Is It Ok To Not Sit Back? (Part 2)
Shifting the weight
So, finally getting to the pin of this blog:
‘Is it ok to not sit back?’
I mentioned earlier that, ‘I will justify my way’ and by that I mean this;
When blocking an attack I believe there should be a little bit of you moving the ‘strike’ away from you,
and a little bit of ‘you’ moving away from the strike,
for this reason when turning, I believe you should shift your weight too.
So here we have two trains of thought to contend with and after I explain, you can decide for yourself which applies to you.
Master Wong Shun Leung was indeed a great Master and a great ambassador for Wing Chun, and, someone I had the pleasure of meeting several times in Hong Kong in the early 1990’s.
His turning stance was more toward the 50/50, the reason for this was that he was very powerful man, with so much intention in standing his ground, that his Bong would power through the attacking arm, deflecting it away with ease.
Ip Chun however does not use this power and so allows his Bong to collapse, THIS requires a shift in weight with the turn in order to not get hit.
Ip Ching altered between the two, a powerful man who also chose to shift his weight.
Let’s ask this question:
“Why do we turn?”
We turn to avoid danger, NOT to gain reach, it is true that when you turn you will add a third to your attacking reach, but if you need to turn in order to reach with your hands, you were not in hand range to start with, you are in kicking range, so alter your weapon of choice!
I would like to suggest this train of thought:
If you are so big and strong that you do not need to move yourself in order to bounce attacks away from you, then perhaps you are not the kind of person who needs Wing Chun to start with?
But still, everyone can learn Wing Chun, big or small, and the mass I refer to may not always be muscle.
If we remind ourselves that Wing Chun is designed for the smaller weaker person to defend against the bigger stronger opponent, then perhaps we should consider an attack of such power that when it sets off toward you with 100% intention of knocking your head off, no matter how big you are, do you not think it may be good idea to not be there when it lands?
As for turning on the heels or toes?
It could be discussed that turning on the toes could move you a shoe size further away, but it would also take much longer to do this due to having to transfer the weight to the toes and then back to the heels.
Feet will never move as fast as hands and split seconds count, also you are always in danger when you are in transit, keeping the heels in contact with the ground throughout your move will keep you connected and grounded.
So to sum up, and incorporating that statement, ‘I will justify my way‘ here are your choices:
Turning on the heels is a shorter route and therefore should be quicker, it will also keep you in contact with the ground.
If you are small/slight and the attacker is bigger, shift the weight & MOVE!
If YOU are bigger than your attacker, either by muscle, bulk or sheer mass, stay 50/50.
If you have a choice were you can use power in your defence AND sit back, even if only 60/40, that would be enough.
Remember this little comment?
When blocking an attack I believe there should be a little bit of you moving the strike away from you,
and a little bit of you moving away from the strike,
for this reason when turning, I believe you should shift your weight too.
Why put all your eggs in the one basket?
You may have a terrific block but there’s no harm in moving our of the way too, if you can that is.
Always try to move out of the way, even if only 60%/40%.
A weak Bong needs a bigger weight shift but if you cannot turn,
You just need to use a stronger Bong
So use what works for you, this is what Wing Chun is all about, there are no right’s or wrong’s, if it works for you, it works, and remember…
‘If it’s not comfortable, it’s not right’
