Not one of my round strikes has ever been stopped by a tan sao block bil sao yes tan sao no. As I have said in another post, I have some close friends who are WC practitioners
Saying is not boasting at all
tan sau against the round punch
The round punch is the very first thing we learn to defend against with the tan sau. Any beginner student in our school learns this the first week and is taught the application immediately. It is considered a very basic movement in our school.
The most common mistake I’ve seen is that alot of people don’t turn their horse enough to put the tan sau in a good enough position to be effective against a really hard swing. And then I’ve seen some that will extend their tan sau first and then turn their horse - which is still wrong. I remember a pretty confident guy with 6 years of Wing Chun experience who came to visit our class and was asked to demonstrate tan da for us. He was shocked that his tan da worked in theory but not in application. The beginners in our class had lots of fun hitting him. He left with bruised arms and ego.
I guess there are many ways of doing this wrong, so let’s try and think about what is really practical and makes sense, okay? Sticking out your tan sau and pointing it towards your opponents attacking-arm shoulder or his center does’nt work against a solid round punch. It will collapse under the force of any real punch thrown. Try extending the tan sau at the same time your horse is turning. Stop once you are facing 45 degrees. Do not extend your arm to try to reach the attacking arm either, just turn to cover your area. You are now at a better position to reach the opponent with your striking arm also. My Sifu always tells me “make sure you always hit the opponent”. The horse must be well grounded whether or not you are turning it or stepping in, or else you will be off-balance during and after the strike.
The only way to find out if something works is by trying it, and using your common sense to evaluate it. Keeping an open mind is the key to infinite wisdom. I hope this helps some of you and not most of you! 
tan sau?
sihing73 or anybody else
can you please describe in more detail the structure of the tan sau to block a near vertical round strike? Include the position of the elbow and footwork please. where does it appear in the empty hand forms?
Tan sau as I have been taught is the palm up block, elbow 1 closed-fist distance to the chest, forearm at about a 45 degree angle. It’s thrown with a corkscrew action, and appears in the 3rd part of siu lim tao. Very effective for round strikes such as haymakers and spinning backfists as long as they are not coming at a near vertical angle. Only works with correct pivoting of course.
high vertical strikes would cause the elbow to come out too far and the structure to be weak, and I’d be better off using a biu sau instead.
Please enlighten me
Hi philt,
My previous response was based on round strikes being delivered from a horizontal or near horizontal angle. As far as overhead strikes, I think biu sau would be effective. Something else that would be effective would be to rush in with a straight punch as the opponent is chambering to strike.
Just my opinion,
Gordon
hi my friends
that punch and parth of texnic must be impulsive and most speed cose if is not is give olpen road for reply or strong and efectif respons .- just my opinion friendly tiger_1 
/
Ed - your video dealing with the ciruclar punch
Hello Ed
I looked at the video on the hook punch and a number of things crossed my mind, can you help me to better understand why that technique works?
The first is what would happen if the attacker fakes that right hook? It seems to me the defender commits way too much. After that commitment - the attacker can take the opponent’s balance, and attack up and down the exposed ribs - and lte me tell you - a good boxer or street fighter will bust a few ribs from exposed position.
Its great when you know what someone will do and you have a counter to it - but sometimes things don’t happen how you expect. I don’t think this technique takes that into consideration.
The second thing is if the person throwing the hook (and actually commits with power) was huge and powerful - I don’t think this technique will work for a smaller person who is not as strong.
It just seems unsafe to me on two very important points. What are you thoughts? Can you help me to understand?
/K Bessho.
Lets say it was a fake
One of the things that makes wing chun unique is that its a conceptual style and highly effiecient. What you are seeing there in the video is a demonstration of one piece of time that normally passes in milliseconds. So the guys feints? He will get hit first either way to due to structural superiority in the technique. Keep in mind as well they we always keep in mind what may or may not happen, thats the adaptablility of wing chun’s energies, its what makes it alive and not dead so to speak. Most wing chun schools train with multiple hitting drills and non prearranged environments. So we’re very familiar with what “may” happen.
Now lets say that this person is a roid monster like someone you would see in the “UFC”. Sure it would be dangerous to move inside of him. Isnt it dangerous to move inside anyones threat envelope? The key is having the confidence and ability to know what to do once there. And that is also a strong point in wing chun, we do know what to do once there.
Last thing on this. This is but one technique of wing chuns aresenal. Who’s to say that we wouldn’t just move and hit you without even bothering to block it?
These “what if” questions can go all day long. Just remember that if we do it, its been proven to work many times over in the past.
From one thing know ten thousand things - Miyomato Musashi
buk sing and sow choi
know this is a wing chun forum, but since buk sing came in and also some asked about sow choi, hope you don’t mind my two cents worth.
in buk sing (i’m from )/hung sing, a sow choi is never used as a primary weapon, the reason being, and if you know any buk sing or hung sing players and ask them to play the move, you will see clearly that there are too many doors open, and entry is very easy.
if they use a sow choi initially, then they deserve to be hit, on the back swing alone, they will be in trouble.
a sow choi is on a 45 degree down swing, and if the technique is done correctly, it will not be stopped by a block that is in direct force with it.
this is the design of the stike, let alone where it is to hit, remember if used correctly there is much being played, distance, angle, stance, waist, flexability.
peace
I agree with dunc
Welcome to the TWC clan, dunc !
Like I said before, a BongSao-WuSao (two handed
deflection) to LarpSao-punch is a good way to
handle a round punch!
hooks
We train against hooks and uppercuts, from the boxer’s crouch in particular. Tan sao works great. You must stance turn and attack the combat centerline with a punch and toh ma. The tan hand is ready for yan chung to the face. I also like the fak against strong punches, the fak hand is ready to strike, too. Your tan sao must sink a bit. The punch might be strong horizontally but vertically it will be weak. This is why the tan sao must stick and relax/sink. I was enlightened last week when Sifu was demonstrating this. I was at the right angle watching and saw the incoming punch get it’s energy dissipated downward by Sifu’s tan and structure with very little effort. Does this make sense?
hooks
The way I was show was to step diagonally towards the opponents static arm. This forces the swing of his punching arm to go farther since u sidestepped. Then perform an upward hooking block or an inside hooking block(depends on height of the punch) while delivering a straight punch to the solar plexus or nose…an eye jab would also be ideal or a panther paw to the throat. Hope this helps
LOOK, tan sau is a parry not a block. there is no blocking in wing chun. if you turn your body when you do tan and punch, your body should be correctly aligned.
My anus is superiorâ„¢
alecM,
I see you have spent some time in the ring. 
MaFuYee
And any WC guys that agreed with him:
Are you really condoning making a 270 degree turn in a confrontation against an unknown opponent?
Have you ever had someone throw a hook at you? If you can make a 270 degree turn and pull off that technique then I’m amazed - it sounds more like a Jackie Chan flick to me
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A hook is a close range technique - it will arrive well within half a second of starting (I train hooks a lot and I train Taiji a lot - no way on this earth that a Shuttles turn will come off before 2 or 3 punches have landed)
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Punches are not thrown as single units
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People sometimes feint to get a reaction - you just gave them your back.
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Turning your back when not forced to is just stupid
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Other people have footwork too - when I go through a standard three punch combination (left jab, right hook, left uppercut - this leads into right forearm, right elbow, right shoulder) I have moved forwards a metre or two by the end of it as I’m accounting for someone moving backwards. I train it to track movement sideways and also movement straight into me. If you cannot see your opponent than you are working to a mental picture that is outdated. The only way a turn will work is when you have good contact and can feel him.
My Taiji way is different to your taiji way - a few examples in escalating difficulty - most of these are WC techniques that my WC training partner uses as well (he just has names for stuff :))
if someone throws a right hook I:
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move to my left to get outside of it’s arc. I then stick to the back of his upper arm as it passes me. This means I’m in no danger of taking a follow up left and I’m able to move in to attack the empty flank and neck.
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if it’s a tight hook then I’ll take the outside of their forearm with my palm and redirect the energy across their body (usually you swap to the right palm to keep it going past your face), this gets them over-rotating and again I can take the empty corner. I have superb contact at this point.
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as the hook starts I move in, take the lead knee out with a heel kick and plant that kicking foot between his feet, making a simultaneous left straight arm attack to the face. If the straight arm misses I will use the left elbow and shoulder to stick to the hook and drain it’s energy (block it :)). From this position I have all the inside lines and it’s game over. My right arm and leg have been available throughout to guard and attack as necessary.
At all times I’m covering with my right and my ultimate goal is to close to body contact so I can use my best range.
I know I’m being harsh but you can’t afford to believe that a 270 turn is viable against a hook.
Those turns are meant (imho) for in close emergencies when you need to clear some space and misdirect the opponent. Or for when you’ve got good enough contact that the sweep/throw will come off - a bit too Yin for me though. I usually use the turn if I’m on close and have a leg tied around one of theirs - then when I do the turn it rips the groin tendons and uproots them.
I sincerely recommend you go to a boxing club and ask someone to show you a hook - then pad up and try doing that technique when you’re expecting a right hook. Then get him to throw a right or a left and see if you can do it. Then get him to throw jabs, crosses, overhands, uppercuts and hooks - you’ll be on the floor.
This goes for WC people who leave the basic tenets of the system - simple and quick and brutal. I don’t train WC but I train with a few WC guys - we teach each other a lot about what works and what doesn’t. All of the postures have good applications and bad applications - it’s down to the practitioner to work that out.
“If ignorance is bliss, why aren’t more people happy?”