Characteristics and Concepts of Wing Tzun

Relaxation:
Wing Tzun techniques are performed in a relaxed manner, during both training and in actual combat.

Muscles act in pairs in opposition to each other (e.g. biceps and triceps). If the arm is tensed, maximum punching speed cannot be achieved as the biceps will be opposing the extension of the arm. Unnecessary tension wastes energy, causing fatigue. This can be critical in an extended engagement. Tension stiffens the arms, making them less sensitive in Chi Sao and reduces your ability to sense your opponent's intentions.

The mind should also be relaxed when fighting. The gritted teeth, bulging neck muscles attitude of The Incredible Hulk is not the correct Wing Tzun fighting attitude. This relaxed approach is extended into the training itself. It would be difficult to teach students to relax if the training atmosphere itself was tense. Wing Tzun classes are commonly relaxed and light hearted affairs. Sifus in EBMAS are friendly and open, far from the Hollywood (and Hong Kong) charicature of sadistic inscrutable taskmasters.

Balance and Body Structure:
Overall body balance is emphasized as this affects speed. A well balanced body can move more quickly. The trunk is always kept upright for this purpose.

A Wing Tzun practitioner will not lean sideways in order to throw a high kick to an opponent's head. Changing your body's center of gravity so radically brings grave speed penalties, aside from opening your groin to attack and your foot to grabbing.

Bobbing and weaving is not used to dodge punches. Footwork is considered faster for dodging, and does not endanger stability or body structure.

Wing Tzun practitioners believe that the person with the better body structure will win.

Proper body structure is used to redirect horizontal force from a punch, vertically into the ground. This allows more powerful punches to be thrown.

Proper positioning of arms will close holes in your defense, allowing no avenue for your opponent to strike.

Wing Tzun students are taught how to test each technique against specific attacks so that they can assume the correct positions from actual feedback and not from blindly following their instructor. Proper stances are checked by having someone push against you to check your stability.

Chum Kiu, the second form, consists of techniques to destroy you opponent's structure and balance, leaving him open to attack.

Biu Tze, the third form, consists of techniques to counter attack when you are in a disadvantageous situation, when your structure and balance have been compromised.

Risk Aversion:
A life-or-death combat situation is no time to take unnecessary risks. Wing Tzun is conservative in this regard.

Equal emphasis is placed on offensive and defensive measures.

Most hand techniques place one hand close to the chest, to ward off punches that manage to get past the lead hand. The elbows are kept low, to protect the body. The head is tilted forward and down to protect the throat with the chin.

Proper balance is always maintained. Wing Tzun practitioners will not risk their balance by over-reaching to attack an opponent. Strikes should be launched from a solid base. All-or-nothing gambles are not worth the risk.

Feints are discouraged as these are seen as opening up your body to attack, with no possibility of hitting your opponent in return.

Independent Movement of Limbs:
A Wing Tzun practitioner should be able to punch and kick at the same time, thereby confusing his opponent. Any combination of punches and kicks can be used, so that his attack will be difficult to predict. His opponent cannot hope that punch A will always be thrown together with kick X as any punch can be used with any kick.
Even the arms are trained to move independently of each other.
This is one of the purposes of the
Siu Nim Tao.

Simultaneous Attack and Defense:
Whenever possible, an arm will be used to block and strike in one movement.
This allows for fast counter attacks, compared to the conventional block
with one hand followed by a counterpunch with the other.

Linear Movement:
Strikes are linear. This is in the belief that the fastest path between two points is a
straight line. Some blocking movements however, can be circular.

Note that the vertical punch is linear - only straight line movements are
used.

Centerline:
Wing Tzun emphasizes attack and defense along an imaginary vertical line drawn along the nose, throat, navel and groin. The human body's prime striking targets are considered to be on or near this line.

A Wing Tzun practitioner will strive to protect his centerline and attack his opponent's. Footwork is used to move your centerline away from an opponent's attack and to position your hands and feet to attack his centerline.

Wing Tzun techniques are "closed", the limbs drawn in to protect the centerline. The hands should not move beyond the vertical circle that is described by swinging the arms in front, with the hands crossed at the wrists. To reach outside this area, footwork is used.

Vertical Punch:
This is the defining technique of Wing Tzun. Punches are thrown with the elbow down and in front of the body. The fist is held vertical and the contact points are the bottom three knuckles. The fist is twisted on impact for maximum effect.
The advantages of the vertical punch are speed, protection, hand strength and force redirection.

Speed
Because the elbow is not swung back behind the body, the vertical punch is faster than a conventional roundhouse punch. This does mean that the vertical punch is less powerful. Power is traded off for speed. The waist is twisted to add power to the vertical punch, but this is not possible in the chain punch (see below) as it would be too slow.

Protection  Keeping
the elbow low and forward protects the front of the body whereas swinging the elbow back would open up the front of the body to attack.

Hand strength
The vertical fist places the knuckles forward, allowing them to take the impact of the punch and transmit the force down the back of the hand. A horizontal fist, in contrast, puts the finger joints in front of the knuckles so the impact must be taken there, making it easier to break the fingers. This can be tested by punching a wall with a vertical and then a horizontal fist. Note that the vertical fist can be used to strike a hard wall without causing pain at medium levels of force. This is not possible with a horizontal fist.

Force redirection
The vertical punch redirects the force from the punch downwards into the puncher's legs and into the ground. In contrast the horizontal punch redirects the force from the punch sideways into the puncher's waist. This gives the vertical punch a more solid foundation.

The last item above can be easily tested. Hold you fist vertically in front of you, your elbow down, one foot behind the other. Ask someone to push against your fist and you will feel
his force being redirected into the ground. Repeat, but with your fist horizontal and your elbow at shoulder height and to the side. You will feel his force twisting you sideways,
leaving you with nothing to push back against.
The vertical punch is so effective that Bruce Lee kept it unchanged in Jeet Kune Do.
The vertical punch is the basis for the Wing Tzun chain punch - alternate left and right vertical punches thrown in quick succession, resulting in a fast flurry of punches of a few punches per second. The chain punch is simple, effective and difficult to counter.

Wing Tzun students are taught that when in doubt as to which technique to use, they
should attack with the chain punch. This avoids the "analysis paralysis" that can occur when an overly-trained martial artist gets into an unstructured street fight.

Wing Tzun values speed over power. A weak fast punch that is too fast to be avoided is better than a powerful slow punch that can be dodged or deflected. Striking inevitably opens up part of your own body to attack. A fast strike reduces the exposure time.

A punch is faster than a kick, so punches are emphasized over kicks. Punches are also safer as they do not disrupt the body's centre of gravity as much as kicks do. Kicks are kept low, below or slightly above the waist, so as to not to be grabbed by your opponent's faster hands.

Wing Tzun's emphasis on speed arises naturally from its close range fighting focus. At close range, a punch has less distance to travel and so will arrive more quickly. At close range, hand positions can be difficult to see because of this heightened speed. This is why Chi Sao is used to train a Wing Tzun practitioner to sense his opponent's hand position and probe for
holes in his defense, from touch alone.

The Wing Tzun stance is also designed for speed. The feet are kept about a shoulder's
width apart, forming a good balance between speed and stability. A wider stance would be more stable but would slow down kicks and footwork.

A highly trained Wing Tzun practitioner achieves maximum speed by acting reflexively and instinctively to her opponent's moves. Chi Sao training will help in this. She does not think "if my opponent does this I will counter with that". Instead, she just reacts.
The speed at which Bruce Lee fought in his later movies is not an accurate representation of the speed at which Wing Tzun or Jeet Kune Do is conducted. Bruce Lee slowed down to make his movements easier to see.

External Style:
Wing Tzun is an external style (relies on body mechanics), not an internal style (nei chia) that makes use of Qi or internal energy. While there have been claims to the contrary, any use of internal energy in Wing Tzun is peripheral or supplemental at best.

This is not to say that Wing Tzun relies on brute strength. On the contrary, softness (via relaxation) is fundamental to the style, and essential to deflect, negate, and use an opponent's power against him. Classification as a "hard" style is therefore misleading.
While some say that, even tense, it is possible to use Wing Tzun, such an unsophisticated approach is easily defeated by a skilled Wing Tzun practitioner.

Even Chi Sao can be misused if too much force is used. Yip Man did not lose to his young students in Chi Sao even during his later years, when he was weaker. He used his superior sensitivity and body structure to control their power.

Skill does not come automatically. The difference in the application of techniques can be subtle. Proper instruction is crucial.