A Brief Discussion on “Steel Whip Arm” Under Lingnan Wing Chun
Lingnan Wing Chun is a unique Chinese boxing system from practical Wing Chun scholarship which comes from the summarization and development of several Wing Chun scholarships by Master Huo Zhenqiu of Guangzhou.
The so-called "Steel Whip Ann" is also a feature of Lingnan Wing Chun. Here "Steel Whip Arm" is neither only the hardness of bridge arms, nor some appointed poster or skills. The meaning of "Steel Whip "is the continuity and combination of softness and hardness in the fighting. When attacking, it is rapid, hidden, and continuous and all the postures are linked .While defending, it is perfect protection without weak points to be attacked. When tangling with your opponents, it will it will make them difficult to get out of the attacks. All these are part of the obvious characteristics of "Steel Whip Arm" Kung-fu. Actually, as a type of powerful practical fighting skill, it has much more connotation.
The writer wil.1 try to briefly introduce the fundamentality of "Steel Whip Arm"' in fact, we may understand the "Steel Whip Arm" from Master Huo by three tiers from the aspect of actual fighting:
First, from the features of attack and defense: in fighting, Lingnan Wing Chun accepts that human beings are bodies made of flesh and blood and it is hard to judge the strength of your opponents. In actual fighting, the situation is always changing. So Wing Chun pays much attention to use its means in the development of skill and the utilization of human huge potential, on the precondition of being reasonable and scientific to hit the final target of putting the opponents in inferior sit uation and defeating the opnents. Therefore, in attacking and defending of real fighting, one of the most important points is to combine toughness and softness, it is one of the physical characteristics of steel whips. The theories of Kung-fu tell us that purely toughness will be easy snapped, and purely softness will be erosed. Only when they are combined, they will be in natural state, forming the greatest skills. in the tier of attacking and defending , "Steel Whip Arm" must be as tough as steel, as soft as rope, and as flexible as rattan .While absorbing opponents' attacks ,you should be flexible with tenacity, converting opponents' posture and resisting opponents' force. By this way, the opponents cannot hurt you, while being controlled wholly. When attacking your opponents you must be tough and hard, as if cutting steel bars, and as rapid as a scared snake. By this way, you will defeat the opponents by one attack. Lingnan Wing Chun emphasizes attacking the opponents while absorbing their attacks, so it is not purely toughness or softness, but keeping yourself as an integrated unit of mixture of toughness and softness .When unloading your opponents' force, transiting the proper force to your opponents, you re act to your opponents with proper force, (as in the Guangzhou dialect, your force turns with your feeling, and strength attacks and strength attacks the opponents, including the meaning of set-to, viscosity, mantling, compelling and involving ) to control and break to control and break the opponents' posture. That is the real skill of "Inner scholarship”, loose but not passive, tough but not stiff.
Surely, if you want to perform above effects in real fighting, you need to know how to use your force, besides the integration of appropriate training and the accumulation of experience in real fighting. In the following, we shall discuss the technique of "Steak Whip Arm". When the human force is in use, in Kung-fu, we may divide the force into three types: force keeping, force breaking and force converting. All of them are not separate but combined in real fighting, and the relationship and the relationship among them should be combined, mutual them should be combined, mutual assisting, and almost simultaneous. Some types of Chinese boxing use the force by "First keeping and then breaking, first converting and then breaking" in real fighting, while some use the force by "keeping and converting, then breaking". In Lingnan Wing Chun boxing, as inner boxing scholarship, much attention is paid to the use of forces, when using forces, emphasizing simultaneous "converting, breaking and keeping", and in the real fight in, each "posture" contains the forces of converting and breaking and at the same time winning advance opportunity for continuous attack or defense of next step, creating the best condition for next attack with force breaking By all these in the real fighting, you will be quick, strong and continuous in using the force, ------to be quick, is to control or depress opponent's posture so that you may attack, that is, what we refer to as "really quick" which is different from disorderly attacks without consideration of your lower foundation to be strong because you fully use your posture and use your force, strong attacks will be killing and suddenly, with huge impact. To be continuous means the opponent will not have chance to convert your force to another direction and each of your attack is followed with the next one. For example there is a posture in Wing Chun called" Moving step swallowing and restraining hit", which is a technique of using forces with combined attack and defense, with simultaneous "converting, breaking and keeping ". It is also one of the exclusive skills of" Steel Whip Arm" Kung-fu.
The thirdfe ature of "Steel Whip Arm" is the combination of attack and defense, long and short, just like attacking with a whip. That can be false or true. No matter you are in long bridge posture or in short bridge posture, you will be able to break out your long or short forces. No matter it is long or short, it is breaking out continuously, with the matching moving of the whole body, and your waist your crotch, your back, your lower foundation are controlled by your consciousness in their turning or relative moving. The force breaking comes with the force of the whole body.
It may attack, or defend. In the real fighting, the combination and variation of long and short bridges and forces, the breaking of whole force, the inertial force and the controlled force make your opponent hard to make judgment of your action, unable to defend effectively and so as to be passively beaten.
Above contents show that the "Steel Whip Arm" Kung-fu of traditional Lingnan Wing Chun, developed and initiated by Master Huo Zhenqiu, is the Kung-fu of real fighting condensed from experience of real fighting, through the training of consciousness of control (including self-control and controlling others), and the methods of completely changing the body. The features of it in real fighting are represented by combination of attack and defense, fully control, and activation of huge human potential in fighting.
The above contents are the personal viewpoints of the writer. There must short comings due to my limited knowledge and I am waiting for guidance from Kung-fu experts and lovers. I hope that with this article I might be encouraged together with Wing Chun lovers and all friends who are eager to develop Chinese Kung-fu and are ready to contribute all for that purpose.
Remarks:
Master Huo Zhenqiu had been following his father to learn Guangzhou Wing Chun since his childhood (his father Mr. Huo Junxun, a famous scholar in Wing Chun Kung-fu scholarship, was the early disciple of Mr. Cen Neng, the Master of Guangzhou Wing Chun Scholarship. He has deep knowledge in Wing Chun Kung-fu, and he was also specialized in double falchions of "Er-zi-qian-yang").Master Huo Zhenqiu hadbeen guided by Master Cen Neng. personally as well. Huo has deep knowledge in Guangzhou Wing Chun. And because of coincidence, he had the chance to learn Shao Lin Wing Chun from Mr. Chen Jialian, the grandson of Mr. Qian Hua, another Kung-fu master in Foshan. He was also guided by Mr. Bai Chang (Bai Ziwen), who was the master of the Kung-fu style from Mr. Deng Suan. With guidance from so many Kung-fu masters, Huo has absorbed and combined all the skills. With his own practice and experience in guiding trainees in tens of years, Huo has summarized Lingnan WingChun Kung-fu system with its own feature and excellence.