A Comparison of Forms: The Weapons of Wing Chun - Luk Dim Bun Gwan 六點半棍 and Baat Jaam Dou 八斬刀
Visual exposure to different lineages
If you’d like to see the other blogs in this series click here for Siu Lim Tau, Cham Kiu, Biu Ji, Muk Yan Jong.
The weapons of Wing Chun are the most under studied, and under trained sets in the system. A student spent 2 months in Hong Kong, visiting more than a dozen different wing chun schools, and nobody trained the weapons. I have personally met people who said they were only interested in the hands, and not the weapons, completely missing the point of how they educate and refine each other. As such, there are fewer examples of them to be studied across lineages, and thus we are combining both into one article.
What we are doing here is showcasing many of the variants, so you can properly assess principles and performance without having to be dogmatic about trivial things. But first, we need to lay down some criteria for why certain examples are chosen and why others are not:
First, because we promote Ip Man Wing Chun, we will focus on his lineage/sub-lineages. (Some other inclusions may be made for illustrative reasons)
Second, because we are looking at tradition, we will primarily look at his direct disciples, the first generation students. (No offense to your sifu, but 3rd and 4th generation disciples just weren’t there. Lineage holders may be an exception where necessary).
So, in light of that, let me start with Grandmaster Samuel Kwok. My Sifu is under him, and thus I am in his lineage (though we are an independent school, and do not represent his organization), and thus I look to him for our standards in traditional matters. He is a second generation student, first trained under Grandmaster Ip Chun, and then Grandmaster Ip Ching. He has spent the last 40+ years travelling and training with as many Ip Man disciples as he can, and is the inspiration for this post (and subsequent series). It we are to find the essence of wing chun under all the variance, we can only do so by crossing hands with, and analyzing as many practitioners as possible.
The pole will be addressed first, the knives second. We’ll do our best to give you good examples, but this article may have to be updated just to bring it to standard with the others in the series.