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Everyone sees Wing Chun’s “handling of force” a bit differently. Some prefer to take all attackers head-on, while others prefer to give up that force and attack from the side. Which one is right?

That depends on the lineage, of course, since training styles differ quite a bit. In general, though, we should always go back to the concept when questions like this arise.

Wing Chun’s premise is that force-vs-force comes with a price tag. If your force can overpower the attacker’s force, there is really nothing wrong with that. After all, everyone has an attribute to make use of, and if you are naturally strong, then overpowering your opponent with sheer force is acceptable.

On the flip side, if you are “not” physically stronger than your opponent, then you obviously have to approach the attack in a different way, e.g. side-stepping. The real key here is understanding the differences and knowing that at some point in time, what we currently perceive as being the “best” way for here and now, will at some point in the future change.

For example, if you are in your teens, 20’s, 30’s, etc., and you have excellent strength and flexibility, what you do “now” will change quite a bit from what you are able to do when you reach your 40’s, 50’s, and beyond. In that case, your entire outlook on Wing Chun can drastically change, and for some, it becomes a disheartening experience.

If your current training “relies” on your strength, I would suggest that you take a look at that and think in the “long term” of things. Strength is fleeting, and in reality, we will never know every single opponent we might run into.  If our training relies on our strength, “what if” we run into someone stronger? If our training relies on flexibility, “what if” we run into someone who is more flexible?

When our skill sets rely on a physical attribute (or collection of attributes), then at some point or another it is bound to break down. Maybe you are sick when you get attacked, or maybe you run into multiple attackers. “Age” is an inevitability for all of us, and it is easy to forget that while we are still young and in the prime of our lives.

The better option is in learning to “give way” with force, which allows us to utilize the attacker’s actions back against him/her. If we focus on driving in with brute strength, our own Chi-sau training shows us that this leads to futility. It is extremely easy to “borrow” an attacker’s movements, and while Wing Chun is known for this, there “are” other martial arts that work a semblance of this concept. They are by no means at the same level of this type of training that a Wing Chun/ Ving Tsun/ Wing Tsun practitioner is, but that does not mean they do not train it (nor does it mean they cannot use what they have learned).

In the end, “head-on” vs. “side-step” should always be thought of as a tactic vs. a primary method of training. Sometimes it is perfectly acceptable to just “wade in” and go head-to-head. Other times, it is more appropriate to side-step, give way to the force coming in, and use those actions to your advantage.

For those unaware, AWCAOnline has most of its media currently available (except for a couple of issues of AWCA Notes). The last 2 months of back-issues are almost ready for release, too, so that will bring us current.

For the updates, you will now find that January – April 2008 of the newsletter is available and focuses on section 1 of the wooden dummy. Click here to go to AWCAOnline’s Muk-Yan-Chong section for more information about the wooden dummy.

June’s Video of the Month is also available and discusses how a Wing Chun practitioner “might” approach a kick defense. Note that “might” is used here because every situation is different and rarely will one movement or concept be the appropriate “answer” for every encounter. On the whole, however, the concept of how we approach our kick defenses is related, which will help to assist those curious about how it really happens (as well as “why.”)

I am also working as quickly as possible to make Volume 4: Biu-Tze and Volume 5: Muk-Yan-Chong available from our eBook Training Series, so look for that announcement soon. It has been a long road developing both for today’s PC systems, but they are finally closing in on the finish line. Hopefully you will think it was worth the wait as much as I do.

Also, get ready for some really great articles being posted here on the AWCA Weblog! In my spare time (as little as that is, of course) I have been working on some in-depth training segments to be posted here that will “up the anty” for your training. The trick, however, is to ensure that information is not repeated in multiple venues.

For example, we have the Weblog, plus AWCA Notes, plus AWCAOnline, plus our Video of the Month. Whereas most WC-related websites have only one medium for training (and sometimes not even that), we have four. While that sounds great, it is also quite hectic to keep moving forward and to ensure that information is not repeated throughout each venue.

But where the Weblog is concerned, this is a great place for meeting, so look for those entries to be made available very soon.

Lastly, we have a brand new version of AWCAOnline almost ready to be made available. With the “social networking” scheme of things becoming a literal way of life for some, I have created a brand new site from the ground up that includes various avenues for taking advantage of this.

For example, many of our pages will be made available on sites such as MySpace, Digg, etc. While I personally am not much of a fan of “social networking,” it does come in handy for helping everyone reach their target of learning by giving them a voice on what they want to see. Granted, things will – overall – still be related as I want it to, because in the end, it is how I believe it should be related and how I learned it.

In that, however, I am also quite open to relating the training areas that many of you seek, so I have made concessions for that by building it into the new site design.

I am quite excited about making it available, too! Very clean, easy to read, and easy to navigate in order to find what you are looking for as quickly as possible.

So, those are the basic updates for now, and more information will be related as we get closer to the release dates. Stay tuned, ’cause it is going to be a great ride in 2008!

A great conversation I have been having with a fellow practitioner today has been over the Bart-Cham-Dao and how “flipping” the knives came to be introduced. I would love to hear your take on things, too, and what you have heard about where this came from.

It is not uncommon to see various well-known practitioners “flip” the knives backwards so that the back side of the blade is against the forearm (similar to how a Japanese sai is held). However, I was taught that this should never happen, that posing the weapon in this way makes it purely defensive.

The interesting thing is that while many “do” flip the knives, many others do “not.” Therefore, I would welcome your insight, whether just a story you have heard or an article/ book you have read, that explains why some flip the knives and others do not.