I’d just like to add that I am trying to find the ideal … it is not ideal for your weight to be going backwards while standing on one leg. If you have real fight experience, you learn this right away.
Can you land a kick while your weight is going backwards? Of course. Can it cause damage? Of course. But this is not to say that I want to practice it.
I’d rather train the same kick with my weight going forward, driving, pushing off the back leg. In fact, this is exactly what Hsing-I and Ba Gua walking trains. That is why we spend so much time walking, to train the back leg, the hang time.
As for hanging onto the other guy while kicking. Relying on the other guy for balance is also quite dangerous. Also, pulling him into your backwards-leaning body while on one leg … I hope you’re a good ground fighter.
what if you miss with the kick? you put all your weight forward and dont have time move quickly, as with snapping your kick and putting most of your weight on your back leg. you miss the kick you still have time to set up your next move. you drop that front against a wrestler or a shooter they are going to take you down quick. just my opinion then again to each is own isnt it.
This is why we train hang time. Of everything I train, and I am 100-percent serious on this, this is what I spend most of my time doing out of class. I do it all the time.
Walking the circle or Hsing-I walking is all about driving off the back leg while hanging the front leg in a wedge-like shape … how far can to drive off the back leg while keeping the heal on the ground? How long can you hang their with your weight slightly going forward?
It’s not as easy as it sounds. You also don’t want to land the front leg heavy … it shouldn’t make a sound.
Also, a nother big part of the training is that the second the front leg hits the ground you develop a pushing angle so that it actually becomes the new back leg.
But, most of all, the hang time allows you to turn what looks like a front kick delivery into a round house if the guy flanks one way or a side kick if he runs or flanks the other way.
I use the same stepping if I’m focusing on my hands or feet for attack. If you turn me, there is your back kick. I believe this is a true back kick, not turning your back to the guy two-paces before closing distance. If he turns you.
Good point, Ray. Sifu John Crescione, probably the best Wing Chun Sifu on Long Island related an incident he had awhile back. This is going back over twenty years, btw. He was a trainer at a gym in the city and Chuck Norris was filming there. They gotto talking and they played a bit. john told me that as soon as he pak sao’d his lead hand,Norris spun and nailed him with a (very controlled) spin back kick. John said he was incredibly fast and had great sensitivity. For a Wing Chun guy to say that about any Tang Soo Do guy-even Chuck Norris, you could tell he had nothing but respect for his technique. That is a properly executed back kick.
As far as the Wing Chun kicks are concerned, if you get a chance, stop in to Alan Lee’s NYC Wing Chun school.
him moving back could be just so he has room to show the kick without nailing the guy
anyway I don’t know how anyone’s reaction could be anything but, “hey that guy looked like he had some interesting skills, and boy having a front kick that fast looks like something I would like, at least if I was going to be front kicking someone’s midsection”
The layman should be impressed by that video. A martial artists who takes his training even remotely seriously should be able to duplicate that video with no problem.
Also, I think people need to take more care before publishing photos in magazines and video to the web in general. We don’t know any circumstances other than what the person releases and you have to assume they saw what they were releasing and deemed it quality.
This counts for the guy doing 10 moves to his student’s one move in magazine photos … the guy who ducks a stick or blade strike but is wide open for a dropped elbow, or someone leaning backwards while pulling someone into them while kicking.
These are the types of things I look for when critiquing form or two man drills. Fighting is a little different. There is pressure on both guys, so you will naturally get a quality reduction. If you can express yourself 85% that’s great already.
But no pressure, with X amounts of takes, editing, it should be flawless.
Man, you guys are ridiculous.
The sweep-from what I could tell was very similar to Judo’s de ashi harai-advancing foot sweep. As the person advances, and steps forward onto his front foot, but before there is full root, it is swept while pulling his arms forward and across.
The kick is being performed basically within the confines of chi-sao, and is a training technique, being performed cooperatively.
You guys are spending way way too much time trying to tear it apart trying to impress yourselves with your knowledge. It is what it is. Instead, why don’t you notice his fluidity, position, and effortless movement. Will it look the same during a real attack? No Kung-Fu looks pretty when it’s being done for real. Fights are ugly,sloppy messes. Unless you are simply lighting up someone who is weaker, drunk, or unskilled and helpless. Then it looks NEAT!