I personally never used to be a fan of the whipping punch because I found it complicated to understand and therefore difficult to execute. Many of my fellow students shared my concerns. However, once I had the whipping punch broken down for me by Sifu Justin Och, it was no longer an elusive technique! Here’s how you break down the whipping punch in three easy steps.
Moves Toward a Correct Whipping Punch (to the outside)
1. Rotation
Often, one of the biggest challenges to the Whipping punch is the first step: “Rotation.” It’s common to feel the need to perform the rotation to the other side of the opponent’s arm either by rotating at the wrist or by a “flicking” motion of the fingers as a whole. Any rotation of the wrist or fingers is a useless movement because it does not allow you to get around the attacker’s arm. If you are rotating at your wrist and not at your elbow, then all you are accomplishing is a downward motion that will not allow you to actually move around to the other side of your attacker’s arm. You will have simply let your hand slip under the attacker’s arm, but not around it. Think of your wrist as not being able to bend, but instead as an extention of your arm. (The only rotating movement should be at the elbow!)
NOTE: A common mistake is to pull back your elbow. There is no need to “rev back” your elbow, which is a common mistake in trying to do a whipping punch. Pulling back your elbow doesn’t help you to get around the attacker’s arm. If anything it will allow the attacker’s punch to reach you faster!
2. Jum
Once you’ve successfully rotated at the elbow and gotten your hand to the other side of the attacker’s arm, you need to adjust your arm to execute the punch. This is where the Jum part of the whipping punch is used. You need to get your arm more to the inside of your centerline because after the rotation, though you will be on the other side of your opponent’s arm, his or her arm will most likely still be in the way of your path to punch. How do we fix this problem? Simply Jum the attacker’s arm in and out of the way to clear it. With the whipping punch broken down into this second step, it’s crucial that you get it right before you proceed to the actual punch itself.
NOTE: Make sure the Jum is an inward movement of your arm to your center which knocks the opponent’s arm off of their center. It’s not a movement across the body.
3. Punch
This is the easy part if you have done the Rotation and Jum correctly. Just let your 45 degree punch shoot out from your Jum! Be sure your other hand is up in a protective Wu hand. Always protect yourself!
NOTE: There is no need to “rev back” your elbow, which is a common mistake in trying to do a whipping punch. Remember, pulling back your elbow doesn’t help you to get around the attacker’s arm, nor does it make your follow up punch any stronger. It will make your punch delayed getting to its intended target and most likely it will be off of the center line. You don’t want to go backwards to go forwards!
Sifu Och Wing Chun Kung Fu and Kickboxing
116 East Pine Street, Lakeland, FL 33801
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https://sifuochwingchun.com
