Pendulum Effect

[LoneTiger108]

I learnt how to deflect wrist grabs with huensau as this is generally what women would experience...

I have been wrist grabbed more times than I can count in REAL fights, bar/nightclub/ street-fights...

After all, we are Wing Chun students right? We're in tune with our femininity!

[kung fu fighter]

To test if any particular movement is correct, attach as much weight as you can handle to parts of the body and test the movement. The purpose is not for building the muscles, but to find how to move most effectively and efficiently. You are your own best teacher.

Cheers,
John

I agree 100%, this is what I refer to as wing chun resistance training, and chi sao is a good drill to train this since you have the resistance of your partner to work with. WCK tools truely comes alive when trained in this way.

[ShortBridge]

we did originally start this discussument about huen.

I'm interested in everything that everyone has opined, but to clarify, I originally started this thread not about huen sao, but the path on which you withdraw following heun sao. Some linage seem to make it appear straight, others express a more semi-circular path. I was wondering what was behind that and observing that regardless of which way you do it in your family the elbow doesn't really have that freedom of expression as it is on a fixed pendulum from the shoulder.

Anyway, I'm okay with the divergences the responses have taken, it's all interesting, but since you mentioned it, I wanted to clarify my original question/observation in case anyone has any thoughts on that.

[anerlich]

I just pull that sucker back. THe rest is mostly mental masturbation.

[bennyvt]

lots of yip students tended to loop it. yip in the video's does. When I asked my teacher why he didn't do it like we do (straight as possible), he said he asked WSL why he did it more rounded. WSL said its supposed to be like this, doing like what we teach. He said he just got into a habit of doing it. You find lots of those little things that creep into your forms from watching other do it all the time.

[wingchunIan]

personally the bone between my shoulder and my elbow is a fixed length and it pivots in my shoulder joint. For all other humans anatomy should be the same and therefore the elbow is always following an arc.
In my lineage the focus is on the elbow and so the hand follows the natural path created by the movement of the upper arm, there is no extra looping added by extending the arm and no flattening of the arc by raising the shoulder or contracting the bicep. Can't see why people are getting so edgy about this though, the initial question was a good one, based on a fair observation and should be the kind of topic that its possible to discuss like civilised adults.
In other TCMA there are lots of nice circling flowery moves so maybe some people just feel a bit left out and want their form to look nicer

[ShortBridge]

Thanks for the response, Ian. That was my observation as well. We're a "focus on the elbow" family too, so we don't add any adornment there. Still I didn't want to discount the possibility that there might be a valid reason why (a lot) of branches do. Would still love to hear someone who does give that perspective.

I'm not sure why it's difficult to discuss things like this either. I feel like it was far from provocative or controversial, but it's an unfortunate part of the wing chun community.

Thanks to everyone who offered their honest responses, though.