Using Wing Chun On The Street

From Personal Experience

- Jef Sutherland

SUMMER 1988, I was walking through Leicester Square, central London, with some friends. A guy walking toward us bumped into my shoulder as we passed each other. I turned around to politely apologise, but he was already hurling a tirade of racist insults at me.

As he approached me, another man came up to me and said, “It’s not worth it, just leave it”. Before I knew what was happening, that man grabbed me in a bear hug, and the first man threw kicks at me. I used Bong and Taan Gerk to deflect his kicks and used turning to throw the man grabbing me.

At that time, I didn’t know much Wing Chun but I had been drilling 10,000 Chain Punches a week. 1000 in the morning and 1000 in the evening. I knew I had a good punch, so I waited for the right moment.

As my opponent stepped in for another attack, I launched a single Yat Gee Choong Kuen (“Sun Character Vertical Punch”) landing flush on the lower section of his face (Pressure Point GV 26) using the Wing Chun concept of Lin Siu Dai Da (“Economy of Motion”), Kuen Mo Lai Yeung (“When Using the Fist Don’t Stand on Ceremony”) and Bau Ja Lik (“Exploding Power). That means to say I timed the intention and explosive power of my strike to coincide with the moment of contact. The result was that my attacker collapsed downwards on the spot, and that ended the confrontation.