Wing Chun

What's Great About Wing Chun Technical Structure The techniques of wing chun, including "defensive" blocking and trapping, have a solid, forward focus. They serve to trap or jam an opponent's limbs in order to maintain or create an opening for attack. The physical structures of these techniques are unique, and rely on proper bone alignment rather than muscular strength alone. These techniques, combined with constant forward motion, can be extremely effective in self defense. Simultaneous Offense and Defense Wing chun emphasizes simultaneous offense and defense, or interceptions, so with every block there is a simultaneous strike. Even at mid levels of training, strikes can be used to deflect an incoming attack by cutting the line it's coming in on. While this is common in combat sports like boxing and Thai boxing it's far less common in other traditional martial arts. Solid technical structures, forward pressure, and constant offense combine to create a formidable base. Trapping Over the years, especially since MMA went mainstream in the early 1990's, there's been serious debate over the effectiveness of wing chun style trapping. This kind of trapping is very seldom seen in sport fighting, and most sport fighters regard it as entirely ineffective. There are three reasons for this. First, because most wing chun training is unrealistic, practitioners are unable to apply anything against a skilled fighter, much less the complex trapping that has evolved in cooperative training. Therefore, it doesn't appear to work. Second, because it doesn't appear to work, very few sport fighters take it seriously enough to train it effectively. Fighters don't think it works, so they don't learn to use it in the first place. And third, trapping is better suited for self defense than fighting. In a fight, both participants know what's up, start at a distance, and are less committed. It's harder to apply trapping on someone who is moving in and out of range. In a self defense scenario on the other hand, trapping is an excellent way to assist in taking out an immediate threat, where the trap serves to prevent the opponent from defending against the attack. Trapping can also be used effectively in sparring. But it's the simple traps that work, not the complex combinations practiced in many wing chun schools. A quick smack (pak sao) or pull/jerk (lop sao) and simultaneous strike works very well, and techniques like the bong sao can be used to crash a strike leading to a double lop sao (two-on-one) which sets up countless opportunities for knees, elbows, chokes, or clinch entries.