New Year, New Beginning

Pain is temporary. It may last for a minute, or an hour, or a day, or even a year. But eventually it will subside and something else will take it’s place. If I quit however, it will last forever

`Author unknown

Happy New Year everyone.

Hopefully one of your resolutions is perfecting and learning more Wing Tsun. If so, I’ll help you get started with a few tips on the WT punch.

In WT, we like to use the chain punch. This is a very useful tool for the new WT student because it gives them something that can be used in self- defense right away. A beginner doesn’t have a lot of stopping power in their punch, so by chain punching, you aren’t relying on one punch to do the job, but a whole barrage of punches.

While chain punching can be relentless, they shouldn't be mindless. In other words, we don't just flip on a switch and become Rock 'em Sock 'em robots...throwing punches in a flurry and hoping to God one of them finally gets through and we hit him more than he hits us.

One mistake that is made when applying the punch is staying at a boxing range and hitting only with the arms. This can be very easily dealt with by an opponent. When performed properly, you are hitting with your whole body; the fist is just the delivery system....this is not so easy for an opponent to deal with.

Even with perfect accuracy and trajectory, if you stay at boxing range several things are happening...none of them good.

You are allowing your arms to extend, which causes you to lose your optimal arm angle. This allows your opponent to grab your arms, apply arm locks, or shoot in under your arms.

You are trading punches with them...if he's a boxer, he will be much better at this than you are.

Better then to close the distance. This keeps your arms bent at the proper angle of 135 degrees. He will have much more trouble trying to apply an arm lock, shooting under becomes more problematic for him as your elbows are lower.

By moving in, you are stepping in with your entire mass behind the punch, so now you are no longer trading punches with him. Instead, he is rocked back on his heels and off balance.

You still extend your punch, but now you are extending through him instead of to him. As your punch knocks him back you don't give him the luxury of increasing the distance. You stay with him and continue the barrage of attacks.

The arms should develop springiness through chi sau so that the fists aren't simply clubs on the ends of battering rams. They should fold and bend around whatever obstacle or whatever force is being given to us by the opponent, all the while maintaining structure.., be it tan sau, bong sau, jum sau...then, when the opening is presented, the arms lash out. But again, this is very important, in a proper punch, it's not just the arms but the whole body.

When you chain punch, you are not pulling the other hand back, rather you’re allowing your triceps to relax which causes your fist to retract to the area of the elbow of the other arm.

Think of a light switch on a wall...instead of clicking the triceps on, then off again when you pull the arm back, think of a dimmer switch. The punch goes out, the switch is all the way on, when the punch relaxes, the triceps are being "dimmed" but are still "on".

This gives springiness and constant forward force to the arm even in retraction.

If you pull the arm back, you are activating the biceps. A strong opponent can use that to his advantage and crash through by adding to your pulling motion.

So there you go…a few tips and ideas to help you out with your training in the new year. Happy 2019…keep punching.