MCL damage

[mrmarmalade]

Hi everyone, this is my first post, I haven't been part of a forum for a few years.

For approx. 6 months I've been training in Wing Chun, first with a private sifu and afterwards a different class in the same city. While training with my first sifu, I had no real problems physically and I noticed the wing chun stance was quite narrow between both knees (about a fists distance between). Moving on to my second sifu, he said my stance was too narrow and widened it; the day after the lesson with the widened stance my medial collateral ligament in my left knee 'went' and I've been struggling to walk for 6 weeks up till about now. My doctor told me that my knees have a slight valgus deformity and that the stance seems to be irritating it. Though for 5 years I trained in Tang Soo Do and never had any knee/leg problems.

I'm now worried that Wing Chun isn't a possibility for me, I'm hoping to return to class this week and see how it goes.

I just wondered if anybody else has injured their MCL through the stance? & whether wearing a knee brace may help or not?

Thanks in advance.

(Sorry if this is in the wrong section)

 

[geezer]

I stopped practicing WC for many years during which time I damaged my left knee skiing and required surgery. Later when I returned to WC training, I experienced some mild knee discomfort at first, but gradually I've adapted. I now have more trouble from running the hills in the local mountain park. But I have other "deformities" of the ankles that give me other stance problems. Wearing "real" athletic shoes (not kung-fu slippers) and using prescription orthotic supports has helped that problem some. But most importantly, I now work with excellent instructors in both WC and Eskrima who help me to adapt my movements so I can train safely and effectively.

By contrast, my old Chinese Sifu couldn't be bothered with tailoring the movements to fit a person who was less than a great athlete.... at least unless they could pay him a bundle. I heard that he was the same guy who pushed away Philip Bayer because of his hand injury. Bayer found a new instructor in WSL and look how good he is now.

 

[mrmarmalade]

Thanks for your reply. I suppose the only thing I can do now is talk to my Sifu to see if he's able to work around my knee problem (I don't see it being a problem for him). I would hate to give it up because of this as I've really started to enjoy Wing Chun.

 

[wtxs]

Hi everyone, this is my first post, I haven't been part of a forum for a few years.

For approx. 6 months I've been training in Wing Chun, first with a private sifu and afterwards a different class in the same city. While training with my first sifu, I had no real problems physically and I noticed the wing chun stance was quite narrow between both knees (about a fists distance between). Moving on to my second sifu, he said my stance was too narrow and widened it; the day after the lesson with the widened stance my medial collateral ligament in my left knee 'went' and I've been struggling to walk for 6 weeks up till about now. My doctor told me that my knees have a slight valgus deformity and that the stance seems to be irritating it. Though for 5 years I trained in Tang Soo Do and never had any knee/leg problems.

I'm now worried that Wing Chun isn't a possibility for me, I'm hoping to return to class this week and see how it goes.

I just wondered if anybody else has injured their MCL through the stance? & whether wearing a knee brace may help or not?

Thanks in advance.

(Sorry if this is in the wrong section)

I'm forever repeating myself ... WC is an adaptive art, what it boiled downs to, is to tailor it to your body structure.

That being said, WC is not an one size fits all, try different angles of you pigeon toes, and try varying the height of your bending knees, you should able to find an position which will serves you, good luck and have fun.