Alan Orr
11-22-2007, 05:50 PM
Article on
Wing Chun Competitions
Should Wing Chun have competitions? Why would it help a Wing Chun practitioner’s development?
Lets look into these questions.
Wing Chun has always been known as an effective street self-defence. But how do you know if your Wing Chun works? Not everyone has had 300 street fights, as most self-defence teachers will tell you they have had. Anyway even if they have had, how’s that going to help you? You need to know that YOU can use it yourself. Going out and having street fights to test your Wing Chun would get you into trouble and maybe badly hurt.
This has been the problem that most martial arts have had. How to test their martial art skills without killing each other, in a way that improves ones level of understanding of dealing with the pressures of a real fight in a safe manner.
That’s why competitions started in the first place.
Wrestling has a long history of competition; if YOU were a bad wrestler then you would know about it. You may spend a lot of time being pinned to death eating mat.
Judo has a long history of competition; if YOU were a bad Judo player then you would know about it. You may spend a lot of time in the air or on your back.
Karate has a long history of competition; if YOU were a bad Karate guy then you would know about it. You may spend a lot of time being punched in the chest or kicked in the head.
BJJ has a long history of competition; if YOU were a bad BJJ player then you would know about it. You may spend a lot of time being tapped out.
Thai Boxing has a long history of competition, if YOU were a bad Thai Boxer then you would know about it. Some one will tell you when you come back around.
I’m making a big point about YOU because in the end it’s all about your level and your skills no matter what art you train.
Now what these arts test in competition is the ‘core skills’ they must have in order to be classed as skilled practitioners of their chosen disciplines.
You may be great in training, but under pressure you may make mistakes. You may not do that well in training, but when you compete you may bring you game up and improve. Win or Lose you always learn. In fact most people will tell you that they learnt more when they did lose! It makes you think more.
Core Skills
This is what its all about. Each art takes its core skills and tests them in a competition that challenges opponents to display control of the ‘Core skills’ of that art.
If you want to fully test your skills then NHB/ MMA is the way to go. But then you are testing many different areas of martial skill. Most people do not want to test themselves in an environment, which is out of that they usually train. Therefore if you only train Judo then fighting a boxer doesn’t tell you what is wrong or right with your Judo. It may tell you who applied their art well. But going up against someone in your own art does tell you if you are applying your own art well or not. That is the first step to knowing if you have ‘core skills’ within the art you train.
Do you have a good wrestling clinch? Do you have a good flow and positional control when you roll in BJJ?
Does your Wing Chun ‘Chi Sao Roll’ help you deal with pressure and allow you to control a strong opponent? You will find out.
That is what these types of competitions are good for. If you train in BJJ you may love to get on the mat and compete and test your Gi Game. You may never want to try MMA and have somebody striking you. Does that mean the Gi Competition doesn’t hold value? Of course not. We all know that things change with less rules. But we can all still gain from controlled competitions. In the end your opponent has the same rules as you, so you will find out at that level of pressure who’s game is on.
Many teachers will tell you Wing Chun is a street art so competitions should not be a part of Wing Chun. Wing Chun Chi Sao (Our method of rolling) is for development of skills not fighting. Striking with power to the head in Chi Sao is dangerous. Some of the strikes in Wing Chun are dangerous. I am sure more could be added and they are all true. So, does that mean we can’t test our core skills? Of course not, in BJJ you cannot neck crank or heal hook because they are hard to control and do a lot of damage. Therefore you don’t allow them. That’s no problem as long as both opponents can’t use them. You in fact get closer to testing the ‘core skills’ when you limit some of the easier to apply locks or in Wing Chun’s case strikes.
Some people think Wing Chun should have an open sparring event wearing lots of protective gear, rather that a Chi Sao event. To me this seems to have no point it terms of testing and developing pure Wing Chun core skills. If you what to spar then having a body protector and headgear will really end up like bad kickboxing. I think you should in that case use normal kickboxing rules with normal kickboxing protection.
Another point to make is of late many Wing Chun schools have appeared with instructors that in all honesty should not be teaching any martial art never mind Wing Chun! In the Wing Chun world most people who have been training long enough will know who’s got real skills and who’s not. But we still have a lot of charlatans in Wing Chun. If they tried opening a BJJ or Thai Boxing school I don’t think they would last that long at all! I hope this competition will help set a few standards.
Chi Sao competitions are not new to Wing Chun, but in the pasted they have even been either no contact, which in my mind doesn’t test your core skills to control an opponent or full contact with lots of protective head and body gear which then means you don’t know if your strike would have worked or if you can take a strike.
A balance has to be between striking hard and testing control of ‘core skills’ under pressure. My students have tested our Chu Sau Lei Wing Chun in Amateur MMA, Pro MMA, Boxing and Kickboxing. I will say that in terms of core skills of our Chi Sao that Amateur MMA is a great test of your art with a control amount of full power striking. With this in mind we have put together a Chi Sao event based on Full contact Amateur MMA with a ‘Chi Sao rolling’ platform instead of a ‘Grappling rolling platform’ to test Wing Chun’s ‘Core Skills’.
Confidence
Confidence! This is what belief in your ‘core skills’ gives you. Confidence in your art is key to your success. Do you truly have confidence in your application of your art? If you’re talking about self-defence then without it you will be doomed. I have heard a lot of Wing Chun teachers that will tell students that Wing Chun is for self defence its not a sport therefore you do not need to be competitive. Please let me welcome you to the real world! An attacker is not playing by your rules and being nice. You have to be able to use your core skills with great confidence to take control of an aggressive opponent. Pressure testing is a must.
Wing Chun Competitions
Should Wing Chun have competitions? Why would it help a Wing Chun practitioner’s development?
Lets look into these questions.
Wing Chun has always been known as an effective street self-defence. But how do you know if your Wing Chun works? Not everyone has had 300 street fights, as most self-defence teachers will tell you they have had. Anyway even if they have had, how’s that going to help you? You need to know that YOU can use it yourself. Going out and having street fights to test your Wing Chun would get you into trouble and maybe badly hurt.
This has been the problem that most martial arts have had. How to test their martial art skills without killing each other, in a way that improves ones level of understanding of dealing with the pressures of a real fight in a safe manner.
That’s why competitions started in the first place.
Wrestling has a long history of competition; if YOU were a bad wrestler then you would know about it. You may spend a lot of time being pinned to death eating mat.
Judo has a long history of competition; if YOU were a bad Judo player then you would know about it. You may spend a lot of time in the air or on your back.
Karate has a long history of competition; if YOU were a bad Karate guy then you would know about it. You may spend a lot of time being punched in the chest or kicked in the head.
BJJ has a long history of competition; if YOU were a bad BJJ player then you would know about it. You may spend a lot of time being tapped out.
Thai Boxing has a long history of competition, if YOU were a bad Thai Boxer then you would know about it. Some one will tell you when you come back around.
I’m making a big point about YOU because in the end it’s all about your level and your skills no matter what art you train.
Now what these arts test in competition is the ‘core skills’ they must have in order to be classed as skilled practitioners of their chosen disciplines.
You may be great in training, but under pressure you may make mistakes. You may not do that well in training, but when you compete you may bring you game up and improve. Win or Lose you always learn. In fact most people will tell you that they learnt more when they did lose! It makes you think more.
Core Skills
This is what its all about. Each art takes its core skills and tests them in a competition that challenges opponents to display control of the ‘Core skills’ of that art.
If you want to fully test your skills then NHB/ MMA is the way to go. But then you are testing many different areas of martial skill. Most people do not want to test themselves in an environment, which is out of that they usually train. Therefore if you only train Judo then fighting a boxer doesn’t tell you what is wrong or right with your Judo. It may tell you who applied their art well. But going up against someone in your own art does tell you if you are applying your own art well or not. That is the first step to knowing if you have ‘core skills’ within the art you train.
Do you have a good wrestling clinch? Do you have a good flow and positional control when you roll in BJJ?
Does your Wing Chun ‘Chi Sao Roll’ help you deal with pressure and allow you to control a strong opponent? You will find out.
That is what these types of competitions are good for. If you train in BJJ you may love to get on the mat and compete and test your Gi Game. You may never want to try MMA and have somebody striking you. Does that mean the Gi Competition doesn’t hold value? Of course not. We all know that things change with less rules. But we can all still gain from controlled competitions. In the end your opponent has the same rules as you, so you will find out at that level of pressure who’s game is on.
Many teachers will tell you Wing Chun is a street art so competitions should not be a part of Wing Chun. Wing Chun Chi Sao (Our method of rolling) is for development of skills not fighting. Striking with power to the head in Chi Sao is dangerous. Some of the strikes in Wing Chun are dangerous. I am sure more could be added and they are all true. So, does that mean we can’t test our core skills? Of course not, in BJJ you cannot neck crank or heal hook because they are hard to control and do a lot of damage. Therefore you don’t allow them. That’s no problem as long as both opponents can’t use them. You in fact get closer to testing the ‘core skills’ when you limit some of the easier to apply locks or in Wing Chun’s case strikes.
Some people think Wing Chun should have an open sparring event wearing lots of protective gear, rather that a Chi Sao event. To me this seems to have no point it terms of testing and developing pure Wing Chun core skills. If you what to spar then having a body protector and headgear will really end up like bad kickboxing. I think you should in that case use normal kickboxing rules with normal kickboxing protection.
Another point to make is of late many Wing Chun schools have appeared with instructors that in all honesty should not be teaching any martial art never mind Wing Chun! In the Wing Chun world most people who have been training long enough will know who’s got real skills and who’s not. But we still have a lot of charlatans in Wing Chun. If they tried opening a BJJ or Thai Boxing school I don’t think they would last that long at all! I hope this competition will help set a few standards.
Chi Sao competitions are not new to Wing Chun, but in the pasted they have even been either no contact, which in my mind doesn’t test your core skills to control an opponent or full contact with lots of protective head and body gear which then means you don’t know if your strike would have worked or if you can take a strike.
A balance has to be between striking hard and testing control of ‘core skills’ under pressure. My students have tested our Chu Sau Lei Wing Chun in Amateur MMA, Pro MMA, Boxing and Kickboxing. I will say that in terms of core skills of our Chi Sao that Amateur MMA is a great test of your art with a control amount of full power striking. With this in mind we have put together a Chi Sao event based on Full contact Amateur MMA with a ‘Chi Sao rolling’ platform instead of a ‘Grappling rolling platform’ to test Wing Chun’s ‘Core Skills’.
Confidence
Confidence! This is what belief in your ‘core skills’ gives you. Confidence in your art is key to your success. Do you truly have confidence in your application of your art? If you’re talking about self-defence then without it you will be doomed. I have heard a lot of Wing Chun teachers that will tell students that Wing Chun is for self defence its not a sport therefore you do not need to be competitive. Please let me welcome you to the real world! An attacker is not playing by your rules and being nice. You have to be able to use your core skills with great confidence to take control of an aggressive opponent. Pressure testing is a must.