Handling Hook Punches or Wild Punches

[brody]

Can anyone share some insight on how they handle hook punches or wild punches. Suppose you were squared off with your opponent and he takes a wild punch or hook punch to your head; how would you handle it? Wing Chun teaches to attack the centerline. However, if the attack is coming from outside the centerline and you go straight in , changes are you will get hit because you haven't actually made contact or deflected the attack. Any help would help.

Thanks.

[Gangsterfist]

Straight line beats a circle. Just blast their center with chain punches their hook or wild swing will be made ineffective.

A good wing chun punch does not strike the surface of your opponet. It strikes through your opponet. You vertical punch someone right in the mouth/chin area and push the punch through. Their head jerks back and throws their punch off, and if it does hit you it will have very little or no power behind it. Their spine would be bent and their structure compromised. You should then take that opportunity to end the fight.

[Whiplash]

My friends and I try this occasionally and I've found that using biu sau by itself or using it and moving into a turning lop sau helps with those kinds of attacks.

I've tried using tan sau and turning with those but I find that to be 50/50 as to whether or not i get hit :/ Probably just my technique

[Ernie]

dude
make life simple move out of range and attack as it passes , foot work footwork footwork

i have tried all the traditional answers and against a boxer or a very un crispy person with awkward timing you will eat the hook even if you '' take center ''

if you try and intecept the limb you just chasing hands

let it pass hit em while there blind

[Gangsterfist]

Yeah sometimes you might eat the hook if you blast the center, but if you time it right and use the right amount of force their hook should not hurt you one bit. I know this because I have used it in real street situation before. This guy threw a huge hook at me and I just vertical punched him right in the nose. His hook fell short and hit my arm. And it had no power.

So, there are tons of answers to this type of attack. You just gotta find out whats good for you. If you want to simeltanious attack/defend and biu da (biu sao + punch) will also work. I have used that in sparring before. Just make sure you biu on the inside of your opponet, then next make sure you blast them good and put them down.

taan saos won't really work against hooks.

[Ultimatewingchun]

You can definitely stay on the inside (and should stay on the inside) to deal with wild hooks (if you try to back out you're giving him the opportunity to follow with something else or adjust to your counter after his first punch passed you by)....


Stay inside with a shortened version of bil/lop...sometimes even two hands can be used simultaneously as a bil/lop without worry because he "committed" with such a wild haymaker...

tan doesn't work in this situation...they'll break right through and/or around it.

[brody]

I'm not sure I understand how to apply a Biu Sao in this situtation. Wouldn't a straight punch be more appropriate? Since the distance is the same and you are just closing the gap while striking.

I've practiced stepping in and going down the center, but if your footwork is really slow or your opponent is exceptionally fast you can still get a little knock from the punch.

I agree, a Tan Sao and punch is worthless. I've been told to hit or block the shadow using a Tan Sao of Fuk Sao. And in this case, the shadow would be the oppoents attacking inside (other side of elbow). But the fact is, even though you block the shadow the risk of the arm still reaching you is great.

I've experimented with side stepping and even taking a step back to first avoid the punch, then stepping in. The problem with that was I usually stepped into another punch from the opponents other hand.

[kj]

Tight hooks can be extremely challenging to deal with. IME, sometimes disrupting the source of power takes enough steam out of it, e.g., the shoulder area of the opponent's attacking arm. Unfortunately, there are no single 100% solutions.

Wildness is often easier to deal with by affording more openings to exploit or errors to utilize. When the opponent’s wildness involves big movements, the more time on your side (by virtue of composure and having more compact, direct and efficient movements).

Regards,
- kj

[Gangsterfist]

There are many different kinds of hooks. A boxer's hook, wild hooks, scrapping hooks, upper cut hooks, low body hooks (like the ginger fist motion in biu jee) and so on. Each hook probably has many different answers as KJ put it.

To apply the biu sao, or biu + lop + da against the hook is simple. Lets say and hook is coming in on your left side. Shoot your biu sao out there (from your left arm) but not towards his center, more towards the hook, on the inside. Once it makes contact lop it straight down. This will pull the attackers body down, right when that happens, punch them right in the face. Its not quite strict wing chun when referring to the centerline theory, but it is still none the less wing chun. Of course there are many ways to apply this. That is just one example. I would follow the principle that says, "Upon loss of contact, rush in." Which would apply here since there are no bridges established yet. This also means you get the first hit in, which a lot of times determines who wins the fight.

[KenWingJitsu]

Ernie's answer is by far the most correct. Though you "can" sometimes catch it with a 'bil-sao', you are gambling. make sure to have a good chin, and re-read what Ernie wrote.

[brody]

Gangsterfist,

Thanks for your explanation on what is meant by Biu Sao + Lap Sao. I now see that your Biu Sao is slightly altered to receive the incoming strike. I was taught to use an altered Fuk Sao to intercept the strike at the inside of the elbow and straight punching with the other hand at the same time. All while stepping in to close off any other outside circular attacks.

Thanks.

[Gangsterfist]

I agree with KWJ and Ernie. My first choice of answers to a hook is foot work and chain punch. If the hook is coming in fom the right, angle step left and blast their face. Their hook will never cross over that far and hit you. Now, defending against an educated hook, is a different story.

[Ernie]

make distance your friend and his enemy

if you control distance then what ever tool he uses doesn't really matter


the big but is if your footwork is not developed or to robotic in pattern you won't be able to move in on the half beat as the shot passes and split the action

or you could just gamble and rush in
but i like my head were it is at

[anerlich]

Straight line beats a circle.

And as any half decent boxer knows, a circle can beat a straight line. Think otherwise at your peril.

Bil sao *will* work against a wide swinging hook. A solidly built naysayer once told William Cheung he didn't think it would. GM Cheung's response: "Try it".

He did, very hard. Gm Cheung stopped it, though he was rocked a little. He said something like, "Oh, OK. Try again."

The guy did, and this time broke his forearm on the Bil Sao. GM Cheung was undamaged.

For shorter hooks, I prefer boxing style defense. Or, as Ernie says, not being there.

[Xiao3 Meng4]

I like the manifestations of Wing Chun presented so far.

Personally, I've had success with intercepting hooks at the inside of the elbow with the mirror hand while striking with the other.
If you can follow it up with a twist and sink to the arm and a grab and twist/sink to whatever your punching hand finds after punching, then you have yourself a mighty fine pretzel, restrained and fit for kneeing, kicking, or crushing if necessary. Otherwise, or if they get out, chain punching is fine.

Chain punching in any situation is a harm reduction technique. It minimizes harm while maximizing time and opportunity. In and of itself, it's effective psychological warfare, but physically it's rather defendable, often to simply a stalemate. However, it's a great platform from which to be more tactically specific, since your opponent is busy defending against a barrage of punches and is probably not picking targets on you. You can pick targets, though, because you're on the offensive.