Cross hands

--By Derrick Ho
A wing chun fighter is most comfortable when his right arm is in contact with his opponents left arm  and when his left arm is in contact with his opponents right arm.  The reason for this is because the the arm positions are complementing each other.  However, there is a situation where the wing chun man has his right arm touching his opponents right arm OR has his left arm touching his opponents left arm.  This is called Cross hands.

Cross hands are difficult because it becomes a competition of speed and endurance.  If you are in cross hands, no one wants to deviate from the center.  The center is neutral but keeping the fight there is a game of strength and endurance.  My advice to you is to get out of cross hands as soon as you discover that you are in it.

Below are some techniques that can be used to get out of cross hands and on to a superior position. (NOTE** because left and right cross hands are symmetrical, these examples will cover right hand cross hands where you and your opponents right arms are touching)


Pak da Lap da

Hero		Image		Villain
left hand	right hand		left hand	right hand
wu	tan		wu	tan
pak	strike & step
cut or strike	lap

Lap da Pak da

Hero		Image		Villan
left hand	right hand		left hand	right hand
wu	tan		wu	tan
cut or strike	lap
pak	strike

Double lap sau head control

Hero		Image		Villan
left hand	right hand		left hand	right hand
wu	tan		wu	tan
lop elbow	lop wrist
grab chin
pull head to waist level

Genie and the Bear

--by Derrick Ho

The genie holds up double lan sau.  The bear raises his paws.  The genie practices sim fa while the bear practices june ma.

Sim fa is for evasion and can make your opponent’s punch glance your body instead of impacting it head on.

June ma is for attacking.  It can give your power and reach.

Sim fa and june ma visually look identical.  The difference is in their application.

The bear will try to palm strike the lan sau and make the genie step back.  The genie will try to sim fa to make the bear miss or glance the genie.  If the bear threw a committed palm strike the bear would stumble forward.

The Game:

The goal of the game is to get your opponent off balance; it is not about tagging the genie’s elbows.

level 1

• The bear may use his right hand to palm the genie’s right elbow.
• The bear may use his left hand to palm the genie’s left elbow.

level 2

• The bear may use his right hand to palm the genie’s right elbow.
• The bear may use his left hand to palm the genie’s left elbow.
• The bear may palm the wrists of the genie with either hand.

level 3

• The bear may use his right hand to palm the genie’s right elbow.
• The bear may use his left hand to palm the genie’s left elbow.
• The bear may palm the wrists of the genie with either hand.
• The bear may use his right hand to palm the genie’s left elbow.
• The bear may use his left hand to palm the genie’s right elbow.

Implications

• The cutting punch, jaum sau, or the fook sau can be used as extensions of the sim fa. (i.e. use these hands simultaneously with the sim fa).
• Teaches you to read your opponent
• Teaches you not to telegraph
• sim fa and june ma are vital to make an application work.

Supplemental bong sau drill (single hand)

--by Derrick Ho

Hero	Image	Villain
right hand		left hand
fook		tan
strike chest		block out
bong		hit chest
tan		fook
block out		strike chest
hit chest		bong
fook		tan

Arm Capture drill: using gan to capture rhythm and gum/tok to capture arm

-- by Derrick Ho

Hero		Image		Villain
left	right		left	right
wu	high gan inside		wu	punch center
punch	low gan to get outside		pause	pause
high gan inside	wu		punch center	wu
low gan to get outside	waits		pause	pause
tok elbow	inside gum wrist		wu	punch
high gan inside	wu		punch center	wu
low gan to get outside	punch		pause	pause
wu	high gan inside		wu	punch center
waits	low gan to get outside		pause	pause
inside gum wrist	tok elbow		punch	wu

The focus of the technique is the “inside gum wrist/tok elbow” arm capture.  However, it is rather difficult to get to this capture directly.  In the above drill the use of inner gan to outer gan is used.  The gan is used as a method of capturing the opponent's rhythm.  When you know the opponent’s rhythm, it makes the arm capture easier to obtain.  If the opponent telegraphs really obviously then you can probably skip to the arm capture.

Block an attack, don’t block a block

--by Derrick Ho
This drill builds off the “genie and the bears” idea.  When people do pak sau, its more effective to pak sau the elbow.  Controlling the elbow lets you control the first and second king.  However, getting the elbow isn’t always strategically safe.  In the Art of War, your enemy is most vulnerable when he is stretched thin.  Sometimes all you can get is pak sau to the wrist, but I digress.

In wing chun you should Chase the center and should not do chasing hand kung fu.  You shouldn’t chase the elbow either.  For the purpose of this drill, your pak sau partner will chase the elbow to give you a chance to learn how to react to people that chase your elbow.

The second king likes to take a stroll around his castle, but if he sees his enemy fire arrows it would be wise of him to run back in his castle and duck.  In fear, he might hide under his bed

**b2d : back to defensive.  After throwing a punch, do not leave it extended,  You need to bring it back close to you so that it can be ready for either a block or another punch.

**bury elbow: if someone tries to get your elbow earlier, pull your elbow back before he can manipulate it

Hero		Image		Villain
left	right		left	right
outside pak to elbow	wu		b2d	punch to nose b2d
wu	outside pak to elbow		punch to nose b2d	b2d
outside pak to elbow	wu		b2d	punch to nose b2d
wu	outside pak to elbow		bury elbow and tan a bit	palm strike chest b2d
outside pak to elbow	wu		palm strike chest b2d	bury elbow and tan a bit
wu	outside pak to elbow		bury elbow and tan a bit	palm strike chest p2d

This table is meant to be an example.  If in practice it feels chunky, you can break it up to distill the core concepts detailed above the table. typically, in these drills the hero is block as the villian feeds him punches.  In this case however, the hero feeds the villian pak saus to the elbow.  The hero must block the punches that come at him, but if there is no punch, the hero must pak the elbow in order to let the villian bury his elbow.  The hero must feed the villain pak sau to the elbow.

purpose of drills

The purpose of a drill is to “sharpen your blade”.  When doing applications, your defensive and offensive weapons may get messy.  Drills are a means of perfecting the form.  If you are good at doing the drill version of a technique, you should be able to do the application version without overcompensation.  Drills teach you not to over shoot your defensive/offensive moves.  In applications, you will either over or under shoot and this can render the technique wild or ineffective.

Three Kings / Three stars

--by Derrick Ho
Three kings rule the people.  They have different roles but they all can rule the people.  When one king is captured, the people and the 2 kings are calm.  The 2 kings can cover the 1st king while he is gone.  The 2nd king can save the first king, but if he does the 3rd king will have to cover the 2 missing kings.  He will be stressed with responsibility and the people will worry.  The third king can save the 1st and 2nd king, but the people without a leader soon fall into chaos.

The first king is the hand or the write.  The second king is the elbow.  The third king is the shoulder.  The people are the body.  If the wrist gets caught and can’t escape, the elbow can free him.  If the elbow gets caught, the shoulder can free him.  If the shoulder is caught, the people will have to step in.

Do not let people capture all three of your kings (i.e. shoulder, elbow, wrist) or else they will control your people.  Your enemy will hold your king for a ransom.  If you offer money, your nation will be poor (i.e. pulling back your arm will allow your opponent to control and hit you).  If you appoint a new leader from the people, your enemy will not be able to use the kings to manipulate your people (i.e.  Go with the flow.  If he is pulling you, then move in with your body and give him more then he can chew).

High level interpretation of the forms

--by Derrick Ho

• Siu lim tao
• The grid lines: center line, shoulder lines, brow lines, heart line, and bottom line
• Chum kiu
• Siu Lim Tao
• june ma / sim fa  AKA (turning horse/body to attack)/(turning horse/body to evade)
• Intro to kicking
• Biu Jee
• Chum Kiu
• short power
• recovery from bad positions
• Mook yan Jong
• Biu Jee
• Angle correction
• Foot work and positioning
• Proper power execution
• Kicking
• Baat jam doe
• fast foot work
• Luk deem boon gwun (Six and Half Staff)
• Long bridge
• Grip Training

The five Pillars

--by Derrick Ho
Application, drills, chi sau, theory, and mook yan jong.  These are thing things that a Wing Chun Practitioner must practice.  Each of the pillars are intertwined and interrelated to each other.  For example, theory gives birth to chi sau while the chi sau confirms the theory.  The drills teach people the theory.

Theory and drills are the base.  They support the 3 pillars above.  Students new to the art should be taught Drills and Theory first.  They will have a strong desire to do the top three since it looks cool.  However, these three should come at the end.  It is almost like beginners want to run before they learn to walk.
You may have noticed that forms have not been included in this figure.  The Mook yan jong supercedes the 3 hand forms.  The forms can be considered an elaborate drill.  It can also be the teacher of theory, the birth of applications and the inspiration for chi sau.  

Inside Outside pak sau tan sau drill

-- by Derrick Ho

**b2d : back to defensive.  After throwing a punch, do not leave it exdended,  You need to bring it back close to you so that it can be ready for either a block or another punch.
**nw palm strike: northwest palm strike.  hand is turned horizontal and fingers point outward.  for example, if I did nw palm strike with my left hand, my fingers would be pointing to 10:30am as my palm crashes into my opponents face.
**ne palm strike: same as nw except that fingers point to 1:30pm
**inside pak:  The inside pak is a mistake.  you always want to do a pak from the outside.  when you do an outside pak you pak toward the centerline at a 45 degree angle rather then parallel to your chest.  But since this is a mistake, you correct yourself by changing the pak to end by your opposite shoulder.

Hero		Image		Villain
left	right		left	right
outside pak	inside running hand to punch (b2d)		b2d	punch
outside tan	punch (b2d)		punch	b2d
inside tan	punch (b2d)		b2d	punch
inside pak	wu		punch	b2d
nw palm strike	wu		b2d	punch
inside running hand to punch (b2d)	outside pak		punch	b2d
punch (b2d)	outside tan		b2d	punch
punch (b2d)	inside tan		punch	b2d
wu	inside pak		b2d	punch
wu	ne palm strike		punch	b2d