Wing Chun Training History Question

[Grumblegeezer]

Greetings PalmStriker,

Thank you for your response. It did not address my inquiry.

Wing Chun may have been one of those styles where weaponry was taught first. And if so, was the sparring method that we see originally done as a training method for knife fighting. I am talking about origins, here.
mickey

No, it was not.

Origins are a murky and endlessly debatable topic. I'm not going there. But I will say that WC does not share key characteristics of weapons-first martial arts such as many branches of FMA, Eastern and Western historical swordsmanship and, in today's world, tactical firearms training.

Weapon arts almost universally begin with weapons, or some safer training version of the same. Wing Chun does not. Weapons arts that branch out into empty hand combat, like many FMA and some Japanese arts with roots in swordsmanship, generally incorporate this both into their style's "history" and make reference to it in their training. This only happens very rarely in WC where you may use a stance or position from the long pole or BCD sets.

Finally, if you look at WC's empty-handed training and "sparring" curriculum across a wide range of lineages, you will find that the focus is almost exclusively on methods that make sense with empty hands but not with weapons. Chi-sau is one example. WC stylists train sticking drills extensively. You do not stick with the BCD.