Is Wing Chun Weapons Training Relevant Today?

THE LONG POLE (Kwun) and Double Knives (Wu Dip Dao) are traditionally considered two of the four major Chinese martial art weapons, along with the Spear (Qiang) and the Sword (Jian), and are often referred to as the “General Weapon of all Weapons”.

- Shaun Rawcliffe

THE LONG POLE (Kwun) and Double Knives (Wu Dip Dao) are traditionally considered two of the four major Chinese martial art weapons, along with the Spear (Qiang) and the Sword (Jian), and are often referred to as the “General Weapon of all Weapons”.

The Wing Chun Knives form (Baat Cham Dao) and the Long Pole form (Luk Dim Boon Kwun) are still taught and practised today in the majority of Wing Chun schools. But is there any value in training, since reasons for their development, or continued existence, as a weapon, has long since passed and neither weapon can be legally (or practically) carried nor used as a defensive weapon?

Some schools place little emphasis on the weapons, considering them irrelevant in modern self-defence practice, whereas other schools, despite the lack of practicality, place much emphasis on the weapons, and even practise Pole vs. Pole training, Knives vs. Pole training, Sticking Poles (Chi Kwun), etc.

According to several of Ip Man’s students, both the Long Pole and the Double Knives were developed and refined for protecting the Red Boats (Hung Suen) of the Cantonese Opera by a troop of warriors known as the TiÄn Dì Huì (“Heaven and Earth Society”). Allegedly, they lived on the Red Boats and protected them and its occupants against pirates that patrolled the delta region of the Pearl River and, some believe, were the predecessors to the Triads.

Whether or not that is true is debatable, but it is highly likely that on the Red Boats the Long Pole was utilised to push away pirate boats when they pulled alongside using grappling hooks and attempted to board the boats and the Double Knives to fight any pirates that boarded.