What are the major criticisms of Wing Chun? Are they valid, and if so, what can Wing Chun practioners do to address them?
The first criticism that I see all over the internet is the claim that the wing chun punches have no power. Is this valid? My personal opinion is that there is some validity to this criticsm. Many practitioners, especially relative “beginners”, do not have a particularly powerful punch. The wing chun punch is so different than any other punch, in that it relies on different principles, and different mechanics including fa jing “short power”, making it difficult to learn. In my experience it typically takes at least a year of training to start to develop power. To some extent power is a genetic attribute, and some people have more trouble than others developing power, some less. And equally important some people can’t take a punch while others can take a tremendous punch. The latter are the people who are successful at boxing, K1, and MMA.
There are several responses to this criticism. First, wing chun focusses on vital targets like the eyes, throat, groin, spine, and knees where you don’t necessarily need a lot of power to take someone out. Second, wing chun uses a lightning fast barrage of chain punches to knock someone out (which is much harder to defend against) instead of one big punch. Third, if wing chun fighter’s punch is a little less powerful by the same token he is also less likely to break his hands. Fourth, in addition to the chain punch wing chun has devastating kicks, elbows, and knees.
If you are really concerned about power you can add boxing punches, as Bruce Lee did, or add some Muay Thai techniques to your striking repertoire.
The second criticism of Wing Chun is that it doesn’t have a ground game. This is why wing chun fighters have for the most part gotten killed in MMA competitions. Again, and this is my opinion only, there is some truth to this criticism. The Leung Ting version has added some groundfighting and antigrappling, which is probably enough for almost every self defense situation, but might not be enough if a really good grappler gets a hold of you. Some Wing Chu sifus such as Alan Orr, Jose Grados, and others, have added BJJ to their repertoire. Others have added catch wrestling. Although the last place you want to be in a self defense situation is on the ground, it can’t hurt to have some training in case you end up there. I believe that judo would also be a good addition to wing chun since it helps you prevent throws and takedowns and concentrates on throwing your opponent to the ground while you remain standing. Also a good judoka is very difficult to take down.
The third criticism is that Wing Chun only works in a very limited fighting range. Outside of “trapping range” it is supposedly unequipped to deal with long range boxing and other long range styles, and also cannot defend against close quarter grappling arts. It is claimed that the Wing Chun fighter is unlikely to be able to limit the range of a fight to trapping range.
I find this criticism to be only slightly valid. The Wing Chun Punch uses bent arms with “elbow power”. Bent arm range is close range, and a Wing Chun Man’s punch will usually have a shorter range than a boxing punch. But Wing Chun does have long range kicks, as well as intermediate and close range kicks. Although the long range kicking repertoire is not large, the “shadowless” wing chun kicks can be very effective. In close range wing chun fighters have effective elbow and knee attacks, as well as throws and counter throws. To deal with long range attacks a wing chun fighter could add a long range straight lead, a la jeet kune do. or long range savate type kicks.
So the long and short of it is that once you get up to a reasonably high level of proficiency wing chun is very effective for self defense, but perhaps somewhat less effective for the ring.
In this video a Korean Wing Tsun practitioner demonstrates his power against a much larger opponent wearing headgear. Also note how he follows up a lightning barrage of punches with devastating elbow strikes.
