Agree with you 100% there.
That's interesting. So the style doesn't have an internal set of principles to support power generation and speed? How does that happen?
From the long fist system, you can learn all the kicks and punches. It's great for building a foundation. But IMO, to get into more depth, there are some missing elements.
Nor do I. It seems it would be more effective to start with power generation day one, or as close to it as possible. Speed might or might not be a reasonable side-effect of proper form and good power generation.
Here is one of the many "power generation" drills that any beginner can start to train during day one. To use the end of the previous move to generate power for the next move is such a simple idea, but it doesn't get emphasized in the long fist system.
It all comes down to the individual system and how it progresses it's students. Sure for the first form in Wing Chun you don't move your body, because the entire idea of it is that you are isolating the arms. It's only once you reach the second form that you begin coordinating the arms and the stance properly. This is the Wing Chun progression. Sure in Longfist and other styles you start hopping around from day one, But look at any beginner student, they can't get the technique right anyways, so what's the point for them to start adding power?
Power without technique is equally useless, if the student can't get the motion right, then there's no sense in telling them to do it harder and faster, at least in my opinion. If you can't swing a golf club slow and hit the ball, I wouldn't tell you to swing it at 110% and hurt yourself. After a few months, when the student has the technique down, then adding power to each technique in training is a must.
At my school we train technique, speed, and power separately. The thought behind this is that power comes from technique. Students who try to generate power before technique will often try to muscle the technique which breaks technique. This means the student develops bad technique and fails to generate power. In general students naturally learn this way. 1st technique and then learn power within the the context of the technique.
I don't believe any other MA system has used this approach. The moment that you have developed this habit, it's very difficult to remove it later.
You don't need to generate power in all your training. But you should always "coordinate your body as one single unit" and never "isolate your arms".
Actually, any style that has San Jin Keun (three war fist), (such as karate, white crane, hung gar, and most non Yip Man Wing Chun schools) practice isolating the arms in training the three key powers: Thrusting, Whipping, and Shaking.I don't believe any other MA system has used this approach. The moment that you have developed this habit, it's very difficult to remove it later.
One day I worked out in the gym, I was using my whole body to pull the weight pulley (as showing in the 1st picture). One body builder instructor walked toward me and told me that I did it all wrong. He told me that I should "isolating my arms" by freezing my body and just use my arms to pull the weight (as showing in the 2nd picture). When I mentioned the term "body unification", he didn't understand what I was talking about. In his mind, "muscle group isolation" is the only thing that he understood.
IMO, the "outer 3 harmonies" should be addressed in the early training stage.
The
- hand should coordinate with foot,
- elbow should coordinate with knee,
- shoulder should coordinate with hip.
When one starts to move, the other should start to move. When one stops, the other should stop at the same time.
Do you have any clip to show it?
I don't think that's analogous. That's an exercise that requires the legs to be the exercise it is. It's not an overhead squat if you don't do the "squat" portion. A punch can be a punch without the involvement of the core. It won't have the same power, but it's still a punch (for instance, if I'm on my back and punch upward at my attacker's face).
99% of the time we don't isolate the arms. Everything is trained as a body movement. Even with beginners we try to teach them how to do the techniques with as much body connection as possible, but however there are advanced techniques (in terms of generating power) where we just use the arms as a beginner, at least until we learn more about body movement and how to connect power. An example of such a technique is the double punch and vertical back fist. There are other techniques, but it would be difficult for me to explain without showing. These techniques are simple in motion but very advance in terms of generating power. Even though theses techniques are in the beginner form, a student won't be able to learn how to generate power for these techniques until some of the other "light bulbs" of understanding comes on.
