the principles and never master the style. So when they take from the style they only end up taking a few moves or techniques; never carrying with them the spirit, the essence of the style.

They dont get “the best stuff”.

In our family one of our founders, Fung Siu Ching, incorporated Tai Chi grappling into our Wing Chun. Many people practice some form of Tai Chi and some form of Wing Chun and try to mix the two. So what makes ours different?

Well, Master Fung was well known to be a very experienced general, marshall and bounty hunter for the Qing. He had real hand to hand combat skill for most of his life. He knew Tai Chi grappling probably better than he knew his wife. It was in him, it was a part of him. A soft, internal style principle that is our Kung Fu is internal–its in your soul, your DNA. Many readers frown on the Wing Chun and Tai Chi relationship, and confuse us with some of the masters who add Tai Chi technigues into their Wing Chun techniques like adding apples and oranges together.

Some swear that Fung had studied Shaolin Crane Style (Shaolin practitioners have said this). Most of them have never heard that Ng Mui was from Aumei White Crane Cave (stated by the Master of Lost Track style in the book Lost Track Style Kung Fu and Master Sum Nung). The Aumei Pi style of Kung Fu is actually a family of many mixed styles of Shaolin and Wudong, by many masters of the two, over hundreds of years! It became a new fruit! Back to my point.

Closing the gap in our Wing Chun is similar to Xing Yi and Tai Chi principles. In both styles the master gets close. In Xing Yi they close in. In Tai Chi they allow the opponent to close in. We do similarly but still different. We move forward in a yielding manner. Once in close, short range, trapping range, the most deadly, powerful, accurate finishing blows are executed. In this range we also differ from other Wing Chun families because we emphasize much more stand up grappling, White Crane sweeping and throwing, take downs, and breaks.

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The Hammer and the Nail

by Rene Ritchie

It’s sometimes heard in Wing Chun Kuen that power is generated from the ground. This is actually heard more frequently in other arts, and personally I never heard this whileHammer-and-Nail learning Wing Chun Kuen. I heard something slightly different.

One of the qualities Wing Chun Kuen favors is adaptability; we change according to feeling and circumstance. If we put a hand out and our opponent does nothing, we hit them. However, if our opponent defends, we don’t stubbornly plow through, overcommit, stumble and leave ourselves open for counter. No, we change to another hand and continue on towards our target. This is referred to as “asking the way”, where the opponent lets us know exactly how to defeat him or her.

And what applies to the hand applies to the body (hand, waist, and body unite in Wing Chun Kuen).

If power is generated from the ground, transfered through the body, and targeted into the opponent, that power is already dead.

Wing Chun Kuen, by contrast, generates no power until the moment of contact with the target. In that instant, hand, waist, and body combine but not in a uni-directional pulse from the ground up, but rather a bi-directional and reflectional wave where the legs brace with the ground as the hand is driven into the target. Since the ground is more stable than the opponent, the opponent gets some of the ground’s reflected share as well.

In more classical Wing Chun Kuen terms, some systems use body power like a hammer swing. They drive a heavy locked bar with great force but no adaptability. Other systems use hand power like a nail toss. They throw a light, agile projectile with little force and no stability.

Wing Chun Kuen takes the nail, holds it to the opponent, and just as it digs in, smashes it with the hammer.

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Five Principles of Wing Chun (1)

  1. Receive What ComesThe 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.

  2. Follow What GoesThe 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.

  3. No Contact – Rush InThe 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.

  4. Make The First MoveThe 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.

  5. Use Proper TimingThe 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.

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The Root of Wing Chun Kuen Power: Four Methods to Test Your Structure

by Robert Chu

I had awakened from my afternoon nap. Grandfather was snoozing away in his peculiar method of inhaling through his nose and exhaling through his mouth, a little puff at the end of each exhalation. There was no television, no radio, so I decided to entertain myself with a plastic coffee can lid that I threw about the kitchen like a Frisbee. I threw it at the wall and watched it bounce off. Then I threw it at angles and watched it ricochet! I thought, in my 7-year old mind, “What would it be like if I had some real room?” I decided to go into the living room where grandfather was still napping away. “It’s pretty quiet, so I guess I can throw it and he’ll never notice,” I thought. I threw it and retrieved it once. No disturbance! “Wow! Look at it fly! Let’s try that again!”

The next thing I knew, Grandfather was awakened, furious! “Lao san (Number 3), why can’t you be quiet when I rest?!”

Uh, oh! I was in big trouble. I had awakened him from his nap! “You’re a mischievous boy and now I’m going to punish you!” He grabbed me by my collar and told me to squat in the corner in a peculiar stance for a half hour. I had no choice. Grandfather had decided and so there I remained, legs quivering, hands at my sides, panting and straining and sitting in the dreaded horse stance for the next 30 minutes, which seemed like an eternity. Grandfather grinned, “That’ll teach you to wake me up!”

Here I am now, some twenty-nine years later writing this article to tell you the benefit of that torture, er, I mean training. Whether you practice Hung Gar, Wing Chun, Tai Ji Quan, Northern Shaolin, Xing Yi or Ba Gua – there’s no getting around it! Whether you call it Zhan Zhuang (Pile Exercise), Jut Ma (Sitting on a Horse), standing meditation, or simply, stance training, it is the same. It’s a boring, strenuous exercise that even the advanced students want to avoid. But would you believe strenuous training is one of the quickest methods of developing internal power?

For the martial artist, one of the most important quests in learning and mastery of your art is the study of power (“jing” in Mandarin, “ging” in Cantonese, and often described as “internal power” in English). The most important thing in the quest for internal power is learning body connection for issuing that power. In my studies, body connection is the first way to developing power and sadly, too many practitioners are still searching for power after 20 years or so of practice. A student of mine, Kim Eng, once remarked that when he studied a so-called “internal art”, he was waiting to get the “qi power” after 20 years of practice. I laughed. I then gave him an understanding of body connection and One of the best ways to get power: stance training. This article will focus on Wing Chun kuen as it is the principle system I teach, and a few simple tests for the practice and development of stance and power.

The way I teach Wing Chun, the body structure and connection comes first. Later the forms solidify that training with the tools becoming involved. Partner exercises are introduced to be able to get used to utilizing this body structure in combat, and weapons skills are taught later to be able to project power with the body through a weapon. Personally, having seen many magazine articles and read many books, I first look at the demonstrator’s body to see if the can express power through their torso. Just a look at their pelvis and stance, and I can get a good idea if the martial artist is skilled or not. Quite often I am amused by the lack of body usage in their demonstrations of technique, even by advanced practitioners.

Power depends upon both internal and external factors. Oral tradition states, “Power originates from the heels, travels up the ankle and knee joints, is in conjunction with the waist, issues forth from the body and rib cage, travels down the shoulders, to the elbow, to the wrist and manifests from the hands”. A proper positioning of the body, muscle relaxation and contraction, breathing and timing are also factors involved in this.

Basic Alignment

Proper body structure comes from aligning the 3 dan tian and is crucial to the development of this power. You must align the Yin Tang (an acupuncture point between the two eyebrows), Tan Zhong (Ren 17, a point located on the midline of the body, level with the 4th intercostal space) and Qi Hai (ren 6, also known as dan tian, a point 1.5 cun below the navel) points in one line. (See illustrations). With this basic alignment in place, you can easily attain the “Qi feeling” in the body – that would be first what is called “Xiao Zhou Tian” (Small Microcosmic Orbit), then later advance to “Da Zhou Tian” (Big Microcosmic Orbit) which extends awareness of Qi flow throughout the body. As the focus of this article is more on the more physical aspects and benefits of body structure and stance training, I will discuss this more in detail in a future article or advise you to look for other qualified teachers in standing meditation.

Test # 1

robert chu3With this basic posture aligned, you should try a simple test of alignment with the Yee Ji Kim Yeung Ma (Yee Character pinching goat horse), the basic stance practiced in Wing Chun. First, you should try to stand when a force or pressure is exerted upon you. For example, let’s say a person puts their palm on your chest and presses with continuous force. The pressure should not send you flying back, but should root you to the ground. You cannot develop this power if you are leaning backwards like the Leaning Tower of Pisa, or “hunchbacked” like Quasimodo of Notre Dame. You need to relax and sink and maintain the proper alignment in doing these tests. You equalize the pressure exerted by adjustmenting your balance and pushing forward with the pelvis. The buttocks and the quadriceps are brought into play and also help with this equalization. You should not be as limp as a noodle when relaxed, nor as rigid as a board. You have to have a Yin & Yang, a dynamic interplay of the soft and hard to be able to do this.

This first test often upsets people who think that the basic stance is not a fighting stance at all, and not strong in the face of frontal force. What I write here is contrary to the majority of Wing Chun practitioners’s experience. Most who lean backwards or are hunch over like a patient sick with pulmonary emphysema will fail this test. Some will have practiced Wing Chun kuen for many years and not be able to pass this simple little test. I consider this a shame. The basic stance, Yee Ji Kim Yeung Ma, is practiced about fifty percent of the time in Wing Chun training. It is used throughout the first form, as the beginning and end of every section in the second and third form, the dummy set, and the knife techniques, and and forms the basis for many partner exercises as well.

Failing this test may suggest that your lineage is stressing form over function. My motto is “stress function over form and allow application to also be your sifu”. The benefit to learning something like this is that you can see if you are actually using power with your entire body, rather than from the limbs alone. The key here is using the pelvis and making sure that the buttocks is ahead of the heels.

Whether you are standing on both legs or one, the alignment remains constant. Again, if early and advanced Wing Chun training emphasizes this basic stance, and you cannot pass this test, you really should robert chu4seek some qualified instruction.

In the beginning, I suggest that you stand in Yee Ji Kim Yeung Ma with hands held at the sides first. Later, you can do these tests with variations. Instead of pushing on the sternum, you can have hand postures of double Tan Sao position (Dispersing Arms, test one, variation 1), double Fuk Sao position (Subduing Arms, test one, variation 2), and double Gum Sao position (Pressing Arms, test one, variation 3). You can then test the structure by pushing on the arm position. With this, you can see if the arms are ideally connected with the torso. The idea is the feet grip the ground and support the legs, the legs support the knees, the knees support the thighs, the thighs transfer power to the pelvis, the pelvis to the waist, the waist to the torso and from the there, the torso connects to the shoulder. From the shoulder, the arms connect to the elbow, the elbow to the wrist, and finally to the hands. From controlling your intent and having awareness and sensitivity to adjust for changes, you should be able to easily have this feeling of being rooted.

Test #2

The second test is essentially the same as the first, however you should stand in a Bik Ma (forward stance, as illustrated), and allow your partner to exertrobertchu2 the same pressure over your sternum. If you have the proper alignment and root, your rear foot will feel as though it is sinking into the ground. If you are striking someone, you will also have this feeling of pushing strongly into the ground with your rear foot. Since my method involves this stance with a 50/50 weight distribution, people who practice with a different emphasis with weight on their rear leg may find it difficult to pass this test. Those who do may want to investigate or discover why their lineage uses a stance in that way.

Test #3

Following this, the third test also finds you in a Bik Ma and has your partner pulling your lead arm, now held in a Lan Sao (Obstruction Hand). If properly aligned, you will feel rooted
to the ground, with additional pressure on the lead leg. If you were in this stance/step, and you were pulling your opponent, you would also feel the lead foot strongly planted in the ground. For those who practice with weight emphasis on the rear leg, you now have your reasons why.

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Test #4

The fourth test has you in the Chum Kiu Ma, a turning stance also found in the second form. In the form, we typically use a Bong Sao (Wing Arms) from a straight facing position and have the weightrobert chu 7 distributed 50/50 in both legs. We test this by putting pressure on the Bong Sao and see is we can maintain the weight of our partner. If you failed test one, you probably cannot do this one. People who turn at a sharper angle may also find themselves unable to pass this test. The key, as before is to equalize pressure with the pelvis and maintain the torso in alignment. If your body structure looks like an “S” or “b” from the side (see illustrations), you probably do not have the body properly aligned.

The Purpose of Structure

My speaking of alignment in Wing Chun Kuen is similar to Xing Yi’s San Ti Shi (Trinity Stance), Tai Ji Quan’s Peng (bouyant / expansion) position and Ba Gua’s Niu Zhuan alignment (twisting power), as well as most forms of Zhan Zhuang (Standing Meditation) exercises. Wing Chun also follows this concept of alignment. Wing Chun’s oral traditions state, “Internally train a breath of air, externally train the sinew, bones and skin”. Yip Man was known to practice the Siu Nim Tao set (Little Idea, Wing Chun’s 1st form) for an hour. He was training to develop power.

I believe that power development comes to a student from day one in their training. It comes from the basics of stance, posture and relaxation. It’s just that beginner students are notrobert chu 8 coordinated, nor do they understand how to put things together, and it is often not explained why they do things a certain way. In my opinion, they are just doing things “externally”, simply mimicking a teacher’s motions without the understanding of why they are doing so. If a martial artist only emphasizes “purely external training”, they typically use weight training, stretching, and maintain an emphasis on endurance and speed. That’s fine, yet it does not tie into the rich concepts of complete body alignment, which is advanced training and provides a deeper understanding of one’s art.

One of my Wing Chun students, Gerry Pang, asked me while we had tea, “Sifu, does our art favor a larger person?” I asked why would he ask that? He said because he saw a majority of the students were bigger than him and they could make the art work. Then I told him that he must look at our core training, the core that emphasizes structure – turning it on and off, adjusting to the pressure and scientifically linking and unlinking the body at will. All of our forms emphasize structure, all of our partner exercises drill structure and all our weapons work supports it. I told him our art is designed for a smaller person to maximize his potential for power. Many teachers don’t emphasize that, so the body structure is emphasized when people are smaller than their opponent, not larger. I think he left our tea session satisfied with my answer.

My words do not only apply to Wing Chun here. They are universal for all systems of traditional Chinese martial arts. Many mimic the words “structure” and “alignment”, but without adequately testing their basic postures, they do not understand the depth of the meanings of these words.

Some may also think it is a waste of time to stand in these static postures. To be able to use power from the ground up is the epitome of all martial arts. I don’t think many emphasize the body alignment unless they, too, are looking to maximize the potential of issuing power. I have always studied other martial arts forms not for the sake of beauty or collecting systems, but for the sake of understanding their body connection concepts. Whether you be a practitioner of Hung Gar, Shaolin, Xing Yi, Tai Ji, Ba Gua, or Wing Chun Kuen, you should understand how to get power from your basic stance training.

Wing Chun people say “Yau, Shen, Ma Lik” (Waist, Body and Horse Power) and “Jang Dae Lik” (Elbow down power) to hint where the power comes from and how we should align ourselves. The Wing Chun Kuen Kuit (Fist Sayings) only hint how to develop power, however.

Conclusion

When you have developed one type of power very well, you begin to learn the variations of issuing power, and can manifest different forms of Ging (such as inch power, long power, and the like) by varying your timing and length of expenditure and direction of your power. You can only get this through training total body connection and coordination. If you do not have this form of training in your system, perhaps you can seek it out from other accomplished individuals in your system, or read the classics of your art, that may point the way. Perhaps my Grandfather found this as a form of “punishment”, but I was glad he gave me a head start in my journey in martial arts training and pointed the way for me to learn many great things.

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The three Ranges of Wing Chun

by John Paul

Short range is the range that is most associated with Wing Chun, even with those who are only remotely familiar with the style. This close range infighting is verysifu_tomorr_leg_wing_chun advanced and can only be properly learned, practiced, and understood after the longer range concepts are fully grasped. This distance is also commonly known as trapping range. In Wing Chun we practice sticky hands, or chi sau for this.

My teacher has a specific and unique method for teaching sticky hands.

First, the preliminary training for long range and mid range techniques teaches students in our family to close the gap, move in and “stick” to our opponent. Easier said than done. We spend a great deal of time perfecting our mobility, foot work, not wasting movements, stamina, speed, timing and agility.

This is the forward energy often mentioned in Wing Chun but hardly understood. Students in our family “bug the opponent like a bee or a fly or a hummingbird”. Starting from a distance, as most confrontations do, and then ending up “too close for comfort to the opponent”.

Every technique we use, every weapon we use, and every principle we follow carries this spirit. The close range principle is easily understood by soft style practitioners, but it seems to be mysterious to some Wing Chun artists. I will adress this later because it is very fundamental.

Once after sparring 3 or 4 people in a row, Sifu asked me, “Now, what do you think you can do better next time?” I thought for a second. Then I said,”Workout harder!”, because I was completely out of breath. He said, “Hmm…no that’s not it…once you get in, you don’t know what to do!” At this point I am familiar with the long and medium ranges but the short range I have yet to master.

In application, from my past experiences with other challengers and Kung Fu brothers from other schools, I see people often neglect this part of Wing Chun principle that is vital to a Wing Chun practicioner, or they demonstrate actions that are different than what they preach about Wing Chun.

My teacher says sticky hands is a fragmented part of Wing Chun training. There is more to Wing Chun than just that. As a result, Wing Chun has gotten a bad reputation for only looking good but with no practicality. That’s why people try to mix it with Muay Thai or some other hard style of boxing when it comes to real fight training.

Totally incorrect.

Everyone who practices martial arts, has had a few fights, or is fairly intelligent when they start martial arts always gets the idea to take the best stuff from every style and create their own personal superstyle. In fact this is how martial arts evolves. But most people are not qualified to do this for one reason. In order to get the best from every style you practice requires years of training. But most people study only short while, or even worse they study for years but never fully grasp the principles and never master the style. So when they take from the style they only end up taking a few moves or techniques; never carrying with them the spirit, the essence of the style.

They dont get “the best stuff”.

In our family one of our founders, Fung Siu Ching, incorporated Tai Chi grappling into our Wing Chun. Many people practice some form of Tai Chi and some form of Wing Chun and try to mix the two. So what makes ours different?

Well, Master Fung was well known to be a very experienced general, marshall and bounty hunter for the Qing. He had real hand to hand combat skill for most of his life. He knew Tai Chi grappling probably better than he knew his wife. It was in him, it was a part of him. A soft, internal style principle that is our Kung Fu is internal–its in your soul, your DNA. Many readers frown on the Wing Chun and Tai Chi relationship, and confuse us with some of the masters who add Tai Chi technigues into their Wing Chun techniques like adding apples and oranges together.

Some swear that Fung had studied Shaolin Crane Style (Shaolin practitioners have said this). Most of them have never heard that Ng Mui was from Aumei White Crane Cave (stated by the Master of Lost Track style in the book Lost Track Style Kung Fu and Master Sum Nung). The Aumei Pi style of Kung Fu is actually a family of many mixed styles of Shaolin and Wudong, by many masters of the two, over hundreds of years! It became a new fruit! Back to my point.

Closing the gap in our Wing Chun is similar to Xing Yi and Tai Chi principles. In both styles the master gets close. In Xing Yi they close in. In Tai Chi they allow the opponent to close in. We do similarly but still different. We move forward in a yielding manner. Once in close, short range, trapping range, the most deadly, powerful, accurate finishing blows are executed. In this range we also differ from other Wing Chun families because we emphasize much more stand up grappling, White Crane sweeping and throwing, take downs, and breaks.

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The Centerline Theory of Wing Chun (technical notes)

by Ray Van Raamsdonk

centerline1

  • The shortest distance between two points is a straight line.
  • If you are face to face with an opponent, the shortest distance to the opponent is a straight-line path from your center to the opponent’s center.
  • If you put your palm toward your opponent’s vertical axis you occupy the center line. Two physical objects can’t occupy the center at the same space at the same time. So if one person occupies the centerline the other person doesn’t. If a straight-line punch comes toward your face and you stick your hand in the center then that punch will be deflected away from the centerline.
  • There is a vertical centerline which runs parallel to the vertical central axis of the body. There is also a horizontal centerline which runs from your vertical centerline to the opponent’s vertical centerline (if you are facing your opponent).
  • In Wing Chun we try to always face our opponent’s central axis. We don’t let the opponent get to our side. This is called proper facing. In a fight we can’t always maintain this facing, so then we are in recovery mode to get back to that way of facing.
  • When face to face with arms in contact, we have a saying that noone takes our arms off the centerline. If you point towards the opponent’s central axis and they push or deflect your hand (arm) away from the centerline, then you are in recovery mode and return back to the centerline just like when pushing on a springy twig or pushing on a ball floating in water.
  • When an opponent’s arms drift off the centerline, they have a structural weakness in their defense. A hole is created and they’ll be hit because a straight-line attack will come in so fast there won’t be enough time to recover from such a mistake. If the opponent’s arm disengages, we hit straight forward, along the shortest distance path, since that would be our best chance against an opponent with a slight timing advantage from moving first.
  • When you have a perfect center position, as taught in sticking hands, it’s difficult for an opponent to penetrate this position with any kind of attack.
  • If an opponent disengages to do a circular hit, he’ll be hit first with a straight-line hit.
  • If an opponent tries to grab, he’ll cross himself and be trapped.
  • If an opponent uses brute strength to break down the center, he’ll be stiff and can be pushed, pulled, jerked or easily unbalanced. The other option is that the opponent’s strength will encounter emptiness from your relaxed, soft feeling. Or when their hard force comes we pivot or shift so the hard force is redirected. The opponent will face the wrong way and we will point at their central axis.
  • If an opponent attempts to kick, this attempt can be felt in the hands and a pushing/pulling force or stepping in will unbalance them. (Note: however, Kenneth Chung showed how he can kick with no signals given.)
  • If an opponent retreats we chase in such a way that arm contact is maintained. Once in contact it’s difficult to shake off a person with good sticking skills without destroying your own good center position.
  • In sticking hands/rolling hands we try to detect when the opponent has deviated from the centerline position. As soon as this deviation occurs we hit. When an opponent’s centerline position is good, we may try to destroy that good position with a variety of pushing, pulling, jerking tactics, but these create defects in our own defense which can be taken advantage of. A beginner is too slow to react and can’t accurately sense centerline mistakes, so anything works against them.
  • Some Wing Chun people try to blast their way through the center, which works well against an inferior opponent. Against an advanced opponent he will either be counter-blasted, if the opponent is stronger, or more ideally will encounter sudden emptiness and be hit.
  • Since we are human, mistakes are made, so we lose because of thousands of kinds of mistakes. Mistakes include:
    • unstable stance
    • off center to the left
    • off center to the right
    • hands too high
    • hands too low
    • hands too stiff
    • hands too soft
    • not sensitive
    • slow reactions
    • contact between the arms too loose

    These mistakes and hundreds more are studied so they can be countered instantly.

  • When two people are in double-arm contact, nearly everything can be defended by maintaining a good stance and smothering the opponent’s attacks by sticking to their arms. However, when the opponent goes off the centerline we don’t stick, but attack in a straight line or else we’ll be open to attack. The idea is not to stick with and chase arms wherever they may go.
  • The first form of Wing Chun teaches ideal positioning. The positions taught in the first form are mathematical ideal positions or structures, when you are face to face with an opponent. Since we are all built differently, we can only approach these ideal concepts and have to compensate in other ways if we can’t physically apply the math concept. E.g. if you aren’t flexible enough to keep the elbows on the centers you can compensate by being more sensitive with the hands or forearms, or by shifting more.
  • When our force limits have been exceeded then body shifting is used to redirect the force. So ideally, we either stay put, shift (turn) or step forward. In reality we sometimes have to back up or even duck. The second form of Wing Chun teaches the mechanics required to coordinate the hands with the feet. This means we learn when to turn or advance depending on what we feel.
  • In real fighting nothing is ideal. Our good mathematical centerline positions may be totally destroyed. An opponent may have our elbow pushed off to the side, or grabbed us or have us bent over, or pinned us to a wall, or there’s not one opponent to face but several. In this case your perfect center-facing position against a single opponent has been lost and you are therefore in recovery mode to regain a good position. The third form of Wing Chun teaches how to regain the centerline or how to get back into a good position as taught in the first and second forms or dummy forms. Because of this it makes no sense to learn the third form of Wing Chun before having mastered the others. How will you know what position to recover to if you don’t understand the subject of positions and structures?
  • The wooden dummy is a device which forces you to have correct position because the arms of the dummy are in fixed locations. So the wooden dummy is like a teacher who forces you to have correct angles. The wooden dummy is used for secondary reasons to enhance speed, power and to condition the arms. It also doesn’t make much sense to study the dummy before having learned the first form, because you won’t understand what a correct position is. And the wooden dummy movements can’t be applied without an understanding and adeptness in sticking hands skills.
  • In Wing Chun we try to gain a correct position based on centerline concepts. From hundreds of hours of rolling hands (Poon sau) practice we can detect when an opponent’s position is off. We must be relaxed and sensitive to detect these things, then we must have the timing to attack with speed and power.
  • When close range skills are mastered there is no fear of arm contact with an opponent. After that, total concentration can be given to how to make contact with the opponent. This involves the study of structure and entry methods, and most of all, timing. The second form of Wing Chun, the wooden dummy and free style sparring teach how to enter properly so the sticking hands skills of Wing Chun can be applied.
  • From a few simple concepts, such as “the shortest distance between two points is a straight-line” and the concept of economy, quite an elaborate art has evolved.
  • Someone knowing the ideas behind Wing Chun can create counter-concepts just as in Chess, where some players occupy the center and others try to destroy it from the flanks. This is part of the fun, to outwit each other. However, once in contact there is not much room for error, not much time to change from this move to that move.
  • Many if not all of the center control theories of chess also apply to Wing Chun. Fencing does not use the concept of placing something in the center or they will get beat fast (another discussion). Some other Chinese styles think like fencing people and tend to sweep attacks aside from one corner of the four quadrants instead of from the center position. Using two arms instead of having one fencing foil changes the rules of the game.

These are just a few quick thoughts which are in no way a complete or hole-proof theory. Another topic not discussed is the location of hitting targets along the vertical center line. Also, in fact, there are many lines of balance which are used, as explained above, even during sweeping, off balancing and while ground fighting. Different Wing Chun lines may have different viewpoints on this subject. Tai Chi is also a center searching art, but the mechanics are not the same and probably conflict with Wing Chun theories.

We would view Tai Chi as violating some of our principles but we say that the Tai Chi system probably has ways to compensate for what we consider a weakness. From the Tai Chi point of view the elbows in the center do not seem like a good idea, but we have ways to compensate for this weakness perceived by the Tai Chi practitioner.