Drunken Monkey

oh god , i had a wonder of a kebab last night. it was their 'special'. 1 skewer of shish 1 skewer of kofte 1 skewer of chicken shish a big pile of doner another big pile of chicken doner and because it's me, no salad, extra chilli sauce. all washed down with flat coke that we had in the house...

but mayonnaise isn't scottish...

where do you train again? i'm not far from your location. we could meet and cross hands. i'm currently sifu-less and apart from my little kickboxing class, don't get much outside training. always looking for new training buddies.

how about gloves? hmm, this beginning to sound more interesting. i mean, the other guy is a karate chappie, right? y'know, what's always bothered me is that i never unsderstood why a wing chun guy is going to be hindered by gloves. sure, what's normally available to him by ways of trapping (in the small circle at least) and gripping/pulling is reduced but then the other guy can't do this either. to be honest, this only really works against wing chun anyway... (besides, if you're complaining about not being to trap then i say that you are seeking the arms, not trying to hit) BUT he can still do big circle traps and grip/drag on the outside+turn stance. the biggest and most common target we train is the head. we train to strike head/face. blocks and guards are possible with gloves and this is where wing chun is supposed to be strong. i ignore things such as the favourite eye gouge+throat strikes because that is a dumb argument (this isn't a life threatening fight so why use life threatening moves?). what i like i too see, is how he'll deal with incoming kicks.

y'know, he died on my 18th birthday... anyway. you guys might have nticed that i don't really like to talk shop.... i will say though that chi sau is different things to differnt people. even the same person can and will do it differently depending on what he is looking for at that particular time. nearly all of the wing chun school i've seen and been to, they try as much to teach you the chinese names of moves. this is so that no matter what school you turn up at, you'll know what they're talking about. i have never heard of a 'chainsaw' punch...

no shadow hand is something they made up for a film.

rules and gloves aren't good for anyone. y'know, i caught some of the previous fights here (including the gary turner win). there was a boxer who got demolished because he was unable to deal with low kicks.... just cos i'm too lazy to look them up, what are k1 rules?

well, we aren't actually taught 'sweeps' as such, more like what can be done in certain positions to get him onto the floor and how we can get into those positions. the simplest example is when you step to his side facing off his centre. from here, by turning your stance you have his balance. any additional movement from your hands will increase the effect. add to this any forward motion he has and again, the effect of his unbalance increases. i guess what we aim to do first is to control his balance. the 'finish' is taking the base. like all things wing chun, it's then a case of mix and match to get whatever you're comfortable with.

y'know, i have to admit that i'm a bit of a trainer freak and this sounds like another excuse for me to buy another few pairs!

this can get ugly, very quickly so maybe i should remind people. nothing um, below the belt please.... oops. anyway. i think the situation changes my favourite smell. at night, in bed, the smell of my girlfriends neck... in the morning, juat waking up, the smell of the espresso pot bubbling on the cooker... in the afternoon, sat at my drawing table before lunch, the smell of something in the oven wafting around the house... different things i like. the smell of the air after a flash thunder storm. the bakery that i used to pass on the way to school (many many years ago...). yeah, petrol/gasoline is a good one too.

hmm..... tempting but i know i shouldn't.

watching too many films there sonny....

and in japanese society there are two degrees of bowing.

well, the 'if you don't move...' thing is just one of the general sayings we have and is applied to more than just facing off. it isn't to be taken as a fixed 'rule'. also, you have to realise that these things are applied to our own abilities(the sil tim tao guy will do things differently to the bil gee guy). example if you are way out of range; more than 6 feet away; then i say that i don't have to move BUT when you beging to move towards my 'safety zone' i begin to 'move'. or in a friendly game and we have crossed hands i don't feel you move so i don't have to but i feel movement i will react. as for the whole balance thing, i was trying to be general as different wing chun people do things differently. even basics such as stance, stepping, structure, rotations are things that i have seen to be different. i don't want to start another 'my wing chun is better' argument with anyone.... so i stick to general comments. we do step off centre as well, usually followed by turning (extra torque) for the technique. well, like i say, i always try to keep things simple here so that the average joe can understand. balance, application of technique, stages of 'combat' are all very complex subjects. too much detail might confuse the matter.

if you don't move i don't move. if you move i move faster. basically, if you're standing there just looking threatening, we don't (have to) do anything. BUT when you are actually doing something, that is when we move. when we move we move forward (toward your centre) keeping you from facing our centre at all times, thus keeping you 'off balance' most of the time. it's not that special. as far as i'm aware, most styles do this anyway. it just looks different.

or just do what a lot of kids do. buy a book. copy the things you can do. ignore the rest. repeat. then buy a video. copy what you can do. ignore the rest. repeat. so many styles, so many books, so many videos.

or here's a simple suggestion; take a grading and see what everyone thinks.

how about if someone knew everything, isn't that good a fighter BUT can teach you to be the best? wouldn't he be a 'master' (also without a doubt more useful)? there's a story of a guy who was known to be able to defeat any opponent using just ONE move. would he be considered a master? or how about the newcomer to a style, learns the basics but understands enough to use the style, according to the styles theories, without learning the 'advanced' techniques. master or not? 'master' is purely objective. i say a master is one who understands something, can use what he understands and explain that thing to people so that they can understand as well.

not exactly the same thing as his example but along the same lines. i'm pretty sure that you and i are talking about the same thing when we say structure or alignment. (but i would've thought 'body structure' was pretty much self explanatory...) the point is, in wing chun, we aim to always maintain 'perfect' structure so that we always face you with our strongest position; thus by just stepping forward we are using our 'total' body weight behind whatever we are doing without over commitment. adding this body weight to whatever 'extra' (i.e pull on your arm+extension of our arm) adds to the effectiveness of our intentions. like i say, i am stating my points purely on the basis of wing chun where ABSOLUTE maximum power isn't our main concern.

you have a belt system? where do you train?

even if this is a legit thread, no one's mentioned the fact that if that guy is wanting to kill you, what you learn between now and him killing you isn't going to help much. he isn't going to wait nicely while you prepare yourself.

think about, does it make sense that anyone can walk around with anything broken, like a finger, that has swollen and gone purple without a parent telling them to go see a doctor? and from purple to all ok in a matter of days? make of it what you will. i'm sure you know what i think.

while we're on the subject of breaking things over your head, why don't we ever see the 'old masters' from the shaolin temple break things? why is it always the fit, young, strong, healthy... oh just answered my own question...

hmm, one thing strikes me about your examples is that against a moving target it might not be so effective. it has also just occured to me that i'm arguing wing chun with your karate and that we do things very differently on a basic level (regarding structure, mobility, interruption etc etc). for us grounded isn't just about lower centre of mass. part of it is purely structural. this is the thing that we have to train. with perfect structure you can resist a frontal push standing on one leg. the thing is, this takes time and even when you can do it, you're not going to 100% of the time when you need it. so for us, there are different degrees of 'structural integrity' (or more/less grounded). slightly more complex than lowering centre of mass. the reason we rely on strucure do much is that we don't punch standing still (as you do in your example). instead we aim to (kinda) push forward with every move to prevent you from having space to do anything. to do this effectively, you need a 'perfect' structure. that way, everytime you make a move forward, you are using near enough 100% of your bodyweight behind your movement while the opponent is effectively, trying to push against the ground.

well, as jerry said elsewhere, the physics involved is actually more complicated than this because well, we're not point masses. one of the facts of reality that, like you say, balance is invoved. in most cases, you would rather be making a good hit AND take their balance.