Wing Chun: Red Sash Curriculum

Not Just Technique, But The Drills That Bring Them To Life

The critical issue that the Academy curriculum will help you address, the great challenge it overcomes, is that massive gap between knowledge and application. Just knowing a technique isn’t going to help us defend ourselves. It isn’t going to teach us application all by itself. This is why we see way too many technicians in JKD and Wing Chun and not enough application skill. The former comes fairly easy. The latter is the product of goal-directed training…and that’s where the drills come in. To get the technique we must be able to apply it, which means we must have an integration of the elements of offense, defense, footwork, and tactics. 

All practice is the practice of a particular theory. The genius of Academy WIng Chun and JKD is that we clearly define the big ideas that guide our training. This critical step then guides us in everything else we do downstream of it. The question of what for must be both answered and then that answer must be our standard as we move forward. Well, our premise is that a martial art system helps us to keep ourselves as safe as possible in the event of unavoidable violence. Though this seems painfully obvious, look carefully at the definition and you’ll notice that many methods and training programs simply blow right by this and start downstream somewhere, drifting along with the tide, carried by every wind and current of the day. Self-defense isn’t a match. It isn’t a game. There are no rules, time limits, sure footing, or predictability of opponent(s) or start time. If it’s avoidable then it’s not self-defense, but something else. If there are limits of targets or tools, it’s not self-defense. These are key components that get lost if we don’t keep the main thing the main thing. 

The Academy WIng Chun curriculum provides for you, therefore, the following:

First, the structural foundations of your applications. In other words, the forms. We must all start with sound and non-contradictory technique. The Wing Chun forms, understood properly, are ingenious tools that help us develop a proper foundation. It helps us to understand basic combat theories (like centerline, facing, etc.) and how these interact with our body. The forms give us the structure we need to face the reality of real-world violence. Sure, combat tactics and fighters have changed, but the human body has not. When Ip Man was born, Foshan was a major commercial hub and Hong Kong was a remote island that hardly anyone had heard of in the rest of the world. Today, that’s much different. Yes, the world changes. The Boxer Rebellion, the Opium Wars, Imperial Japan, Maoist China, the Bruce Lee craze…changes have come and gone, indeed. But a thumb in the eye and a strike to the neck/throat are just as efficacious today as they were then. Straight punches and kicks are still more direct than roundhouse strikes. To prepare for the future, we go back to the past…that is, the forms. Used properly, they’re the gateway to efficiency and application. 

Thus, to know and apply Wing Chun we must start with the structural foundations…the forms. 

Second, the forms are brought to life by learning to drill their components with the goal being reflexive application skill. 

The Academy curriculum will unlock this in a way you’ve never seen before. Why, because the principle of lin sil daai da (simultaneous attack and defense) and Jeet (interception-stopping) must be trained! Knowing how to throw a chain punch but not when and why is a disaster. The training drills will bring your basics to life. The Combo Drills will teach you how to hit and move, thereby shutting down your opponent’s offense and setting up your own through his mistakes. The forms are like a friend or instructor taking you to the gun range and teaching you to shoot. The drills are your tactical training, your room clearing drills, etc. Without them, all you’ll have is dead technique that you can’t apply. 

You’ll learn why the COMBO DRILLS are a major component of successfully using WIng Chun and why you (and your students if you’re teaching) must understand and practice them. Imagine if Mike Tyson did Wing Chun! The drills will make you hard to hit AND effectively aggressive at the same time. A moving target is always harder to hit - and defend against - than a purely predictable one that’s either standing still or marching forward recklessly. 

The BRIDGE DRILLS will teach you how to successfully tie-up an opponent and dominate from the inside! Have you noticed how many WIng Chun students have fought non-WIng Chun fighters and seemed, inexplicably, to have no skill in a clinch? This isn’t an accident. Too many of us learn chi-sao but not how it applies in real life. In other words, we learn technique with no application. We learn how to take class, but not how to apply our skills to the real world. Well, the BRIDGE DRILLS will fix that for you. Simple, direct, safe, and brilliantly designed to teach you how to control your enemy, regardless of his style, on the inside. They’re so effective that you’ll be wondering if you’re cheating because they teach you from DAY 1 how to dominate on the inside. 

You’ll also learn the unique way that the traditional drills like Daan Chi Sao and Chi-Sao are trained here at the Academy. Far from replacing them, the BRIDGE DRILLS and COMBO DRILLS provide the necessary context for them. In all, you’ll see that literally everything includes FOOTWORK! The only time we’re standing still is during Siu Lim Tao itself. 

Third, the drills and curriculum will teach you the proper tactical mindset. Again: we’re training to keep ourselves as safe as possible in the event of unavoidable violence. To do that, we must control and shut down the enemy’s offense. At “free movement” range (when we don’t have contact) we use footwork, distance and angles to limit, draw, shut down, and confuse the enemy. At close-range, where the reflex lag is a serious issue, we deploy “contract control” or “bridge control” to tie-up the enemy, smother his attack, whether it’s striking or grappling, and launch our own. If we lose control for some reason, we can go back to free-movement tactics and vice-versa. The goal is integration of the elements toward the goal of shutting him down. We must never sacrifice offense for defense, nor defense for offense. It’s simultaneous! The ACADEMY CURRICULUM strives incessantly for this integration.