car accidents

[foolinthedeck]

hello again fellow fools,

i wondered this:
how much would training wing chun help with car accidents? not much maybe, but a little perhaps. my thinking is that the power generation can be similar to that which deal whiplash injuries in car crashes, being able to cope with being struck hard may help, training siu lim tao may make recovery quicker, having good hand eye coordination and conditioned responses may affect reflexs.. etc.

has anyone on this forum ever been in a car accident since doing wing chun and was there any benefit?

we may never be involved in a fight on the street, but we may be involved in a car accident of some kind and i'd like to think that training all this time may make us a bit more resilient to harm..

[kungfu cowboy]

My serious guess is that it would help very little, most likely not at all. We are talking some major forces in a car accident occuring very quickly, with possibly no warning, from who-knows-what direction! But I bet wing chun would help against a steamroller!

[Shadowboxer]

I was in a car accident last June. I hit my head on the steering wheel and bruised a rib. Luckily, we had been doing Tu gerk conditioning where your partner kicks you on the side of your body around your lats/rib area. I think I would have been more hurt had I not been doing this conditioning. The wreck also seemed to happen in slow motion once I realized I couldn't avoid it.

[Atleastimnotyou]

when i got into a car accident i had been doing wing chun for almost four years. I slammed into the back of this car doing 45 mph. i walked away without anything wrong... i wasn't even sore... was that cuz of wing chun?... no, it was because i was paying absolutely no attention to the road so when it happened i didn't brace at all. i didn't even realize what happened till after i was at a stop.

[PaulH]

I honestly don't know this is due to WC training or not, but my car once skidded on the freeway interchange ramp during the rain soon right after the Friendship gathering. I banged my car on both side's rails as it zig zagged between lanes before it came to a complete stop. I was calmly detached throughout and just tried to flow with the car momentum avoiding potential full head on impacts. I literally escaped the jaw of death that time. I thank my good angel for this. But sometimes I do wonder of the mind silence and the flow of WC spring when I am driving.

Regards,
PH

[kungfu cowboy]

Wing chun does however help me pick lottery numbers.

[anerlich]

My instructor, as a passenger, was asleep in a car when the driver ploughed into a tree - my instructor went through the windscreen and broke his ankle, didn't help him much.

Athleticism may help you escape the impact, being in good condition may reduce the damage and allow you to heal faster, shock absorption skills may help with minor impacts ... chi sao wouldn't, by the time the touch reflexes became relevant it would be WAY too late.

I'd suggest that defensive driving training would be be far better than WC if your goal is to not get hurt in car accidents.

[sticky fingers]

Having a strong neck from doing throwing arts will help with minimizing whiplash injuries in minor accidents. Hitting the mat from being thrown has a similar effect to the neck to a sudden impact of a minor car collison.

[foolinthedeck]

thanks for your exp.
i wouldnt suggest that anyone learn wc in order to do better in car accidents...

just trying to think outside the box, i was hoping we could draw some parallels between our power generation, pivoting, damage reduction etc and other things outside of wc.

has anyone been in earthquakes, falling elevators, mudslides, etc and had any experiences to share?

byeeeee!

[Mr Punch]

I do have a friend who was run over at about 60 mph. He bounced off the front, flew over the top, landed on the road, his sleeve snagged in the back bumper, and was dragged for around 70 m along the road.

He did say, he wished he'd done more aiki and less karate, then his first response would have been to get out of the way, but as it was his first response was to block the oncoming danger!

I have another friend who reckoned his taichi and wingchun relaxation and short power enabled him to rip off a car door after a crash when his kids were still in the car. I also put this down to him being hyoooge however.

There's a story somewhere on the net I read about one of the more famous (maybe first gen Yip man student) sifu who thinks his relaxed elbow energy saved him from eating dash in a car crash once. Can't remember who though.

[desertwingchun2]

On a new section of freeway south of Phoenix there was a wreak this morning. A full size sedan was upside down on the embankment. Approximately 50 - 60 feet behind the car was a white sheet covering a corpse. Wing Chun or no Wing Chun this guy didn't make it.

9-3-93 two friends in a SUV (a model now infamous for rolling over) hit railroad tracks at just the wrong speed and, possibly, angle. Both seatbelted both dead.

A few years back on the freeway between Phoenix and Casa Grande during a BAD dust storm (In Phoenix dust storms a mile high and miles wide with little to no visibility are not uncommon) the drivers side front tire of an eighteen wheeler was sitting squarly on or rather in the drivers seat of a passenger vehicle. No blanket, no helicopter, no energy training could have saved that guy.

-David

[duende]

I nearly had my car totalled when some freak came burning out of a KFC and drove head on into me.

Great huh?? Funny enought, the airbag in my '97 Toyota Tacoma didn't deploy either. Do I think my WC training helped??? Absolutely!!! Why?? Because I didn't tense up when I saw this ******* heading for me. Believe it or not, I just resolved myself that there was no way out of the situation, and just let the impact pass me by.

Luckily my seat belt caught, and kept me from hitting the steering wheel too hard. I just got some minor whiplash. The only part of me the really suffered was my elbow hitting my door, so now it gets sore sometimes when I work out.

Anyways, that's my experience.

[Redd]

Originally posted by desertwingchun2
On a new section of freeway south of Phoenix there was a wreak this morning. A full size sedan was upside down on the embankment. Approximately 50 - 60 feet behind the car was a white sheet covering a corpse. Wing Chun or no Wing Chun this guy didn't make it.

9-3-93 two friends in a SUV (a model now infamous for rolling over) hit railroad tracks at just the wrong speed and, possibly, angle. Both seatbelted both dead.

A few years back on the freeway between Phoenix and Casa Grande during a BAD dust storm (In Phoenix dust storms a mile high and miles wide with little to no visibility are not uncommon) the drivers side front tire of an eighteen wheeler was sitting squarly on or rather in the drivers seat of a passenger vehicle. No blanket, no helicopter, no energy training could have saved that guy.

-David

It is their own fault for failing to cross train in grappling and kali.