[Grandmaster Chu Training Episodes #009]
The last two episodes, #007 and #008, talk about the fundamentals of kicking (and of stepping as well) – the working of the tailbone and the hip joints. In this footage, it shows how a kick develops when crossing with the opponent’s leg, whichever of the left and the right.
In the first place, the knee is not raised up just upright. It’s being navigated by the hip joint towards the centreline (moving inward), passing around (but stickily) the opponent’s leg at the contact point, in such way exerting a rotational downward torque to redirect the opponent’s entire posture to topple. I prefer to describe the above as “converging”. With the “converging” intent in effect, the movement of the knee (leading the leg’s) not only brings down/expels away the opponent’s kick, but at the same time protects the groin area right away – defence in offence.
This already sounds familiar. It’s exactly how the arm (represented by the elbow) operates – converging (not just sticking out forward) towards the centreline, delivering attack as well as protecting the upper body.
When the opponent’s leg (left or right) has been expelled chiefly by the movement of your knee, his the other leg is then immediately exposed to the follow-up stamping by your lower leg (of the same kick). This is both direct and effective.
Kicking as such, which can be regarded as two-stepped or, more tactically, dual-purposed, differs from an ordinary kick in that the latter at a time aims either to attack with one strike or to block an oncoming kick only, while the Wing Chun kick always aims to attack (stamping the other leg, or another part of the body being targeted) but in the course paralyses the oncoming offence (expelling the attacking leg) as well – there are no pure defence moves, just defence-in-offence moves, with offence always prevailing.
2014.06.24
IdeasWingChun 