10 Concepts Kick No Higher than the Waist Area The primary reason for this principle is the maintenance of your balance. The shorter the time your kicking leg is in the air, the longer it can be on the ground providing you with a balanced stance. Another reason is target vulnerability. The longer and higher your leg is off the ground, the more vulnerable your groin is. If you kick at a low target, your leg returns to the ground more quickly, where it can return to protecting your groin. Your supporting leg is also more vulnerable to attack when you kick high. Maintain your Balance Balance is everything. Without it, nothing else really matters. Power in blocking, punching, striking and kicking begins with good balance. Leverage - especially in upright fighting systems-comes from balance. Without balance, energy connot be pushed up from your stance and released through a movement or technique. An effective stanceis a mobile stance. Balance should be part of that mobility. If balance is always there, you can freely interrupt your movement at any time and flow into virtually any other movement - and have constant access to the power of the first movement. This freedom is crucial to success in fighting. Avoid any unnecessary leaning or over-extension of your stancebecauseitwill slow you down and make you vulnerable to being knocked off-balance. Protect Your Centreline The shortest distance between two pointsis a straight line. Use your guard to protect the straight path to your bodys centre. Own it, protect it. That is where you live: dont stray too far from home. By occupying a position along the shortest path between you and your opponent, you force him to take a longer path to reach you. Because distance translates into time, the longer it takes for him to reach you, the longer you have to identify the movement and allow your defensive reflexes to work for you. Watch your Opponents Elbow Quite simply, if a persons arm moves, so does his elbow. Therefore, your opponents striking arm cannot reach you without its elbow coming with it. The elbow is father away than the fist and is easier to read because watching it does not strain the eye like watching thecloserfist does. In addition, because it is farther away, the elbow moves more slowly than the fist and is easier to read. In a linear attack, the elbow moves approximately two and onehalftimesmore slowly than the fist. In a circular attack, the elbow moves approximately four timesmore slowly. Again, distance translates into time: The longer you can follow the path of the strike - by detecting it sooner - the longer you have to let your reflexes work for you. The usefulness of this principle is enhanced when you keep in mind that the knee is to the leg as the elbow is to the arm. Fight on the Blind Side In traditional Wing Chun, the outside of the opponents lead arm is called hisblind side. This is where you want to position yourself because it allows you to stay the maximum distance away from his opposite arm. That means you have to deal with only one arm at a time. Again, distance equals time. If you achieve the blind-side position and your opponent tries to reach you with his rear hand, it takes longer; that gives you more time to react. Also, your opponent may cross his arms as he tries to reach with his opposite hand, and that will leave him susceptibleto being trapped. The objective is to ensure that you have free use of both your arms while you limit your opponent to the use of one. Avoid positioning yourself directly in front of him because you will be threatened by both arms and both legs. Train to See Everything The simplest way to see everything is to look at one thing. Thismaysound likea Zen riddle, but its not. If you try to watch literally everything, chances are you will end up seeing nothing. So where should you look? As stated before, you should start with your opponents lead elbow because it is part of his nearest weapon. By focusing on the nearest weapon, you will be able to detect the most immediatethreat.Anything other than the most immediatethreat will take longer to reach you, thus giving you more time to react. If your eyes lock onto your opponents lead elbow, you should use your peripheral vision to keep aware of three other points: his opposite elbow and both his knees. If you detect one of those body parts moving toward you, your eyes should immediately jump to thatpart. If you make contact with one of your opponents arms through a blocking or trapping technique, your eyes should jump to the next nearest threat. Because you can feel his threatening limb, you no longer need to look at it. Your eyes are free to look elsewhere. Put your Opponent on the Defensive An old saying holds that sometimes the best defense is a good offense. For the most part that is true: You cant win by being strictlydefensive. One of the best ways to stop an opponent from attacking is to attack him first and put him on the defensive. That will force him to deal with you, rather than continue trying to hurt you. He must now defend himself - or suffer the consequences. Wing Chun practitioners strive to block and strike at the same time. That allows them to immediately put the pressure back on their opponent. Attack your Opponents Balance As stated above,balanceiseverything.Therefore, you must always maintain your balance and use it to attack your opponents balance. Often that means getting him to lean too far into a technique, over-committo a movementor over-extend his body. Without proper balance, he will not be able to move, block or strike effectively. In Wing Chun, that is achieved primarily through controlling the opponents elbow. If you control his elbow, you can control his balance. Learn to Recognize Openings It is one thing to say, Put your opponent on the defensive. It is quite another to know where to hit him, with what weapon and when. Whatever your system, you must know - really know - what your tools are, what range or distance they function in, and what part of the body each is designed to hit. Furthermore, your eyes must be trained to recognize the opening. If you dont have good eyes and dont know how to detect an opening, the greatest techniques in the world are not going to help. Therefore, you must train yourself to be able to detect an opening in any situation and to have the reflexes to take advantage of that opening while it exists. Have Heart but Control your Emotions Cardio-vascular endurance is crucial to becoming a complete martial artist; however,thatis not what is meant by heart. In this case, it means fighting spirit, or the will to win. If you dont believeyou can win, you probably cant. If your opponent is more convinced of victory than you are, he will probably come out on top. Total confidence, combined with good process and a scientifically sound system, certainly increases the probability of success.But if you do not have heart, even superior skills will never see the light of day; they will be squandered by a more confident opponent. A popular old saying holds that knowledge is power. For martial artists, thatis certainly true. You are most afraid of what you dont know. Therefore, the key to eliminating fearisgetting to know what youre afraid of. You must strive to become comfortable in uncomfortable situations. You cant allow fear, anger or excitement to interfere with your ability to effectivelydealwith an opponent. A wise man once said, Know thyself. Only through self-examination can you truly accomplish that. By understanding yourself, you can begin to understand others - including your opponent. And perhaps you will be able to dispose of the fears along the way. That will allow you to focus only on the process of engagement, not the fear of the results. In conclusion, if you view each combat situation from the perspective of the aforementioned 10 principles - and work to integrate them into your training and sparring - in time you will see a tremendous difference in the application of your techniques. It is guaranteed to work no matter which martial art you practise.
Posted on: Tue, 22 Oct 2013 02:01:23 +0000
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