The Importance in Maintaining the Wing Chun Stance

Let’s about the Wing Chun stance and why it’s important to maintain it during your training.

The Wing Chun stance I learned ends with the toes pointing inwards and heels about shoulder distance apart. My upper body is slightly leaned back with my hips forward.

My stance may be different than the one you learned so feel free to share how yours look in the comments!

One of the most important things during training is maintaining the stance but there are times when I lose focus of it and end up in a more casual stance where I’m standing straight up. The problem is when I do this, I don’t realize it.

This is a big issue during Chi Sao for me because I like to work on improving my techniques like Tan Sau, Bong Sau, and so on but because I’m not in my stance, my technique feels off and I end up trying to fix it. I can only see what is in front of my and my brain makes me think it’s my Tan Sau that’s wrong without realizing that it’s actually because I’m not in my Wing Chun stance.

My Sifu knows this is a common problem so, every time during drills, he would occasionally say “Check” and everyone in the class would check their stance, technique, form and everything, then readjust accordingly.

Pay Attention to Your Wing Chun Stance

I am definitely guilty of losing my stance’s structure during Chi Sao and even during regular drills. I end up standing up straight and forgetting that by doing so, my whole structure moves and I also end up with my face much closer to my opponent’s fists.

Maintaining Balance with the Wing Chun Stance

Before we go further, I want to mention that my Wing Chun stance may be different from yours. I learned to put my weight on my heels (heels down) so it makes it easier for me to stay grounded and Shift.

I test my balance by leaning forward, leaning backwards. If my stance isn’t correct, I will end up tipping over forward or backwards.

If I am tipping forward, it may be because all my weight are on the balls of my feet, towards the front. To correct this, I would place my weight on my heels and sink in by bending my knees and pushing my hips forward and out.

If I tip backwards, it may be because I’m leaning too far back instead of pushing my hips forward. To correct this, I push my hips forward and let that dictate how much I’m leaning back.

The key things to remember is to make sure my weight is on my heels and my hips are forward. This is how my normal Wing Chun stance is and how I remain in my Wing Chun forms.

On another topic, since I started spending time with my friends from different Wing Chun styles, for the Central Park meetup, I’ve become more receptive to using the balls of my foot (heels up) for stepping. I’m still new to it and I find it very useful when practicing outside of class, where the ground isn’t always flat and smooth.