Better for Sparring:

[Scott]

Better to:

1) Try to defend yourself with what works TO YOU, and learn to make your fighting look more like Wing Chun should look as you practice sets and drills.

OR

2) While sparring, limit yourself to only doing the movements as perfect as possible, even if it slows you down because you can't do them perfectly (If you could, you'd be a master.)

I'm not going to baby you all with a poll, since that limits input. What do you think?

"I'm just an actor, just like Robert f***ing Redford when I say those stupid words that they expect me to say."--Art Alexakis

[kungfu cowboy]

So you should not try to use it until you can control yourself. Otherwise you will just learn bad habits, and be stuck at a low level of skill.

[Anarcho]

I think you have to loosen up in sparring. Personally, I try to pull off the techniques I've been working on. Some of them work better for me than others, and I tend to use them more. Also it's a bit harder to grab when sparring with gloves, even open fingered gloves, so that limits technique selection too. What I'm trying to do with sparring is make my movements as natural and effective as possible, and understand how the techniques I've learned function in a dynamic context. It may not look exactly like what I do in drills, but my aim is to use the same principles as the drills emphasise.

[fmann]

In a real fight, the principles will save you, your techniques may not. When the adrenalin is flowing and your heart is pounding, you're not going to be able to perform every technique perfectly.

For example, even if your "wedge" is not perfect (aka your man sao, wu sao hand positioning), if you step in and chain punch at your opponent at the right time, you'll be okay 90% of the time. Your technique might not be perfect, but applying the principles will be good enough.

So my answer has 2 parts: Train to be as "perfect" as possible, because if you're only 90% good in practicing sets/drills/etc., you're only going to be like 40% good in a real fight. Secondly, in a real fight, you just have to be good enough - use what works effectively.

[whippinghand]

Do you want to refine your techniques, or refine your sparring?

[jesper]

If you use a roundhouse kick to the knee, its not purely a WT kick. Yet it works.
So is that a bad habit?
If you look at it from a scholarly perspective, then yes, since you are using a non WT application.
If you are taking the practical approach then no. Since if used properly it will stop the fight instantly, whether he is sober or mentally unstable from drugs

[Shadowboxer]

Do you spar at a speed where you can be accurate in the execution of techniques? That is what I try to do. I only go as fast as I can while still executing techs properly. Speed will come. It's like playing an instrument-you learn scales so you can improvise and make music. You learn them slowly at first with good time and pitch. Eventually, you will be able to play them fast and without thinking about it. But you can't play fast and clean if you didn't learn them slow and clean. Only go as fast as you can go and be accurate. Speed and reflexes will come.

[S.Teebas]

Concerning sparing, i would say it is important to try new things you are learning all the time. At my school we have varous types of sparing (or at least rules we play by), one is fast and furious quite similar to the intensity your may experience in a real fight.

The other is not so 'realistic' in the fact that we work sparing into chi sau, and generally maintain the same speed. The advantage of this is you can see how you techniques work on a technical level. (Rather than trying to use speed to oversome you opponent you must use technique at constant speed).

If you ever get into a real fight i would advise to keep it real simple. A good example of this is one time a 'prospective student' came into a class and while the instructor was showing him how we do chi-sau, the guy suddenly with out warning punched the instructor in the face! Now this instructor was an amazing fighter, and while i had spared with him numerious times he could pull of every techinque no worries under the wing chun sun perfectly. ...Back to story... when this guy hit him all the WC guy did was 3 chain punches to the face and a kick to the inside thigh, which put the guy on the ground crying....hehe :)

When i first started WC I wanted to be able to kick a in style, ie pulling off a variety of moves that would make me look good while being effective. But since ive trained for a while i realised that simplicity is truly the key to effective fighting. hmm..did i seriously wander off topic? ...oh well :p


S.Teebas

[wingchunalex]

work your techniques, do all of them right, even if they aren't wing chun. if your going to hook kick (round house) to the knee then do it properly, shift and stuff. if you can't do a technique right in sparring than you don't really "know" the techinque. its like those "masters" who say they know wing chun, when all they can do is show you the techniques, but they themselves can't use them under pressure. so start out just sparring slow, that way you can work all of your techniques in, then as you feel more comphortable with them you can pick up the speed.

know yourself don't show yourself, think well of yorself don't tell of yourself. lao tzu