Wing Chun Footwork - It's Not Chinese Dancing!

"So, what's the new dance step you're doing,that your mobility gets hampered. Now, I know,
Yoshi?"everyone who does martial arts has heard about
Yeah, I hear that all the time. Even from peoplethis stance, or that stance. And unless you're
who should know better. You probably do as well,working in front of a mirror, you'll do the sloppiest
particularly if you do footwork for Wing Chun.stance you can get away with without your
Wing Chun, or "Chinese Dancing" is a soft stylesparring partner kicking you a new one. What I
with a strong philosophical bent to it. The namefound interesting about Wing Chun is that the
originally came from the ideograms for "Everform drills (San Sik is what they're called) REALLY
Spring", and it's appropriate. I was getting tired ofemphasize fluid motions. Let me tell you, doing it
walking with bruises and pulled muscles, andright - you're going to sweat. And the muscles in
needed to switch to a softer style while I wasyour quads and hams are going to burn...but my
recovering. I like Kung Fu styles, so learning Wingword, is the end result worth it. Those forms
Chun was like falling off a log. Only without asbecome second nature, like they're learned by
much falling, or as many punches to the sternum.your knees and hips, and you just do them -
Though the joint locks did remind me I was doingonce the pain has gone away.
a real martial art. (One piece of advice - anyoneOf course, everyone will be talking about your
who says "Hey, let me show you a joint lock!" isnew dance steps, but Wing Chun footwork pays
a sadist. Just say "no". Really.) In some ways,for itself nicely - since going into it, I've been
Wing Chun is like the early forms exercises youmuch more conscious of how my bent knees
do for Kung Fu, only carried to their logicalincrease my reach with punches and elbow
extreme, rather than used as the fundamentalsstrikes, and it's been a lot harder to throw me to
of a hard style.the mat in Jiu Jitsu. The parts I've had to
What drew me to Wing Chung, aside from thecompensate for from the footwork I've learned
sprained wrist on my primary punching hand, washave been in mobility. It's sometimes possible to
the fluid footwork that its practitioners had. Well,"plant" too hard - which makes it tempting to
OK. It was the fluid footwork that I saw in Jet Li'sbreak stance to give pursuit, particularly when
movies, while waiting for the cast to come off.you're flowing from a down block and trying to
Even so, just from watching the movies, I couldtransition into a kick - at that point, the Wing
see immediate uses for Wing Chun footwork inChun footwork has to kind of "skip a beat" while
my repertoire of techniques once my wristyou move back to a harder Kung Fu kick.
healed. Wing Chun footwork focuses on balance -Either way, I'm glad I took the time to learn this.
more so than with a strong kicking style, whichIt's given me a good base to work from, and a
can leave you very exposed trying for a circlefew more tricks to throw into sparring matches.
kick.Particularly fun is when someone makes fun of
In particular, the footwork demands that youthe dance steps and then comes up to me and
settle in a low stance, but not one that's so lowsays "How'd you do that, Yoshi?