Ultimate Defense

With more and more people taking up kick boxing or MMA-like martial arts these days, a common defensive move they are taught is the 'boxer's cover up" where the arms are held up to the head, protecting it from getting hit and letting the forearms take the blows.

This is a very easy move to teach and implement. It also caters to our natural instincts as well.

Gone are the "karate" days where people would actively block in an outwards fashion.

So how do you crack through the defense of the boxer's cover up? Do you go for the body shots? Do you resort to elbows? Do you try to jolt the arms out of the way?

What is your tactic?

If you aim for the body - how do you protect yourself from getting hit? Do you have enough punching power to do damage to the body? Are you trapped with chain punching where punching to the body feels awkward?

If you use your elbows - how do you manage to maintain a close distance? are you accurate enough to hit your intended target or only manage to hit the forearms?

If you move the arms out of the way - do you have enough power to move the arms out? What if the attacker has thick forearms? what if the arms don't move out of the way?

So what do you do?

Until then.

Sticking Hands

One of the signatures of wing chun is its sticking hand drill. It develops tactile reflexes, body structure, stance, coordination of footwork and handwork, and provides a relatively safe environment to increase the intensity without full-out sparring or fighting.

But what's the problem with sticking hands?

For starters, there's the idea that sticking hands is a measure of fighting skill. I always find it funny that wing chun teachers generally challenge each other with sticking hands drill or criticize the other's ability in sticking hands but they don't actually free fight.

Sticking hands encourages the concept of sticking and not hitting. The ability to hit becomes secondary in nature and has to be trained back into the student after he's learned how to stick. Ironic, considering that it's a fighting are we are learning after all.

Sticking hands can be too convoluted, choreographed and complex. It becomes a dance rather than a fighting drill.

Sticking hands can be addictive and can cater to one's comfort zone. Why fight when you can just chi-sao? Why do push-ups when you can just chi-sao? why do step and punching drills when you can chi-sao?

what are you thoughts?

Until then