Demos

One of the things that wing chun gets a bad rap for is its excessive use of demonstrations. Wing Tsun, in particular, has a plethora of demos you can watch - just youtube it. Some are really good, some are mediocre and some are..well..not so great.

I think it's easy for student to get caught in the confusion that your demonstration is a reflection of skill. The guy you're hitting is co-operating with you, so don't be fooled in thinking that because your opponent flops over that a real-life attacker will do the same.

THAT SAID, I do believe that demonstrations do have its place as a training tool for the wing tsun student. The rush of adrenaline, that tingling feeling in your finger tips...these are all physiological reactions that can somewhat simulate the fight environment. What this allows for is more freedom of expression of YOUR wing tsun under those edgy/nervous conditions, while still being controlled with a relatively co-operative partner. This can also reveal where you fall behind on...perhaps too stiff, perhaps your own attacks bounce off the opponent, you slip on to the floor - anything can happen. But how do you react after? ..especially with an audience, a camera or two?

Also important, demonstrations should show the FUN of learning wing tsun. you don't always have to be a bad ass. The audience knows this is just a demo, not a fight. So i say have some fun with that, keep them entertained. But hey, there's nothing wrong with bad-ass demos either.

One thing though - no slow poke demos. Those are boring and really don't elicit excitement, nor is it believable to the audience that the moves work. i'd rather see a guy blast through his attacker with simple chain punches then some snail-paced complicated elbow and finger striking sequence.

If you've never participated in one, I say try it. If you spar all the time, your body gets used to that environment and the adrenaline/nervousness rush decreases. Through yourself into a demo environment with a huge audience, and it gets that fire going again.

But of course, skill in demonstrations does not necessarily translate to skill on the street.

Until then.