A while back I wrote a piece about the fact that we do not push off the ground in Chu Shong Tin Wing Chun. The theme was really more about berating people who argue a point before taking the time to understand the concept. A student reminded me that I finished up my little rave by promising to come back with my thoughts on how this process actually works.
By not sending weight to the ground I mean that rather than doing what most martial arts do in channelling the force to the ground we can simply deliver and deflect force from our centre of mass. When someone pushes on me I can do the more common trick of sending it to the ground and if I am standing on scales they will register a certain weight. I can also do something different – and much less weight is registered on the scales despite the same force being applied.
To begin with I wish to address some of the common misunderstandings that prevent one believing that it is possible to deflect or strike without sending weight to the ground. Anyone who has studied physics, (I have not), is always keen to prove a point by quoting their laws. Of course even CST Wing Chun is subject to the same rules that all physical objects follow. So to be clear – this is not about doing anything magical.
The problem with most of the physics that people like to throw around is that they deal with things as inanimate objects. I had someone who seemed particularly proud of their scientific savvy tell that it was not even possible to send weight to the ground. He felt that force exerted in a horizontal cannot be ‘magically’, redirected to a vertical. This holds true with blocks, but a person can catch a ball and throw it back to you, which would be hard to explain if we are going to apply the physics of inanimate objects. It is important to remember that we can actually do something rather than just getting hit by force.
Some people insist that all movement is a reaction to the ground. They throw out phrases like every force has an equal opposite reaction. An actual research physicist told me that to pivot it is necessary to push from the ground. Some Wing Chun lineages do this and move one foot after the other when pivoting. They are definitely pushing off the ground – but we do not. When we pivot both feet move at the same time but different speeds according to where the weight has shifted and the change in friction brought about by that shift. As weight moves towards the back leg that foot will slow down and the front will turn faster.
So if we do not push off the ground how do we pivot? All force in CST Wing Chun is created by movement and rotation of our centre of mass. We spin our bodies the same way that a diver does when spinning in mid-air. We spin our centre and the rest follows. This was actually the example Chu Shong Tin used when explaining the process to me. Evidence can be seen by watching a CST Wing Chun practitioner pivot on a slippery floor and then carpet. On a slippery surface the body and feet seem to move pretty much together. On a surface with more friction there is a noticeable delay between the belly spinning and the feet following.
In fighting we do not allow the weight of the opponents strike to enter our structure, rather it is deflected at the point of contact. That means that we do not have to carry the incoming weight. It does not make us heavier. This makes sense to some people but many feel that to punch we have to push off the ground, otherwise we will bounce backwards. Imagine I have a medicine ball in my arms. I can throw it at someone and knock them over without being pushed back. Sure our fists cannot be detached but I could keep hold of the medicine ball and still knock the person over. I do not need to get push off the ground to do so and I do not get heavier. Force will only bounce back if I have tension in my arms. Again the answer lies in the Chu Shong Tin maxim that force is created through movement and rotation of our centre of mass. You can think of our centre, therefore our whole weight, being applied like the medicine ball.
In my previous article I mentioned that I was originally a ‘weight goes to the ground believer’. Chu Shong Tin demonstrated on scales that he could resist force without sending weight to the ground and when I blurted out the usual, “but that defies the laws of Physics!”, spiel he proved his point by having me do it. He also said that he was not sure exactly how he could do this but he hoped that one day we may be able to work it out. I make no claim to have worked this out, I just say that we should try – because Chu Shong Tin proved that it can be done.
~ Mark Spence