Day One of Project San Shou

In my humble opinion Wing Chun is a very special martial art that focuses on fighting for a self defence context. Being tired of the criticism levelled against the style of fighting that I hold true to my heart, I started an experiment to prove that the skills of Wing Chun can be transferred to any other environment of fighting.

Of course, we’ve had to make adaptations to our training and approach to fighting, but to fight in the ring you have to utilise universal fighting methods. Effectively, I’ve taken ordinary Wing Chun students and instructed them in a range of skills that require timing, distance judgement and true fighting spirit. Over a period of time they’ve learnt to kick, punch and wrestle like any other fighter, but with one difference they’ve kept the concepts of Wing Chun in the forefront of their minds.

The concept of this experiment is simple: all martial arts must have a common variable to function effectively. If we train and prepare these variables, then any Martial Art is comparable to each other.

I hope over the period of time that you’ll find this Blog informative enough to follow our progression to the final destination. We’ll share our highs and lows, good techniques, what’s worked, what hasn’t, and more importantly our eventual success in competition format.

You’ll follow the progress of Student A in his own words, and I will drop in from time to time to share my experiences on coaching Wing Chun fighters for a whole new world of combat.

So here goes the journey of a Wing Chun Fighter…

http://www.londonwingchun.co.uk./sanshou.html

Sunday, 26 July 2009

There wasn’t many people at tonight’s Kickboxing Session...


There wasn’t many people at tonight’s session (I think Arsenal were at home) which is ok with me because we get more time to focus on one thing.

We went through the usual warm up which included pummelling the heavy bag with continuous kicks for 30 seconds per rep. that was hard work.

We went on to a boxing combination where you defend a low blow by dropping the elbow, then uppercut with the same hand and off the lead leg through the gap your opponent just exposed, followed with a cross, then you have the option to deliver a roundhouse kick to the mid riff, making sure you step into it. I found this a very neat combination with nice direct attacks.

We then went on to sparring with one hand at a time. I found this excellent for practising basic defence especially the parry, I had to concentrate on timing and movement. It’s amazing how much more active the guard hand becomes when that’s all that’s in-between my face and the oncoming punch and I can’t use attack as a defence.

Sifu Mark also explained getting the right body mechanics for the two most basic kicks, front kick and roundhouse kick. You really have to thrust your hips into the front kick and lunge forward, this kick can also be used in place of a jab, or to set up a jab by using it as a fake to get your opponent to drop their guard. The roundhouse kick requires a slight step just before executing, with a twist in the hips for maximum power and optimum angle. This kick can be used in place of a hook or cross and is generally at the end of a combo.

Another enjoyable San Shou Kickboxing lesson, food for thought, say no more.

By Toby Hawkins
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