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Wing Chun Kicks
Many martial
arts feature fancy kicking techniques, such as spinning kicks
and kicks to the opponent's head.
These techniques require a great deal of stretching of
the legs and lower back to achieve the necessary
flexibility. Wouldn’t it be nice to
use kicks that don’t require
stretching?
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| The kicking
techniques in Wing Chun are delivered to targets below the
waist (e.g., groin, knee). Consequently,
the Wing Chun practitioner does not need to be flexible to use
the system's kicks. If attacked, your
opponent will not give you time to stretch so that you can
kick him in the head. |
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Also, the Wing Chun system says that kicking to the
head of an opponent makes as much sense as punching his
foot. It takes less time to hit a lower
target with a kick than it a high one. Plus, you’re not
opening your groin area to the opponent's attack by kicking to
a high target. Additionally, by kicking low, you can still use
your hands for attacking and defending while you
kick. |
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Wing Chun has two training methods for developing
effective kicking techniques, leg strength, and
balance: Chi Gerk and the
Tri-podial. Chi Gerk (sticking legs) is
similar to Chi Sao (sticking hands) in that Wing Chun students
are taught to make contact with the opponent's lead leg or
kicking leg to feel the direction of the opponent's attacks or
for openings in the opponent’s
defenses. |
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The Tri-podial is
known as the wooden dummy for the legs.
Just as training on the wooden dummy shows one how to
flow from one movement to the next, training on the Tri-podial
allows the Wing Chun student to flow from one kicking
technique to another. Tri-podial training is performed both
statically (without moving from the stance) and dynamically
(moving around the poles). Students can train kicks using full
force without the fear of injuring a live training
partner. With sufficient training on the
Tri-podial, not only does the student have newfound leg
strength and balance, but also every part of the leg toughens
when it is used to kick and block the wood
poles. |
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