“What we don’t want to do is just start throwing wild punches, because then we stop learning what the drill is trying to teach us. Also if we step back … out of the drill, you’ve also ended the drill. So the drill is to be ahead of our partner’s timing but not to just start launching wild punches because we’re still trying to develop what the drill is intending to teach us, which is to learn how to change and to continue to chase center of mass. Both of us can just start throwing wild punches but then we stop learning and the drill no longer can teach us. We want to see if we can respond to his actions … we want to be able to respond to what he does and respond in a way that includes precision, that includes speed, that has balance, and then also the structure of the system…and done in a way that keeps my partner safe.”
Greg LeBlanc

There is a saying from the Wing Chun Kuen Kuit: “Jun, Fai, Wan, Geng.” Jun is precision, Fai is speed, Wan is balance, and Geng is power, which can also be thought of as structure.

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I heard that Ip Man felt he peaked as a fighter when he was 50 years old.

The reason why he peaked then is interesting for our approach to fighting.

When you are young, you can muscle things and make them work. This is why the fighters in the UFC are all young men. They are take a bunch of unrelated disciplines (wrestling, boxing, muay thai, ju jitsu) and make them work together through the sheer force of their youth and conditioning.

Male muscular strength peaks around 35. I think endurance peaks much earlier. As you age and lose physical strength, as a fighter, you are forced to replace that declining youthful strength with skill in the form of structure and other qualities. Skill has to take the place of muscle.

There is a laundry list of skills which make up a good fighting system: structure, timing, proper organization of the hands, aggression, forward pressure, turning, stable footwork, and so on. As you develop these, you can not only keep up with the young fighters who still have their youthful powers, you can get ahead of them. You can do things that seem like magic to people who haven’t developed them yet.

These capabilities can allow you to dominate the kids who still have their youthful flexibility and muscle power but don’t have the skills yet.

Martial prowess is a race between knowledge and age. A trained 60 year old may beat an untrained 25 year old.

Maybe.

Ip Man’s story is interesting to me because it underlines the difference between training like a UFC fighter and training in a complete system like Wing Chun.

You need to train structure and timing and the more subtle capacities and refuse to give in to your impulse to muscle fighting situations. If you muscle it, that will work now, but not later, when your body ages.

The whole point of learning a system like Wing Chun is that if you learn the refinements, like structure and timing and positioning and so on, it will still work when you are old, Even when you are very old. Even after you have passed your peak, you may be competitive against much younger fighters.

I’ve studied four systems of Wing Chun.

Admittedly, I never got to far in two of them (one month and a year and a half, respectively).

But in the third system, I basically went nearly as far as was possible.

Yet when I started studying the system that Greg got from Gary Lam via Wong Shun Leung, I found a whole bunch of extra stuff in it!

Gary Lam had added the Muay Thai, but there was a lot of material from Wong Shun Leung (and I assume Ip Man) I’d never seen before.  Outside of the mindset and the “taking position” ideas, I don’t think these elements are the most important aspects of the system, but it does give you a certain ability to flow with opportunity and to deal with adversity and changing fortunes.

What was missing from those other systems?

Pushing, pulling, tripping, standing grappling, and much of the kicking.  And Po Pai.

I think integration of pushing, pulling, kicking, Po Pai, trips, with hitting adds dimensionality and surprise to the system. You can see it in the demo from Wang Zi Peng (a Wong Shun Leung student who teaches in China) below. Most of the stuff in his demo is in the Wong Shun Leung system (we have Chokyu standing grappling), but Wang Zhi Peng may also be playing with some Shuai Jiao (Chinese system of grappling and throws).  This is what someone can do after they have mastered Wing Chun.  They can use it as a frame for their other skills and talents. It can all blend together into a personal expression (as Bruce Lee would say).

These are all actions of opportunity.  You don’t quite get into the right position, so their missed punch can turn into a pull.  If they get traction, you can switch to a push, or a trip, guiding their head into a wall of the ground.

If you miss one kick, you can go with another.  If you regain to the ground too close, you might have the opportunity to turn then and use a lock to disrup their balance.  It all depends on what the opponent and the moment gives you in terms of opportunities.

But at the highest level, this ability to move between ranges and find opportunities at any distance is something beautiful to behold.

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