I’ve heard people call Wing Chun Lazy Man’s Kung Fu. I know, shocking isn’t it? They haven’t experienced the pain of doing siu lim tau on one leg for half an hour and can’t appreciate the inner strength involved in maintaing a posture for a length of time. Usually the classes I go to involve just this kind of strength – gong lik.

Last night though, sifu had other ideas. Last night was Wing Chun Cardio Workout Night, and it was designed to improve our footwork.

Footwork Exercise 1

The first exercise saw us pairing up with one being the leader and the other being the follower. The follower had to hold out a tan sau and the leader had to hold the other’s elbow and lead them in random directions and at random speed (direction + speed is velocity, but that’s a subject for my maths blog ). The follower had to …yes, follow, but also maintain the tand sau and not show any inertia. That is, as soon as the leader goes, the follower is right there following the movement. Whilst moving, the follower had to use correct footwork. As well as footwork, this exercise used the follower’s sensitivity too, so that the leader never had to push the follower too hard in the right direction.

Five minutes of running round the room in stance and using correct footwork left everyone close with heart rates clearly in the fat burning zone.

Footwork Exercise 2

In this exercise, the follower is at the centre of an imaginary circle using his/her bong sau and the leader is on the circumference with a hand (wrist contact) on the bong sau. The leader follows the circumference at different speeds and as the follower rotates/turns, they have to use correct footwork and remain in stance.

Footwork Exercise 3

Similar to the last exercise but this time each person is on the circle’s circumference with the centre between them. Outstretched wu saus meet in the middle and the follower follows the leader as they make their random way around that circle. At this point, those whose hearts hadn’t packed in did the last exercise:

Footwork Exercise 4

Two chairs facing each other.  The leader can go anywhere in relation to the chairs but the follower can only go round the outside of them. This means that the leader can go in between the chairs but the follower can’t. Leader chases follower. Proper stance, correct footwork, both must be used.