How about this kind of competition?
We've all heard about old school bouts in Hong Kong and on the mainland fought on top of tables. And of course there is the cool, if unrealistic, table top fight scene in the movie Ip Man II. My old sifu spoke of training chi-sau that way, and from time to time we've all seen demos like that -- using strong square tables something like card tables, not tippy, round restaurant tables like in the movie, of course. Well, reading this bit on another thread got me wondering, "Why don't we set up actual competitions based on this?"
Quote:
Originally Posted by Sean66
Sifu WKL: Some parts of the Wing Chun style are very useful, while others are not ideally suited to certain situations. All styles have their benefits and disadvantage. Say, Wing Chun can be used with great effect when you only have small space or fight at close range. Like the predecessors, when they exchanged skills it was on a very small platform. So back then you could not step too much backwards, so the platform made you have to keep a close distance.
Personally, I'd really like to see competitons set up like this. Set up a small, low platform about 5 ft. by 5 ft., have opponents start from opposite corners. You could use kicking, punching, elbows, knees, throws, or grappling, but if you go over the side, you lose. If both competitors go over, you'd reset on top. It could be done safely using low platforms ...say about 2 ft. off a floor padded with mats. It would be challenging and dramatic, and it would showcase the type of close fighting situation WC evolved to fight.
Has anybody actually promoted open competitions anything like this? I'm thinking WC might earn some real respect if they did. Any thoughts?