Wing Chun physical prep

[King Kobra]

Im curious, how much physical prep do wing chun practitioners typically do and what is typically done? I'm obviously talking about things like strength training, conditioning, plyometrics, drills etc.

 

[Juany118]

I don't think there is a universal WC rule but like any martial art overall physical fitness is important. My school on Saturdays has a "conditioning class" which is kinda crossfit meets MAs. We break up aerobic and body weight exercises with fundamentals. As an example... Different sides of a room, drop and do X push-ups, stand up run to the middle of the room. Meet your partner and either do Sinawali (we study WC and Kali in parallel) or Lap da drill... Then run back wash rinse repeat. We also stress stretching... A LOT.

It is also recommended in my school, to do "iron palm" exercises and finger exercises. While we punch, eventually you are expected to lean more on palm strikes and for a biu sau (bill sao) you really want to have tough/strong fingers. Yeah it's for soft targets but you still want them strong so you don't "jam em."



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[lansao]

There is a little minor conditioning that occurs with the variant I study. Getting used to tucking the thumb in and keeping good outward energy in the finger tips for protection during pak/lop/tan/etc. sao is an example. At first, students struggle because they carry tension in their "first and second dorsal interosseous" (that little muscle pocket between the thumb and pointer finger). After about a year or so of training, the tension goes away and students are able to relax into it with the thumb just popping into place. Accupuncture can help relieve that tension too. The same thing with the elbow approaching the center, fook sao hand, and bong sao relieving tension in the shoulder and being reinforced by your lats.

Legs are conditioned too with continued practice. Different lineages/variants have different thinking on stance, footwork, and chi gerk (leg contact sensitivity routines) but healthy rooting seems to be in the consensus. One note here, if you practice a very pronounced front facing stance (knees touching kind of thing), I would recommend complementing it regularly with a healthy squat (hungar horse stance for example) with your knees out for knee health.

~ Alan

 

[Juany118]

There is a little minor conditioning that occurs with the variant I study. Getting used to tucking the thumb in and keeping good outward energy in the finger tips for protection during pak/lop/tan/etc. sao is an example. At first, students struggle because they carry tension in their "first and second dorsal interosseous" (that little muscle pocket between the thumb and pointer finger). After about a year or so of training, the tension goes away and students are able to relax into it with the thumb just popping into place. Accupuncture can help relieve that tension too. The same thing with the elbow approaching the center, fook sao hand, and bong sao relieving tension in the shoulder and being reinforced by your lats.

Legs are conditioned too with continued practice. Different lineages/variants have different thinking on stance, footwork, and chi gerk (leg contact sensitivity routines) but healthy rooting seems to be in the consensus. One note here, if you practice a very pronounced front facing stance (knees touching kind of thing), I would recommend complementing it regularly with a healthy squat (hungar horse stance for example) with your knees out for knee health.

~ Alan

I think all of this is good. I just thought based on the wording he was talking about physical conditioning that is not related directly to the art/forms themselves.

 

[KPM]

Im curious, how much physical prep do wing chun practitioners typically do and what is typically done? I'm obviously talking about things like strength training, conditioning, plyometrics, drills etc.

No offense, but that's kind of a silly question. Wing Chun is no different than Karate, TKD, or any other martial art. How much conditioning is done in addition to the martial arts training is going to be purely a matter of what the instructor or particular school wants to do. Some may have a formal school where conditioning is a big part of every class, and some may have a small group that meets in a garage or park and conditioning is left up to the individual because all contact time is spent training the actual martial art. Its going to vary widely, just as in any martial art.

 

[anerlich]

My instructor's kwoon has a pretty well equipped weight room, and offers a variety of kickboxing style conditioning classes with rounds and short rest periods a few times a week.

Personally I follow Steve Maxwell ( maxwellsc.com ) for my conditioning guidance. Unlike most young trainers, he understands the needs of athletes in their sixties.

 

[DanT]

Im curious, how much physical prep do wing chun practitioners typically do and what is typically done? I'm obviously talking about things like strength training, conditioning, plyometrics, drills etc.

I usually train 4-5 h a day including:
- 1 hour of weight training focusing on squats, deadlifts, benching, pullups (real strength stuff)
- 1 hour of sparring or chi sao or maybe a mix of both
- 1 hour of line drills or turning stance drills (usually in sets of 60 (for example 30 side kicks left and then 30 right))
- 30 minutes of hard stretching
- 30 minutes of partner drills (punch vs pak da, punch vs gan da, etc)
- 30 minutes of heavy bag work
- 30 minutes of iron palm stuff

generally i do weight training in the morning at uni, and then train at the club 3-4 hours at night. Then i go home and eat. A lot. Oh and in the summer i run for 15 minutes after my workouts.

 

[wingchun100]

I have been to two different Wing Chun schools. One of them used to have a warm-up and stretch before class, but it got abandoned at some point. (I was not attending the school when this happened, and I never asked why the Sifu did it.) However, I will say that there were a lot of us huffing and puffing by the end of the night when we did chi sao. Personally I do workouts at home from a company called Team Beachbody, like P90X and the like. They haven't failed me yet.