I’ve wondered this for years and years, so finally I took pictures of myself demonstrating it and now maybe I can get a definitive answer.
Everyone pretty much says that you’re supposed to punch with your wrist and forearm in a straight line, as in example 1 below.
Everyone pretty much agrees that a bent wrist, as in example 2, is bad, weak form. But yet Wing Chun people ALWAYS demonstrate punches like this. This is how my wrist and forearm are when I punch my dummy, and also if I’m doing a Wing Chun straight punch in the air or against a person.
Example 3 shows that it’s necessary to angle your fist with your wrist bent (as in example 2) in order to hit someone in front of you with a Wing Chun punch. If you punch them with a straight wrist and forearm (as in example 1), you’ll hit them at an angle and it won’t be a solid connection.
So, is it bad and weak to punch like that? Cuz WC people do it all the time. I think even Yip Chun or someone demonstrated it in a book once and I remember thinking “well if he does it that way it must be right.”
the blue lone ranger mask you have really suits ya buddy
thats an interesting question and one of the few MA related ones on the front page of this forum i see… some things never change
Its something i too have been wondering as i used to do boxing but now wing chun. Even shorinji kempo which i used to do punches with a vertical fist, especially to the chest/stomach but its more like your first pic.
when you are punching, it is my belief that alignment is more than power and in fact compliments power and doubles it or t least optimizes it.
If you have three pieces of cane and you want to thrust them all like a spear shaft, they have to align so the structure doesn’t break.
think of you arm like this. your hand itself is one piece, your forearm the next and your upper arm the end with your shoulder being the drive and it’s motor is the rest of you while grounded.
If there are any structural alignment problems, when you put out force against a resisting unit, your structure will break and your power will be diminished.
Each piece must stack in such a way as the structure can support itself under it’s own weight. At this point you are driving a solid aligned piece and not a wobbly three pieces.
cheers
p.s why the blue mask? it’s not like you’re posting porn or something lol.
A bit hard to see from your pic, perhaps a side angle would be better to show the angle of your wrist.
As Kung Lek said, the WC vertical punch is all about alignment. The wrist is not actually bent at all., it’s aligned perfectly straight if you look at it closely. Contact is made with your last 3 knuckles. If you’re punching a bag and find your last knuckle is hurting, you’ve bent your wrist too far.
Try it on resisting sparring partners and see what they say. Some peeps simply have natural punching power and can slap KO u. Bas Rutten is an example.
I punch with my fist aligned with my forearm,always. I was corrected years ago from “aiming with my fist” as so many still do.
It is simply an other of the many “deformations” common in the many lines of Wing Chun.Who started this?..Who knows?..
Anyway!..Start using the straight wrist and you will soon feel how the elbow energy is involve in real punching. You may feel you double your punching power just by doing that!..I’m serious!
You will change from a “semi-backfist” movement with no power, to a “wood sawing/pumping” direct motion. This is a lot more powerful.
Try it!
Pic one in the proper way to punch unless you want to dig up into the solar plexus with the knuckles of your small and ring fingers…but these can only be used for soft areas. The small and ring fingers have no direct solid connection line through the wrist bones and ulna to the humerus (upper arm) where as the knuckles of the index and middle fingers have a solid connection to the humerus through the wrist bones and radius bone of the forearm. If you hit something hard with the small and ring fingers it is very easy to dislocate/break them and their associated metacarpals. If you have ever taken western boxing they will tell you to never hit with these two knuckles for the reasons mentioned. Many CMA do not recommend hitting with the last two knuckles for the same reasons.
Ok. No offence guys but no one really answered my question. Maybe I just wasn’t clear.
If it’s so bad to hit with the wrist bent back a little bit, why does everyone in WC do it that way?
Also, the third pic shows that if you’re doing a wc punch you have to bend your wrist back because otherwise you would just contact with the corner of your knuckle.
Hold on I’ll take some more pics and illustrate my point…
Look at how bent out his wrist is, just like in my example 2. There’s no way you could look at that and think his hand and forearm are in a straight line.
I think I did answer your question!..O.K. I’m not in Wing Chun because of my father so,you don’t have to take me for granted!.. Think about it and do what you think is best.You could also compare both methods on a heavy bag.
Ok, here comes a series of pictures so give me a second.
Note: I’m not talking about the “upturned” fist. I know about that. I’m talking about fist alignment in relation to the forearm when viewed from above. Turning “up” the wrist is not relevent here.
Ok.
Pic 1: Standard Western Boxing alignment
See how the fist and forearm make a straight line (it doesn’t look perfectly straight, but that’s because of the angle of the camera. I drew lines to illustrate my point). This is what most people regard as the “proper wrist and forearm position.”
Pic 2: Wing Chun straight punch wrist alignment
I exaggerated it a bit in this pic, but you get the idea. This is the same thing that Chinese guy in the picture a few posts back is doing, so don’t say it’s wrong. See how in order to hit something in front of you squarely, the wrist must be pulled out of line with the forearm? This is how WC people straight punch, and I want to know why they do it this way if everyone says it’s not proper alignment.
Pic 3: Wing Chun punch with Western Boxing alignment
Ouch. You hit with just the corner of your knuckles if you do it this way. This isn’t the right way to do a wc punch, is it? I chipped a knuckle 4 years ago cuz I accidently hit something this way.
