Does Size Really Matter?
Guest Contributor, November 21st, 2007
In technical terms, strength from a purely weightlifting standpoint does not train the muscles used in Wing Chun Kuen to generate power. When people say ‘we hit with the whole body’, what do they specifically mean?
Now before you jump on my back, please listen to what I have to say 
Where does the power come from? The implication is that the bigger person has more power than the smaller person from a physical point of view. Is this raw physical power the source of efficient Wing Chun Kuen power? My belief is that the power used in Wing Chun Kuen derives from a persons body structure. This gives them the ability to use the ground as a brace so that the point of contact to the base is one unbroken line through the body. This allows efficient use of the body’s mass in striking to deliver power and not because the muscles are bigger or more explosive. I would also hazard a guess to say that the efficiency of the tendons and ligaments to align the skeleton are more critical with the muscles being activated just enough to hold the proper position (or to bring the limb to the proper position) and nothing more. So if two people of different physical sizes hit each other similarly, from a pure power perspective, the larger person has the advantage in terms of mass behind their punch IF Their body structure is equivalent (ie properly aligned) to that of the smaller person.
From a physical standpoint, larger people will have more mass to bear IF they are able to link everything up properly. It is my belief that this linkage of the body cannot be trained through any other means other than practicing the linking correctly to ingrain it into our neural pathways. Specific muscles, skeletal alignments, tendons, ligaments, movements happen when the body is aligned properly. These adjustments IMHO are very subtle and cannot be duplicated in other exercises outside of Wing Chun Kuen practice. All our stance training, wall bag punching, pole and knife work, forms, san sao drills, etc. will improve one’s ability to link and unlink the body.
On the other hand, while I don’t believe that the squat exercise (for example) will improves one’s Wing Chun Kuen structure, I do believe that the PROCESS by which your form and technique in the squat get better is the same or very similar to that of refining your Wing Chun Kuen structure. It is the PROCESS of refinement over years of practice that makes your squat form better to prevent injury and allow the body to lift and bear heavier weights. Again, the neural pathways have to be trained so that form is impeccable and all the muscles required to squat are brought in efficiently. So while the PROCESS of refinement is similar, the actual refinements themselves might be different. To train those specific adjustments, train WC.
As far as speed and quickness being the smaller person’s advantage, we are all within human limits. The limitation, IMHO, comes from the mental processing that has to happen before and after a movement which will affect the timing. I’m a small person, but my advantage in punching speed, for example, vs a larger person is not dependent upon the speed which my arm can extend and withdraw. We all move at the same speed relative to each other within human limits. Those who have refined their technique to efficiently use their muscles will have an advantage because everything is kept to a minimum as far as the physical standpoint. ‘Relative speed’ between two people is more influenced by the mental aspects such as recognizing openings, deciding what tool, how to use the tool, and non telegraphing initial movement before any actual physical distance is covered. What can also affect the time and ‘relative speed’ of an attack is the opponents recognition of the attack, mental processing to decide on a course of action, and then selecting an appropriate response. All this is practiced through our chi sau, san sau, and refined through experience. Through a gradual refinement, these reaction times will all decrease and influence our timing more so than the physical ability to move faster than another person. As we know more about our own limitations, the our intuitive understanding of these more subtle, subconscious things will improve with practice.
From a pure fighting standpoint, more strength and endurance is always welcome, but it must be tempered with subconscious sensitivity. If power comes from the localized muscle, then weightlifting will help. However, the danger in this is that refinement of the small adjustments cannot occur without specific training. Localized muscle has its limits both in age and endurance, whereas using the body structure requires relaxation and will not place as much of a burden on the physical body and can bring the full mass of the body behind it rather than just the mass of the arm and muscles.
From a Wing Chun structure point of view, larger people will have the advantage as far as having more mass at their disposal. However, more is not better as the minimum to get the job done is more efficient than trying to bring everything you have. At the beginning of our training, we all tend to use too much of everything. As we get better, we use just enough to get the ‘job’ done, whatever that may be. Using the ‘more is better’ approach can be taken advantage of by someone who can manipulate everything in excess of what is really needed.
Thanks for reading this far I’m not a physiological guru nor do I imitate one on TV.
Just my opinion.
Dzu Nguyen is a practitioner of Robert Chu’s (Chu Sau-Lei) Wing Chun Kuen. He studies and lives in California.
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