|
Wing Chun Sticking Hands
1. 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 round house
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.
2. 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 tke
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.
3. 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.
4. 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.
5. Make Only One Sound
There is a principles in Wing Chun stick fighting which says, "The stick
only makes one sound." What this principles 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.
|