Discover Wing Chun Fancy Footwork - Not Really Chinese Dancing!
Discover the Secrets of Wing Chun Footwork - It's NOT Chinese Dancing!
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What's that new dance step youre doing, Yoshi?
I hear that all the time. Even from guys who should know better. You probably do also, particularly if you practice footwork for Wing Chun. Wing Chun, or Chinese Dancing is a soft style with a strong philosophical bent to it. The name originally came from the ideograms for Ever Spring, and its well-suited. I was fed up of walking with bruises and sore muscles, and I needed to change to a softer style while I was recovering. I enjoy Kung Fu styles, so learning Wing Chun was like falling off a log. Only without as much falling, or as many punches to the sternum as most King Fu styles. But the joint locks did remind me I was practicing an actual martial art. (One piece of advice anyone who says Hey, let me show you a joint lock! is a maniac. Just say "no thanks". Really.) In some ways, Wing Chun is like the early forms exercises you practice in Kung Fu, then carried to their logical extreme, rather than used as the fundamentals for a hard style.
What drew me to Wing Chun, aside from the sprained wrist on my dominant punching hand, was the fluid footwork that its practitioners possessed. Well, I'll be honest. It was the fluid footwork that I saw in Jet Lis movies, while I was waiting for my wrist to heal and strengthen. Even so, just from watching the movies, I could see immediate uses for Wing Chun footwork in my repertoire of techniques once my wrist was healed. Wing Chun footwork has a focus on balance more so than with a strong kicking style, which can leave you very vulnerable attempting a circle kick.
Particularly, the footwork demands that you get into a low stance, but not so low that your mobility is diminished. Everybody who practices martial arts has heard of this stance, or that stance. but unless youre working in front of a mirror, youll do the easiest stance you can get away with without your sparring partner kicking you a new one. What's great about Wing Chun is that the form drills (San Sik is what theyre called) REALLY emphasize fluid movements. if you are doing it correctly you will break a sweat. The muscles in your quads and hamstrings are going to burn fortunately, the end result is certainly worth it. These forms become like second nature, as if theyre learned by your knees and hips, and you just do them after the pain has faded away.
Of course, everyone will be talking about your new dance steps, but Wing Chun footwork pays for itself nicely. Since learning it, Ive been much more conscious of how my bent knees increase my reach with elbow strikes and punches, and its been much harder to take me to the mat in Jiu Jitsu. The parts Ive had to compensate for from the footwork, Ive learned have been in mobility. Its sometimes possible to plant too hard which makes it tempting to break stance to give pursuit. Particularly when youre flowing from a down block and trying to transition into a kick - it's at that point, the Wing Chun footwork has to kind of skip a beat while you switch back to a harder Kung Fu kick.
Either way, Im glad I took the time to learn this form. Its provided me an excellent base to work forward from, and a few more surprises to throw into sparring matches. Particularly fun is when someone teases me about the dance steps and then comes up to me and says "How the heck did you do that, Yoshi?".
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Yoshi Kundagawa is a freelance journalist. He covers the
mixed martial arts industry. For a free report on The Mother Of All Wing Chun Wooden Training Dummy Specials!visit his blog.
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