Originally Posted by
eadragon21
Does anyone here train to move back on a 45 degree angle from a front stance? If so, what do you think of it? I worked with a guy who showed me this and have started to use it a lot in my training. His training and footwork is some of the most mobile I've seen so far in wing chun, and he's very quick and light on his feet. It's seemed to help me immensely and I wanted to get other's thoughts on this.
Andrew S. and I learned this from Leung Ting at the "WT Millenium Seminar" in Los Angeles 2000. It comes from the WT double knife set. -I think it's cool because the hip pivot from the turn allows you to still generate power even though you are moving back (relatively). -This type of stepping actually makes more sense to me than most of the rest of the WT system footwork does.
If you want to see how WT guys do this technique in the knife form, go to Sergio's IWKA website and check out the videos there. You will see this footwork performed with the knives in two different clips.
Originally Posted by
eadragon21
I was just finding before that if you always moved in, whether straight or at an angle I would get clobbered by good boxers(I must say these were good boxers albeit.)
No matter how much "super secret wing chun footwork" that anyone learns, a good boxer is going to be a handful.......
Originally Posted by
eadragon21
I've been taught and heard the phrase "Never step back in wing chun" and I'd be very interested in hearing all opinions on this-
Most WT "masters" (Kernspecht, etc.) repeat this sort of motto to beginners and intermediates, -but not to higher level technicians. In fact, if you watch their footwork when they are moving "naturally" (i.e.- not "demonstrating" a particular technique to an audience), they will move nothing like what how tell less experienced WT people to move. -Not that they have footwork secrets worth paying thousands of dollars to learn, but they have a general idea of what is effective and begin moving in a more organic, and less robotic way.
-Lawrence
I don't think Wing Chun is so limited that I can't do it when I wrestle, box, kickbox, or fight by MMA rules, nor am I so limited a student that I can't improve by training in each of those forums. -Andrew S
A good instructor encourages his students to question things, think for themselves and determine their own solutions to problems. They give advice, rather than acting as a vehicle for the transmission of dogma.
-Andrew Nerlich