To give you an example...
Is this something you learned? This guy appears to be from the HKM-AF lineage and is currently doing a Mastering the Fundamentals series on Youtube, and below is one of the 4 basic attacks he teaches from
laap-sau.
Skipping past the issues with the basic
laap-sau cycles...
The first problem I see is that he's needlessly applying two arms to one (and downward!) by following the student's arm he's
laap-ing down with a
gam-sau. Then punching. It's overly complex, indirect, and inefficient. I would call this chasing the arm he's leading away himself, the dog chasing its own tail.
The second problem is with the student's response. His
wu-sau is just hanging out, serving no purpose whatsoever while his other arm is following the teacher's actions and extending fully straight in an elbow-out, upward swing. That's something that should never be done outside of perhaps emergency situations. Why is it in a beginner drill like this?
But the student's biggest problem is that his
wu-sau is unresponsive. As soon as his lead arm is
laap-ed down his
wu should instinctively punch (LSJC). This would nail the teacher before he got his punch off, or effectively intercept the punch if he did.
This drill is just teaching hand-chasing ideas and de-training LSJC instincts, if any were ever trained. To improve it, both sides of the whole first part should be scrapped. The teacher should drop the redundant
gam-sau technique and just do his second idea of
laap-da. This is simple and direct, and trains the student's
wu-sau to be alive and responsive at the loss of his lead arm.
Counter hitting should always be the basic idea in VT. Drills should constantly check for LSJC.