your striking methods?

[Hardwork108]

Those that take the notion that gung fu / wing chun "doesn't step back" in a literal sense are probably the same people that take the bible as literal fact.

The only way you're not stepping back in a fight is when you're the superior fighter...period. And fighting is fighting is fighting. The whole notion of styles and systems is merely preference in fighting strategy, tactics, and tools...the absolutes or universal truths are dictated by the realities of fighting, not some doctrine.

Can you step back in a fight? Sure. Should you do so in a straight line as someone is throwing consecutive attacks? No. Why? Because you'll get hit most times.

Can you step back to stabilize and change angles? Sure. Can you step back without disengaging the bridge? Why yes you can!

Does stepping back make your gung fu "bad"?? No. To think this way I'd just ego stroking. I know NO ONE...not a friend, teacher, coach, pro, amateur, colleague....no one...that doesn't step back in some form or fashion in a full contact fight. Why? Because it's simply a statistical reality that it will happen.

IMHO, it all depends on how you train. If one spends the extra time and effort to stick to the principle of not going back (except in emergencies), then I believe that your afforts will bare fruit.

However, if one attempts this principle once or twice, and then thinks it as "unnatural" and go back to the usual hopping in and out of range, together with a going back in angles mindset, then they will never understand the wisdom of this principle!

[LoneTiger108]

After recent discussions about fook sau and a thread I saw by Robert Chu relating to CLF’s hands leading their body and Hung Ga’s body leading their hands, I wanted to know what you guys thought of your wing chun and what is optimum striking for you.

For me, personally, I think that my body leads my hands, the majority of the time.

For example; a simple punch with no resistance would be done by my whole body stepping through the opponent. Contact would be made ideally with the elbow still at a fists distance from my body, then the arm would come forward... ordinarily driven by the hip.

Is this standard in wing chun? Am I right in believing this is body leading hands – I believe it is – but am willing to stand corrected...

I wouldn't dare say that there are ANY standards in Wing Chun these days! But your methods seem to make sense to me.

The hand before leg/body etc etc really is a mobility, and even heigung, theory and originates from within weaponry training as far as I know. But it isn't explained how I've seen here, but that's standards for ya eh!?

For me personally, striking requires three things; speed, accuracy and power. Then it's about your determination and courage to actually MOVE IN! Coming from a traditionally trained Sifu, I have always been a great advocate of using the 5 elements to train power. In layman terms, we call these five arrivals. This relates directly to your comment about the whole body being behind a strike. Moving as one unit

Every strike will have its own power signature, depending on many varied points! But it is generally understood that a strike using little or no effort in one of the arrivals is a weak strike. Max effort in all five arrivals is a most powerful strike.

Hope this helps the discussion...