WT Vehicle Part 2

To me Wing Tsun is a vehicle for us to learn how to fight. It’s a means of teaching us how to use our body as a weapon but it does not dictate what the final end product will be.  This could be said of any martial art whether it’s karate, kung fu, brazilian jiu jitsu, etc.  It does not necessarily (although there will be influences) dictate how you will fight but it provides you with the skills, tool and knowledge you can use to incorporate into your fighting. Some like the kata and hardcore aspect of training and turn to kyokushin karate.  Others prefer a softer approach as it better reflects their personality or physical attributes and turn to bagua zhang.  In either case, one style doesn’t determine who the better fighter is.  The style simply better suits the person’s learning style so as to better encourage them, provide the necessary tools and skills that fit their body type and temperament, and it would also reflect their understanding of the fight – its psychology, its variables, its emotion. In any event, the style itself is no guarantee of fighting ability.

 

Some will argue that some styles are simply better tailored for fighting than others. Sure, maybe that’s true. Just like how jeeps are better tailored for earthy terrain compared to a Porsche boxter.  But then again, the boxter is better suited for the windy tarmac terrain compared to the jeep. This discussion is best suited for another day…

 

There’s a point where the vehicle does its job – it’s built solidly, has a firm suspension, 415 horses, etc - and so crossing the finish line is all on the driver. . So you’re the driver. You got your tan sao (for the most part), you got your structure (for the most part), you got yourself some good chain punches (for the most part) and you’ve got some tactile sensitivity (for the most part) – these are all aspects we train in class with a partner - So now how are you going to translate that over to the free-fighting scenario?

 

I think this is a question that many are scared to ask themselves.  It’s like day 1 all over again. You’re training your body to react in a different way. It’s fun, but also painful – not only physically but also to the ego. But you can’t let that stop you from what your goals are. Heck, if that were true, WT is not for you.  But this is something where little attention is paid, either in the classroom or even in the martial arts media.  Applied WT is different from WT fighting and it would be something that I’d like to see and trying to figure out for myself…

 

Am I asking that we should spar or, dare I say it, bring into the octagon? Not necessarily. I do appreciate the difference between a street fight from a cage fight – but they do share similarities and introduce variables not found in partner drill training.  In our class, we look at the entire spectrum of fully offensive to fully defensive, from using lots of forward pressure to very little, from an aggressive offensive position to a worse-case compromised position, so why not incorporate some aspect of free-fighting variability, un-cooperative play and physical resistance?

 

Until then and happy new year!