Before the thread on "Seeking the Bridge" was pitched in the rubbish bin my classmate asked me a question. I respect my brother's enthusiasm and commitment to learning and I know him well enough (I think) to know he is a good guy and he deserves an answer. But since I don't really know who he is I have to answer here.
So the question was: Are you telling me you don't "rotate"?
My answer is yes, but not past my target and only when appropriate. (ymmv)
Now here is what might seem like the (really) odd part, as a teaching method I am o.k. with a school that teaches "rotation is a human error" because I have seen that it is apparently all too easy to do wrong. To say it "never" should be done is not how I have been taught, but I can appreciate the subsequent emphasis on position and facing. Two key components of good w.c. (in my opinion).
Over rotation of your body past your target, as well as habitually rotating with every motion, are mistakes that can be easily taken advantage of. Furthermore, my opponent's action as well as their inaction should be cues for me to strike. If I am always allowing their action to initiate my rotation I can quickly fall one step behind and be overrun. Rotation does have its place in our school, but it is not given a free pass either.
Now since we have all encountered the problems inherent in writing about wing chun, rather than hands on instruction, let me give only a very basic example of what I feel are some of the limitations of rotation using pak da.
Please consider:
How much can you rotate with pak before your punch is adversely affected?
How much can you rotate with your punch before your pak losses effectiveness?
If you rotate to the shoulder line with each motion how much of a gap in time between the (now) 2 motions do you allow before the whole thing losses effectiveness during the speed of a fight?
Obviously how you use pak da will depend on the situation and I understand there are nuances in describing a physical motion. But this is a basic example, only showing a simple limitation. There are others as well.
WC1277 I appreciate your efforts to share your understanding of Sifu's teachings. But to say "For us, we don't train to maintain square center facing" I feel goes too far. You have gone past your rhetorical target. And you may feel you have not been representing me or Fong, but by using an alias you are not necessarily representing yourself either. It leads to confusion, for awhile Joy thought I was posting as WC1277. So please forgive me if I felt a clearer distinction was necessary. I don't want to repress you, I am encouraging you to boldly state what YOU have to say. I hope you don't limit what you share because of me. I am barely here at all. Look at my post count (and I joined in 2002!).
-e