There are 6 desired ends. These 6 positions will make your victorious. A good fighter will be able to make use of all 6 of them, but not necessarily at once.
1) Knock out
=> hit a pressure point and make them collapse
2) pulling out of root
=> When they stretch themselves thinly, pull them so they hit a wall or trip
3) pushing out of root/ taking their position
=> step btwn their legs and push them back so they hit a wall or trip
4) closing
=> hold them they have no room to hit you back
5) make them not facing you
=> turn their body so their sternum is facing away from your own
6) chin na
=> twist their joints until they cry
Thursday, July 26, 2012
Theory: wing chun trap
The wing chun trap has to do with getting your opponent to move in a predictable way.
If you were to pak the first punch you have a good idea of when the second punch will be coming. The second punch comes after the first punch with withdrawn. You have to feel this happening.
The hand is quicker then the eye, so you can't rely on it to predict the next punch.
Any non- committed block does not require the wing chun trap. The non-committed block is at the fore front of the wing chun trap. It is there to sense when the opportunity reveals itself. Once inside the trap, it is best to switch to a committed movement so you can finish your opponent.
If you were to pak the first punch you have a good idea of when the second punch will be coming. The second punch comes after the first punch with withdrawn. You have to feel this happening.
The hand is quicker then the eye, so you can't rely on it to predict the next punch.
Any non- committed block does not require the wing chun trap. The non-committed block is at the fore front of the wing chun trap. It is there to sense when the opportunity reveals itself. Once inside the trap, it is best to switch to a committed movement so you can finish your opponent.
Proper form: double handed lap sau
There are two versions of double handed lap sau: inside and out side.
Inside/outside only applies to the hand soft gripping the wrist. The other hand can either grab the elbow or it can cut it.
That makes 4 different permutations of the double handed lap sau.
First lets talk about grabbing the elbow. look at your own wrist and lightly pinch it with your free hand. note how skinny it is. slide up your arm towards your shoulder. You will notice that it will get fat. Once you've passed your elbow, it will get skinny . This area is where you will grab the elbow. you will be grabbing this area with your thumb and index finger.
if your opponent punches you with his right hand. You will use your left hand to grab the elbow and your right hand to grab the wrist. You may grab the wrist from the outside or the inside. It all depends on where the hand was prior.
The four permutations
| elbow | wrist |
1) cutting hand and outside lap
2) cutting hand and inside lap
3) elbow grab and outside lap
4) elbow grab and inside lap
The double handed lap sau is a committed movement. It is best to use this when the wing chun trap has been set off.
Inside/outside only applies to the hand soft gripping the wrist. The other hand can either grab the elbow or it can cut it.
That makes 4 different permutations of the double handed lap sau.
First lets talk about grabbing the elbow. look at your own wrist and lightly pinch it with your free hand. note how skinny it is. slide up your arm towards your shoulder. You will notice that it will get fat. Once you've passed your elbow, it will get skinny . This area is where you will grab the elbow. you will be grabbing this area with your thumb and index finger.
if your opponent punches you with his right hand. You will use your left hand to grab the elbow and your right hand to grab the wrist. You may grab the wrist from the outside or the inside. It all depends on where the hand was prior.
The four permutations
| elbow | wrist |
1) cutting hand and outside lap
2) cutting hand and inside lap
3) elbow grab and outside lap
4) elbow grab and inside lap
The double handed lap sau is a committed movement. It is best to use this when the wing chun trap has been set off.
Proper form: Lap Sau single hand
There are two type of lap sau and these two different types have two different purposes.
The first version and the most common version uses a soft grip. The soft grip does not hold tightly nor does it "pull" the opponent. Its purpose is to guide and control the opponents punch.
The second version is less common and it uses a tight grip. The tight grip is meant to pull the opponent and make them move. It can also be used as a precursor to chin na (which is something not covered in this post). Most beginners will interpret the lap sau as this version and will be blind to the differences between the first and second version.
What the novice will experience is frustration because they simply can't tightly grip on to their opponents wrist. Let this be a lesson to you. When your opponent throws a fast punch you MUST use a soft grip.
When your car is driving really fast, the correct way to stop the vehicle is to press on the break softly and adjust the pressure as the car slows down. The wrong way to stop a car is to SLAM on the breaks. Your car would begin to slide on the road and you will wonder why the car isn't stopping. (Cars these days have anti lock braking to prevent this skidding, but that is beside the point)
The analogy is very similar to what happens when you try to grab a super fast punch with a super hard grip: it will end up sliding in your hand. (especially if you decided to add a pull to it.)
ok, lets go back to the soft grip so i can tell you about the technical aspects of how you do it. In the soft grip , you only use two fingers: ring and pinkie.
1)When the opponent punches, you first make contact with the blade of your hand.
2) Rotate your hand so that you can grab your opponents wrist with just those two fingers.
3) Guide the punch to the shoulder gate. The elbow should still be one fist distance in away from the chest, just like the tan sau.
The soft grip lap sau is good because it is uncommitted. The wing chun man must stay uncommitted until the situation falls in his favor. When does it fall in his favor? It happens when you are able to draw your opponent into the wing chun trap. The trap enables the user to predict the opponents next movement. More on this in another post.
Now after the soft grip lap sau has been successful, and the battle falls in the hero's favor, you may use a tight grip. HAVE i mentioned that we are only talking about single handed lap sau?
Ok, now for the technical elaboration of the tight grip lap sau.
1) initially you already have the pinkie and the ring finger latched on to the opponents wrist.
2) continue to tighten one finger at a time around the wrist in this order:
pinkie-> ring -> middle -> index-> thumb
3) pull outwards. Do not pull it close to your body. The pull is best done when your opponent is about to throw a punch with the free hand. Reason being is that he will tighten his body to deliver the punch and that will turn his body into a lever.
double handed lap sau will be covered in another post.
in conclusion, a soft grip lap sau is used when the punch is flying at you really fast. A right grip lap sau is useful when the punch has already been slowed down. The slow down can be you or your opponents intervention.
The first version and the most common version uses a soft grip. The soft grip does not hold tightly nor does it "pull" the opponent. Its purpose is to guide and control the opponents punch.
The second version is less common and it uses a tight grip. The tight grip is meant to pull the opponent and make them move. It can also be used as a precursor to chin na (which is something not covered in this post). Most beginners will interpret the lap sau as this version and will be blind to the differences between the first and second version.
What the novice will experience is frustration because they simply can't tightly grip on to their opponents wrist. Let this be a lesson to you. When your opponent throws a fast punch you MUST use a soft grip.
When your car is driving really fast, the correct way to stop the vehicle is to press on the break softly and adjust the pressure as the car slows down. The wrong way to stop a car is to SLAM on the breaks. Your car would begin to slide on the road and you will wonder why the car isn't stopping. (Cars these days have anti lock braking to prevent this skidding, but that is beside the point)
The analogy is very similar to what happens when you try to grab a super fast punch with a super hard grip: it will end up sliding in your hand. (especially if you decided to add a pull to it.)
ok, lets go back to the soft grip so i can tell you about the technical aspects of how you do it. In the soft grip , you only use two fingers: ring and pinkie.
1)When the opponent punches, you first make contact with the blade of your hand.
2) Rotate your hand so that you can grab your opponents wrist with just those two fingers.
3) Guide the punch to the shoulder gate. The elbow should still be one fist distance in away from the chest, just like the tan sau.
The soft grip lap sau is good because it is uncommitted. The wing chun man must stay uncommitted until the situation falls in his favor. When does it fall in his favor? It happens when you are able to draw your opponent into the wing chun trap. The trap enables the user to predict the opponents next movement. More on this in another post.
Now after the soft grip lap sau has been successful, and the battle falls in the hero's favor, you may use a tight grip. HAVE i mentioned that we are only talking about single handed lap sau?
Ok, now for the technical elaboration of the tight grip lap sau.
1) initially you already have the pinkie and the ring finger latched on to the opponents wrist.
2) continue to tighten one finger at a time around the wrist in this order:
pinkie-> ring -> middle -> index-> thumb
3) pull outwards. Do not pull it close to your body. The pull is best done when your opponent is about to throw a punch with the free hand. Reason being is that he will tighten his body to deliver the punch and that will turn his body into a lever.
double handed lap sau will be covered in another post.
in conclusion, a soft grip lap sau is used when the punch is flying at you really fast. A right grip lap sau is useful when the punch has already been slowed down. The slow down can be you or your opponents intervention.
Wednesday, July 18, 2012
passing the guard
Wing chun people are suppose to be experts of fighting short ranged. The video below is quite good as it shows very smooth transitions from a cross hand position to the point of contact.
Grabbing the inside of your opponents elbow is a very effective way to move your opponent. I never knew how to actually apply it in a live situation. The video demonstrates one way to do it at 2:49
http://youtu.be/EzmY0pYIeKY
Grabbing the inside of your opponents elbow is a very effective way to move your opponent. I never knew how to actually apply it in a live situation. The video demonstrates one way to do it at 2:49
http://youtu.be/EzmY0pYIeKY
Sunday, July 15, 2012
Huen sau smooth rotation
This movement goes in this sequence:
tan --> huen --> wu/pak
The rigid way to do this is to lead with the wrist.
to make it more smooth and flowing, you can lead with the finger tips.
Imagine your finger tips is the head of the snake. The head leads the way
and the body follows. Your finger tips lead the way and the hand follows.
tan --> huen --> wu/pak
The rigid way to do this is to lead with the wrist.
to make it more smooth and flowing, you can lead with the finger tips.
Imagine your finger tips is the head of the snake. The head leads the way
and the body follows. Your finger tips lead the way and the hand follows.
Proper form
They say that “practice makes perfect” but it is a misnomer. Its actually “Perfect Practice that makes the master.” That means that if you want to get good at something you have to practice it correctly.
In this passage I will talk about what I consider proper form. These rules are not absolute and I encourage all who read this to do their own research to find the truth that works for the individual. These tips might not work for everyone, but hopefully they will help most.
STRIKING
Palm striking --
Fak Sau --
Power generation --
KICKING
Kicking is the same as striking with your arms. The quadriceps will be used like the triceps. The hamstrings will spring back like biceps. The heel will be used like the palm side of the carpus.
BLOCKING
Do not block. There are very few occasions where wing chun will block. Most of the time, it will parry and deflect the attack. Blocking means that you stop the momentum of the attack. Don’t stop it. Ride that momentum so you can use it against your opponent.
bong sau -- Align your wrist to your shoulder. Align your finger tips to your center line. You do not want to align your wrist to your centerline. If it does then your bong has been been defeated and no longer has the leverage to do anything except break. the wrist must be between the centerline and the shoulder.
In this passage I will talk about what I consider proper form. These rules are not absolute and I encourage all who read this to do their own research to find the truth that works for the individual. These tips might not work for everyone, but hopefully they will help most.
STRIKING
Palm striking --
Another misnomer. You don’t hit with the whole palm. Doing so will make the attack weaker and it increases the chance that you will hyper-extend your wrist. The correct description of a palm strike would be to “Carpus strike with the palm side”
Fak Sau --
Same idea as palm striking except you use the “blade” side of the hand. A common misconception is to use the blade of the hand to hit. This “blade” is the metacarpal that extends to your pinky. If you hit with this area, your pinky knuckle will dig itself into the hand. This metacarpal is very soft so you should not hit things with it. In the middle of the blade is a nerve. If it is struck, you will feel the buzz. The correct description of a Fak Sau would be to “Carpus strike with the blade side”
Power generation --
This section is about the common goal that all striking tries to reach. You hear time and time again that your punches need to be soft and then hard at the moment of impact and then soft again. And in the wing chun world you will hear time and time again that you should NOT use your shoulder muscles to punch. These two things are true. If you violate either of these you are not punching correctly. This info about power generation is not something I learned from any teacher. It comes from self experimentation and paying attention to how the strike feels.
Whenever you throw a punch there will be a certain amount of recoil when the punch finishes. The goal is to minimize that recoil. If you punch too stiff, the power will recoil to your head and possible give you a headache. This is most common when you punch the air. it happens when you try to pull back the punch before the energy is released from your hand. When you strike the air, you want the energy to extend outside of your body. The recoil should stay in your hand. If you are doing it correctly, it should vibrate your hand and minimal recoil should affect your body. Another side-effect of striking correctly, is that it will “spring” back. this means that you don’t have to strike and then pull back. Its like a yo-yo that is rolled out and rolls back up with the same momentum.
As a quick analogy, picture a whip and a steel bar. If you hit a tree with that steel bar, the vibration will travel to your hand and back to your body. This vibration can make your lose grip of your weapon. A whip on the other hand flings out and smacks the tree. Pieces of bark fly off. As soon as the tip whips the target your arm is in position to throw another attack with the whip. With the whip, you do not feel the recoil at all. All of your strikes should maintain this “whip” attribute.
Your shoulders should not be used to deliver the power of the strike. They should be used to aim your punch and nothing more. Your triceps should be the ones delivering the punch. Your biceps would be the spring that brings your hand back to defense. If you follow these tips then you should be able to punch faster and longer.
KICKING
Kicking is the same as striking with your arms. The quadriceps will be used like the triceps. The hamstrings will spring back like biceps. The heel will be used like the palm side of the carpus.
BLOCKING
Do not block. There are very few occasions where wing chun will block. Most of the time, it will parry and deflect the attack. Blocking means that you stop the momentum of the attack. Don’t stop it. Ride that momentum so you can use it against your opponent.
bong sau -- Align your wrist to your shoulder. Align your finger tips to your center line. You do not want to align your wrist to your centerline. If it does then your bong has been been defeated and no longer has the leverage to do anything except break. the wrist must be between the centerline and the shoulder.
Try this experiment. Align the wrist to your shoulder and do bong sau. Ask a friend to lower your arm. Alternatively you can use a ten pound weight. Next try placing your wrist in the centerline. Ask your friend to lower your arm. next try aligning your wrist to the opposite shoulder and ask your friend to lower your arm. Which one is more stable? Which one hurts?
Also: Take a look at this link. Its a weight lifting demo I know. But doesn’t the posture look a lot like bong sau?
http://youtu.be/IhZLB48kluc
Also: Take a look at this link. Its a weight lifting demo I know. But doesn’t the posture look a lot like bong sau?
http://youtu.be/IhZLB48kluc
huen sau coat hanger
I had always thought that huen sau was about using your hand to push the attack away from the center line. I thought that when my hook hand would turn, the pinkie side would “push” it out. Unfortunately, this is wrong.
Lets start with an analogy. A hanger -- the one that you can put your nice shirts on. The hanger has a hook that used to hold on to a bar. This is meant for holding downward forces. When used in this way, the hangar can handle quite a lot of weight. But what if you were to twist it while it was on the bar? The hanger isn’t meant to handle twisting forces, so the hook will start to bend. This bending would also happen to your hand. Your bendy hand probably won’t be able to push the attackers punch out.
By the way, did I mention that I’ve never been able to do a huen sau with that twisting movement? Under pressure, it has become more of tiny gan sau rather than a twist. This means that you push down and slightly out.
Your huen sau should be used like a coat hanger. Your wrist will push it down. But the huen sau should be used like a hook that will ALSO pull the punch down. This almost sounds like fook sau. What makes it less fook-sau-like is the rotation of the forearm. You do pull down like a fook sau, but towards the end you rotate it so that your fingers point down to the floor.
Lets start with an analogy. A hanger -- the one that you can put your nice shirts on. The hanger has a hook that used to hold on to a bar. This is meant for holding downward forces. When used in this way, the hangar can handle quite a lot of weight. But what if you were to twist it while it was on the bar? The hanger isn’t meant to handle twisting forces, so the hook will start to bend. This bending would also happen to your hand. Your bendy hand probably won’t be able to push the attackers punch out.
By the way, did I mention that I’ve never been able to do a huen sau with that twisting movement? Under pressure, it has become more of tiny gan sau rather than a twist. This means that you push down and slightly out.
Your huen sau should be used like a coat hanger. Your wrist will push it down. But the huen sau should be used like a hook that will ALSO pull the punch down. This almost sounds like fook sau. What makes it less fook-sau-like is the rotation of the forearm. You do pull down like a fook sau, but towards the end you rotate it so that your fingers point down to the floor.
At this point, you can give lower palm strike. BUT you have ALSO give a head strike. You have two options and the choice depends on what your opponent does.
- If your opponent resists you then strike his lower rib
- If your opponent doesn’t resist, there is a chance that he would go for a head strike the moment you go for a low strike. In this scenario, your safest option is you strike the head. Take the center and force him to the outside.
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