Hey guys happy new year from NZ.
I thought I might talk about a few things that may help take your Wing Chun to a different level (note I didn’t say higher as it all depends on the individual).
Here in New Zealand we have a unique self defense system called the Fantail Combat System. It is unique because it is the only other martial art system designed for women apart from Wing Chun and that the concepts that are taught are unique in themselves.
When the creator of this system was putting it together he based it one of his students who was five foot five, late thirties to early forties and European.
She was no good at learning any martial arts including Wing Chun (a flaw I find in Wing Chun is you need to be highly intelligent to be able to do it properly and a lot of sifus agree with this statement).
So this system was created to be more simple than any martial art out there including our beloved Wing Chun.
I have trained in Wing Chun for several years now and thoroughly enjoy it, but in learning the Fantail combat I have found that within 3 or 4 lessons a person is equipped with the tools to stop the majority of street attacks. That’s quite unbelievable in martial arts I know.
What’s unique is that beginners are taught to protect their personal space first then their body. It’s easier to defend yourself when someone is say 2 metres away than when their within that bent elbow distance.
You see on Youtube how people teach you how to get out of a choke hold, wrist lock etc. In the street, attackers should never get this close to you to be able to do anything like that. They should have been dealt with or you have run away (which is the ultimate goal for self defense).
It’s easier to run away when someone is 2 meters away then less then half a meter. Make sense? So we protect our personal space (or bubble as some people say) first and then our body.
Another concept is we attack a persons guard before we hit the body. What is a guard used for? To protect the body, deflect and block etc. but there is nothing to protect the guard because it’s designed to only protect the body. So we hit the guard with the intention of killing it so it doesn’t come back.
Most systems will bypass, move, or trap the guard, but with that the guard can always come back.
If we take it out then we have a free road to the body and your opponent can do nothing but get hit and continue to get hit.
The last I’ll cover is very important for street fighting. There’s an old saying, would you prefer to have 1 technique for a thousand battles or a thousand techniques for a thousand battles.
We have one technique for everything (quite literally) hence being able to handle most street attacks after only a few lessons. But a higher level of this is what the Japanese call “Mushin no shin” or “mind without mind”.
We train to be free in combat. Everything flowing by itself. In a combat situation, I couldn’t tell you what I did technique wise because I wouldn’t have a clue. It just happens.
Quite confusing for beginners to hear this, but this is the higher levels that all martial artist want to achieve. To be able to do just “one.”
Hope you get something out of this to help your training.
