It’s All in The Posture

 

Keep your chin up

(Photo by Alexander Krivitskiy)

 

When people talk about fighting, a key point often raised, is that of keeping your chin tucked in, so why am I saying to keep it up?

If this concept is difficult to understand, then maybe, do not think so much of keeping your chin up, but of keeping it back, out of the way.

 

Grandmaster Ip Chun often made me giggle when, after he would perform a good Bong Sau, then, would then lean his head forward, as if peeking around the corner, at which time he would make a childlike noise, as if playing peek-a-boo.

This noise would always make me chuckle but the sentiment behind the mockery is quite real, because in making such a gesture would only serve to place your head back into the line of fire!

Which unfortunately, many people do.

Bong Sau is a great example of developing and maintaining, posture, and in what better Form can this be trained than in our Chum Kiu.

 

In the first section we see the Lan to Bong transition, and as we move from one to the other, we should also be moving our head out of the way, especially if you are adopting the 70/30 weight distribution.

Even if you are of the idea that your stance should be (and it can be), more of a 50/50 balance, at least still try to keep your head out of the line of attack, A.K.A., ‘Keep your chin up’.

 

Going back to posture for a moment, and how this plays out in a street situation, please take a quick look at the following video clip:

 

 

So, posture is everything, using a Lan Sau and then pushing your face forward would only serve to get you punched in the face, and using a Bong with complete refusal to move your head out of the way, would be putting a lot of pressure on the need to block, so again I say, move your head out if the way and, ‘Keep your chin up’.

 

The idea behind the 70/30 weight shift, is always one of avoidance, getting out of the way and never to gain reach.

 

It is true that when you turn, you gain a third extra reach, however, if you need to turn to reach with your hands, you are not in hand range, you are in kicking range, oh and if you are not in kicking range either, go home, there is not conflict.

 

You should never train your Wing Chun just to be able to fight, otherwise, as Grandmaster Ip Chun says:

 

“Do not train your Wing Chun purely to fight, if so,

you may train for ten or twenty years for a fight that could last just a few seconds,

or it may be that you practice all of your life for a fight that never happens!  

But you may train for just a matter of months, and it ‘could’ save your life”

 

In saying that, there will always be those who are drawn to classes initially for that very reason, and to those individuals I say:

 

“Your first reason for coming here, may be to learn to stop a strike which has been thrown at you,

what I want to teach you, is how to avoid having that strike thrown at all.”

 

Now, I do not expect you to live I the shadows or never leave your house, but to just be aware of what is going on around you, to learn to read the signals and to know what signals you are giving off yourself.

Training in this way, you will develop an aura to your character, presenting you in a different light and therefore reducing the risk of attack.

 

All of this can be developed, way back in your Forms, if only you remember to, ‘Keep your chin up’.