TWC Front Kick?

[fa_jing]

Hi, I noticed when I was studying TWC that the front kick was trained differently from regular Yip Man. The TWC teacher emphasized jumping into the kick, in other words, pushing off with the back leg, landing the front leg in a pivoted position, and following through with a hip thrust to shoot the rear leg forward into the kick. This is similar to one of the power delivery methods for the Thai Kickboxing round kick, where they jump into the pivot.

Whereas in my regular Yip Man lineage, we primarily trained the front kick either by doing stance turns from side to side and kicking, or by using the exchange step (like in Chum Kil) to drive the kick, especially when training with the airsheild.

I noticed that with kicking + stance turning, it is impossible to fully drive the hip into the kick, because that will cause you to step down forward, instead of staying along the line of your side stance. That said, it is still an excellent method for training the kick (and the other major kicks) because you can execute many in a row, and combine the kicks with your San Sik exercises, in other words executing hand techniques followed by kicks.

Here's my question: Are all of these training methods in fact in both lineages? Because all three methods for practicing the front kick are useful to me in practical application.

[KPM]

I think you have to take into consideration the range from which you are throwing the kick. If you are throwing it from further out, you made need a little "hop" to close the distance and you have to worry about penetration. If you are already in contact with the opponent, then you just kick! No hopping needed. Penetration is not a problem. And this adheres to one of the WCK sayings..."have three feet on the ground when kicking." Also keep in mind that TWC works at "long range" more so than other lineages. So you may not find this "hopping" kick in those lineages that prefer to close before kicking.

Keith

[OdderMensch]

in other words, pushing off with the back leg, landing the front leg in a pivoted position, and following through with a hip thrust to shoot the rear leg forward into the kick.

While I cannot speak for TWC, we practice a simmilar kick, it sounds like a "chum sun dim gerk" from a "shueng ma" When preforming "shueng ma" you step the front foot forward, pivot it and bring the rear leg thru with you addcution, resulting in what was the rear leg becomeing the lead leg. (also covering a lot of ground :D) If you kick from this, the 'hip thrust' IMO is from the shifting of the root to the new rear leg, calling it a 'chum sun' kick means I am useing it to "peirce the heart" of the opponent.

[fa_jing]

That sounds like it, OdderMensch. Any idea what "Sheung Ma" translates to? Does it have any other applications besides kicking?

[Phil Redmond]

fa_jing
One of the most important priciples in TWC is interrupt ability. Firstly, we never initiate an attack with a kick except maybe a shin or knee kick. A kick usually follows after contact is made with the arms. Outside of a kick from an entry technique I can't see a hop front kick in TWC.

p.s. I just read the post from OdderMensch. We do hava rear leg front kick in TWC where a little step with the front leg can be used to cover distance.
Phil

[fa_jing]

Thanks Phil. So how do you drill large amounts of kicks in the air in TWC? Say you wanted to do, 100 front kicks in the air. Would you use the side-neutral stance and stance-shifting?

[OdderMensch]

"two stances" we use it to cover distnce and maintain contact.

[Ultimatewingchun]

In TWC, we will sometimes initiate an attack using a lead sidekick
to the opponents' lead knee/front theigh area - but only when in a PARALLEL position vis-a-vis the opponent...(His left leg leads and our right leg leads...Or his right leg leads and our left leg is in front)...

The Hop front kick is sometimes utilized when we are in a CROSS
position vis-a-vis the opponent...(His left leg leads and our left leg leads...Or his right leg leads and our right leg leads in front.

But the hop front kick from the CROSS-LEG position is usually a follow-up technigue...whereas the sidekick from the PARALLEL-LEG
position can be used (much more safely) as a blatant first move of our attack.

[fa_jing]

Thanks for the clarifications from PR and UltimateWC, and for Oddermensch's input too. At the time I was taught the technique, I was just beginning and didn't have the conceptual understanding of when the technique was used.

Personally, I have used the hop front kick, as well as a hop side kick with the rear leg in sparring a few times. As a long-range entry technique to bring the opponent's guard down, or to try to surprise the opponent, then following up with punches. It is not one of my more common techniques in application, however. I think one of the main values it has is for training, to teach you to generate power by thrusting your hip into the kick and moving forward. I use a variation of this mechanic to deliver my rear-leg front and side kicks when training with the airshield.