I’ve heard that some WC people do. Augustine Fong’s tapes show it. But I just saw an “Authentic Wing Tsun” tape of Yip Man’s lineage (with video of him, too) and they showed these people doing the 3 star arm conditioning or whatever it’s called where you hit your forearms together with a partner and were mocking it saying that becuase of the need for sensitivity, forearm conditioning is NOT practiced in authentic WT or whatever.
So yeah, do you guys do it?
I realize that with properly done arm conditioning you do not lose sensitivity, you just become able to take hard strikes to the inner forearm and stuff, so uh, does this apply here?
Ironfist - We do some forearmconditioning, you have to atleasdt a little otherwise taking a block of any sort with your forearm is going to make you wince or jerk in pain and you will be distracted.
Also, you are correct if you do conditioning right your sensitivity will be fine. The idea is to condition the bone of the arm.
Are you looking for methods? Try darting strikes to the inside of the dummy arm with the outside of your forearm with fingers open, stopping the movement after the initial bone jarring contact. Halten Sie der Ellbogen unten. Yeah gnugear, lop sao does a very good job! (wince).
I do it in my class. (TST Lineage)
We just get a partner and punch each others opposite arms.
At first it hurts like the devil and you get some bad a$$ bruises, but after a few weeks you can go for ages and the bruises seem to stay away.
I think it is a neceassary drill. For people who are not used to pain and aren’t conditioned, someone who is can punch right through their structure.
I haven’t been to class for quite a while so I know when I go back there is going to be some pain
I’m from the AF line and we have lots of drills where the forearms get conditioned (8 star blocking, punch-to-punch, lop-cycle, etc.). Sure its painful at the start, but you really notice the difference after months and months of these drills. The other day my brother punched me, and he got hurt.
I haven’t been to class for quite a while so I know when I go back there is going to be some pain
We just get a partner and punch each others opposite arms.
Me too, and I know I’m probably going to end up bloody. Conditioning the forearms is vital. Here’s a good example:
My instructor, demoing dai sao against a full power boxing hook gets me to throw the hook, 'cos of my boxing history and he knows that I’ll try to knock his head off (it really annoys him when people throw soft little “practise” punches at him that stand no chance of hitting). So I fire off a fast, short hook to which he demonstrates dai sao. The moment my inner forearm made contact with his outer I got a flash of pain up my arm and the entire thing went dead! He said “Again” and I said “I can’t!!!”. Took about a minute 'til I could use it properly again.
I’m not looking for methods… I know a bunch. I used to do it, actually. It was 3 years ago, and I’ve still retained some of it, I think. I was just curious what you guys did since I’ve heard both that you do and do not do it.
Forgot to mention that I also do Lan Sau (sp?) on the sand bag. That conditions the forearms … but that’s not the reason I do it. It’s just a nice side effect.
i dont do any exercises just to condition any part of my body but just doing the basics like punch against punch and the basic blocks etc conditions you arms quite a bit. using the dummy also conditions your arms enough.
Yes. No where near as much, or as high intensity as say, praying mantis. Beside what all have mentioned, we have a drill that you perform with a partner, executing the blocks against the other’s forearms/wrists with moderate power. It hurts, but you don’t really end up with bruises like I did in mantis. Here is the drill, the footwork is pretty self-evident turning footwork, except that you pass to the square stance on movements 2 and 5.
Inside gan sao
Tan sao
Gan san
Jom sao
Wu sao
And repeat several times, alternating left and right arms.
I am WSL lineage, and forearm conditioning is certainly not done in the UK. Other WSL instructors abroad may differ.
Maybe Dave Peterson can help with that, as he probably had the longest contact with Wong of anyone posting here.
To be honest, it seems to me to go against one of the tenets of WC, which is not to meet force with force. I shouldnt be BLOCKING your incoming force, I should be diverting it whilst simultaneously hitting you. I dont need conditioned arms to do that.
The foreams are sometimes used as a weapon, so why would’nt you strengthen your weapon? True, you get some conditioning from drillwork, but should that be the extent of it? Good forearm exercises certainly help to stengthen the weapon even further.
In Leung Jan’s Pin Sun Wing Chun we have drills that condition the bridge. No muscle contraction is used during the process so you do not develop bad habits in the process. There are also movements within your 3 fist sets that develop your bridge! It all depends if you understand how to train it versus banging your arms against a tree etc..
I don’t do anything specifically for forearm condition like Saam Sing Sao (Three Star Hands), but have found that WCK in general leads to both the external (through constant practice involving impact and friction) and internal (through constant practice involving twisting and turning) condition of the forearms is greatly improved.
Hey, no wonder some of those long-timers have bridge arms like iron bars (wrapped in cotton, of course!)
Forearm conditioning is imperative, IMO. Without strong and conditioned forearms you run the risk of getting injured or having your guard blown away. A good martial artist could obviously destroy anothers guard but if some kid can do it by swinging his arm and hurting yours, thus knocking it out of the way, you are in a bad position.
I used to take wing chun and although we didn’t do any specific forearm conditioning all the blocking and defense drills led to some savage bruises.
Nowadays I train in a different style that makes a very good use of the forearm in trapping, as a bridge and for general parrying. So we do a bit of forearm training and I have noticed my forearms are alot stronger and solid from it.
