Hi,
Just to answer GlennR's question a few pages back as to who I think has "good wing chun structure and why".
First of all, remember that I define structure more generally: The way that we consciously choose to organize/position the body in space. As has been said by plenty of people, structure is inherently dynamic. Especially when considering the way it is used strategically in relation to an opponent (which is what it's all about, really).
And a few thoughts:
Maybe we're getting bogged down by the very term "structure". When we hear the word we tend to envision something fixed and unmoving, like a building. Words like "solid" and "stable" come to mind, often at the expense of words like "flexible" and "resilient" or "elastic". I don't know. Maybe it's better to talk about movement. How we dynamically organize our bodies in moving through space, and, in the case of martial arts,
how we do that in order to achieve a certain strategic advantage or end.
Anyway, I can list three names without hesitation in answer to your question, GlennR: Phiipp Bayer, Wan Kam Leung and Michael Kurth.
All three of these people have found the balance between stability and mobility. They are capable of controlling their opponents through small adjustments in positioning depending on the dynamics of the situation.
When Philipp puts the pressure on (and I'm sure I only felt the half of it the few times we've chi-saoed together during workshops) it's like a tsunami rushing toward you, flowing through your attempts to stop it. When you attack him, all you do is fall into emptiness, leaving yourself completely exposed to his counterattacks. He is constantly using his movement/body positioning to control and cut-off your own possibilities of attack and counter-attack.
Against Michael it's the same. You just can't stop his frontal assault. Like my buddy Kai in this vid.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2US_ZXxLTGk
This is something all three have in common. Using angles to cut-off the possibilities of their opponents. Either in absorbing force (like using angling footwork to let an attack fall into nothingness) or in direct countering. "Attacking into the attack", as it where.
Wan Kam Leung was kind enough to explain and demonstrate to me his ideas about wing chun some years ago in Hong Kong. He openly admits that he has changed certain things in regards to what he learned under Wong Shun Leung. But notwithstanding these changes the feeling of doing chi sao with him was the same. Like doing chi sao with a tree. The branches flexible, and elastic; the roots deep and strong.
Originally Posted by k gledhill
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