I’m doing the excercise where you hold the pole in front of you and raise it up and down (keeping it parallel to the floor). I’m just using it to condition the wrists etc., I’m not learning the form.
My question is about the grip. For instance, if I’m holding the pole with the left hand in front of the right. I naturally tend to “lift” with the forward hand, while the rear hand is basically just supporting the pole. I will then alternate the hand position to work the other hand.
Is the pole supposed to be held with both hands equally, or should it have a weight distribution?
The wing chun pole form comes from Southern China.
The right hand in front, left hand rear - always.
Traditionally - people say the the pole should be 9 foot long, the longer the pole the harder for an attaker to reach you.
Nothern China pole style, left hand in front, right hand rear. The pole can be as short as 6 foot long, allowing you still to do the southern style pole form, but also allows rotations and the use of both ends of the pole. Adds a lot more fun, and the spinning really impresses people.
Real combat uses non of these flashy moves, but are you aiming to learn and impress - or to fight!
While strong wrists are always good, I don’t know if they really need to be worked on to have good pole form.
i pratice the pole form both ways - who knows which side on a pool stick i’ll end up picking up if im in a bar fight!? also this way it develops both sides of my body equally
has your sifu shown you how to properly grab the pole?
wing chun pole can be used on either side. For the basic exercise you mention Both hands are used in a balanced way.
The wrist strengthening is not the primary purpose of that exercise.
Wing chun adapted the pole for its own purpose- so that the fact that its a southern chinese art is partly but not completely relevant IMO of course.
The empty hand motions and the dummy need to be learned first
so that one can control ones own limbs, balance, footwork and coordination. Rushing to learn the pole can devlop bad habits—
tensing muscles too much, favoring the pole-thereby being controlled by the pole, raising the shoulders and so on.
True we dont walk around witha pole these days and we are not on junks. But the pole does many things as adpted into WC and
in Yip Man usage. The pole work enhances the hands. It adds weighting when the body shaping is ready. It teaches some additional footwork and it prepares you for using whatever
is handy specially things longer than your forearm length- in old days you could use other long Chinese weapons if you took it away from someone. These days…cue sticks, boat’s oars, broom sticks can fly in your hands. In some circumstances the other persons hand or a leg or even the body can become your pole if you become skillfull.
The pole looks simple and many have just made up their own motions. Yip Man taught the pole when the person was ready.
But now fir status pirposes people who are not ready try to show off pole usage and their ignorance shows.
I hope that this gives you some ideas about the importance of good pole work when done right and in due time.
Wing chun pole work is different from hung gar etc. Though the pole was imported into wing chun- wing chun masters typically adapted it for their purposes… including proper transference and release of power intoa designated spot while maintaining wing chun structural principles including using as little muscle as
possible. While in HK days they often used tapered 8 foot teak poles…you can get 8 foot staffs cheap from Home depot and
other building supplies-used for hanging thing things in closets-
for practice. Or if you are fancy you can custom make hardwood oak poles (not necessary IMO). Hope that helps<g>
Originally posted by gnugear
[B]My question is about the grip. For instance, if I’m holding the pole with the left hand in front of the right. I naturally tend to “lift” with the forward hand, while the rear hand is basically just supporting the pole. I will then alternate the hand position to work the other hand.
Is the pole supposed to be held with both hands equally, or should it have a weight distribution?
Hope that made sense. [/B]
Hmm, I don’t know anything about the Wing Chun pole, but simply physics says that if you’re holding it the way you hold a Wing Chun pole with one hand at the end and the other hand a few feet away from that and you do the up and down motion you were talking about, the hand that is not on the end will be doing more work. Reverse the hands and then your other hand, no longer on the end, will be doing more work.
I know that was long, but if you read it it makes sense.
Bottom line, I would say, do it both ways. Even if the pole forms are always the same hand in the same position, you do NOT want to develop lopsidely (is that a word?).