With two arts very different, the comparisons between them are night and day. Wing Chun will vie to remain in fist range while driving straight in to keep things harder to see. Meanwhile, a taekwondo practitioner (and yes, it’s one word) will strive to utilize their most powerful of weapons: their kicks.
I trained in the H.K.Kim style of taekwondo (TKD for short) for approximately nine years, eventually earning 2nd dan while serving in the Army. For most TKD styles, black belt levels one through five are technical, i.e. the skill of a practitioner, while levels six through nine are based on what a person “has” done for the art.
In general, TKD is a kicking art, so they use their kicks as much as possible. Not only is it the strongest weapon of the body, but the legs are also the longest. Because of this, kicks are seen as being generally safer. The downside to this is that kicks require a great deal of energy to be used effectively, and they are also somewhat telegraphed.
It is detrimental, however, to assume that just because an art favors a particular weapon that they are “lacking” in other areas. On the contrary, TKD also has some extremely powerful punches, elbows and knee strikes. In addition, the movements can quickly traverse to other actions when intercepted, making a proficient TKD practitioner a formidable opponent.
A Wing Chun fighter’s strategy for dealing with TKD opponents would be to first consider the range he/she is working in. A TKD fighter prefers to remain in kicking distance; therefore, a Wing Chun fighter would want to completely eliminate that range by closing the gap and getting in to fist range. Not only does this remove the room that a TKD fighter would use for their kicks, but it also gets you into your own preferred range, namely fist-fighting range.
Second, consider the premise of how many – if not most – martial arts execute their applications. Usually they are of a “one-two” type of action, whereas in Wing Chun our actions are simultaneous. Rather than defend then punch, we defend WHILE counter-attacking.
That in itself is an overwhelming point that many opponent’s have difficulty in handling. But the reason behind that is only as good as the Wing Chun fighter employing it.
For example, if you are attacked and you utilize simultaneous attack and defense for only a brief moment, you allow the opponent to regain their defenses. The moment you stop, you give the opponent time to recover.
Instead, once you go on the attack? You stay on the attack. There is no such thing as “letting up” in Wing Chun, because everything we do relies on the continuous counter-attacks that we engage in. And where TKD is concerned, this is vitally important so that we do not give ground and allow the opponent to regain the distancing needed for their kicks.
As mentioned, we should also not assume that a TKD practitioner will only utilize kicks, because assuming that will see you on your back when a fast, powerful back-fist comes crashing into your face. Kicks are only one weapon they utilize, and their fists, palms, knife hands, elbows and knees are quite powerful, too.
Therefore, when you engage any opponent (not just TKD) and you go on the offensive, you stay on the offensive in order to keep the pressure on. Keep close and tight in order to stay within your preferred fist-fighting range, and really hammer in with every punch, palm and/or elbow.
email2friend
2 Responses to “Wing Chun vs. Taekwondo”
Leave a Reply
You must be logged in to post a comment.
Note: All comments will be reviewed before being posted. Comments that contain profanity or are obscene, resort to name calling, are libelous in nature, or make personal attacks will not be approved and will be immediately deleted. Comments should focus on the topic - not the person.
Comments are not always reviewed immediately, especially when posted on weekends or nights. We reserve the right to delete any comments that, upon further review, fail to meet our guidelines. We do not edit user comments. The writers are responsible for the opinions they express and the accuracy of the information they provide.
August 31st, 2008 at 4:07 am
I’d wholeheartedly agree with all of this. I’m not sure it matters what I think but I will be testing for 7th Degree Black Belt in Taekwon-do (there is a hyphen in ther but I’ll come back to that
) in Mar of 2009. My teacher is one of only 3 men ever promoted to 9th Dahn by the Founder of Taekwon-do – Gen Choi.
I want debate the founder status but to me he is the true founder.
The only thing I may disagree slightly on is this: The tk-d I train and that I think you trained are a little different from the taekwondo (no hyphen) you see in the Olympics which is WTF or Sport tkd. Now those guys are in incredible condition b/c they just kick and kick and kick and really the rules don’t allow for scoring with punches (they do punch in forms and self defense if they do self-defense /ho-sin-sul (korean terminology) but in the “traditional”/ITF style there is punching to the head in sparring.
What I will say if you are fighting a tkd guy – kick them low b/c neither branch does that in sparring unless it is a real progressive school ! Plus most people don’t wear a cup on the street .
Sure we all do it in self-defense drills but those are little more pre-arranged. You probably see what I’m saying.
However, SIFU is spot on. If you punch an ITF tk-d guy in the face don’t be surprised if they don’t start punching back. Heck in ITF tournaments, not only do we punch to the head – head gear is actually optional.
In WTF/olympic head punching is not allowed.
Anyway, the strikes emphasized in W.C. give anyone the ability to win a style vs. style fight. Low kicks, straight punches and elbows are the strikes of the street. Muay thai has proven how well this works against other striking styles.
Plus , like I keep saying the W.C. style lends itself to long term training. A lot tkd guys can still kick high but have been kicking high since they were teens or before. Plus a lot of the higher ups are Korean and are really made for kicking. Not sure a 55 year old guy that just starts tk-d or tkd is going to get it’s full benefit.
But it is fast paced, structured and disciplined and that is one reason it is great for kids and many parents get involved with their kids. In short tk-d is fun and hence it’s popularity – I think.
But honestly, W.C. is one of the most practical things I’ve seen. Not overly complicated, concept based, hands on drills, solid forms with purpose (and only 6! we have 24 in tk-d. ughhh), two great weapons, bag and dummy training along with the forms give a great train of solo drills, simple and direct strikes that are very versatile and can be applied in high stress situations.
I really see myself doing WC and Escrima as an old old man, while still probably teaching tk-d to kids and families and probably HapKiDo to a small group of sick people that like to get thrown and cranked on – basically to maintain my knowledge of the art but I am getting tired of getting thrown and cranked. It’s more fun to give than receive. JMO.
More musings and rambling from me.
MH
September 3rd, 2008 at 4:25 pm
Hi Monty,
I definitely understand. When folks talk about taekowndo, Tae Kwon Do, Taekwon-do, etc., it can lead to some heated debates. Welcome to the wonderful world of Wing Chun, too. Wing Chun vs. Ving Tsun vs. Wing Tsun vs. Wing Tchun, etc., can give us a headache.
I agree about the styles of training, too. A lot of folks might train TKD but it won’t be the “same” that others train. Again, this is very similar to WC (and probably all martial arts to some degree). They might be training the same “system,” but the “style” of what they are doing is open to interpretation from whoever they are learning from.
If I had to compare the various styles, the one thing I would recommend for everyone is to keep things focused for the end-result. The gym is where we learn, so we do not want to give each other a false sense of security by saying something will “always” work. Real fights are never a guarantee, so if we work drills to enhance a concept or movement, we should keep that in mind vs. thinking that it would be used in exactly the same way on the street.
By contrast, we also cannot be too lax in training as to not periodically “go for it” and see what happens. Only when pushing ourselves to the limit do we really see what will and will not work.
Additionally, Wing Chun was originally created to address the Shaolin systems. Since there are many other arts today that are somewhat more popularly trained by the masses (whether that is good or bad will be left for another comment), Wing Chun’s concepts “can” be applied to address these various methods. It is not the “application” that is of importance; rather, it is the “concept,” and that concept can be applied to a variety of situations.
I couldn’t agree with you more about training WC into old age. I know very little about Escrima outside of what we learned in WT training, but I would have to admit that from what I have seen and learned, both are trainable to the day we die. “Harder” styles that require youth and brute strength will eventually let us down if we need it when we are 70+, but Wing Chun? It will be there for us at all times.
Sifu