Using Soft to Overcome Hard

[LFJ]

For 50 students of my class, not a single student could use single "left" arm to block my 45 degree downward body rotation "right" haymaker. My haymaker could not only knock through their left blocking arm, it also hit on the side of their head which knocked their body to be off balance.

And those students were likely using forceful blocks too.

Stonecrusher is saying to use soft to overcome hard by just "leaving your hand out" "totally relaxed" and letting their attack run into it...

[Frost]

And those students were likely using forceful blocks too.

Stonecrusher is saying to use soft to overcome hard by just "leaving your hand out" "totally relaxed" and letting their attack run into it...

And people wonder why wing Chun has the problems it does lol , then again post of his. clips are

[JPinAZ]

Besides technique, there is ability. If your opponent's ability is not on your level, even if his technique is perfect, his technique still won't work on you.


Since haymaker is an important defense in the system that I taught in UT Austin informal class, In the beginning of each semester, I would ask each student to use their left arm to block my right haymaker. For 50 students of my class, not a single student could use single "left" arm to block my 45 degree downward body rotation "right" haymaker. My haymaker could not only knock through their left blocking arm, it also hit on the side of their head which knocked their body to be off balance. I then told them that a 45 degree downward haymaker can be used to deal with any surprised straight line attack. It can be a lifesaver. This way, they would have confidence to spend their training time to develop it.

Since I had tested this over 1,000 new students. some students are much bigger than me. I strongly believe that single "left" arm block to a "right" haymaker is "impossible".

John, in your desire to prove some point I wasn't even talking about, you purposely left out the second half of my quote where I was distinctively talking about KICKS, not haymakers. Please, next time you want to prove a point, either quote me correctly or don't quote me at all.

[YouKnowWho]

John, in your desire to prove some point I wasn't even talking about, you purposely left out the second half of my quote where I was distinctively talking about KICKS, not haymakers. Please, next time you want to prove a point, either quote me correctly or don't quote me at all.

In Stonecrusher's clip at 1.44, he used his left arm to block his opponent's right haymaker. I just share my personal experience about that part of testing.

In your post, did you try to say that some kick may be too power to be blocked by single arm? I just forgot to say that I agree with you. But from the words that I used, you can see that I did.

The roundhouse kick and haymaker are similar. If one can't block a haymaker with a same side single arm, how can he be able to block a much more powerful roundhouse kick with a single arm. When I had my commercial school, I used to let students to block their opponent's roundhouse kick. After one student got a broken arm, I no longer did that. At least I haven't seen a broken arm from blocking haymaker yet.

And those students were likely using forceful blocks too.

Stonecrusher is saying to use soft to overcome hard by just "leaving your hand out" "totally relaxed" and letting their attack run into it...

Without proper "body rotation", both hard and soft approach are not enough IMO. But if you use the right arm with a body rotation to the left, you may be able to block a powerful haymaker or powerful roundhouse kick. Of course if you step in and squeeze the space, that will be another valid solution.

[stonecrusher69]

I think what JP is asking for is to see, for example, that student of yours in the video work the technique against your full force strikes, if he has learned it, to show that it can be learned and done by anyone. Or, for you to show it using someone like one of those you describe here; a good kicker and someone who is bigger and stronger than you.

I plan on doing more videos like this,and I will get bigger guys if I can. I just use what is available to me not any size in particular.

[stonecrusher69]

Besides technique, there is ability. If your opponent's ability is not on your level, even if his technique is perfect, his technique still won't work on you.


Since haymaker is an important defense in the system that I taught in UT Austin informal class, In the beginning of each semester, I would ask each student to use their left arm to block my right haymaker. For 50 students of my class, not a single student could use single "left" arm to block my 45 degree downward body rotation "right" haymaker. My haymaker could not only knock through their left blocking arm, it also hit on the side of their head which knocked their body to be off balance. I then told them that a 45 degree downward haymaker can be used to deal with any surprised straight line attack. It can be a lifesaver. This way, they would have confidence to spend their training time to develop it.

Since I had tested this over 1,000 new students. some students are much bigger than me. I strongly believe that single "left" arm block to a "right" haymaker is "impossible".

The technique I used in the video to block the Haymaker if you" push the punch through" or muscle the punch then my technique wont work but if you strike at me like in the video then it will work. It just depends on the force your using. A single technique can not solve all problems.

[anerlich]

A fairly large person who thought his haymaker could knock through William Cheung's Bil Sao was invited to try it.

The first one did slightly offset his balance, after which William Cheung settled his stance a little better and invited him to try again. The guy broke his ulna on the Bil Sao the second time. Rotating the body to face the incoming strike, per Yip Man's alleged advice, is standard TWC.

Whether this was a "technical" haymaker, if that is in fact not a contradiction in terms, may be open to debate. And this was of course a demonstration rather than a fight.

I don't think that the Bil Sao would work so well against some Choy Li Fut swinging punches (which contact with radius side of the arm rather than the ulna and according to some were specifically designed to attack Wing Chun guards and defenses, and incorporate the downward angle mentioned above) and definitely wouldn't think of trying it against a shin kick.

The thread was about using soft to overcome hard, and this is a fair way off that.