Wing Chun Weapons
This blog will cover our Wing Chun weapons training. To start with I will show a simple spear form exercise. But there is a lot more to come.
The Chinese Spear
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The spear was used by armies around the world in ancient times. All cultures were proficient in using the spear for combat and for hunting. The Greeks and Roman’s used it, the Chinese army used it, the Native Americans used it, native Africans used it etc. The spear is a part of every Chinese martial art including Tai Chi.
Typically Wing Chun uses the long heavy pole since it is thought that some of the Wing Chun developed along the rivers of China as the Chinese Opera people went from city to city using the long poles to push the boats. Naturally it was also used as a weapon.
Western fencing and the long pole and the spear have many techniques in common. The very basic technique are the Tan, Bong, Fook and Gan techniques. Probably the Wing Chun hand actions come from the use of the spear since that is what the army fought with in historical times.
The long pole is good for developing some upper body strength such as increasing punching power. The spear is more practical for fighting since it is quicker to maneuver around. For ladies and smaller people, the spear is a more appropriate weapon. The ideas used for this weapon can easily be translated to common implements such as a garden rake.
At our club we use both the spear and the long pole. Our form is extremely simple and just consists of 26 movements. The main movements are the Tan, Bong, Fook and the poke. The spear also uses the Huen or circling movement, the Lan or bar movements, the Jut or jerking movement. the Jum or sinking movement etc.
Naginata in Japan
The Wing Chun weapons are good for developing quick footwork because spear and knife fighting is very fast. One of our female members had very good success sparring with her spear techniques against the Naginata ladies in Japan,
The 6 1/2 Point Spear
Above is me practicing the Master Wang Kiu spear form after 20 years of not doing it at my age of 74. Below is when I was almost 30 years younger , practicing the same form. At that time I practiced it more.
The Wing Chun Butterfly Knife Form
The Wing Chun Butterfly Knife Form
Above is the Wing Chun Butterfly knife form as practiced by me about 20 years ago (1991). This form comes from Master Wang Kiu and is similar to that practiced by Master Wong Shun Leung. I supplied a clip below.
In Cantonese this form is called “Baat Jaam Do” or “Eight Chopping Knife.” Basically there are eight directional cuts and hence the name.
In the early 1900’s I researched other people’s Wing Chun Butterfly Knife forms and found that they all had similar movements but all the choreographies were different.I counted eight different forms which were all advertised as the original Ip Man (Yip Man) knife form. So I concluded from this that the forms didn’t really matter because they all were subsets of the very many Southern Butterfly knife forms anyway. Also I concluded that there probably was no original form taught by Ip Man. Instead he probably just taught the basic ways these knives were used conforming to the Wing Chun ideas about footwork.
Back then it was not easy to learn the Baat Jaam do or the Wooden Dummy. Some lineages said it was not really important since most fights were fist fights anyway. In history probably the ideas came from using an everyday knife like the common Chinese Kitchen cleaver where the main action would be chopping and these would be readily available weapons.
In the Wang Kiu system the combined spear and knife forms totaled to 108 movements. These two forms were like the Yin and Yang idea where the spear was for long rage and the knives for short range. Sometimes the knives would be carried behind you for quick draw knife attacks like the quick draw gunslingers of the Wild Wild West.
A good test of skills would be to use the knives against the spear. That would be the classical long range vs short range fight similar to the Choy Lee Fut vs Wing Chun battles of the 1950’s, 1960’s and 1970’s. . The ideas from the knives could be used as another way to train against long range kicking.
One person I talked to , who was an enforcer for an Asian gang said that most of his several hundred fights used mostly ideas from the knife form. So he thought it was very practical to know this. He never studied the Filipino arts.
Hung Style Spear Form
Below is one of the Hung style spear forms. You can see that the Wing Chun form above is much simpler and much more boring. Compared to what the Wu Shu people do, even the Hung style form is boring looking.
I was practicing the Hung style spear on top of Mount Tolmie in Victoria, BC, Canada. The actual form was done double the speed that is shown in this video.
Here is one of the Hung Style spear forms performed by my fellow student Robin Young. We trained together in the early 1970's. Robin knows the Hung style much better than I do since he is a qualified teacher of this art.
Kung Fu Master Tony Wong and his daughter Megan demonstrate their traditional Hung Gar Spear vs. Kwan Dao set at Kung Fu Tai Chi headquarters. Both martial a...
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Wing Chun Long Pole - Most powerful Wing Chun weapon, passed down from original Wing Chun Masters. Perform by Sam Chan
Old version Slow https://www.facebook.com/nextgenwingchun We call this Next Gen Wing Chun. We only add that what we find useful and try to stay close to traditional Wing Chun. You might see some Muay Thai, MMA, boxing, Krav Maga or other styles. We are based in the Netherlands in Breda and Oosterhout.
Above is a scene from the Ip Man III movie using the Wing Chun Butterfly knives.
Dai Sifu Wong Shun Leung haciendo trabajo de Bart Cham Dao Quizás el más ilustre alumno de Ving Tsun del Gran Maestro Yip Man. Una referencia para todos los que aman el sistema Ving Tsun. Raro documento de vídeo mostrando algunas partes de la forma Bart Cham Dao.
My teacher’s teacher Master Wang Kiu and senior Ip Man student Master Wong Shun Leung were close friends who hung around together. So the Wing Chun metods for both teachers were similar. Here is Master Wang shun Leung performing part of the 8 section Wing Chun Butterfly knives form. His form is pretty similar to the way we do it.
The longer version of the tests of spear versus other weapons. All of all 65 bouts, plus extra commentary. Support me on Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/Lindybeige The shorter version of this video is available here: https://youtu.be/uLLv8E2pWdk Thanks to all those who took part, and especially Matt Easton for inviting me to the event, and Alex Abdolwahabi who was the main cameraman.