Hand conditioning question.

[Frank Exchange]

Rogue asks-
>> Did I misunderstand the meaning of Bil Jee? I thought it meant thrusting fingers <<

According to Wong Shun Leung, the original name of the form was not just "Thrusting" or "Pointing" finger, but "Moon Pointing Finger", (also used by Bruce Lee in his famous "Heavenly glory" quote, but with different inference).

His interpretation was that as we are all human, there are bound to be combat situations where we make mistakes, at that point the standard concepts of Wing Chun may no longer apply; we may have to look beyond them (i.e. to the moon) to use concepts that seem to "break the rules", to think outside the box. Bil Jee contains elements that address these issues, longer range strikes i.e. finger jabs, closer range strikes like elbows, concepts to help deal with multiple opponents, etc.

At any rate, Bil Jee contains only a small amount of thrusting finger moves, if we count them up, there are far more elbow strikes than finger jabs.

[TjD]

the importance of finger strikes is HIGHLY overrated IMHO.

if you have to depend on poking someone in the eye, chances are the rest of your WC skills are sorely lacking. in this day and age the fact is we really never should need to jab someones eye out, and supporting that persons family for the rest of your life would definately suck.

why waste your time conditioning your fingers when you could be making your core WC skills better? with better core skills you're more apt to be able to defend yourself when the time arises, and less likely to blind someone for the rest of their life (and probably pay a lot of money in the process).

a successful biu to the eyes or any other useful spot requires a lot of accuracy. you'd be better of strengthening your punches and knocking them out with a strike or two to the head (and wont have to worry about breaking your fingers this way either - because this is definately a possibility when your biu misses the eyes and crashes into the forehead or some other hard spot)

just my 2 cents.

[[Censored]]

in this day and age the fact is we really never should need to jab someones eye out

But we have a need to punch someone to death? In our modern age? LOL!

In theory, I appreciate the fingers for their precision, far more than the elbow, palm, fist, etc. You can down someone without even leaving a bruise.

[anerlich]

Myself... I'd be very careful about finger conditioning... and besides, its waaaay down the list of things to train...

Ted's not the most laid back guy in the world, I'll give you that. He's just about deaf from all that high volume guitar and gunshots as well. I admire his energy and enthusiasm and the fact he hasn't mellowed out.

For me, grip strength (which is partially about finger strength) is really important, but then I study grappling as well as pure KF. Even then, it could make the difference, especially if you are fighting someone with a weapon.

TWC has an iron palm/hand conditioning program, so my party line tells me such stuff is in. Opinions vary, but then that's the way of the world and just as well.