Recently I received a comment on my Squidoo Lens on Wing Chun, now I apologise for the poor content of the page, rather it was a place to start for me and test out the water, however the comment got me thinking about the form and style and I thought that might be worthy of a blog on it’s own. The wing chun style itself is based around arm and hand movements, there is little kicking, but some small footwork, the speed and skill come from the grounding and ligament bonding to create solid power. The first form in wing chun, Siu Nim Tao, that you see in the video on the squidoo page is all about creating spine alignment and rooting strength, and correct movement of limbs with no muscle strength. The easiest way to explain this is when you reach for a cup of tea you just stretch out the arm and pick up the cup, you do not actively engage the muscles to lift the weight, yet this is what we consciously try to do in punching. So the aim is to guide the hands with the mind rather than the muscles. By disengaging muscles the speed is increased exponentially which in turn aids power. You will see the opening of the stance sets the position and the feet are rooted to this position through until the end, the key to this is the head up, back straight, shoulders relaxed and pelvis tilted upwards, with the knees rotated in. This position allows the weight to sink and ground and further gives the student a start point for all drills, by naturally setting the feet into this position the student does not need to concern themselves with left or right foot forward. It is entirely natural and gives a great training distance in partner work. The stance is affectionately known as Yee Jee Kim Yung Maa or gripping the goat stance and amusingly it looks exactly like that is the position. All of the other movements in the first from are based around hand and arm movements, whilst this tends to take your focus from the legwork, to the hands, it is by no means so that you disregard the stance. In fact, the stance is the key to the whole idea.

I used to spend many hours explaining to students forget about fancy kicks in the wing chun style, whilst it does have kicks these will not be introduced until much later in your training, when you have shown correct grounding. After spending years in the stance with my training, I tried ballroom dancing, and struggled with getting myself onto the balls of my feet. In my mind I felt this suggests the style lacks speed and mobility in body movement, yet in all the drills and fights I had been in, this was simply not true. I think this is due to that grounding and being able to react within the training itself. Within the style we try to keep our feet to the floor at all times, as each time the feet are lifted in close proximity to your assailant they have the opportunity to throw you off balance, hence the grounding exercise in the form. Now any turns or steps were done by keeping feet to floor, this meant a lot of shoes were replaced through wear and tear, but the end result is a solid stance that presents little opportunity for tipping. Because of the close nature of the style, kicks are done in very close, in a lifting motion rather than thrusting.

The next thing that is important within the movements of the body is that your body needs to move forward or back, side to side as a whole, if your arm is pressed, this moves the body with no collapse, whilst allowing this to happen the structure needs to maintain relaxation so that muscular strength is not used to resist a movement against you.

We also learn within wing chun to follow attacks in multitude usually in the form of chain punches. This has the effect of driving forward into an attack. Because the premise is defend by attack there is little movement back out of range, though as a self defence instructor your first advice is to get the hell out of the situation, I’m talking about when attacked in that actual situation where you have no option but to attack. So in my mind, over the years I have learnt to ground yet move with intent, it had honestly never occurred to me that people viewing the style would consider it in such a way as to be all arms. It’s not a pretty style, but very effective, when learnt properly. I’ve been training for a long time and I’m still learning and refining. My style now is much softer and more forgiving than when I was younger. I think this means I’m a better martial artist and consequently a better person. I”m looking forward to your comments on this and develop the thread to a high degree.