"If your philosophy of purity was applied to cars, we would still be driving Ford Model T's!" - addressed to me by my Wing Chun brother, T, 2009.Here we go again, my favorite debate topic with my favorite adversary, T. (Real name not mentioned because I'm not sure he wants to go public!)
Background: T is an elderly gentleman with a loooong history of martial arts, the most recent before Wing Chun being Sanshou* and Karate. Despite being elderly (same age as Sifu Yip Fook Choy) he is absolutely fit and trim, energetic and with a great sense of humor. A very intelligent, respectable man. In his opinion, a person becomes a better martial artist by combining many different arts, the more, the merrier.
But, I argue, Wing Chun and other martial arts with a similar level of integration/optimization** cannot be "mixed and matched" with other martial arts, without hurting the end result. My retort (after a few minutes of reflection) to his above comment was that you can't mix 2 different types of vehicles and the end result would be a useless compromise. In my example, I used a Volvo tractor-trailer and a Porsche 911 GT2. Each are very, very good at what they do, but mixing the two would result in a truck that cannot pull much of a load or a sports car that cannot go fast!
T's argument, as implied by his analogy above, is that all MA's are the same, and that there is no MA that is absolutely perfect. Adding techniques from other MA's would therefore enrich Wing Chun, not weaken it. In fact, in his opinion, all MA development over the years must have been from mixing and matching different styles.
But in reality, not all MA can be mixed and matched easily. Different MA, especially ones that are highly integrated, are designed for different purposes. Although they are all made for fighting, they each develop different ways of generating power, even different ways of damaging targets, and they train someone to have a body structure and movement which support such ways of striking a target.***
In other words, applying this principle to the vehicle analogy, different MAs designed for different purposes are like different vehicles designed for different purposes. The Volvo tractor-trailer and the Porsche turbocharged sports car above would not fit each other, and you wouldn't mix and match a motorcycle with a boat, or a plane for that matter. That would make the resulting vehicle a complete mess, and not suited to any of the purpose of each!
But enough of analogies. Analogies are good for illustration, but analogies are not the subject itself.
Let me try to explain, real-world, what I think would happen if you mix Wing Chun and Ju-Jitsu, both of which I have had some experience in. Wing Chun with it's philosophy of delivering chun ging, or inch power to a target, and maximising the effect of it (more explanations to come in Part 2 of Intelligent Design, I PROMISE!!!) and Ju-Jitsu, a collection of techniques and sequence of movements that are designed to result in an opponent being thrown, or joint-locked, or joint-broken. At first glance, why not? Seems like a good idea to mix a type of art specializing in strikes with a type of art specializing in grappling. Wouldn't that result in an all-rounded fighter, able to fight in either a grappling of striking encounter? (Yes, I am aware most MMA fighters are trained this way.)
Wing Chun, however, demands that you stand, and move and strike in a certain way, at all times, so that you are ready to deliver a chun ging strike any time a target becomes available. If you mix in Ju-Jitsu, there will be moments during a fight where you will not be able to deliver a chun ging strike because your body structure is wrong at that particular time when a target becomes available. Even if you try, you will probably find that your Wing Chun strike will have no power, without the Wing Chun structure that enables it. Similarly, many techniques in the Ju-Jitsu I learned depend a lot on circular blocks (with predominantly sideways movement) that end in pinning or grappling a person, and I will not be able to use the centreline principle to maximise the effect of a strike, or to attack the opponents structure. And techniques in Wing Chun require the practitioner to be relaxed completely except at the point of impact, where the sudden shock will have the desired result on the opponent, whereas in Ju-Jitsu, some muscular firmness is necessary to force the opponents limbs and/or body to go where you want it to go. From such a muscular firmness, it would be totally impossible to have the sudden tenseness required for an effective Wing Chun strike (because the difference in the soft to hard change, or yin-yang change, would be too small). It would completely mess up Wing Chun, to the point that the Wing Chun practitioner cannot effectively use it anymore. These are only three inconsistencies that I can think of off the top of my head, I'm very very sure I would find more if I were to do more research on it.
One example is a fellow student and Wing Chun brother of mine, who, on the sly, studied a different kung fu while attending Wing Chun classes at the same time. In that Kung Fu (Shaolin, I believe) one of the weapons he praticed with is a weapon which is also available for Wing Chun, the Luk Dim Boon Kwan (its called a different name in Shaolin, but its exactly the same weapon). After training in that weapon, Guan Gung noticed his body was too hard to correctly execute Wing Chun moves. He had, in fact, lost power in his strikes and he was unable to match the reflex speed of Wing Chun. It actually weakened his kung fu! (View the video below to see what a Luk Dim Boon Kwan is.)
Similarly, a weight trainer will also not be able to perform Wing Chun well because weight training trains a muscle through resistance throughout its range of movement, not a sudden application of force (and just as sudden relaxation after) at only one small part of a movement. The structure and stance a weight trainer uses while lifting weights is also different, and weight training will result in a body which is hard and tense throughout a movement - counter to what Wing Chun training produces and counter to what Wing Chun needs to be executed properly.
This brings to mind another topic. Many people, used to seeing only Hong Kong Wing Chun, (as taught by Yip Man) as the definitive Wing Chun, explain the expanded syllabus and different teaching methods of Yip Kin Wing Chun as "a mix of many different Kung Fu". As a student with some experience in Yip Kin Wing Chun, I disagree. And the reason why is this: if there were any other Kung Fu that had been mixed in with Wing Chun in the Yip Kin system, the difference would be immediately obvious. The student will notice certain portions of the art where stances or structure are different, or certain movements which feel different, or certain strikes which do not use the chun ging or any other exception and inconsistency. By contrast, every move in every form in Yip Kin Wing Chun have the same feel to them. Consistent throughout the entire system, Yip Kin Wing Chun feels the same everywhere, and different to any other martial art I have done before. More about the training aspects later.
So in conclusion: T, while I respect your vast experience in the martial arts, I (still) disagree that other martial arts should, or even can, be mixed with Wing Chun, without weakening, maybe even disastrously, Wing Chun itself. I'm sorry, T, but I must disagree with you! If I were to choose a vehicle to drive, it would be one fit for my purpose, not one which is a bit of everything and fit for nought! I do relish another conversation with you on this endless topic though, because you make me think. And for that, I am deeply grateful to you.
P.S. This paragraph is separate because while it is tangentially related to the above topic, it deals with my personal preference. Why do I prefer a single integrated art instead of one which is a mix of techniques? While it takes longer to gain proficiency in an integrated art compared to one where each technique can be learnt and memorized in a single lesson, in actual usage, I believe (based on my experience with Ju-Jitsu, Ninjutsu, et. al.) that it would be more confusing. Each technique in such a MA is a counter to what your opponent does. (e.g. if he does this, I would to this, this, then this; if he does that, I would do this, then that, etc. etc.) And even if you have learnt thousands of techniques, you would probably only depend on a few that you are comfortable with. With an integrated art, every technique feels similar enough that you don't need to plan what to do beforehand. With Wing Chun especially (since this is the only integrated art I have experienced), what happens will come naturally and automatically, and what you actually use and how you use it may even surprise you! And based on our (rare) sparring sessions, what you actually use will be devastatingly effective. Your body will know what to do, and you can just trust (even enjoy? ;) the flow of events that unfold. I much prefer this later situation.
* T's Sanshou, however, is not the same as that in the link (which is another form of kickboxing). Rather, his Sanshou appears to be a mix of a few different Traditional Chinese Kung Fu. I think there are at least some Choy Li Fut and even some Wing Chun(!) as well as other styles in there. It seems to be a specialized one-of-a-kind mix for which not much is known. It's called Sanshou (mixed hands) because that's what it literally is....freestyle!
** Wing Chun is by no means the only highly integrated or optimized kung fu. Two others that Guan Gung has mentioned to me are Chen style Tai Chi and Hung Gar. Each are highly integrated, and like Wing Chun, each cannot co-exist easily with each other or any other MA. I'm sure if I look hard enough, there would be others like this as well.
*** It's not so bad if the different MA are similar enough to each other and have the same purpose (e.g. the different types of kickboxing), or, if each of the martial arts are nothing but collections of techniques, with no central theme or philosophy that demands a synergistic combination for one purpose. But Wing Chun is not like that.
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