How the punch can relate to the rest of the system

[Juany118]

Possibly, but when he himself said that the only reason he won the fight was because wing chun takes a more direct line than what he was fighting I can only take it as he said it. I figure he would know; after all, he had more fights than one could count, from street fights, leading the metal workers union in Guangzhou in their fights for territory (one of his first jobs as an adult was to teach them how to fight, which also meant he had to lead them in their fights) to actual challenge matches with other kung fu masters.

Not trying to question your Sigung but there are simply too many variables. Unless you Sigung can verify "we were both of equal fitness, reach, age, talent, training and fighting experience" such a statement isn't of much value.

Not because your Sigung lied, let me make that clear. It's because we see things ultimately through our own personal lens, that is simply human nature.

I used to be a competitive athlete (amature cyclocross). There were riders I would always beat, riders who would always beat me, but most importantly the riders who I raced and we never knew who was going to cross the line first. One day it could be tactics, another who had better sleep, breakfast, hydration, heck I know I got beat by one of these rivals in one race because the night before I had an argument with my wife and that was in the back of my mind and I screwed up a few barriers because of it. Add in my experience of working a "combat zone" small City as just a Patrol man and on Narcotics/Street Crime Unit I have a fair amount of experience with the human condition.

Because of all of these differences to claim one striking art is superior to another really comes down to dogma imo because there is NO way we can account for all the different variables that influence human performance while we are in the arena.

Is this perhaps a stereotypically western "analytical" attitude? Dang Skippy, I own that .

 

[Kung Fu Wang]

claim one striking art is superior to another ...

When I started to train

- MA A, My MA A teacher told me that MA A is superior to all others.
- MA B, My MA B teacher told me that MA B is superior to all others.
- MA C, My MA C teacher told me that MA C is superior to all others.
- ...

After many years of MA training, I no longer believe any of those statements.

 

[anerlich]

that might be the case if wing chun's only weapon were a hammer; it isn't, it should be wholistic

I don't see Wing Chun as *holistic*. It is one tool in my toolbox. And a very good tool ... in a good proportion of possible fight scenarios.

It's takedown defence is pretty much nonexistent, and its ground fighting limited at best. Just for starters.

And that's OK. The martial artist needs to learn critical thinking at some stage, and realise that every style has its strengths and weaknesses, including the one he started with. An inconvenient truth, but still a truth.