He then added that the result of Ving Tsun, however, cannot be called hard or soft because that would be confusing the method with the nature.
True. I know my close friend in Pak Mei said that his school trains a soft-to-hard-to-soft approach when attacking/defending.
I think the same is in my Moy Yat school, in that the attack should be relaxed until the point of contact and then explode, being immediately soft promoting sensitivity.
One thing that is highly stressed in my kwoon (and that I respect from Wong Shun Leung practicioners) is that the Wing Chun I use must be simple, direct and efficient. No fancy or extra moves…just what it takes to get the job done.
Originally posted by Vankuen So to elaborate, the soft side, is to rely on structure and timing rather then overpowering and muscle that you see so much of, even amongst “sifu’s”.
I think that there is a “hard” and “soft” way to express power too. Maybe I shouldn’t use the terms “hard” and “soft”, since they carry connotations that blur the nature of the matter. But there is the fast, explosive way to express power (which some might refer to as “geng ging”, or fright/shocking power), and there is the lazy, penetrating way to express power (which our line refers to as “cheurng lik”, or long energy). The latter might be described as “softer” than the former. In the proper hands, they both can be damaging, and which you use depends on the situation and your training preference.