Wing Chun FAQ

**Das Moose** · Posted On: 7/05/2004 4:00pm

Was just talkin to a guy with about one year's WT experience. I asked him to tell me, in his own words, exactly what sifu's doing.

"Sifu's doin pak punch and a knee strike"

**Shuma-Gorath** · Posted On: 7/05/2004 4:09pm

That's what I'm talking about though. Given any sufficiently abstract material, people trained in different disciplines will concentrate on what they have been trained to analyze.

As an analogy, consider a cigarette. A tobaccoist will see their product, a psycologist will see addiction and a doctor/chemist will see poison.

**JackHanma** · Posted On: 7/05/2004 4:40pm

Originally posted by EternalRage
JACKHANNA - it is true that the first and middle finger knuckles are not only larger but also backed up by a large bone in ur hand and also your thumb muscle. Its safer to punch with it. But in WC I was taught if you use the vertical fist, you go after vital targets that wont break your hand, ie the neck, throat, floating rib, temples. My master told us if you try and punch them straight in their face or ribcage that there is chance you might damage knuckles or your wrist might twist weird.

But definitely if youre trying to break through like 6 inches of pine or something, use the first and middle finger knuckles. I learned this the hard way when i shattered the third knuckle on my right hand years ago on a metal pole...

First, its Hanma and I have said it before and again; if you call me Hanna again I will bite your arms off and beat you with them. And that's a promise.

Second, if you miss the "soft" target you'll break your hand.
Stop trying to strike with you small knuckles idiots; its unnatural and dangerous. Use you vertical fists on hooks and odd angles...like boxers do and always make contact with larger bones..duh. Aside from this issue I don't really care what you Wing Chun people do...go practice your trapping now.

**Little Idea** · Posted On: 7/05/2004 5:15pm

The reason people hurt the small bones in the hand is because they are trying to punch with the two big knuckles and miss.

Align your fist to punch with the two big bones and look at the resulting alignment of the smallest knuckle. If your punch is off just a bit and you impact on the outside knuckles, count on it hurting really bad.

Jack Dempsey, pound for pound one of the hardest hitters ever to grace a boxing ring, advocated the vertical fist, but he probably didn't know ****. It was all just theory.

Oh yeah, WV%ING TCHSJX&#UN sucks ass.

**drake** · Posted On: 7/05/2004 5:45pm

Actually I believe WC takes from the old school bare knuckle boxers. They used to punch faces all day and never break thier hands. Do you know how? With the vertical fist. Since WC doesnt fight with gloves they didnt evolve past that.

They align the hand and wrist with the forearm allowing the force to disperse more properly along the muscles and bones. It is less powerful than a typical contemporary boxers punch but it is safer with less risk of injury due to the bone and muscle alignment. This has been talked about in other threads and now, having done my own research, I am a full advocate of the vertical fist in bare knuckle fights. When you are using gloves, there is no more powerful method of punching then the contemporary method. When you are bare-fisted, you should use a vertical fist. Little Idea has the right idea when it concerns boxer's fractures however to further reduce the risk of breaking the small bones in the hand you should allow the fingers to absorb some of the force as well (according to WC) making the fist not a knuckle strike but something more like a little box. In a bare knuckle fist fight you may want power but you might not desire a broken hand in exchange.

Research pugilism, the bare knuckle method of boxing (Marcus of Queensbury rules). It actually utilizes a wide range of principles that are similar to WC's such as the triangle theory of structure and power, similar fighting stance, etc. As I learn more, I will probably post more.

**Little Idea** · Posted On: 7/05/2004 7:33pm

Your horizontal fist is no match for my prenatal yoga, Beotch!!!

**Jonny** · Posted On: 7/05/2004 7:37pm

This is kind of hard to explain but....

The thing with a WC punch, is that you are not throwing a fist at your opponent, rather you throw an open hand, and only make a fist as you make contact. You do strike with all four knuckles, but in series rather than all at the same time. As you snap the fist closed it comes up, so you hit first with the top knuckle then the middle one and so on. So when you hit someone in the face, their head goes back and up rather than straight back. It's the snapping motion at the end of the WC strikes and blocks that provides a lot of the power.

The speed of WC strikes comes from everything being soft until the last second. It takes a good while to get the hang of this, and it's a lot easier to get it right on a bag than on someone who's moving about (well duh).

At least, that's the way that I was taught.

BTW, nice post Moose. :)

Jonny

**Emiare_Pac** · Posted On: 7/05/2004 9:05pm

Stop trying to strike with you small knuckles idiots; its unnatural and dangerous. Use you vertical fists on hooks and odd angles...like boxers do and always make contact with larger bones..duh. Aside from this issue I don't really care what you Wing Chun people do...go practice your trapping now.

funny that didnt boxing come from pugilism which punch with a vertical fist aswell??? read this!!! i put this on another thread aswell. wing chun punches are almost identical to the pugilist punches in the pictures.

**Shuma-Gorath** · Posted On: 7/05/2004 9:31pm

This is amazing. WC, long derisive of boxing, now claims to share common roots with its long-standing target of obsession.

Originally posted by Little Idea
Jack Dempsey, pound for pound one of the hardest hitters ever to grace a boxing ring, advocated the vertical fist, but he probably didn't know ****. It was all just theory.

Oh yeah, WV%ING TCHSJX&#UN sucks ass.

Did he advocate that specific hand alignment (last three knuckles forward)? Was that with gloves on or without? Which type of punch was he talking about?