Twist Fist? (A reminder)

 

Twist fist?  

Not really.

 

If you are wondering to your self,

“What is a Twist Fist, I’ve never heard of this?”

Then you would be quite correct.

 

I am in fact referring to the last technique in the 2nd section of the 2nd Form (Chum Kiu), the twisting action after the 3rd stepping Bong Sau.

 

Now the reason I am not giving this move its correct name is because I do not know what it is called.

I am sure that statement will set a lot of tongues wagging:

‘HaHa, You don’t know its name!’

‘Call yourself a teacher?’

‘How embarrassing’

‘At least he’s honest’

and so on…

 

Now YOU may know what this move is called because of one simple reason, we must remember that none of the techniques in Wing Chun have names, they are all simply descriptions of what we are doing.

Pak Sau – Slapping hand

Lap Sau – Pulling hand

etc.

Therefore, should your teacher be Chinese, and describes this technique using Chinese language… it is the easiest thing to simply give THAT technique THAT descriptive word, and hey presto, (to the student at least) it now has a name.

 

The reason why I say I do not know what this is called is because of something my Sifu (Ip Chun) once said to me.

He once told me that when his Father (Ip Man) was taught this move, it was not given a name, therefore he (Ip Man) never knew what it was called, but said to Ip Chun that if he wanted to give it a name, ‘Feel free’.

Ip Chun never did give the technique a name, feeling that it was not his place to do so.

Bizarrely, after this story Sifu then said to me, that if I wanted to give it a name, that would be fine.

 

Erm, Ip Man didn’t name it, Ip Chun didn’t name it, but I was allowed to name it???

I don’t think so, and for this reason I refer to this move being,

 

‘The technique with no name’

 

The following clip (taken from a livestream class) will not give this move a name but it may give a little more understanding to its purpose,

I hope you get something from it.

 

Thank you