Does Taun Sau ever collapse?

[Sihing73]

Hello,

Been a while since I got to post here and I wanted to get some input from others.

I have often been told that the elbow for Bong/Taun and Fook should never collapse.
I wanted to see if this was something everyone agreed with or if anyone thought there may be a time when it was okay to collapse the elbow for Taun Sau, for example.

So please provide your thoughts along with the reasoning behind them.

Thanks in advance.

[wckf92]

I have often been told that the elbow for Bong/Taun and Fook should never collapse.
I wanted to see if this was something everyone agreed with or if anyone thought there may be a time when it was okay to collapse the elbow for Taun Sau, for example.

So please provide your thoughts along with the reasoning behind them.

Morning Dave.
Well, to say a hand should 'never' collapse is, perhaps, implying (under certain circumstances of course) that the hand may be fighting force with force too much; or a timing was off; or perhaps less than optimal structure. Having said that, if it is 'collapsing', then ideally this indicates it is on its way to strike! (and that is a good thing. )

[stonecrusher69]

Hello,

Been a while since I got to post here and I wanted to get some input from others.

I have often been told that the elbow for Bong/Taun and Fook should never collapse.
I wanted to see if this was something everyone agreed with or if anyone thought there may be a time when it was okay to collapse the elbow for Taun Sau, for example.

So please provide your thoughts along with the reasoning behind them.

Thanks in advance.

Hi Dave...I don't belive in absolute like the tan or any other hand should never collapse. What I think is meant is with correct structure these structures should be very strong, but IMO everything has a limit..if I put a car on top of your Bong Sau I don't care how good your structure is its going to collapse. All these a structures should be flexible yet strong at the same time..

[robertdreeben]

Really the answer to your question depends on what WC operating system [what family] you are using. In a generic answer- no you should not collapse your "bridge" [tan bon and fook] because that will lead the opponent's hand into your body and thats No Bueno. And the general consensus is your elbow position should be maintained a fist and a half away from your body otherwise you are "chuck Q" [wrong spelling I know]. For the most part that is the standard protocol in most families. And it all works fine when you're playing "yang" WC.

However WC has a feminine or "Yin" side. What a serendipitous moment it must have been for the female founder to instinctively protect her breast by placing her elbow and arm into the centerline only to discover this "elbow in"placement also provides angulation to transmit total body mass through her legs into her opponent in a wedge like fashion with minimal upper body strength during a strike. A new operating system different than Shaolin had emerged -"elbow in technology".

Against a really strong opponent, a physically weaker individual may not be able to hold their bridge using "Yang" hands against another WC player even while trying to roll the chung chi [heavy compression] off during a look sao. The solution: tan bon and fook have their "Yin" side where each one can totally collapse or more accurately "retract" and follow the opponent's heavy hand while you get your body out of the way and reposition yourself to a better position also using the retracting movement to "load" your arm for a strike. Thats the "Yin" side of real WC. Think of tan and bon moving backwards or even laterally during the sil lim tao form, along with the wu sao moving backwards after the hun sao. A little "pushing without pushing" action here [for more on this read my pushing without pushing story] using WC's "spring energy". So the answer is YES its ok if your using the tan in that fashion, IMO.

[Sihing73]

Hello,

Thanks for the replies.

I was thinking of, since I also practice Silat, of using th Taun to collapse and draw an opponent into a position advantageous to me.
I have had some good luck doing this and like it. Was curious to see what others think.

As to the structure, I think that Wing Chun should be soft so it should always flow and change.
Bong never stays comes to mind.

[mun hung]

Hello,

Thanks for the replies.

I was thinking of, since I also practice Silat, of using th Taun to collapse and draw an opponent into a position advantageous to me.
I have had some good luck doing this and like it. Was curious to see what others think.

As to the structure, I think that Wing Chun should be soft so it should always flow and change.
Bong never stays comes to mind.

Hi Dave, been a while. Hope you're doing well. I can only guess what happened to this forum.

Please give an example of how you draw your opponent in with your collapsing tan. I'm interested.

[Sihing73]

Only get on sporadically.
Let me see if I can get something on video to provide an example.