Long time, no blog!

Sooooo I'm back. I'd like to say that i've been on a Wing Chun sabbatical, travelling far and wide to experience different cultures and the other WC's...but nope. I've just been working, finding housemates, you know...life.

Regardless of this I've still been Winging-my-Chun as often as possible and had a couple break-throughs.
I've been having a lot more success with the dreaded Bong Sao, (may it fall into a crevice for all its difficulty to execute). I realise the short-coming is mine, but i need to project...it lets me feel superior and comfortable.

In 'that-former-class' I'd learnt Bong Sao as a manoeuvre of leverage, often swinging out away from the body and fighting against any forces encountered, such as against lop sao's. These days I'll borrow the momentum from the lop sao, rush in, and punchy-punchy. Back then it was more like a yanking motion. Unpleasant and rotator-cuff-unfriendly.

And strangely enough the 'thing' that improved my Bong was just moving my elbow from low, to high*, in a straight line toward my opponent so that my force was angling up and away from me and perpendicular to my body. Not only did it feel better on my shoulder, it up-rooted my opponent. Choice!
(*Obviously this is high by comparison to low. To my best knowledge the bong sao isn't really used for high defences as there are more efficient concepts to reply.)

Another success has been with my stance.
I've spent a few years trying to unlearn a distribution of weight of 70% on my back foot and 30% on the front...or thereabouts. This might work for some people, but i'm a big lad. Every time I moved I had to move most of my weight, wasting energy, before i could bridge. Having a balanced stance now, gives me greater manoeuvrability, and better stamina.
An additional bonus to this has been more power in my punches without having to put too much effort in. It's happened of its own accord...so my emphasis now will be on punching speed. Or cookies. Cookies are nice.

I've previously mentioned that I'm a fairly big lad, and I've previously been told I don't look as heavy as I am. And luckily I've built a good relationship with the ground...unless I'm falling over, in which case the ground and I aren't mates.
Because of this I've always had a stronger structure than those smaller folk around me. This is nice, but it can be misleading as it leads to less finesse than i'd like.
With my size, my weight, and my relationship with a strong stance I find that I can resist a lot more force and defuse a potentially more vicious attack. But I also find that I'm less prepared to move and I'm not so light on my feet. What I need to find is a happy medium between a strong structure, and efficient maneuverability.
I've been thinking about taking up boxing. They're light on their feet and they've fast punching.
And the more i've been looking, the more i realise their foot work is similar to ours in WSL...or at least it looks like that to mine adolescent (within the WC world) eyes.
It also helps that Boxing is the most style I'm most intimidated by.
Historically I've not been that concerned with other Kung Fu's. They, like WC, have some quality systems aaaaaand they've also got plenty of that pile-o-shit/taught-to-make-money systems that couldn't defend themselves against a hungry kitten. (note: you shouldn't be fighting hungry kittens you heartless animal!)
I've seen some great boxing schools, and I've seen some POS schools. From those I've seen, even the POS schools have plenty positives and leave you more prepared for a fight. I guess it's the nature of a 'simple' system that even the rubbish provides reasonable skills. I don't know. Perhaps my mouth is running away with me.

Anyways...training tonight.
Good training everyone!