Pole Fighting The Neglected Treasure of Wing Chun

Pole Fighting

The Neglected Treasure of Wing Chun

“The in-depth study of the Pole is the most neglected aspect of the Wing Chun system.”

-Grandmaster Ip Ching

 

Practitioners have examined the Look Dim Boon Kwan or pole fighting from technique to exercises and fragments thereof with the greatest of enthusiasm, desperately trying to understand the hidden treasures therin. This examination has not only been of watching and learning from modern masters alone, it has also been from studying martial art literature and stories of antiquity, which could possibly lend answers to the hidden treasures of pole fighting.

That these treasures remain hidden is of no wonder, for understanding Wing Chun pole fighting is both singular and perplexing. It appears that there are only seven moves to learn—yet takes years to master. This can be simplified by thinking of each major move as a division. Divisions that carry along with them the hidden treasures of pole fighting if understood correctly, or consequences if misunderstood.

 

And so the practitioner begins training with the division known as holding the line.