Week 17

Chain punching against the pads.

This drill was used to practise having high quality punches with locked elbows as this will ensure you are punching through the target and not on to the surface of it. Another attribute it trains is tight and precise footwork. These are two things that will maximise the success and quality of our hits, this drill also highlights the corrections that need to be made with punching and footwork.
The drill then can be developed in several ways, the holder breaks the rhythm of your punches by standing firm when they choose, by moving back at different speeds. This simulates either your punches missing the target, your target moving back quicker than you are forward and them just digging in and eating punches. If they dig in then use a hook palm to the skull which will move them and give you another line to continue the punching attack. Martin said this was one of the problems with the rigidity of traditional wing chun and the lack of heavy contact training they do. When hits stop or miss, you need another option, one of them is to change the angle of them with you in a dominant position. The hook palm to the head will do this for you. Secondly if they move back quickly, it is vital that you keep punching to close the distance. It feels naff but has a marked psychological impact on your opponent. In order to maintain punching over distance, use flying change step to cover the distance quickly. The punches will be out of beat count with the feet, hands moving faster.

Arm drag series

Working the reps quickly to keep up the temperature of the class.
1. Regular arm drag when arm on shoulder, as hitting move the grabbed elbow towards the opposite hip, this will increase the negation of the free hand to hit. The punch has the elbow aligned with the fits, hit into the jaw line and soft tissue of the neck.
2. Uppercut attack – sink the spine as arm dragging to get under his arm. Make sure the back of the fist faces his chest.
3. Swing back and hit early. This is nice a sit really messes with their spatial orientation and before they can centre themselves, they are being hit,

In fighting sparring techniques:

Here we were investigating the concept of action-reaction and Martin was showing us some of his favourite techniques to use in sparring. He said that he always uses simple and non-complicated techniques. All of the following looked seamless and simple yet as usual not as easy as Martin made them look. That is the true sign of quality movement, be it martial arts, football, tennis etc. is that if it looks easy and effortless then it clearly is at a level that we should aspire to perform.
Partner is holding the back of your neck in half can opener position (his right hand), you have got strong wrist control on his left arm with your right hand, your left hand is pushing against the crook of the arm on your neck. The techniques below need to keep a good strong wrist control. It is important for his brain to receive a consistent message as well as the add ons of action reaction you are feeding him.
Push hard against the arm and this will produce a reaction by him to push off, use this energy and come off and around and hit with an uppercut to the jaw. Make sure there is a slight bend in the legs as this will give more power to the hit.
Same push as above but this time he is aware that when you release you will hit so his elbow starts to flap up and down to defend the hit. Now you need to employ the twitch hit. Push hard and hit your own ribs with your elbow (left) then come over the top of the elbow crease for the hit to the jaw. Ensure the twitch is fast to evoke a sound
From a slightly different position (right wrist control, left chop intercepted, forward energy) you are trying to use kau sau to get in and hit to the body. Martin likened it to a spazzy flapping elbow. Essentially the left elbow goes up, down, up. By doing this quickly and erratically the elbow enters and controls his elbow and just ends up in the right place to kau sau with the left. Nothing fancy, quite the opposite, messy but simply effective.

Sparring.

Perhaps this is the part of training I enjoy the most yet find the hardest. I had lost of great experiences this session – working for the double underhook lock up as few people look for this, I find it very very tiring but look to use the stamina challenge to focus technique and working under pressure when very tired. This was something I used to enjoy in BJJ. I would try to out work my partner and give them a good hard fight as I never would give up from a cardio perspective. I am trying to do this in wing chun sparring, never give up no matter how knackered I become. Growth through hardship. Things that I need to work on are
1. Footwork: I have the awful habit of having a very wide lateral stance, I need to focus and tighten it up by having more consistent ‘tightness’ to my stance.
2. Body alignment inefficiency: Martin pointed out that I lean side to side when looking to enter and apply techniques. I need to keep my spine vertical and more disciplined. Compact motion and movement.
3. The three ranges: Martin said that we need to work on making the transition between the 3 ranges (Entry range, in fighting range and grappling range). He said the transition between them are not smooth and thus too easy to read. When sparring with Kam this was most apparent to me (in retrospect) he stuffed my double underhook attempts with ease, kindly lumping my forehead and blackening my left eye in the process.