How To Punch?

I don’t know how to punch properly 

Something I love about training is that our Sifu can take any movement, no matter how simple it looks, and show us how to do it right.

It’s awesome, because that’s how I realize how much there is to learn.

Even about a move I thought I knew how to do: punching.

Long story short: I don’t know how to punch.

Short story long:

Sifu talked to us about the 7 bows. That’s pronounced like the weapon with the arrows, not the bows some cultures do to be polite.

What does this mean? That we use 7 different joints to punch. Not one, not two, but seven.

The seventh one being the power that comes from the toes, especially the big one.

I never thought that so many different things cooperated to produce a punch, but here we go.

So we learned that and also how to use our knees when punching(read: move them a bit higher when we punch, and then let them fall back down to the stance).

And I thought I knew how to punch, just because Sifu once told us that punches go straight, one over the other, like pistons. And that we shouldn’t punch too strongly in the air, as that makes us tired and hurt quite fast.

I thought that’s all I needed to know.

But no. There’s always more.

I now know that I still don’t know how to punch. Paraphrasing a rock song, it’s a long way to the top if you wanna train wing chun.

Lesson of the day: don’t think you know everything about a move, no matter how simple it looks. There’s always more to learn and it’s fascinating. Be thankful there’s always more to learn.