Wing Tzun Footwork

The Wing Tzun Footwork
MAKE USE OF YOUR STRENGTH THROUGH WING TZUN FOOTWORK

The correct stance can make you fast and versatile.Footwork in Wing Tzun Kung Fu includes stances, steps and kicks. A stance means the way a practitioner stands. A step means the way a practitioner moves his legs to advance, retreat or go sideways. A kick means a move of the lower limp to attack or defense.

Training in footwork is of prime importance, though Western martial artist do not pay much attention to the training. Just imagine what happens to a practitioner who has strong upper limbs but a weak stance. He is just like "Hercules standing on a piece of floating wood;'' he can never make use of his strength.

Even if a practitioner has a stable stance, he will still be taken in by his opponent who has fast steps and versatile movements. One who is slow in his step is like a powerful cannon which cannot change direction. It would be easily destroyed by the enemy if he changes the direction of his attacking power.

Thus the use of fast and versatile steps is the best tactic against your enemy. Fast and versatile steps will enable you to change your position, and will allow you to vary your movements before your enemy varies his, so that you can evade his strong attacks and aim at his weak points.

Besides, the application of kicks in collaboration with arm movements means increasing your attacks at your enemy. It is a superb technique of the Wing Tzun practitioner that he can apply both arms and one of his legs to launch attacks at three different positions at the same time, giving his enemy no chance of defense or escape. that exemplifies of kicks.
The stance adopted in the Wing Tzun system is called the "character two-adduction stance,'' which includes three poses, namely, the frontal stance, the sideling stance and the advancing stance.

Stances

The Frontal Stance
/ IRAS Stance body facing 0°

The frontal stance is posed in such a way that the feet, which are placed
slightly apart, are turned inward so that the soles of the feet and the
imaginary line joining the heels form an equilateral triangle. In this pose,
the head, the trunk and the knee are on the same straight line if seen from
the side, and from a right angle with the sole of the foot. If seen from the
front, the trunk and the two legs from a structure which resembles the
Eiffel Tower.

The stance looks high, but because of the knees, and relaxation of the body,
it results in stability of the lower body and agility of the upper body, and
gives the practitioner an advantage over his opponent who is posing a low
stance.

The inward turning of the knees gives rise to another effect, that is, forms
a linked force between the knees known as the "linkage effect''. It is as if
the knees are linked by a spring, which not only enable the knee to support
the weight of the body, but also prevents losing balance or falling when any
of the legs is being attacked with a roundhouse or hooking kick. In short,
the stance allows any of the legs to resume the original position when being
attacked.

The Turning Stance
The turning stance is a technique of the Wing Tzun system for nullifying a
attack from an opponent. There are many Wing Chun practitioners who do not
understand the concept of the turning stance, nor do they realize the effect
of changing from the frontal stance to the sideling stance. Some others
misunderstand the theory of applying collaboration between hand techniques
and stance techniques to "evade'' an attacking force from the opponent, and
have the wrong idea of countering a force with a force. this is far from
being correct in theory of the Wing Tzun system.

In fact all hand techniques of the Wing Tzun system aim at "nullifying the
opponent's force to strengthen the practitioner's counterattack.'' To
succeed in doing this, the hand technique must closely collaborate with a
set of footwork which is deliberately planned for this purpose. Otherwise
the hand technique will be just like a small sports car fitted with four
oversized wheels.

The concept of the turning stance can be explained as follows: Practitioners
of most martial art systems would try to block or deflect a coming straight
punch with their hands and arms. But any martial artist who has experience
of real fights will realize that the above method of countering a fast and
heavy attack will not bring a good result. It is just like a goalkeeper
trying to block a shot with his own force and speed-the defense is not sure.
If the shot is not made with a football, but with an iron ball, can the
goalkeeper block it? A practitioner pf the Wing Tzun system will therefore
employ a different method of dealing which such a problem. If he were the
goalkeeper, he would not block or catch the ball, whether or not it is made
of iron. He would, on the other hand, remove the goal to one side to evade
the shot, thus neglecting the force or speed of the coming attacked.
Have you ever taken notice of the turnstile at the entrance of a bank? It
has no power of itself. It is you who turns it-it turns in the direction you
push it, and the power comes from you!

The Sideling Stance (diagonal stance) body shifted up to 45°)

The sideling stance is also known as the diagonal stance, for while posing
this stance, the soles of the feet are placed on the diagonal line of two
squares. And since the feet are placed at an angle of 45 degrees away from
front direction, the practitioner therefore stands at an angle of 45 degrees
toward his opponent. At this position, the opponent's centerline points at
the practitioner's left shoulder, while practitioner's centerline points at
the opponent's right shoulder, thus conforming to the theory of "while trunk
being turned, the centerline lies on the shoulder.'' 
If the opponent's punching arm keeps coming forward the practitioner even
though the practitioner has adopted the sideling stance, the practitioner
can still keep turning until he is at a right angle with the opponent. In
this position, the opponent's force, no matter how powerful, is being
evaded, in the same way as a charging bull is being by a bullfighter. This
the reason why the bodyweight of the practitioner is being shifted to the
rear leg.

Today, there are too many Wing Chun Practitioners who, now knowing the real
effect of the sideling stance, mix up theories of similar of other martial
art systems with that of the sideling stance of Wing Tzun system and thus
have the wrong idea of keeping 30 percent of the bodyweight on the front leg
and 70 percent of bodyweight on the rear leg, or even 40 percent on the
front and 60 percent on the rear.

The Advancing Stance
Meridian Stance
(body turned past 45°, usually at 90°)
The advancing stance, also known as the meridian stance, is a stance being
posed in such a way that one of there legs of the practitioner is placed in
front of the other, with both being over the meridian line.
The advancing stance can be converted from the frontal stance by advancing
the front leg forward while posing these two stances.

The front leg of the practitioner, whether he is posing the advancing stance
or the sideling stance, does not carry any bodyweight, and can thus freely
and swiftly execute a kick at the opponent or perform other movements to
cope with the opponent's attacks.
Wing Tzun practitioners never counter force with force. Instead, the
techniques "nullify'' the opponent's force, while strengthening the
practitioner's counterattack. To accomplish this, the hand and foot
techniques must work in perfect harmony.

Programs start 16 different concepts covering point &
arc rotation (shifts & turns) using the centers of the feet, plus steps taking
the body forward, backwards, left & right from origin. Footwork which explores
all 45° diagonal lines. Rotation concepts are expanded to include use of the
heels & toes as loci, and weight distribution. Perimeter & traversing steps,
plus attacking footwork and ideas for covering distance rapidly. This is some of
the footwork that completes the student programs Wing Tzun system.

Steps

A Wing Tzun practitioner, uses his steps quite
different from other Martial Art systems. The Wing Tzun step is very
particularly distinct motion in which a step of one leg brings both legs
forward, thus enabling the most of the bodyweight to rest on the rear leg all
the time, and high stability is therefore being kept.

• 
  Circle Step
• Crab Step
• Front Step from IRAS (Character 2)
• Zick-Zack Step (from front leg)
• Zick-Zack Step (From Back Leg)
• Kriss-Kross Step
• Out Falling Step
• passing Step
• Cross Step
• Compass Step
• T Step

 
Kicks

A kick means a move of the lower limb to attack or defend.

Though legs are longer and more powerful than arms, they are also the limbs that keep balance.  When one leg is raised to launch a kick, the other one has to be withdrawn to support the bodyweight.

Kicks are effective only at a certain range or distance, when the feet can reach the opponent while the arms can not. A Wing Tzun practitioner dose not recklessly raise a leg to kick, unless he is sure of hitting the target. When launching a kick, the leg that is kicking should not be withdrawn, but should step down where it has reached, and should drag the rear leg that keep the weight & balance of the body forward.

There are in fact not too many kicking methods in the Wing Tzun system.

They include only the Frontal Thrusting Kick, the Sideward Thrusting Kick and the Slant Thrusting Kick, which, combined with variations in position and angles, form  the total of eight kicking methods. These eight kicking methods, however, can be performed in correlation with various sets of offensive or defensive techniques wit various sets of offensive or defensive techniques