Barbell Training and Wing Tsun Kung Fu

If you recall back in 2014, I had a blog post about the journey to soft, pliable, effective power - Part 2.

My strength, fitness, and conditioning exercises outside of Wing Tsun Kung Fu have always been centered around cycling, kettlebells, body-weight exercises and parallette bar training like GMB.  At the end of 2019, I became interested about the barbell and started training in the condo gym.  In 2020, I had the opportunity to build a Garage Gym.  I bought the Kindle edition of Mark Rippetoe's book Starting Strength, and was intrigued by the discussion about biomechanics and balance.

The discussion about balancing the barbell on the midfoot, essentially using the body as a set of levers, reminded me of the training in Zhong Xin Dao I Liq Chuan and instructions by Sifu Joshua Craig.  If you recall, Wing Tsun Kung Fu training via Si-Fu Ralph Haenel's Core Concepts include:  Distance, Timing, Coordination, Mobility, Positioning, Power, Fluidity, Centreline, Release Power, and Balance.

All of these thoughts started percolating in my head, including the previous blog post, the initial one back in 2010 about the Journey to Soft, Pliable, Effective Power.

Even though at 5'6" and 142lbs (probably lighter back in 2010), I was able to do this with a cooperative partner:



Or affect another person's structure during a teaching demo, again with an essentially cooperative partner:



Here is a question. What does functional strength in Wing Tsun Kung Fu have to do with strength in general?  This question actually reminds me of a book by Si-Hing Brian Yam, or a video of kettlebell training by Si-Hing Steve McMinn of DoStrength.

My Si-Fu Ralph Haenel has told us previously about his encounters with other students or practitioners who could bench press a LOT, but the functional strength from their punches were a completely different story i.e. not as strong, or perhaps the correct terminology would be powerful.  There are likely a lot of factors, including even a select number of core concepts above such as coordination, timing, release power, balance...

Nevertheless, after reading Mark Rippetoe's words in the first few chapters of Starting Strength, that I interpret as essentially alignment and balance, I have decided that for the rest of 2020 (besides work and the other wonders of life), I will study the role of barbell strengthening in improving my own Wing Tsun Kung Fu, and perhaps even Zhong Xin Dao I Liq Chuan.  I will seek out reading, videos, and coaching in order to improve the form.  I am particularly curious about the compound exercises required, as the functional part of Wing Tsun necessitates whole body movement.  One premise is that general strength and fitness training should improve any sport or martial art.  I will attempt to focus on barbell training, and forgo kettlebell training.  It is difficult to stop any body-weight training entirely, as I have recently also gotten into olympic ring training.  Disclaimer:  this is not a double-blinded randomized controlled trial.

The other challenge is to determine what the actual outcome measure is, to say that barbell training has improved my Wing Tsun Kung Fu.  Because, I am not going to stop Wing Tsun either.  Perhaps I can stop some of the weapons training, and see how barbell training may improve my long pole or butterfly knife workouts.  I have not decided yet.

More importantly, I hope to draw some thoughts and correlations between barbell training methodology, and some of the concepts from Wing Tsun Kung Fu and Zhong Xin Dao I Liq Chuan.

So, stay tuned!