Wing Chun Kung-Fu: A Complete Guide

Introduction

This book gives a theoretical overview as well as practical instructions for the entire system of Wing Chun kung-fu. There are many Wing Chun books on the market today, and the addition of another requires justification. First, Wing Chun today is not a homogeneous phenomenon: there are various types of Wing Chun/Wing Tsun in Hong Kong based on the style of Yip Man, many American and Southeast Asian forms of Wing Chun, and at least three forms of Wing Chun in mainland China. In this book, I cautiously wish to stay away from the internal disputes between these schools. It is sufficient to say that each of these styles has its strengths and weaknesses.

Saying that there is a best style is like saying that there is a best gun—however, it is well known that handguns, shotguns, semiautomatics, and machine guns all have their advantages and disadvantages. For example, a handgun is for close-range work and is easily concealed, whereas a carbine and shotgun are not easily concealed without sawing off the barrel, which reduces power. However, the carbine and shotgun are typically more powerful than the handgun.

The same thing can be said about martial-arts styles and sub-styles. My approach is a synthetic one: not to mix together an eclectic bag of randomly selected techniques, but to systematically unify and integrate a diverse array of martial-arts knowledge into a concise and functional whole that is both meaningful and practical. The resulting theory of Wing Chun, while obviously in debt to historical systems of Wing Chun, is a rational reconstruction that is an expression of my own understanding and beliefs.

In addition, the approach I have taken toward martial-arts knowledge and teaching gives priority to scientific analysis rather than to history and tradition. While I am a teacher of a classical system, I approach it in a non-classical way. Scientific analysis, when conducted properly, emphasizes rationality, logic, justification, and criticism. It is also honest, meaning that the limits and weaknesses of the approach are clearly stated, not hidden from discussion.

In this book’s first part, Basic Forms and Principles, I shall discuss and illustrate in full the three empty-handed forms of Wing Chun kung-fu: Sil Lum Tao, Chum Kil, and Bil Jee; in the second part, Fighting and Grappling, I shall describe sticky-fighting and grappling techniques, as well as the concept of vital points; and in the third part, Weapons and Advanced Techniques, I shall describe the wooden-dummy set, the use of butterfly knives and other weapons, and advanced techniques of Wing Chun.

In this book, I hope to present a scientific approach to the martial arts, explaining why techniques work and also when they will not work. Further, I hope to be able to do this without undue technicalities, so that this material is readable and concise, and illustrated with photographs that are meaningful.

In the light of the above comments, it goes almost without saying that I have no wish to enter into political disputes about what is the real Sil Lum Tao, Chum Kil, and Bil Jee; who is a real master; what is the authentic style of Wing Chun (or Wing Tsun); and so on. These political questions have no part in a truly scientific study of the martial arts; consequently I do not claim to present here the sacred Truth about Wing Chun as revealed to me by God! The scientific method and the true martial-arts spirit are both conducive to humility and selflessness; I therefore give thanks and homage to all my teachers and the masters of their lineages, and hope that these works are free of the vice of self-promotion and serve to enrich the science and art of Wing Chun kung-fu.

Part I

Basic Forms & Principles

The Sil Lum Tao Form and Chi Kung

INTRODUCTION

In this chapter, I shall illustrate and fully explain the meaning of the first form of the Wing Chun system, the Sil Lum Tao, or Small Thought form. Sil Lum Tao is the best known, and perhaps most important, form in the Wing Chun system. It is also the form that causes the most confusion among students. Indeed, some of the errors made in misinterpreting Sil Lum Tao may lead a student to almost certain defeat against a good street fighter. So let me proceed immediately to clear up the confusion. In these three volumes, I hope to place Wing Chun kung-fu on a coherent and scientific foundation, as well as to defend my style against many critics who see it as impractical, illogical, and fundamentally nonviable as a combative art. I shall attempt to show that Wing Chun is a very valuable fighting style, that is practical, economical, and logical.

Writers of books on Wing Chun constantly praise their style as being a logical one, but they never go beyond mere assertion and attempt to justify this by showing how and why the techniques work.

THE THEORY OF THE CENTER-LINE STANCES

Classical Wing Chun kung-fu is typically defined by means of what is known as the center-line theory, which is the foundation of the system, determining both the fighting stance and the logic of combat. The center-line is taken to be an imaginary line that passes through the median axis of the body. It is on this axis that the most vulnerable organs of the body are located. The fighter therefore defends this area by keeping his elbows in the center-line or plane of the body in both attack and defense and seeks to attack the center-line of the opponent. Wing Chun attacks must typically be linear because of the requirement of keeping the elbows in the center-line; in addition, the shortest distance in space between two points (such as a knuckle and a nose), is a straight line, so linear attacks are much faster than circular roundhouse style swings. It is also more difficult to defend against straight-line attacks because they are direct, fast, and tend not to inform the opponent of the intent to attack.

So far so good; all of this is true. However, there is a tendency for Wing Chun practitioners to fight front-on in a Chil Ying position. The fighter stands in a parallel stance known as Kim Nur Mar. This is the well-known, pigeon-toed, foot-adducted Wing Chun stance—the knees and toes point in toward the median axis of the body, with there being no more than a fist's distance between the knees. Some Wing Chun fighters stand in a much wider stance, suitable for riding goats, and have up to four or five fist widths of space between the knees. There are a number of things scientifically wrong with using the parallel stance, or Kim Nur Mar, as a fighting stance, which I now summarize:

Thus, I believe that the parallel stance should be used in Wing Chun as a training stance only. The knees are locked together while you perform the hand movements of Sil hum Tao, to place strong isometric tension upon the leg muscles, thereby strengthening the legs for sticky-leg fighting. The correct fighting stance of Wing Chun, Som Kwok Bo, comes from the second form of Wing Chun, the Chum Kil, or Searching for the Bridge set, and is a side-on position with the forward foot turned slightly in and the back foot held at 45 degrees to the median axis of the body. The feet are customarily, placed about a shoulder’s distance apart, but you should employ it with no more than a fist’s width between the knees when you are actually engaged in close-range fighting. The reason for this is technical and depends upon a knowledge of sticky-leg fighting. Approximately 70% of the fighter’s body weight rests on the rear foot, and 30% on the forward foot.

When using the side-on fighting position described above in an actual fighting situation, the Wing Chun fighter does not necessarily attack through the center-line by passing through the median axis of his own body. The attack is made through a center-line that runs down from the practitioner’s eyes, through the front defensive hand (which is held up high in order to guard the head), and through the forward leg. This is a powerful and directed line of attack that is aligned to the median axis of the opponent’s body. However, for close-range or street fighting, I prefer to use the Chil Ying position for the upper body, with the legs held as described above.

Attack ideally involves breaking through your opponent’s guard and then attacking his poorly protected side, locking up his leg in order to control his ability (or breaking the knee with a sticky-leg technique), controlling his hands with sticky-hand movements, and then attacking his vital points. Moving into an opponent and getting control of his side puts him at a disadvantage, for now there are two hands against his one. He is effectively fighting two opponents, or fighting at half-strength!

THE STRUCTURE OF THE SIL LUM TAO FORM

The Sil Lum Tao form is performed in a stationary parallel stance and involves only hand movements. It consists of an opening sequence and three sections. As it would be far too boring to describe every hand move verbally, it is better to consult the photographs. What I shall do however, is to discuss some of the least understood Wing Chun hand movements, as well as some of the better known ones that are often misused.

THE OPENING OF THE SIL LUM TAO FORM AND PUNCHING THEORY

The version of the Sil Lum Tao form given here does not begin with the fists placed beside the chest. The form opens with til sao, a de­fensive movement involving an upward lift of the arm, palms facing the body with fingers open, followed by a sudden lateral jerk of the wrist and the grasping formation of a claw hand, with its withdrawal to beside the chest. The til sao, or lifting deflection, is especially designed for counter-attacking a punch with a grappling hand move. There is a detailed theory of grappling, or chin-na, in Wing Chun that I shall discuss in the second volume of this series. For the moment, I want to point out that the til sao block has merit as a defensive hand move in that it can successfully defend a wide area of the upper body from hand attacks.

The formation of the claw hand and a twisting grab—as if to tear flesh from the bones of an opponent—is a technique constantly found in all three empty-hand forms of the Wing Chun system. The self-defense techniques using the claw, which I shall detail in volume two, are extremely brutal and must only be used in life-or-death situations. These include: gouging out the eyes, ripping out the hair by the roots, dislocating the jaw, tearing the flesh of the nose, ears, and lips, crushing the throat, and twisting and ripping the testicles. Such clawing techniques are a very effective means of self-defense for women finding themselves in violent rape attacks.

There are four open-handed strikes in Wing Chun kung-fu. The chop is a strike delivered with the blade of the hand. It is delivered with a snap of the arm to generate impulse—the sudden release of force in a very short time interval. The palm strike is a short-range linear attack which uses the heel of the hand. Force is generated by exploding with the body weight behind the strike, using the arm much like a battering ram. The side palm strike is similar to the palm strike but the target is the opponent’s side. There is a slight curve in the path of the attacking hand which impacts again on the heel of the hand, the force however is generated by a snapping action of the wrist. The cutting side palm generates its force by snapping the wrist, like the side palm. However the surface of impact is smaller, being the small round bone on the heel of the hand. The striking angle is the same as the side palm but it can also be used as an overhead strike to the face.

The most important hand move in the opening of the Sil hum Tao form is the vertical punch. This punch is designed for close range combat. The vertical fist-thrusting punch in the form is executed by sliding the forearm across the chest with the fist pointing across the body. The fist is then pointed toward an (imaginary) opponent and delivered so that any punching attack initiated by the opponent will meet the bridge arm (forearm) and be blocked. Even if the punch is not a successful strike, once contact with the opponent’s arm occurs, the sticky-hand fighting skills can be employed.

Wing Chun punches typically involve inch-force, or ging, an explosive shock-wave effect. There is a lot of mystical nonsense written about the one-inch punch that knowledge of physics readily dispels. The idea behind snap punching is to reduce the time in which the fist is in contact with the body. This increases the impulse (the product of the average magnitude of a force on a body and the time for which it acts.) The great old-time boxer Tommy Burns said that the most feared punch is not a big swing or a long straight drive out from the shoulder, but one of those half-arm jabs, which only travel about a foot or at most 18 inches, and which have the full weight of the shoulder behind them (T. Burns, Scientific Boxing and Self Defence, London: Athletic Publications Ltd., 1934, p. 31).

Wing Chun punching also is greatly aided by exploding one’s body weight behind a punch. Jack Dempsey in his Championship Fighting (Long Beach, CA: Centreline Press, 1978) described a method of power punching involving a falling step, where a punch is launched after putting your weight on the front foot and then stepping and punching so that gravity gives a great momentum to a punch. However, Dempsey’s falling step occurs quite naturally after either a back-foot or front-foot heel kick, because as the foot comes down, the body starts to fall. A coordinated punch delivered at this time can have knock-out power. Other ways of putting body weight behind a punch include springing or leaping forward to bridge the gap with a jab and surging upward, using the legs as springs to fire a lifting punch or upper cut.

The vertical fist has been criticized on the grounds that there is a lack of bone support for the fifth metacarpal bone. However, in Wing Chun, we don’t land blows on the little pinky knuckle, but on the bottom three knuckles, which do give solid bone-to-bone contact for the transmission of impact force. It may be of interest to note that the great Jack Dempsey favored a vertical punch {see Championship Fighting ibid.), as did other old-time boxing champions such as Robert Fitzsimmons (Physical Culture and Self-Defense, London: Gale and Polden, Ltd., 1902, Chap. 18) and Jim Driscoll (Text-Book of Boxing, London: Athletic Publications, n.d.).

THE FIRST SECTION OF THE SIL LUM TAO ANDCHI RUNG TRAINING

The first section of the SU hum Tao is done very slowly for the purpose of Chi Rung (Pinyin: qigong) training as well as for isometric tension exercises for the wrist and forearm, to improve the strength of the taun