A little bit of real Science.

 

Wing Chun is divided into two schools of thought, one side believes in magical forces the other does not, the thing is it makes no difference

 

There has been a great deal of stuff on a few Wing Chun community chat boards lately describing how various Wing Chun Forms and methodologies can create massive force, and the implication has been that because of these mechanics Wing Chun delivers greater hitting power than some other systems, this is a really big misunderstanding of the Conservation of Momentum theory.

A misunderstanding of the irrefutable reality of our universe.

One example of how and when much of Wing Chun thinking deviates from reality is everyones favourite way of explaining why the Wing Chun way creates power, the much quoted equation F=ma  , the kicker in this is that   F=ma holds fast even if we are slowing down and moving backwards, more on this a little later.

An issue of mine with much  of todays Wing Chun analysis, especially by people that cannot reconcile that the only thing Wing Chun ever wants to do is hit other people, is confusing force {F} with momentum {p}, as a fighting art our intent is to hit people hard, to create a collision, transfer the combined momentum of both participants into our opponent or in a defensive situation to defuse our opponents attack, create a force deflection and impede the transfer of the same combined momentum into ourselves.

It is the quality of the impact and not the force of the hit that determines the amount of {p} momentum transferred on impact.

Hit Power is not the amount of Force that created that momentum but rather the amount of momentum transferred on contact, as much if not more momentum could be transferred into my opponent by the Bad Guy walking into my outstretched arm as any poorly landed strike.

The quality of the impact is determined by the relationship to each other of both participants, to this extent they are a closed system, all of the energy is retained inside the system, nothing is lost only exchanged.

We can actually hit bigger people with more force than smaller people with the same amount of effort due to the fact that they contribute more to the system by their own heavier weight.

The force of the blow is probably the least important aspect when compared to time, space, and orientation, but this is for a different post.

Newtons 2nd law states F=ma  , force is equal to the mass multiplied by acceleration.

Acceleration does not mean going faster it means changing speed, going slower {confusingly referred to in English as deceleration} is also acceleration, negative acceleration, acceleration is the change in velocity over the change in time,   a=∆v \ ∆t.

I do not have a math plugin for this site so  equations such as . ∆v \ ∆t is   ∆v over ∆t.

The conservation of momentum theory states p=mv  , momentum {p} is equal to the mass multiplied by the velocity.

We would do well to replace the idea of F=ma   with the formula of F = m∙∆v \ ∆t,  mass multiplied by the change in velocity, divided by the change in time, now when we are concerned with applied force we can use F = ∆t \ ∆p, Force is the change in momentum over the change in time.

Be close, hit fast, hit heavy.

It has been many years since I was at school so forgive me if the science is not spot on, the idea is correct even if the equations are not.

One of the reasons I prefer Sports Science to Traditional Wing Chun thinking is that it always justifies its approach through Physics,  a Tennis player applies Force to the ball through the service mechanics, this Force changes the velocity and direction {vector} of the ball by transferring momentum into it.

It is the same with all ball sports.

I went to a very odd Grammar School, one of the sports we played was Fives, both Eton and Rugby Fives, the game was the same but the court was different, essentially it is a racquet sport played without a racquet, if we used Fives methodology there would be absolutely no difference whatsoever in hitting a ball and hitting a person.

Wing Chun is divided into two schools of thought, one side believes in magical forces the other does not, the thing is it makes no difference because no matter what we think is happening it is all governed by the rules of the universe and we would do well to become a little better acquainted with them.

Punching someone is the same science as a car crash, the same science as throwing a ball.

Defending is the same science as surfing or flying a kite.

I will revisit this in more detail in the not too distant future.

Work on your weakness, play to your strength.