I was just watching some clips like these on another forum. A lot of the WC guys were really negative, saying it looked a lot like boxing, kickboxing or bad MMA. I don't know. Add gloves, pressure and things change. After all, when you come down to it, WC is supposed to be southern Chinese boxing right? [ame="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mAf-UE5PbrI"]Wing Chun Sparring - Light Sparring 2 - Alan Orr - Chu Sau Lei Wing Chun - YouTube[/ame] [ame="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DP-DdxkEV0Y"]SJ & Andy Wing Chun Sparring - Chu Sau Lei Boxing - Bournemouth - YouTube[/ame] To me it doesn't look much like WC, but I can see some of the concepts in there. I do like to see people experiment and find ways to make things work. Anybody else got some good clips?
HK vs ? It might also be worth considering that the Yip Man, HK version of WC is what most people think of as WC. There are ''side body'' versions, versions that use a deeper horse (rather than a goat riding stance) and others that look even different in how they move. My vietnamiese WC sifu taught a version of WC that had leg movements most HK WC people would have thought more like Hung gar than WC. Alan's stuff is very functional which is always a good thing in martial arts irrespective of what anyone else thinks ;' ) FWIW LFD
or.. or OP, you can talk to Alan over on KFO if you aren't already on that forum. People were slagging him off a bit because of the way his stuff looks and he came on the forum and had lots of discussions. He is very approachable and friendly in my experience. I met him at a seminar years ago where they had reps from 4 different wing chun branches all explaining what and why they did what they did. He kindly does not get into the trap of my version is better than yours, only this is my version and this is why we do it that way. On the other hand if you wanted to see if your version and it's principles worked as well as his did I know that you would find Alan or one of his group would be willing to step up to the plate and let you have a go. He did say to people I don't spar, if we go it's going to be a fight with a clear outcome which tended to put people off :evil:. FWIW LFD
I like it. The bits of WC I see in the op videos are slick. Although you can tell the guy in the tanktop hasn't really been in it very much. Every time he engages, he ends up looking through his cheekbones instead of his eyebrows and you can see him getting rocked as a result right off the bat at the beginning. I can see the really straight posture in both of them so maybe it's a personal thing rather than the result of that particular quirk. Not really high level striking but I do like it and the WC that's there is a benefit, so props. PS, the guys that will choose to learn from someone who is demonstrably crap at fighting over someone who is demonstrably not on the basis of whether it looks like the chun ought really to just be ignored.
If we took your advice, we'd ignore 90% of the WC guys and as for the remainder, Wing Chun would once again be something little known but well thought of. Hmmmm let me think about that.
The rationale I was given for the "head back" positioning in WC... I'm guessing that's what you are referring to by "looking throught his cheekbones... is that it gives you greater range when fighting someone of similar reach using the same (wc) techniques. Since most people fight like boxers, throwing their shoulder behind their punches, that reach advantage is lost. Yet the habit persists.
Except it doesn't give you any reach advantage at all over someone who stands up straight and tucks his chin, it jacks up your balance and body mechanics and ruins any real ability to advance decisively. I see the other guy standing up very straight with his chin tucked. That's cool, you shouldn't bend over for the reason you mentioned. The guy in the tanktop is waving his chin in the air, however. Not cool.
