The traditional method of power training in Wing Chun is the wallbag. This is a square canvas bag usually filled with either sand or rice and mounted directly on the wall. You could say the wallbag is to Wing Chun what the makiwara is to Karate. The wallbag is used for punching, kicking, and open hand strikes. it is usually not used for elbows or knees. Because the wallbag has almost no “give” it develops a strong stance and also a strong wrist. The wallbag also provides some hand conditioning. The traditional method is for the student to gradually build up to hundreds, even thousands of punches a day. This type of repeated impact may even increase the thickness and strength of the bones in your hands. For kicks “chain kicking” can help build up power. In chain kicking you kick the bag repeatedly with the same leg without putting your foot down.
Elbows and knees are usually trained with a heavy bag. The heavy bag is also good for training the hook punch.
Plyometrics are also helpful for developing power. The usual pylometric exercise used for punching is the “clap” pushup. While most traditional sifus eschew all forms of weight training, others, such as Leung Ting, have recommended some minor weight training using dumbells to build up power in triceps and lats. Bruce Lee broke with tradition by incorporating western style weight training into his own training regimen. While traditional kung fu sifus believed that weight lifting would make a fighter muscle bound and decrease his speed, Bruce proved them wrong. Bruce not only performed a full set of barbell exercises using fairly heavy weights, but he also regularly trained his punches by holding a dumbell in his hand while punching. He would go up and down the dumbell rack from light to heavy and back. Despite the weight training his speed was not diminished one whit. Likewise MIke Tyson kept or even increased his speed while weight training. Nowadays the kettlebell is very popular both for regular gymn goers and for MMA competitors. The kettlebell, because of the handle and its off center shape develops a strong grip, wrist strength, works the core and the stabilizer myscles, and can be used to increasive explosive power. I particularly like the kettlebell snatch. For kicks I recommend the one legged squat, also called the “pistol” squat. If you are worried about injuring your knees, you can do a modified pistol squat by finding as low a chair as possible and lowering your body very slowly using one leg until you just lightly touch the chair. Then sit on the chain and still using only one leg thrust yourself up to a standing position as quickly as possible.
Long Pole Training
The wing tsun long pole is a tapering pole around nine feet long which somewhat resembles a giant pool cue. The long pole is usually only taught to advanced level students, and in some lineages is only taught to a student after he has learned the entire unarmed style. Although the pole is not all that heavy, because leverage works against you, practice with the pole develops tremendous strength in the wrist and forearms, which can further increase punching power.
The “explosive force”
This is variously known a fajing or “short power” force or “inch force”. To understand the explosive force, consider that a bullet goes from zero to several hundred miles an hour in a hundredth of a second. To develop explosive force stand in front of a wallbag and instead of concentrating on the impact concentrate on the initial accelaration of the punch. But before you can do that you first must strengthen your hands and wrists in order to avoid injury. In addition to the pole and the kettlebell, pushups performed on the knuckles can help strengthen your wrists. Once you have strengthened your wrists, hands and knuckles you can throw a punch concentrating on exploding from rest to top speed in as short a distance and time as possible.
