Read Time: 7 mins 16 secs

The Wing Chun basic stance, Yee Gee Kim Yeung Ma, functions to provide a solid connection to the ground; this is a fundamental concept in Chinese martial arts of borrowing power from the earth.   This provides a two-way connection which, on the one hand allows incoming energy to be absorbed and dispersed down into the ground, whilst on the other hand compressing the body like a spring and giving it potential energy which can be used to deliver additional force into the opponent through the entire body up from the ground.

It also functions to develop power and connectivity between all the major joints of the body.  This involves the alignment of the elbows, shoulders, hips, knees and ankles.  For a visual overview of this structure, please refer to the article Understanding Structure – Sil Lim Tao Stance.  It is in this way that Wing Chun uses an understanding of physics (forces) and physiology (body mechanics) to develop a structurally solid, yet flexible stance which optimises the power a smaller student can harness to overcome a larger attacker.

Traditionally Wing Chun is often referred to as the “thinking man’s” martial art.  This is because of how it was originally developed within its Shaolin origins – namely, it was a refinement of several other martial arts into a highly optimised, compact fighting system.  This refinement required a great deal of understanding of how the body worked along with expertise in many martial arts and experience of knowing how these worked best in actual conflict.   The result was a fighting art that could be picked up and used quickly, but the deeper understanding and mastery of which took many years.  This is why many of the early Masters were educated and had a great understanding of how the human body worked – such as Leung Jan, who was a Chinese doctor for example.

The aim of this article is to begin to readdress the loss of educated understanding within Wing Chun within the West, and to begin to reveal the physiology behind Wing Chun – that is, explaining what is going on inside the body that allows it to be such an effective fighting system capable of developing explosive, powerful and devastating force.  This will form a series of articles around physiology, psychology and neuroscience which will use our modern Western understanding to explore and understand how and why Wing Chun works.

This article is divided into two parts; in the first part, it will begin by examining the structural differences between how we stand as humans in a conventional standing position and compare this with the basic Wing Chun stance.  In the second part, it will look at the physiology of the lower body structure and how different muscles are required to be used in the new position, and how this transition occurs between these two structural positions.  It will highlight the challenges that this transition offers for a developing Wing Chun student.

In looking at the lower half of the structure we will be covering a number of elements captured within the Understanding Structure – Sil Lim Tao Stance article in a greater depth.  This includes Kim Sut (getting the knees in and creating the lower triangle with the legs), Lok Ma (lowering the house, sinking and rooting the stance), Lut Sau Jic Ching (forward springing force).  We will also look at the role played by the lower part of the body in setting up a solid base from which the whole-body structure is developed – Lik Chong Gerk Jang Sang (power originates from the heels / structural alignment through the six major joints).

Again, the purpose of this article is to help the developing student to understand the basic physiological aspects of the stance.  It is also important to understand that this article does not intend to offer a complete physiology explanation of the Wing Chun structure.  Mastering Wing Chun takes many, many years and requires a great deal of learning, practice and understanding.  In reading this article I hope that I can provide enough anatomical and physiological information to provide the kernel of a new understanding – to encourage other Western Wing Chun practitioners to do as their Masters before them have done, and seek to further develop and refine their basic fighting skills by going deeper into understanding Wing Chun as a fighting system.

Part 1 – A high-level overview of the lower-body structure

So, let us begin by looking at the physiology of the normal standing position.

Normal standing versus Wing Chun basic stance

Normal standing position

In the following diagram, we see a diagram of the lower part of the human body showing the legs in a normal standing position.   Here we lines are drawn on the front-facing and rear-facing diagram which extend vertically from the centre of the foot up through the leg, through the centre of the knee, through the centre of the thigh up into the pelvis area.

This is typically how humans distribute the weight of the body through their centre of gravity.  I say typically, because if you look at different people as they stand and walk you will notice that many have poor posture (or, because of slightly different skeletal structures) and have their feet or knees pointing out or inward to a greater or lesser extent.  In either case, this deviates from the ideal position and invariably results in the weight of the body pressing off this defined line and resulting in pain and or injury over time elsewhere in the legs.

The major muscles are listed here for reference purposes as we proceed through this article.  For now, the key message is to understand the balanced relationship within the leg in a normal standing position.   So, the lower leg muscles through the feet keep the body in a vertical position, so your body weight is not pressing you forward or leaning you backwards.   At the same time, the Quadriceps and the Hamstring muscle groups are also working in balance to keep you in an upright position.  This we can describe as keeping the leg in a front-to-back centre position.

In the relaxed normal standing position, you can try changing this balance – you can change the balance of these in two ways – firstly, pressing from the back your balance will move forward and your knees will extend backwards into a locked-out position.  Alternatively, you can go the other way and your knees will come forward and you will start to go into a sitting posture.

The Abductor and Adductor muscle group work the other way – namely keeping your leg in a left-to-right centre position.  These two muscle groups are shown in the diagram below:

These muscle groups again work as a pair, in a balanced unison to keep the leg in its ideal position with the dotted line travelling straight through this.

Okay, so these are the basics of the normal standing stance.  Let us now have a look at the Wing Chun basic stance.

Wing Chun Stance Standing Position

Correctly getting into the Wing Chun stance involves several steps involving the major joints and muscle groups across the body.  The process steps involved in moving between the normal standing position and the Wing Chun basic stance position will be examined in more detail within the second part of this article.

For now, we just need to understand the basic structural position.  Here we see a front-view anatomical diagram now with two lines marked on this.

The longer of the two lines shows the centre line between the centre of the foot passing between (importantly) the centre of the knee and up into the pelvis area.   This is important, because if you do not have a straight line here the weight of your body will be pressing down onto the knee if a way that it is not intended to work.  Specifically, the knee works as a joint that can open and close forwards and backwards (when the leg is in a normal upright standing position).  It does not allow any side-to-side opening.

Once in the Wing Chun stance, if the knee is too far in (i.e. it would show on the picture as inside the line rather passing through the middle of the knee) then the weight of the body presses down into the knee joint itself and will damage the ligaments within the knee over time.   Aside from this damage, it also means that the legs are not able to move correctly and the stance will be rigid, locked-out and lacking the flexibility required for turning and movement.

The smaller of the two lines shows the relationship between the knee and the foot.  Here we see a straight line can be drawn between the two.  In this position, the knee is positioned above the foot, so that if you looked down you would see your knee pointing in the same direction as your foot and the tip of your knee level with your toes.   This is shown in the side-view anatomical diagram below.

If you can see too much of your feet, then you have not sunk correctly into your stance.  Alternatively, if your knees have extended out over your toes then your structural alignment is, again, incorrect.   In the second part of this article we will investigate why in greater detail.

The second (longer) line shown in the above diagram shows the vertical centre-line that extends from the centre of the foot on the ground direct up through the centre of the pelvis.  Were this image to include the upper-body, this line would extend up the spine, neck and into the head.   We can see from this side-view more clearly that the basic Wing Chun stance differs to the normal standing position in that the knee position is now no longer in alignment with this longer line.

However, it is this new position which creates stability in the lower-body structure, providing a triangular structure, as shown in the anatomical diagram below.

This is visualised in 3-D in the front-facing anatomical diagram below.

Here we see the strong triangular base structure that the basic Wing Chun stance offers, providing much greater stability that the conventional standing position.

So, this is a very high-level introduction to the structure of the basic Sil Lim Tao stance and some key visual indicators of when it looks to be in the right position.  However, it is important to understand that even when it looks to be in the right position, you might still be tense, or have tension in the legs which stops them working in the correct way.

Therefore, for many developing students, the basic Wing Chun stance seems unnatural and static; the very opposite of the natural, flexible structure that it is intended to provide.  The key to making the full transition to this position of relaxed structural flexibility requires a deeper understanding of the changes required within the physiology of the body itself.   This is where the Wing Chun student must delve deeper into the internal aspects of the martial art – and, in particular, into a deeper understanding of how their muscles, ligaments and tendons work.

Summary Overview

Understanding the basic Wing Chun stance within the Sil Lim Tao form is the basis of structure that everything else stems from as you proceed through the more advanced Wing Chun forms.  As such, it is critical that you understand this and are able to initially isolate this – meaning that you can mindfully construct the correct structural base in the lower-body to form a relaxed, structure base which has been isolated from the upper body.  Having achieved this, it can (once the same has also been achieved in the upper-body) be brought back to work with the upper body in a unified, whole-body way.

We have begun to understand from this article that the transition from the normal standing stance to the Wing Chun basic stance involves a big change of how the body is used in standing; it involves using muscle groups in a new way which requires a long time of training and adjustment to get them working in a relaxed, flexible way yet with the structural power the new position affords.  In Part 2 of this series we will explore the transition and the changes required in the body to make this happen, in greater detail.

Copyright @ Craig Sands