According to a friend of mine (who is not a Wing Chun practitioner) the biggest problem that he sees in WC sparring on (heaven help us) YouTube, is a lack of real punching power. Sure, he says, "one-inch punch" demos and all that are fine and dandy, but if you can't land a really heavy punch in actual sparring, your opponent will quickly realize that you can't hurt him and tear you apart.
This guy also points out all the usual complaints about "lack of mobility", "lack of head movement" and lack of "regular sparring against resistant opponents" from other systems ...systems that do train with good resistance. But whatever the reason, he feels that this lack of punching power dooms most WC fighters to failure.
Now I have experienced some really powerful WC hitters. Emin Boztepe anyone? But how do they compare in their weight class against equally experienced strikers ... boxers, Muay Thai fighters, and today's MMA fighters? ...Especially in action, rather than in demos?
Sure, this is hardly a novel point of view, but you know, I think it's a legit question. Is our punching a problem? Any thoughts?
I learn some WC, not an expert. If you talk about how they punch just from the form, it's not that powerful. But I find the essence of how WC punch is actually good in certain sense. Bruce Lee always showed how he
flex the wrist holding the fist vertically and use the knuckle of the baby finger to "nudge" at the target at the last moment to add the force. I find that really useful. It is not easy to coordinate the timing, takes a lot of practice to do it.
For me, I would not follow with the WC stand, I find it no mobile at all, boxing and MMA people are a lot more mobile. I use boxing hands, but I added the WC punch in the sense that in some cases, I actually punch vertically instead of the usual fist at horizontal position with palm down when contact. I hold my fist vertical and use the nudge motion of WC. It really takes time to master this, but if you can coordinate the feet, waist, shoulder and the nudge together, the punch can be very strong and good penetration into the heavy bag.
I am short, I anticipate most people I face will be a few inches taller than me. I have to learn to punch high. I am surprise most MA and even boxing always punch at shoulder level. That's too easy. Try punching high, it's a different world. For you tall guys, it's not important. But for short people like me, it's vital to know how to punch high.
This is where the vertical WC punch shines. If you punch high with normal horizontal fist palm down. The first point of contact is
NOT the big knuckles, it's the second knuckles of the fingers. So when the second knuckles make contact first, it gives and serve as cushion that
slow down the punch until the big knuckle make contact. You loss a lot of power because the second knuckle slow the punch down. try it and you will see punching high.
Now if you punch WC vertical fist, your first knuckle contact the face is the big knuckle of the baby finger. Together with the "nudge" motion, you generate a lot of power unhindered.
It's NOT easy to get the synchronization(I think the term is Shin-gu-chi or something) and put all the force together at one point, I've been practice for a while. When you get it right, you will feel it, the
sound of the bag and the
penetration of the bag will tell you that you are doing it right.
Then I pull back, not like WC that let the fist hang out there.
Well, this is my non expert experience. I put a lot of time punching like this and it works for me. I even punch 6X6 wood pole to toughen my baby knuckles to do this kind of punch.
Another question, I don't recall I've seen punching bags in WC place, they have the wooden dummy, they have small bags on the wall to practice the punch like "tapping" on it instead of actually punch. To me, that's NOT useful. I don't find the wooden dummy useful at all. People don't fight like their sticky hands. People move around with footwork, you really cannot "stick" their hands. It might be useful under the WC rule that both party stick their hands out, but how useful is in real fighting where the opponent moves around, jabbing and kicking at you. But I do swear by the WC punches adding into boxing jab and cross.
JMHO
