Ideal vs Actual Fighting

There are two camps out there. One camp feels that their wing chun/tsun will shine when it's needed - it will reflect what they learn and train during their chi-sao sessions. They will be able to escape grabs, trap and hit the opponent.

The other camp, however, feels differently. They feel that although wing chun is a good foundation, what is taught in chi-sao isn't expressed much when under the context of a real fight/full contact match. You can see much of this on Youtube where the wing chun guy gets taken to the ground and is then helpless for the remainder of the bout. Or...getting knocked out by a right cross (Whatever happened to the "shortest distance between two points is a straight line?").

In my own experience and training, for myself, i would say the latter is more reflective of reality. In many of our drills, our partners keep their arms out which are vulnerable for further manipulation, but when fighting against an unwilling opponent, it's very rare that they keep their arms out and available.

It's quite possible for those that are much more skilled than me to make their wing chun work and apply "trapping" and such by the way.

I would have to say that chi-sao, sections, drills etc give us ideas, drill tactile reflexes into our arms, increase stress and develop structure and striking power from an upright, natural position. But it does not reflect the flight scenario, rather provides the foundation for a good punch.

You can see in many full contact fights, fighters rely on a handful of moves. Same is going to happen to the wing chun fighter, in my opinion. That being, the kick, step and punch. Which means your punch better have boom. Your structure better be there to provide the boom and the foundation to stay planted on the ground.

Sensitivity will help your punch get to where it needs to go and to provide tactile defense (eg. creating space, knowing when you're in trouble, taking advantage of space/distance). It will also get rid of some of the thinking ("just rush in" and let the reflexes take over).

So my response to all those youtube clips...these guys don't REALLY have boom in their punches, nor, in my opinion, have they trained simple step and punch against resisting partners.

Until then.