Wing chun energies.

[Mr Punch]

Some people (myself included) like to bandy about different expressions for different energies, like dissipating, crushing, rising (uprooting) etc. And we often associate these with specific techniques: dissipating tan, uprooting tan, uprooting bong etc.

Robert Chu describes 14:

chum: collapsing or sinking

dai fa: guiding or leading

fou: floating, unbalancing or uprooting

jeet fa: intercepting or beating your opponent to the strike.

jie fa: using your opponent's energy

jip fa: linking after a break in connection in your body

jiu fa: (not sure how this is an energy...) gor sao methods like tan da

jou fa: running from pressure

mun/yin fa: asking or enticing

sim fa: evasive footwork and body placement

tao/lou fa: leaking, stealing, taking opportunity

tou: contact force

tuen fa: delinking

tun: swallowing/dissolving

Some of these are different to my school's, some of them seem to have a lot of crossover, and some of them I don't really understand in this format!

I would break them down into: uprooting, dissipating, crushing/sinking, asking and jamming (maybe a cross between Robert Chu's sinking and intercepting).

I would say maybe the essence of my kung fu is sinking/crushing. I don't know if this is just me or my school, and I don't know if I'm over-reliant on it but it seems to work for me. By using it effectively my strike can take people down or crush their centre of balance... yet wing chun does not seem to have 'beng' like hsingyi (kuzushi in judo and other JMA).

Of course I use things like linking and delinking but I would describe them less as an energy and more as a skill.

That's all for now, but any thoughts? Anyone want to weigh in with what you're taught in your school?

[couch]

Interesting stuff.

The way I think about it doesn't include such a comprehensive list!!! ;)

I like to think that there's only two ways the energy between me and my opponent can go: forward or backwards (or rather towards their centre or towards my centre or even swallowing and spitting).

Now if it's towards my opponents centre, we can expand on this and I say: directly towards the centre from the inside (punch), towards his centre from the outside (say - a pak sau on the elbow), towards the centre and up (like a tuk sau), towards the centre and down or pin (like a jum sau with a step in - what am I saying? Everything should have a step in! :)).

Oh boy! Now you got me trying to explain WC with words!

As for towards my centre (I guess a lot of this would be considered swallowing?), this would never really consider straight, as I would still eat a straight punch - however...it has different variations...

up (biu), down(jut and that extended straight crane hand at the end of the SNT that sweeps down) and to either side by varying degrees (ex: returning arm).

I hope this all makes sense! I would be happy to clarify.

All the best,
Kenton

[tjwingchun]

I teach "ENERGY" understanding all the different ways you can create energy in different body parts and learning to combine them for cumulative effect, the energy is the same no matter what direction, the difference is just how you use it.

I define the energy simply as "KINETIC ENERGY" = half the mass x velocity squared.

The emphasis is on the velocity (speed) not the mass (weight) of the body part in question, as any increase mass simply multiplies the resulting energy whereas with increases in velocity it goes up exponentially. Understanding the importance of direction, combination and timing of the energies is one thing, getting them working effectively is why we practice, having the words is different from being able to use them.

By isolating each body part using individual movements in the forms we can investigate these energies as exaggerated, abstract techniques, once learned we can build our knowledge of how they work together to become explosive full-body energies.

When I do ANY technique I use energies from ALL of the forms at the same time. I don't have different descriptive terminologies because in my mind it would be too confusing.

Which energy do I use?

ALL OF THEM THAT ARE IN THE SAME DIRECTION OF YOUR INTENTION!

[Ultimatewingchun]

Good post, tj...

Yes, it is possible to put it all into words (as you did).

And very important to do so; otherwise it's all a hazy abstraction that just reinforces "intellectual" debates much more than actually doing it. Putting it into precise words helps to understand it and therefore train it with clarity.

Good points about using the energies found in the three forms together when actually doing wing chun (ie.- chi sao, drills, sparring, fighting, etc.)