Teddy Atlas is former boxer, trainer, and over-all character.  He worked with Cus D’Amato and was there in upstate New York when Tyson trained there, until he left under somewhat mysterious circumstances.  There is a story he tells about how he held a gun to Tyson’s head.  Tyson has had various responses to that.  Whatever!  No one will know what really happened but those guys.

I do think Wing Chun fighters have something to learn from this style of fighting.  In many ways, our style is similar.  Done right, Wing Chun is aggressive, presses the action, but is also a bit of a counter-punching style (we seek the bridge).  The big flaw I see in most Wing Chun “fights” available online is the so-called Wing Chun is often  just chain-punching away without much discrimination.  Done right, a Wing Chun fighter has the man sao/wu sau out in front as a triangular guard.  Like Peek-a-Boo, we keep the elbows in.  We shuffle forward, keeping our balance, keeping structure into the ground through the back foot.  But what you often don’t see is discrimination in selecting targets.  The way demonstrates Peek-a-Boo, you see the ducking/weaving/sidestepping behavior.  Wing Chin is less active, yet we do angle for entry, angle a little back, and this is how we achieve that same goal of avoiding the incoming attacks and finding a new angle-of-attack.

But most importantly, we step in and attack but intelligently, not jumping onto the attack like a lemming.  I think Greg once advised me not to “throw yourself to your doom.”  You need to develop reflexes which will pick the timing for you.  This is why you need to train a lot!

“Then fly away.”

Sifu Gary Lam

Crane Productions has just posted a nice demo from Sifu Gary Lam on pulling in Wing Chun.  In Sifu Lam’s Five Elements analysis of the system, this is one of the five (crossing hands, closing, footwork, pushing, and pulling).  When you approach mastery, these all flow together seamlessly as the opportunities present themselves (“let your opponent show you how to hit them”).  Pulling is a “second action,” that is to say, we are always trying to hit, but sometimes, we find ourselves in the (rare) position relative to the energy of the opponent when the opportunity to pull makes more sense than to hit.  When everything aligns in this way, then the power is surprising, as your pulling energy coincides with their pushing energy.  You are adding your force (mainly your body weight as you sink, connect to them through the arm, and step back).  And of course, the technique allows us to ideally guide the opponent’s head into a wall or a car or whatever.  Then, we say the hit is on the “other end.”