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The Writings of WW Stevens

Tag: Wing Chun

Losing the Long Pole and Cutting the Swords

August 20, 2024 / / 0 Comments

In Wing Chun’s current zeitgeist a question or two surround the two weapons. Do we keep them around? How do we train them in the modern day?

Wing Chun has always been primarily an empty hand system, but its two weapons are also deeply entrenched in our art and are symbols of it to this day. Yet, due to the popularity of combat sports, and dangers of weapons fighting, some Wing Chun schools have started to move solely towards kickboxing.

Many schools do not place equitable emphasis on the weapons vs the fist. When I say “equitable emphasis,” I don’t mean you have to train weapons as much as the fists. But maybe in equal measure to the forms. Typically, Wing Chun has three hand forms, the wooden dummy, and two weapons forms. So theoretically, you should be training the Lok Dim Boon Gwan or BakJom Dao at least one sixth of the time. Yet many Wing Chun schools do not even come close to this.

As someone who comes from a school that actively trains the weapons, I find this very apparent. I travel a bit every year and find other schools to train with while I’m out there. Some schools practiced the weapons, others only practiced the blades, and some only practiced the empty hand techniques. So why do we have these differences in training and curriculum? One answer that I have heard is simply space.

A lot of schools don’t have a ton of room and since Wing Chun hand fighting takes up even less space, a lot of sifus will go with a smaller space to save money on rent. And if you’re in a big city with little space (like Hong Kong or New York), you may have little choice about where you can train. Wong Hong Chung even discusses this issue of space in his interview with Wing Chun Origins.

Other schools have a different approach to the weapons, which is to see the weapons as beautiful relics. Important to the development of Wing Chun in its past, but not necessarily needed for its future. Yet, these two weapons in particular are so important because they are truly Southern Chinese weapons. The long pole and the butterfly swords found in Wing Chun are common in other Southern Chinese systems like Hung Ga, Choy Lay Fut, and Lung Ying. And while the fundamentals are the same, each style has its own method of these weapons, including power generation, defensive tactics, and just the forms themselves.

One way around the space issue is to train shorter versions of the pole. For example, while I am certified under Michael Valenti, I have also trained with Larry Rice during my time in Asheville, NC. With Michael, we use the traditional length of staff and practice with care. Only a few people are ever training the weapons at a time and if we need to, we’ll go outside to accommodate the space. When I was at Larry’s, we trained using six foot poles probably 80% of the time and would practice with traditional weapons when there was room. While I prefer the traditional length, I think the six foot pole training was also valuable.

Practicing the form and techniques with a variety of lengths and weights taught me to understand the details of this weapon more thoroughly and how to apply the concepts more broadly. And this helps me apply the weapon’s lessons in a broader context, as we are taught to do. I use lessons from both weapons in my grappling and kickboxing. They teach a surprising amount about body mechanics and distance management, if you are willing to train them.

But what options do we really have as practitioners and teachers?

Option 1: Train the Weapons as They Are

The first option is the most apparent: simply keep training Wing Chun in its entirety. Wing Chun is an historical martial art. This does not mean it cannot be used for sport or self defense. It can be. But it is a solidified system that is not prone to changing that much. On top of this, the traditional structure of Ip Man Wing Chun has only certain lessons in certain sections of the curriculum. For example, the Lok Dim Boon Gwan has the only major examples of level changing. It would be a much weaker art without this lesson.

If we want to truly preserve the lessons of Wing Chun then we should be willing to perform all aspects of the art, even the ones that are difficult. And it may not be the most lucrative, but if we were worried about that, we would just teach Tae Kwon Do in a strip mall.

There are many ways to do this, like the shorter staves for practicing in close spaces and padded foam weapons for sparring.

Option 2: Turn the Weapons Forms into Hand Forms

One way to maintain the lessons of the weapons is to practice the weapons forms as hand forms. I personally do this already, even though I still practice the weapons as they are. Since the hands and weapons inform each other, it’s not that far of a stretch. While this would maintain the major lessons of the forms, it would turn Wing Chun solely into a kickboxing art.

Even though beimo is historically the primary focus of Wing Chun, we would be losing certain aspects of the art if we move forward in this manner. It would result in less well rounded practitioners. Weapons training improves you as a martial artist in ways you often don’t realize until after the fact.

If you’re worried about self defense, you have to know how to fight in Stand, Clinch, Ground, and Weapons. Wing Chun is only missing ground fighting. If we cut the weapons, we’re left with only the first two. Wing Chun’s weapons are not as dynamic as Kali’s, or as broad in scope as Kobudo’s, but few things beat a big ol’ stick.

Another issue with losing the weapons is the loss of conditioning. While basic hand and leg conditioning would still be apparent, the weight training, precision training, and core training of the Lok Dim Boon Gwan would have to be supplemented with other drills.

And if one decided to be rid of the blades as well, certain wrist and forearm conditioning drills would also be lost. You can’t go around fighting with weak hands. Wing Chun is not that internal.

Option 3: Lose the Weapons but Keep Their Drills

This one is even more austere than option two. If we plan to lose the weapons forms, we could keep the drills of those forms to maintain some of these lessons. For example, the arrow punching drills from the Lok Dim Boon Gwan are essential to Wing Chun’s explosiveness. The pole also is the only area to teach the sei ping ma and cat stances. Using these footworks makes your Wing Chun more fluid and quick.

But depending on your school of Wing Chun, you may not have that many drills for each weapon. Many schools of Wing Chun mainly focus on the forms for the majority of their training and may only have two or three drills for each weapon. The Bak Jom Dao form is so different in order from school to school, in part because it is just a series of drills.

So you may have to add some of these lessons into other forms. This leaves you with a system that begins to shift outside of the tradition. But this isn’t necessarily bad or wrong.

Each generation has changed Wing Chun to fit its needs. Leung Jan originally taught Wing Chun with a strict curriculum, but later boiled it all down to techniques with the Kulo style of Wing Chun. Ip Man taught the forms in different orders at different points of his teaching career.

Option 4: Teach Different Weapons

This one is a “Thanks, I hate it,” option for me. I’m discussing it here because this does happen and it can go well or poorly. I have seen Wing Chun from a school where the instructor was not required by his sifu to know the weapons to open his own school. He taught Wing Chun, but taught Eskrima solo baston as a weapon during his Wing Chun class, and frankly not very well. And I love FMA, I train it constantly, but it’s not Wing Chun. Nor is it wrong to train Wing Chun and another art. That’s often good. But there was a disingenuousness to this instructor’s decision.

To me, this plug and play mixing, it doesn’t show respect to the art as a whole. He couldn’t be fucked to learn the traditional weapons, so he throws some basic stick fighting into his Wing Chun class. I’m not saying you can’t cross-train, obviously you should do that. But there is the issue of misrepresenting Wing Chun to the next generation. There is the issue of not having all the tools and concepts to discuss Wing Chun and even how it relates to an art like Eskrima. And not fully understanding Eskrima and trying to add it to Wing Chun.

Wing Chun is not the only art I train. So I think it is fair for me to say that it is not a large curriculum, especially not for a Chinese art. So it seems impatient and immature to add a weapon to a system you have not completed.

And I treat that situation differently than instructors who have completed the curriculum and then added weapons or other techniques. I have been lucky enough to drop in during my travels on schools where the sifu has added weapons. One simply taught the blade techniques with machetes. The other kept the traditional weapons and forms, but also added cane fighting. They know what Wing Chun is and they have made a conscious decision to adapt it. There was intention about what they were adding and how it affects their student’s learning.

They are not incidentally severing their students from resources, the traditional weapons are still there. Or if they take out the traditional weapons, they have a good reason for it. They’ve done the work and they understand the choice they are making, and I respect that. These teachers took the fourth option, but applied Wing Chun to these weapons. In my limited experience with these teachers, many of the lessons are still there. And it is in a sense, an extension of what we already do with the weapons: view them not only as the weapon itself, but also as a prototypical signifier of any weapon you may pick up. So, while I may not personally enjoy it as Wing Chun, I have to respect it as an option.

So what do we do? Where do we go with this? Personally, I say go with Option 1. If you need, add what you feel is necessary, but don’t cut away the weapons that our kung fu ancestors saw as essential.

As the decades pass, arts will change and what we do now is not what Wing Chun will be in the next 50 years. That’s okay. That’s not a bad thing. But we do have to ask ourselves what is right to change and what must stay. When the art changes, does it continue the fighting spirit of Wing Chun or mute it for the next generation?

Terminology is Important, But Not That Important

November 24, 2023 / / 0 Comments

One of the easiest arguments to find yourself having in mixed martial arts circles is not about ring control, or the right way to handle the calf kick, it’s about what you call that one move. And it can be a fun argument to have, but sometimes people take it a little too seriously and you’re left wondering if everything is okay at home. You may think, “It’s just a word, the move is the same.” Or you could be thinking, “You need to say it right, you need to understand what you are communicating.” And yeah, two things can be true. So what is up with martial terminology?

Terminology Gives Us Common Language to Recognize Complexities

By having more standardized words, we can differentiate between similar movements, tools, and concepts. At a beginner level, this is not too important, but as one moves into intermediacy it becomes more necessary. Details make the difference between a jab that connects and a jab that really hurts. So if you have a word to differentiate the two, you are ahead of someone who just understands the jab as one or the other. This extends to all aspects of martial arts. Footwork requires finesse, fight strategies need detail, even workouts need differentiation. 

Terminology Allows Us to Communicate How We See a Topic

By exploring terminology, we can understand how different arts and teachers treat certain tools. For instance, we have the armbar. In English speaking arts like Catch, we generally call it an armbar, showing that the lock attacks the arm by straightening or “barring” it. It is a simple and effective way to explain the concept. The details will change from technician to technician, so don’t get bogged down when you first learn it. The same is true in BJJ, even in Brazilian it translates to armbar or armlock. In arts like Judo, it is termed juji-gatame, or ude-hishigi-juji-gatame.

We can learn a lot just from this single term. “Juji” is the same kanji for “jujika” or “cross”, which can denote the right angle one takes to the opponent’s body, but also the manner in which the arm is outstretched. The next part is even more interesting, “gatame” is used for pins and certain locks. Most joint locks in Judo use the term “garame”, but certain joint locks have the term “gatame” instead. So why is that? Well the principle is that locks like armbars (juji-gatame) and head and arm choke (kata-gatame) can be used to effectively pin an opponent as well as submit them. On the flip side, “garame” means to entangle or twist. On top of all of this, “ude-hishigi” (arm break) denotes that this movement is a type of arm submission, that it causes pain. Look at how much information and context is contained in essentially four words. This is just one movement and we can see what the priority is in each art.

Terminology Can Cause Separation Due to Interpretation or Similarity

Unfortunately, sometimes we get so focused on terminologies that we forget to actually focus on the techniques. Terminology can cause conflict among groups that at the end of the day, doesn’t even matter. You may call it a double-wristlock, I call it a figure-4, and someone else calls it a kimura. At the end of the day, we’re all ripping some guy’s arm out of its socket. But how much time is spent arguing over these words? What’s more important is discussing details of the movement or technique. You can call it whatever you want, but if you can’t do it, it doesn’t matter. As helpful as terminology is, it is just a tool for communication. It is not the Gospel truth.

Terminology Can be Used to Create In-Groups and Out-Groups

This phenomenon is particularly frustrating. I have seen it most in kung fu circles. To give an example, in Wing Chun we have a drill called chi sau. It’s a sticking hands game used to teach the trapping range. At the beginning stages you are just trying to learn how to feel your opponent and stick to them to trap or strike. As you advance you start including footwork, head movement and Wing Chun’s full range of tools. Advanced chi sau is not sparring or fighting, but it is closer than beginner chi sau. Where I train we just call that advanced chi sau or sheung (double) chi sao, but in Cantonese it is often called “gor sau.” But we’re already inundating the students with all sorts of terms from a language they don’t know. We don’t need to overcomplicate something that can be said in English.

Some other Wing Chun schools don’t like that and have implied that my Wing Chun is bastardized or inauthentic. And it’s not that I don’t know words like “gor sau,” just that I don’t use them in general parlance. But I can actually fight with my Wing Chun, so they can keep gor sau.

Terminology is a Tool

When we focus on the terminology, we can learn a lot about the art or curriculum we are studying. As a self-professed word nerd, I really recommend that people dig into the terminology of their arts. You can learn a lot about the art, the history of the art (which most people forget), and it can even improve your form.  But I also have to caution against getting focused on what each person calls it. Unless you are the developer of a school’s curriculum, it’s not your job. Don’t argue whether it’s a “head and arm choke” or “arm triangle”. It’s both. It’s neither. No one cares, go train.

Attacking the Defense: Wing Chun

June 29, 2021 / / 0 Comments

Wing Chun is an old system of kung fu from Southern China. Based in the arts of Shaolin snake and crane, Wing Chun evolved over generations on the Red Junk Opera boats and the rooftops of Hong Kong. Now it looks vaguely like kung fu boxing. It’s got kicks, chops, knees, and elbows, but most often it looks like a small man’s boxing. What makes it different from other arts is constant pressure and trapping skills. Its blocking system reflects that. Is that good, bad, or somewhere in between?

The structure of the Wing Chun resembles an old boxing guard, but more plaintive, with open hands. Even though the head is more open than I prefer, I must recognize it still holds the hands about as high as most fighters. The front hand sits above the collar bone pointing towards the opponent. The back hand hovers around the lead elbow, rarely lower than the chest. The benefit of this position is that it encourages your opponent to take wider shots. Your core is also protected and keeps your hands ready to cover the four gates. Wing Chun uses the four gates theory for attack and defense. Essentially, you have the left and right sides of your head, and the left and right sides of your torso. You can’t defend one without opening another. With both your hands starting in the center of your body, they can easily move to defend any gate.

The weight distribution is fairly contested in Wing Chun. Some schools put 70% of their weight on the back leg and 30% on the front, while others sit 50/50. Some schools even sit 90% of their weight on their back leg. I come from a 50/50 school and honestly I can’t see the advantages of a 90% back foot distribution. The 70/30 split has its advantages, the front leg is more ready to kick for offense or defense, much like the long guard of Muay Thai. Although it can lead one to not respond as well against someone barreling down your center.

Let’s discuss the primary deflections of Wing Chun. In Wing Chun, there are four primary blocks: tan sau, pak sau, gum sau, kan sau. These four are chosen as the primary blocks for two reasons. Firstly, the lead hand can defend while keeping the elbow on centerline. Secondly, these can deflect an attack and allow for a simultaneous counterattack with the back hand.

The secondary blocks are more focused on control of the opponent and sticking hands movement, even leading into clinch fighting. These blocks are bong sau, lop sau, huen sau, fuk sau, jum sau, and jut sau.

But what do all these movements with Cantonese names even do? Are they even effective? Let’s go back to those primary blocks.

Tan Sau: The tan sau (dispersing hand) is a deflection performed by placing your elbow in front of your solar plexus and holding the hand outwards, like awkwardly asking for money. This turns your forearm into a wedge against oncoming strikes, which are deflected or “dispersed” past your body. The tan sau is used in a variety of ways, but works best deflecting on the outside of the opponent’s arm. 

Pak Sau: The pak sau (slapping hand) is really just a parry. That’s all it is and that’s why it’s so effective. Parries are an essential defensive tool for striking. Pak saus are the most obvious example of blocking with a counterattack. Instead of parrying and then striking, Wing Chun uses the pak sau with a simultaneous strike, often called a pak da. 

Gum Sau: The gum sau (pinning hand) is used to deflect low attacks including fists, feet, and knees. It is also used, as the name suggests, to pin an opponent’s arm in trapping range.This is not a long term pin, but is instead pinning the arm for a second to allow you to attack. I’m not a fan of dropping your hands this low to block a kick, especially when Wing Chun has knee and elbow blocks. However, the gum sau as a trap is incredibly useful. When you use it this way, it opens a gate and collapses the opponent’s arm into their core. This affects their structure and often opens their chin even more.

Kan Sau: I hate it. The kan sau is a downward sweep of the arm, essentially a low block like karate’s gedan barai or gedan-uke.The kan sau is used to block low strikes, much like gum sau, but has no pinning capabilities. It’s not really a hard block, but that doesn’t mean it’s that effective. The only reason I, a Wing Chun practitioner, practice kan sau is because it’s a part of the system, I don’t use it when I spar or fight. The one thing I will give it, is that you don’t sacrifice structure to use the kan sau.

Bong Sau: The bong sau (winging hand) is a deflection that uses a corkscrewing motion to knock strikes off target. The rotational force of the bong sau is what makes it effective. It’s not a lifting motion, which is why it works. If it lifted, your shoulder would get beaten up and tired. Because it rotates it activates more muscles, including the pectoralis minor and the traps, and uses less energy overall. I have found a lot of use in the bong sau. I will note that unlike the primary blocks, it doesn’t really allow for a simultaneous attack and defense. Bong sau is a great set up for trapping and acts as an emergency block when your hand is low. 

Lop Sau: The lop sau (pulling hand) yanks an opponent’s limb to the outside of your body. This can be used to pull them into a punch, yank them out of your way, or even set up trips. Lop sau is quite useful, the problem being that it is often trained as a straight grab, but it holds more complexity than that. The lop sau works best if the elbow sinks into the ribs and the movement links the arm to the core to the hips and feet. Kinesthetic linking shows up a lot in Wing Chun; the lop sau is probably it’s most obvious example.

Huen Sau: The huen sau (circling hand) deflects an opponent’s punch away from centerline, thus causing them to respond behind the beat. Huen sau is great for counter attacks and also has an added use as a recovery tool. If you parry on the inside of a punch, make it a huen sau to get your opponent’s centerline back off of you.

Fuk Sau: Not really an initial defensive tool for most people, the fuk sau (hooking hand), is a great tool for sticking hands energy. Later, this tool can be developed for sensitivity and self defense fairly well. Fuk sau can be used to keep yourself safe in the pocket. However, that level of sensitivity takes a lot of time to develop. But uppercuts take a lot of time to get down as well.

Jum Sau: The jum sau (dropping/heavy hand) is a great tool. It’s really more about the elbow and forearm than the hand. The jum sau can be used as an elbow block to defend the ribs or as a trap. It’s also a great tool because after blocking, that hand is set up for a great counter shot to the head.

Jut Sau: The jut sau (jerking/shocking hand) is a quick jerking motion with your arms to pull an opponent’s limb down towards your body. This doesn’t mean the jut sau pulls it into your body, just more towards your centerline than away from it. This is most often seen as a defense against a grab or grapple, yanking the attacker’s arm in as you counter. It can also be a trap on a good guard, as consistent pressure is easier to fight than a shocking pressure.

Cut Blocks: This tool is an extension of the vertical punch, but with the obstructive energy of a tan sau. Essentially, you punch from the outside line as your opponent strikes. By keeping your punch on centerline, you cut across theirs, knocking it off course. This defends and attacks at the same time.

So what are some good examples of these tools in defense?

The most obvious example is the pak sau. Pak saus are parries, parries keep your head safe. Ask any boxer. Pak saus are essential, quick, tools. The best example of application is the pak da (slapping hit). As you deflect an opponent’s strike, you come over your pak with a strike of your own. The centerline punch of Wing Chun works really well in this. You can also parry and strike to the body, which works especially well for shorter fighters. These type of sector defenses are typical in Wing Chun. Students are taught not to simply defend. Attacks can be defense.

This pak da concept also works well against a tight guard. Instead of waiting for your opponent to open up, make them open up. When controlling the space, Wing Chun tends to be quite aggressive. This use of pak da exemplifies that.

The gum sau is often taught as a defense against a kick, using two hands to stop a kick near the thigh. I’m not a huge fan of this, but I mention it in the name of honesty. However, gum sau does have it’s uses. My favorite is defending against a tackle. As your opponent comes in, you gum sau to the side of their head and hinge one leg back. This angles you to your opponent and knocks their line of pressure off of you. It also lets you keep the fight standing.

The bong sau also plays a surprisingly useful role, bong sau leads into lop sau or tan sau quite easily and sets you up for kicks.

An important thing to remember is that in Wing Chun, these tools aren’t just prescribed for one thing. They are better seen as movements that can be applied as the user sees fit. For example, we have an horizontal elbow, pai jarn, that is often used as a destruction block as well as for bashing skulls. As students learn more, they are expected to test these out in new ways and deepen their understanding of the art.

Luckily we have maxims that help us weed out potentially dangerous interpretations. Let’s look at the bong sau again. We are consistently taught the bong sau as a transitory movement for defense and offense, but it shouldn’t be a stationary guard. On top of this, we are taught that elbows should return to protect the body. If bong sau were treated as a more stationary technique, the body becomes too exposed. So Wing Chun does have a method here, even though it may not look the way one is accustomed to.

The overall structure of Wing Chun’s defenses are pretty solid, the obsession with centerline protection is very useful. However, I don’t feel like it protects the head as much as it should. The tools that protect the head from circular shots aren’t as protective as I would hope. Tan sau can protect against incoming assaults, but it extends your hand too far for my liking. Biu jee works, but at a certain weight difference it stops mattering. I’m much more partial to the boxer’s shield. And when considering Wing Chun as a whole, culturally the kan sau is used more often than the jum sau for body shots. So Wing Chun is not perfect by any means. On a grading scale, I would give Wing Chun a B. In the right hands, it has excellent potential. But when taught to someone who can’t think for themselves, it’s more of a C.

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