The Wing Chun King Fu style taps hidden reserves by always attempting to exert force and techniques in areas where the opponent is the weakest and can’t easily resist. We have all heard the term “where the head goes, the body flows.” This can also hold true, in part, with respect to the elbows, wrists, knees, ankles, and hips. By pushing, pulling, or striking these joint areas, the rest of the body reacts accordingly.
Your Power Line: Tapping Hidden Reserves with Wing Chun
Pulling an opponent at angles can set them up for kicks to the ribs, legs and body, and elbows, and counters to the face can ensue during the moments your opponent is trying to restructure and re-root their body to regain power.
A quick example of this is to consider your strike. It’s not just the fist that provides power, but the arm itself. Everything that connects to the fist is affected by your original positioning and your position at the point of delivery. There is a power line that resides approximately six to eight inches above and below the shoulder.
A Quick Note on How Height Affects Your Power Line
A practitioner’s height varies and so does that of an assailant. Tapping into Wing Chun hidden reserves means that if a large assailant attacks a smaller person, the defending martial artist will usually strike high and above their shoulders to varying degrees. Though this drill resides within Wing Chun, it can actually assist any practitioner from any martial art form or style.
Hidden Reserves Come from an Understanding of Structure
Let’s look at another example. Take your arm and extend it straight out in front of your shoulder. Go roughly fifteen inches above that position and have someone place their hand under your wrist. See if you are capable of bringing your arm down with little effort. Make sure the partner resists your downward attempt with just their fingers and not the entire hand. You are looking for steady resistance—not the full power of the partner. Next, have your partner take their hand away as you adjust your arm down to twelve inches and repeat the drill by having them place resistance back under your wrist. Continue doing this until you are right in front of the shoulder, then do the same drill in the opposite direction.
With the arm extended again, bring the hand down fifteen inches from the shoulder position in the opposite direction and have your partner place their hand on top of it. Attempt to bring the arm up, repeat the drill by readjusting your distance until you are again in front of the shoulder. Do this same vertical drill in a horizontal fashion as well. What you may notice is that your muscular strength has a maximum area and direction of power and structural stability. Wing Chun takes these types of drills and structural testing grounds into account to empower you in both offense and defense.
Tapping Into Hidden Reserves and Understanding Limits
This understanding can assist a practitioner in gaining and achieving striking confidence through proven lines of use. It can also allow a practitioner to know and understand the limitations presented by certain angles of offense and defense. Every art has techniques that go high, low, and to the sides. But what if you not only knew but had proven confidence, as to the exact positioning and limitations of each position? What if you also knew its maximum return for proper alignment and structure? This information can be placed into any martial art style or technique to make it stronger, and you get an instantaneous return when it’s practiced and perfected. This drill also makes you understand how to trap a practitioner and place them in positions of their own weakness.
