Really nice clip of Sean's PBVT group working out with some MMA guys
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o83Gvf-YsWM
Really nice clip of Sean's PBVT group working out with some MMA guys
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o83Gvf-YsWM
Hey guys,
Just a little background to the video.
My students in the video sparring have around 4 and 5 years of experience, and the MMA guys around 5 and 6, so almost even there.
The MMA school is run by a friend of mine who is a former French Greco-Roman champion, and he helped me host a ground-fighting seminar in his school with Tim Cartmell two years ago, which started off an occasional exchange between our schools. Our several exchanges have always been great, with the emphasis on learning together...something I have yet to see happen in the WC world over here (I've invited other WC teachers in town for sparring sessions but they let me know in no uncertain terms that they were not interested).
My students definitely had trouble gauging the distance with people who 1) have decent long-range attacks and 2) are decent at grappling.
But they are getting better at it - getting better at putting the pressure on and using angles intelligently. And gaining grappling and ground experience along the way (which I have always said is necessary).
What worked: using the oblique kick to keep distance and to check kicks, using pak da (even the MMA guys ended up using it to their advantage), lan sau, jum sau and punch....actually everything worked when combined with the right footwork and timing (note: not all the action is seen in this clip, I'll post more soon)
Anyway, the sparring in the clip is nothing special, but I do think it is controlled and intelligent, and that's what counts...learning and improving. I'll be posting more sparring clips in the future, and I'm 100 per cent sure that we'll improvement.
Pak/Punch in action.
Good stuff Sean! I do think a big problem in most Wing Chun is "in-breeding." Too many schools only train against other guys doing Wing Chun. They spend long hours training all kinds of cool things in Chi Sao....against another guy doing Wing Chun! Most of those things just aren't going to happen in a real exchange when the other guy doesn't know Wing Chun. So props to you for mixing it up with other groups!
Looked through the video. It's got good stuff but a lot of room for improvement.
1. Good training use of equipment and use of mma training partners - the first minute of the video was all compliant back and forth, but I saw the use of focus mitts and thai pads. I don't know how much value there is in taking a guy all the way down with focus mitts, but training going under a punch for the entry is good. Real live targets are good.
2. Space - really doesn't work well for what you're doing. Most wing chun studios I see are like this - hard floors and lots of mirrors. It's hard to go live without breaking glass, and all the takedowns were pretty much pick the guy up and set them down as you can't go any harder than that. There's not enough space for unrestricted movement. You guys would be better off training some of this kind of stuff in a park as I really don't see most wing chun studios converting over to mats on the floor and walls or cage walls to facilitate contact rounds. Wing chun people mostly like to look at themselves in the mirror - they don't like to spar so much - you can tell by their studios.
Anyway good start on the stuff. Refine work with focus mitts and thai pads so that you are really starting to build genuine attributes - speed and power. change footwork up so that it's not all charge in chain punch the pads but that you keep people's feet moving in all directions while learning to acquire and strike targets. Keep building it. This is the right path. You are just at the beginning. Work 20 minutes of free movement 3 minute sparring rounds into your everyday schedule - like 5 rounds, with 1 minute rest between rounds. Works good for towards the end of class. Keep training with the mma guys you found and doing rounds.