Wing Chun Vs. Boxing

[Stold]

More specifically, the boxing hook.

 

Any of you that have ever seen a Wing Chun practitioner fight a boxer in a ring, chances are they were wearing boxing gloves, and chances are they lost. Boxing gloves, or any thick gloves for that matter, work against Wing Chun. Anyways, onto the point.

 

I practice wing chun, and have no real problem dealing with and countering MOST boxing techniques. However, there is one that always gets me. And that is the boxing hook.

 

For those of you that don't know, in wing chun they divide the area around your body into gates. Head is in the high gate, chest is in the high middle, abdomen the middle and waist down is the low gate(some styles have an extra gate for the bottom of the abdomen.) The gates extend laterally to your shoulder's width and stop there. Vertically they extend a little ways above your head. Pretty much all fighting and hand movement is done within your gate and your opponents.

 

Now the problem with the boxing hook. I don't believe wing chun principles were designed to deal with it, but I could be wrong, please correct me. A good boxing hook will never pass through the front section of your gates to the target, instead it will come around and strike you laterally from the side of your top gate. The only part of your opponents arm that enters the top gate before the strike is their fist, and ontop of that it enters laterally, which makes it very difficult to block effectively without throwing an arm outside of your gate's to block it at the elbow.

 

I have been taught that leaving your gates with your arms is usually a bad idea, but I would like some other people's opinions on it.

[TJS]

Meet Him wrist to wrist. When you block at his elbow it's alot esier to get the punch thru.

[Stold]

Eh, if you try and meet a real boxing hook wrist to wrist, even if you do meet him you will still get punched somewhere in the head.

[DokterVet]

It's interesting how many martial arts avoid practicing and defending againts hooks.

 

My karate style is much the same way.

 

You would have to heavily modify any karate block (either full block or deflection) to work against a hook.

 

My segestions for defense are

 

1) Bend your arm, and basically place it next to your head next to your ear and take the punch with the arm. This is probably similar to how a boxer would defend against it.

 

2) Try to deflect or block by meeting their arm. You'll probably have to send your arm way out there to meet the elbow (your motion will basically be straight left or right) Even if it isn't standard wing chun, you gotta do what you gotta do. Get the hands out and back in as quickly as possible I guess.

 

I've never really encountered this situation so I'm speaking from a theoretical standpoint here. It's an interesting dilema though...the fact that punches that are shunned from martial arts can be some of the most difficult to defend.

[TJS]

Eh, if you try and meet a real boxing hook wrist to wrist, even if you do meet him you will still get punched somewhere in the head.

 

um, no? so it's impossible to block a hook?

[Stold]

DokterVet: Yeah, that seems like the only option. But we are taught to look over the principles and theories real well before we decide to do something that kind of goes against them.

 

TJS: I never said it was impossible. I said if you try and nlock a real boxing hook wrist to wrist you are still going to get punched somewhere in the head.

[Kirves]

One more option: When he hooks, you clinch.

[iolair]

I tend to avoid hooks by movement: either toward or away from the attacker, or ducking. If someone is a good enough boxer that they are throwing in strong hooks (even though I can do them myself), my preferred option is to swtich from punching range... so either move back to longer punches and kicks, or move in to grapple.

 

But really, its a lot easier to move your head out the way of a hook than it would be to block it... go watch some boxing on TV and you'll see what I mean.

[jeffin]

Hooks are tricky things in that the arm isn't used so much as its the whole body behind the power generation.

 

A technically perfect hook will be close to the strikers body (thus necessitating being very close to the opponent) and the elbow and forearm will be horizontal to ground and parralell to body therefore meeting it wrist to wrist wouldn't work.

 

Getting out of technicalities and into real fighting a hook can range from a haymaker to a short dig. Again going wrist to wrist with any of these is bad.

 

IMO if your getting hooked your getting attacked viscously or your going toe to toe with someone, here's the viable defences as I know them;

 

Clinch has already been mentioned, frankly going toe to toe with someone is shit scary for me (though I love it - wierd) and I will clinch If I feel pressurised. Its not a defence though, go to clinch as someones hooking you and its bedtime.

 

The standard silat/boxing gaurd for swings is the bicep and forearm covering the head, depends on the person of how much it covers but it had better be tight.

 

Movement either getting out of the way or bobbing and weaving, most essential defence because its all very well to block a hook but you can be damn sure theres a cross/hook/jab or something following it and its gonna hurt.

 

pete,

[WC-Strayder]

I’ve always go in and stop the hook before it hits me by setting my hand against his/hers upper arm. It works great against hooks!. Build a triangle with your arms and ram it between his hook and his neck, then grab his neck and pull his face or stomach in your ramming knee.

 

That’s the Wing Chun way!.