Light half speed sparring

[dosk3n]

Hey guys,

When I was down the quay yesterday I decided to record 2 guys from my WC school doing some light sparring. I call it half speed sparring as you will see its not full speed although the hits are still aimed and if you miss a counter then you would get hit. Its also very good for getting used to things comming towards you and trying not to turn your head.

Its only 40 seconds but I hope you like it and look forward to hearing what you think.

Dean.

Link:

 

[Nabakatsu]

Cool video, thanks for posting, good stuff!

 

[zepedawingchun]

Not bad, who's the guy in black? He's got good hand speed, flows pretty good, and has structure. Actually looks like Wing Chun without being mechanical. He looks like he actually knows what he's doing.

 

[bully]

Great vid, would like to do something similar myself here. I wouldn't film it though as my standard is poor.

Would come down and get my *** handed to me by the guy in black if I was in the UK. It is all good experience though, the more you do it the more natural it becomes.

I see the comments below on youtube are positive, I am sure the internet warriors will be along to say "his left foot wasn't facing outwards and neither was he wearing one blue sock so it's not real Wing Chun!!" Don't take it personally as I reckon its a good vid and it takes balls to step up to the plate and put it on the tube for all to see.

Hope to see more mate.

 

[dosk3n]

Im glad you like the vid. I will be trying to make a collection of vids from training in class also.

zepedawingchun: The guy in the black is called Paul Wallis and is the highest in the class apart from Sifu and teaches us when Sifu is not available.

Our sifu was trained by Ip Ching and Ip Chun and Paul recently went over and had a weeks training with Ip Ching. He has been training about 6 years so far and has I think, 10 years in Karate so is defenitly doing well.

Thanks for your replys guys. I will take the posative ones now before I get flammed on youtube ha.

 

[mook jong man]

Very nice , we do pretty much the same sort of thing .
Its a very efficient way to train and get the student used to coping with randomness without being overwhelmed by the experience.

Its main value lies in the fact that the action is slowed down sufficiently to allow the student to still concentrate on stance and correctness of movement but still in a dynamic way.

You still need the hard and fast stuff to get your eyeballs used to tracking the punches that you can barely see , let alone react to.
But with a good balance between the two training methods it does produce a student that can handle the faster stuff without all form and correctness going out the window.

With my students we will sometimes train it in timed rounds where for one round the attacks will come in at half speed and the Wing Chun mans emphasis will be on stance , correctness of deflections , timing , staying relaxed etc.

The next round the attacks will come in at full speed and all I want from the student is to see speed and aggression in their counter attacking.

In effect I am trying to get them to turn off the little voice in the back of their head that says " Am I in my stance , are my hands up where they should be " I want them to just go through the attacker like a laser beam.

I also might specify that after every flurry of hand techniques the student must finish the attacker with an elbow , knee strike or with a kick depending on what we are working on at the time.
Keep up the good training.

 

[vankuen]

Looks good! Though it seemed more like a drill than sparring--still beneficial mind you just not my opinion of what a sparring session is.

 

[dosk3n]

Looks good! Though it seemed more like a drill than sparring--still beneficial mind you just not my opinion of what a sparring session is.

My definition of sparring is probably a bit different as I see it (within WC at least) as any hit that is random and is aiming to make contact, while I define a drill as a predesigned routine thats designed to train the senses, and this video is freestyle so completely random however it is only at half speed so it can look different to what would generally be considered as sparring.

Also we do the same as mook jong man mentioned where it will be full speed and the emphasis is on going in and getting it over with rather than the finer things and I suppose that looks more like sparring in the conventional sense.

I believe that with everything in life you should start slowly then build on that foundation. As a child you learn to make noised then string them together to create a word and then these words are stringed together to make a sentance. In WC I feel this is the same, Drills are the noises that you will string together, you then move on to the words with half speed sparring and then you learn to talk with full speed.

I hope that shows how I see things but thats just my way of thinking and alot of people will see it in a different way which is why WC is such a great style as its a concept that can be seen in a multitude of ways and work for so many different types of people.

 

[Poor Uke]

Nice tune!

But I wouldnt call that sparring, even light sparring. That is one guy feeding another and then staying still and letting the counter happen with no resistance.

One step drill maybe!?! Dunno...not sparring though

This is a good exmple of light sparring

Notice that both players are staying alive and not just letting the other counter with no resitance.

 

[dosk3n]

I sort of agree but lets meet in the middle here as I still have my thoughts that if it is random then its not specifically a drill but then again since he is feeding I can realisticaly agree that it isnt 100% specifically sparring so how about I re-title the video as "One step sparring drill" or "Sparring drill demonstraition".

Glad you like the tune, I took it from the Tekken soundtrack

 

[mook jong man]

I sort of agree but lets meet in the middle here as I still have my thoughts that if it is random then its not specifically a drill but then again since he is feeding I can realisticaly agree that it isnt 100% specifically sparring so how about I re-title the video as "One step sparring drill" or "Sparring drill demonstraition".

Glad you like the tune, I took it from the Tekken soundtrack

Mate your just not going to please everybody unfortunately.
I mean who really gives a rats **** what you call it , the main thing is your on the right track with your training and heading in the right direction.

I would not call it a drill either because it is random , although done at half speed.
It probably could be described as a limited type of sparring with a certain degree of compliance in order to work on technique or maybe just call it reflex training.

But ultimately its just one of the many training tools available to us to help improve our skill in Wing Chun.

 

[geezer]

My definition of sparring is probably a bit different as I see it (within WC at least) as any hit that is random and is aiming to make contact, while I define a drill as a predesigned routine...

I'm with Vankuen on this... it looked to me like the guy in the red wasn't putting up much resistance. He was more of an uke or dummy for the guy in black. So maybe you could call it a "sparring drill"? Whatever. Anyway the point is just like you said, "...start slowly and build on that foundation." This kind of work is just as necessary as all out sparring. It reinforces the spontaneous use of good technique. Thanks for sharing the clip.

 

[vankuen]

It really doesn't matter in the grand scheme of things so long as the teaching is done progressively and doesn't stagnate in the realm of drills (arranged or prearranged).

Personally, I teach and practice very little in terms of prearranged drills. Once a technique is learned, its practiced a few times with a partner. Then the partner slowly ramps up the resistance (still using a pre-decided technique). After that, the technique should be applied in a random sparring drill, and then free sparring.