The Limitations of Wing Chun

I've heard people say that Wing Chun is very limited or that they have discovered the limitations of Wing Chun. Well I started Wing Chun in 1995. Since then, I have met thousands of people through martial arts. Many of them had experience with other martial arts. Some competition champions. Others boxers, MMA fighters and multiple degree black belts. Some bigger, stronger and in better physical shape. After meeting and sparring with many people, I have yet to find Wing Chun's limitations. I don't feel the need to put down any martial art nor any path. All are valid in their own way and for their own purposes. But to say Wing Chun has limitations, is like saying rock-and-roll has boundaries. Statements like this, define the person that is saying it much more than they define the subject. Obviously, the only boundaries are what the person puts on it.

Posted by Adam Williss, Founder of The Dragon Institute

Slow is Smooth and Smooth is Fast

People often ask why we insist they start with slow practice when everybody knows that *real* violence is fast. One way to answer this is to think about firearms training, especially your first day on the range. If yours was anything like mine, you started with the firearm in a hip holster and a paper target some distance away. The instructor yelled, “FIRE!!!” and you whipped the gun out as fast as you could, looked away from the target and emptied the clip as fast as possible, spraying lead everywhere.

And then you checked and saw that you only put one bullet through the paper–out near the edge.

“Hmmn,” you thought, “Looks like I need more practice.”

So you did it again: whipped it out, looked away, and blew off as many rounds as fast as you could.

Of course, the problem here is that no matter how much of this kind of ‘practice’ you get, you’ll never be able to put a bullet through the bullseye, repeatedly and reliably, every time you want to. Or need to.

With firearms, being precise and correct gets you the desired result–put the bullet through something important and you put the man down. Miss and you get nothing.

Because the principles of violence apply no matter what the tool, we’re stuck with the same truth when it comes to using a knife, or a stick, or bare hands: precise and correct gets you the desired result. Put your boot through something important and you put the man down. Miss and you get nothing.

Slow practice is target practice–it gives you the time to get it done right, as well as the time to be aware of your mistakes so you can correct them, learn from them.

In the end, the person who gets it done right gets to go home. Taking your time with slow practice makes sure that’s you.

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ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Chris Ranck-Buhr is an author and hand-to-hand combat instructor with more than 20 years of experience. He has written training manuals for video products as well as the "TFT Sourcebook" & "How to Survive the Most Critical Five Seconds of Your Life". He is currently writing on topics in hand-to-hand combat and self-defense as well as teaching ongoing classes three times a week, with monthly seminars. For more information, visit http://www.linkedin.com/pub/chris-ranck-buhr/5b/829/314.

A Tradition of Excellence

A Tradition of Excellence - ocwingchun.com
2012 Best Martial Arts in Orange County #OC
The Dragon Institute, 34241 PCH, Dana Point, CA 92629
#wingchun #kungfu #martialarts #selfdefense

Posted by Adam Williss, Founder of The Dragon Institute

The Fighting Barracuda: Built for the Attack

The Barracuda is a natural hunter. They are one of the most vicious fish in the ocean. Their teeth are extremely sharp and have no problems lacerating a human limb. Having a diet consisting of almost any fish, they easily occupy the top of the food chain.

What makes the barracuda so dangerous is its deceptive speed. Even though it's a big fish (the record for a barracuda caught hook and line is 1.7 meters (5.5 feet), it relies on the element of surprise and short bursts of speed to overtake its prey.

Their deceptive speed comes from their slender, streamlined body that allows them to efficiently cut through the water. Their thin body fools the depth perception/sensation of its prey and overtakes them before they can realize it.

The barracuda is a lot like how we approach a fight from a distance. Like them, as we enter and engage an opponent, we should try to look smaller than we really are and move in the most simple, direct and efficient way possible. Since objects farther away appear smaller, we can learn to conceal our distance from our opponent by appearing thinner and staying lower to the ground as we approach. Hiding the trajectory of our movements within the thin, vertical/central plane between us and our opponent, we can also reduce our opponent's ability to tell when our movement began and how far away we are from them. Our opponent isn't given any edges of depth to perceive.

For us, this is just part of our regular Wing Chun training. In future notes, I'll go further in depth into the drills we practice in order to develop our entry ability.

For information on our Orange County Wing Chun classes in Dana Point and Newport Beach, visit www.ocwingchun.com.

Posted by Adam Williss, Founder of The Dragon Institute

Muscle Control (Internal Stabilization) in Wing Chun

"During multi-joint resisted exercises in weight-bearing postures, the [patient] must use muscle control (internal stabilization) to hold non-moving segments in alignment." Kisner pg. 181

Degrees of freedom pertain to how many possibilities the body uses to complete a desired action. I.e. if a cup of coffee is to your right; do you freeze the trunk and just reach out with the arm, do you freeze the arm and just rotate the trunk to reach out with the hand just a little bit, or do you lean in really close with the trunk so that you brig your mouth up close? Tons of possibilities. Every segment/joint frozen (the trunk, the arm, even the fingers) counts as taking away or "freezing" one degree of freedom. For Sil Lim Tao includes the highest order of taking away degrees of freedom. The entire axial skeleton and the legs don't move. In Chum Kiu more degrees of freedom are allowed due to the legs moving. Biu Gee now includes the most movement (trunk flexion and extension now added and so forth).

Muscle control (internal stabilization) is required at the highest extent during Sil Lim Tao  in order to freeze the degrees of freedom. In this way, most of the focus can be distal to the elbow since most of the movements require taking away the degrees of freedom of the elbow (butt doan jeong). Relaxing the wrist becomes easier. Whereas the more degrees of freedom included for movement (Biu Gee) the harder it becomes to relax the wrist and keep butt doan jeong.

Patrick Miller is both a graduate assistant at The University of Miami and an athletic trainer in Miami, FL. He is a student of Jesse Moon of North Florida Wing Chun. Patrick gives credit to his teacher Jesse Moon, Bill Graves and Karl Godwin for everything he knows through the eyes of Wing Chun. 

Quality doesn't come by accident

Quality doesn't come by accident, it's a constant choice. It's the natural by-product of unwavering forward intention, brutally honest hard work, highly intelligent instruction and truly accomplished performance.

Posted by Adam Williss, Founder of The Dragon Institute

Living the Wing Chun Life

Living the Wing Chun life is about applying its concepts to your every day life. Freeing yourself from limitations, looking for life's opportunities and taking them. Not hesitating, not stalling, not over thinking it. It's about a dedication to constant progress. Wing Chun is truly about a balanced life. Its about learning to relax and maintaining your center during the most chaotic times. Everything is better when you learn to integrate Wing Chun concepts into what you do. Whether it be swinging a golf club, starting a new business or even training in another martial art. Wing Chun is not a style, its a concept-based approach to success, regardless of the endeavor you choose. Some people won't ever get it. They can't think of Wing Chun as anything beyond a style of martial art. And they just never will. But for those that do, they are the one's that see how Wing Chun has no limits. They are the one's who can see what I mean by living the Wing Chun life!

Posted by Adam Williss, Founder of The Dragon Institute

The Limitations of Wing Chun

It is a common practice to underestimate Wing Chun. For people to talk about Wing Chun's limitations. It seems to be one of the most misunderstood of all arts. And its not only other martial artists that don't understand it, most Wing Chun practitioners don't get their own art. Quite simply, they are limited by their teacher's misunderstandings. And the amount of people that are any good at Wing Chun are very, very few in number. These are the limitations of Wing Chun. And as you can tell, they aren't Wing Chun's limitations at all. They are limitations of the people practicing it. The truth is that there are no limits to Wing Chun. When you begin to understand what Wing Chun truly is, you start to understand how it is the essence of all martial arts. Then you see that true Wing Chun is not a style at all. Its really about the universal principals of dealing with energy and a philosophy of life. This is why Wing Chun has no limitations. Either you get it or you don't. There's no in-between. This is the Wing Chun that I know. And this is why no other martial art can ever come close to comparing to it.

Posted by Adam Williss, Founder of The Dragon Institute

Character Prevails, Not Politics!

Congratulations, to Sifu David Peterson! This video basically shuts down Brandon Chan (a money-hungry Wing Chun teacher in Malaysia that has tried to bully and slander a good sifu). I too have been the victim of bullying and slander from another in the Wing Chun community. Believe me, I really understand how great this feels for David to be vindicated through this announcement. This is an honesty victory for him and everyone who teaches Wing Chun in Malaysia. Integrity and character always wins out in the end. Not those that try to control or manipulate people through childish politics.



Posted by Adam Williss, Founder of The Dragon Institute

Wing Chun Combat Posture

Wing Chun combat posture is also referred to as gate posture. It is how you position the arms, spine and head for combat. In this clip, I briefly show how to tuck the hips under to connect the lower half of the body with the upper half. We call this action Ting Yiu. Then I demonstrate where to position the head and hands at a long range from your attacker.



Posted by Adam Williss, Founder of The Dragon Institute