newbie help!

[behindshades]

Hello Wing Chun practitioners,

I'm a former student of the Yang Style of Tai Chi and have lost interest in the art of Tai chi, so, after being introduced to Wing Chun, I decided to look into taking Wing Chun. I've been taking wing chun now for about two weeks and my questions are:

1) in SLT, the first form, when the toes are bent in, how neccesary is it to bend, and how far should we bend down?
2) i know its only been about two weeks, but i dont feel like there's really any type of improvement, so when does it all come together? when do i learn to develop punching power?
3) how does wing chun teach its practictioners to control or deal with fear? at my school, the instructors and sifu said that they don't do sparring, so if we dont spar how do we know how well our techniques have developed?
4) and lastly, does anyone here know about Eddie Chong's Wing Chun in sacramento? is that a good school or is he a good instructor?

thanks a million!!!
Tim.

 

[CRCAVirginia]

Just wondering why you don't ask your teacher these questions? You will take the information from complete strangers to your teacher? If he/she won't or can't answer your questions...

The same with choosing a school to train at, go and check it out yourself...

 

[bully]

I wouldn't go to a school that doesn't do sparring.

 

[mook jong man]

Hello Wing Chun practitioners,

I'm a former student of the Yang Style of Tai Chi and have lost interest in the art of Tai chi, so, after being introduced to Wing Chun, I decided to look into taking Wing Chun. I've been taking wing chun now for about two weeks and my questions are:

1) in SLT, the first form, when the toes are bent in, how neccesary is it to bend, and how far should we bend down?
2) i know its only been about two weeks, but i dont feel like there's really any type of improvement, so when does it all come together? when do i learn to develop punching power?
3) how does wing chun teach its practictioners to control or deal with fear? at my school, the instructors and sifu said that they don't do sparring, so if we dont spar how do we know how well our techniques have developed?
4) and lastly, does anyone here know about Eddie Chong's Wing Chun in sacramento? is that a good school or is he a good instructor?

thanks a million!!!
Tim.

This advice may or may not pertain to your lineage so you can take it with a grain of salt.

1)
It does depend a bit on your physiology and your lineage , but as a rough rule of thumb you can use these guides .
If you hold your arm out in a fist on the centre
line , and visualise imaginary lines extending from your feet and toes , where the lines intersect is where your feet should be pointing to. This is to gather all the potential force of the body and be able to focus it out towards the centre line.

As a rough guide when you bend your legs , look down and your knees should just be over the tops of your toes .

2)
Like you said , you've only been doing it for two weeks. Punching power can take quite a while to develop and like Wing Chun in general it depends on how much you are prepared to train .

Practising the form , working on your stance , pivoting , doing impact training on focus mitts , heavy bag , wall bag etc are all helpful.

3)
Doing scenario type training can help control fear , but you will probably have to go outside your school to get this.
Chi sau sparring can help to develop the instinct to keep moving forward and have focused aggression under pressure.

Like Bully said don't go to a school that doesn't have sparring , you will never be able to deal with random attacks and will almost certainly crumble under the ferocity of a full on assault.

If self defence is your main motivation you must practice against common street types of attacks thrown at full speed and in a random manner.
Pain is a very good teacher and the hits that get through will show you where the chinks are in your armour and allow you to improve.
4)

Sorry can't help you there , I'm in Australia and don't know of Eddie Chong.

 

[Domino]

Welcome to Martial Talk !

I would do some research using google. Various websites and videos.
http://www.google.co.uk/search?q=ed...s=org.mozilla:en-GB:official&client=firefox-a

 

[dosk3n]

I agree mook jong man, so my answers are the same plus a few little additions.


1. You want to bend enough to lower your centre for keeping balance but not too much as you want to be able to sink down when you are encountering an attack so that you can control the force similar to shock absorbers / suspension. But Wing Chun and any other art should be taken as a concept so dont take what you learn as a strict command, take it in and adapt it to how it suits you and what feels best for you.

2. It probably took me about 2 month to start getting the hang of power. Just keep practicing to control your 6 points of power and remember to relax the arm and whip it out with no tension until the very end. Relax

3. I think its ok if they dont spar as long as they do chi sau and practice scenarios. Scenarios such as where your partner will throw a swing at you full force and you have to counter. Its not real sparing but if you dont defend correctly then you get hit. As said above, you will learn from pain.

4. Never heard of him but I am in the UK. If you search the net you can usually find lineage trees and track who he trained under etc. Could always ask him of his experience.

Hope my thoughts help you.

 

[zepedawingchun]

4) and lastly, does anyone here know about Eddie Chong's Wing Chun in sacramento? is that a good school or is he a good instructor?quote]

Eddie Chong has a good reputation and is well known on the west coast of the U.S.A. I personally do not know him, but have heard of him through other WC people.

Is it one of his schools that you are attending? Also, where are you located?

 

[KCO]

1. The stance is done by starting with your feet-heels together and toes facing out at 45 degree angle....toes come out as far as they go, then pivot the heels out keeping your toes where they are....the angle will be slightly different for each person, but it helps to view an equilateral triangle that your feet are standing on-----you should be sunk down in your stance as far as you can go
2. When it comes together is down to you....punching power comes when you get good at grounding and the stance is correct
3. There's nothing to fear but fear itself
4. Never heard of the guy

 

[Poor Uke]

What CRCAV said and as far as sparring goes you may well have to go somewhere else for that as sparringis a moot point in the WC communittee

For example http://www.martialtalk.com/forum/showthread.php?t=82625

For me it is an essential part of my training but for some its not so important (wierdly)

 

[mook jong man]

What CRCAV said and as far as sparring goes you may well have to go somewhere else for that as sparringis a moot point in the WC communittee

For example http://www.martialtalk.com/forum/showthread.php?t=82625

For me it is an essential part of my training but for some its not so important (wierdly)

I think you are generalizing here , I don't think Wing Chun is like that all over the world , the first thing I heard about non sparring Wing Chun schools was from Americans on here. I thought it was ridiculous and on later reflection thought it maybe because of the litigation laws you have over there.

But in other countries I don't think it is the case , in our schools in Australia it was very important to spar , same as in New Zealand .

We did chi sau sparring , full on sparring with safety equipment on , multiple opponent sparring , unarmed against knife sparring , unarmed against stick , it was an integral part of training and needed to pass gradings.

If you are going to a school that doesn't have some type of sparring or practice against random full speed attacks then maybe you should have a re think about what it is that you are actually training for .

 

[behindshades]

well i spoke to my sifu and the instructors there and they explained to me that wing chun, being an internal art, depends on each individual's skill level. As far as the power development, he simply said rome wasn't built in a day, which, to me, basically said it takes time to develop that power.

I am starting to notice improvements in my form. I'm not as shaky and rigid when going through SLT, they told me to focus on relaxation and good breathing to calm down. the only thing is that my sifu keeps on telling me that my shoulder drops when i try to do the form...so i'm trying to work on that!

as far as the sparring goes...i was not very clear on what i meant by "no sparring", i mean they do chi sao training for sensitivity training but they don't spar like people spar in boxing, tkd, karate, etc.. so i didn't know if that was a bad thing or not?

but thanks for all the advice tho people!

 

[mook jong man]

as far as the sparring goes...i was not very clear on what i meant by "no sparring", i mean they do chi sao training for sensitivity training but they don't spar like people spar in boxing, tkd, karate, etc.. so i didn't know if that was a bad thing or not?

but thanks for all the advice tho people!

What about Chi Sau sparring , where both people are actively trying to hit each other do they do that , or is it just gentle rolling ?

What about light hand sparring , where you are both facing each other in your Wing Chun guards , just out of stepping range , and you try and penetrate each others defences with your Wing Chun hand techniques , do they do that at all ?

With the exception of the types of sparring that I outlined above I'm not a big fan of Wing Chun versus Wing Chun sparring.

It just ends up a clash of legs as they both people kick for the centre line and once they get into punching range it turns into a chi sau sparring battle , a waste of time in my opinion , why not cut straight to the chase and just start off in chi sau sparring.

A better use of your training time would be to have some one attack you with non Wing Chun types of attacks ie grabs , tackles , boxing type punches , various types of M.A kicks.

Circular types of attacks in particular can cause the uninitiated Wing Chun student a few problems , although we have more time to react it also causes us to open up our defences more than we normally would to a centre line attack , especially when trying to defend against fast combinations

If they don't do this type of training , then you might want to ask them why not ?
If your training for real world self defence then it is an absolute must , along with practice against multiple attackers , unarmed against knife and impact weapon attacks , and a bit of ground fighting wouldn't go astray either.

If you can't do this type of training there , then you will have to cross train at another school or meet up with like minded individuals preferably with back grounds in other styles and train outside school hours.