Turn Defence Into Offence
Is he the attacker or the defender?
It’s all in the attitude.
In last night’s class I approached the idea (as I have for years now), that it is so important to turn Defence into Offence, with the main aim being that if you do not do this, then the fight may never end!
Anyone who has trained with me, in school classes or through our (wingchun.online) weekly Livestream classes, will have heard me often say that there is NO Tan, and, there is NO Bong, because it should be a Tan/Punch, or a Bong/Lap/Fak Sau, and so on.
In fact, even this is not quite correct.
Because if you need to defend against an attack, use a Tan Sau and then freeze, it is guaranteed you will need another Tan, and another, and another, and on it goes, because as long as you keep blocking and freezing, those punches will keep on coming.
As I say, there is NO Tan on its own, it should be a Tan/Punch.
Really?
NO.
Because unless you have a Dynamite punch (and even if you think you have, don’t EVER count on it), you are going to need more than one counter strike, you will need another, and another, and on it goes.
So, if you feel you have done as much as you can to defuse the situation, and by this I mean, if you keep backing up and they keep moving forward, and you eventually run out of room, then it is time to change your mindset, try to think of yourself as a coiled spring, ready to unleash Holy Hell.
Telling yourself that if they step any closer, you will attack them like a…
Rabid, Medieval, Tooled-up Spider-Monkey!
(Other imaginary creatures are available)
In reality, hit first, and keep hitting, at least until the point you feel that you are no longer in danger, THIS has turned what was defence, into offence.
Remember, you didn’t start the fight, but instead constantly tried to stop it.
In fact, just making that mental call to go for it, will often change your manner and even your posture, presenting you in a different way completely, no longer the weak one.
The fact that you are now standing tall and even moving forward, may well defuse the situation before you even have to strike at all.
Although if you are mentally ready, and feel like the coiled spring I referred to, then this may be not so easy for you to stop yourself, especially as you now have a new agenda.
Changing your mindset from defensive to simply thinking, ‘I’ve had enough of this s**t’ and deciding to ‘Go for it’, is possibly the only way your block and counters will ever really work for you.
Structure, grounding, triangulation, redirection and all the rest of these key words, are great at describing what we are doing when we are in class, but when it comes to the street…
Attack the attack!
Here’s a little video using this attitude on the most basic of ideas, the changes in Chi Sau, and how we can make this simple manoeuvre work much more effectively for you, with only a change of mindset.
I hope you can hear this ok,
Thank you