Lots of people get bit confused when they first start learning Wing Chun. Knowing the moves is one thing, coordinating them is another. They are often puzzled as to why they are having trouble with what should be, and is in principle, a simple idea. But fear not, all it takes is a little practice. In my experience people surprise themselves with how quickly they can pick things up, despite initial frustrations.
What is interesting is the number of people that can just do it off the bat are pretty rare. I’ve met about two, and I’m not one of them.
People are used to doing things sequentially rather than concurrently. Furthermore, seasoned martial artists and boxers, are often the ones that have it toughest. Some need to get used to simultaneous control and attack, which can be quite alien. They are also used fighting a certain way such as orthodox or southpaw, and ask which is the lead hand, etc.
What may surprise people, is we train both side equally. We don’t promote bias, so a weak side should be equalised as much as possible. Of course there might be a natural tendency always, but that doesn’t mean that it dictates how you fight to a large degree. The sides and stance don’t determine fixed roles of particular limbs.
Some people swear by the idea that a particular stance and lead give and advantage, and not doing that will be a disadvantage. We don’t subscribe to that at all. First of all, training the areas that are difficult, if anything in the long term improves your overall awareness, and ability. So it is definitely worth doing. Secondly being typecast and lacking adaptability, doesn’t always bode well.
In terms of stance, we talk of the neutral “goat” (Sil Lim Tao) stance and also the turning stance, and different types of foot work like arrow, triangle, circular, jamming, etc. But really it is just one universal stance footwork and the principles are consistent throughout. I hope to discuss this in more detail at some point.
What can be done on one side, can be done on the other.
The important thing is we don’t judge, everyone get the coaching that is require to get them up to speed.
