The Reality of Fighting Footwork

To move in the theatre of combat requires footwork that’s consistent with the terrain and type of violence forced upon the defender. The idea behind a systematic is the logical integration of all elements to the facts of reality.

Adding long-range, bouncy footwork to one’s method is not a sin, that is to say, an ethical issue, but it is far less likely to be useful than that which is lower-to-the-ground and moves through a series of short, rapid steps/shifts. Ali would have a problem applying his signature boxing style footwork on a hiking trail or in a crowded room. Sure, it could come in handy in an open parking lot and a Wing Chun defender could rightly use it. That’s what we mean when we say it isn’t a sin. We’re talking mechanical and tactical realities in the real world. We’re talking more or less efficient; truth or contradiction.

Sifu Tony's focus on using the Wing Chun "toolbox" for modern self-defense is the key to the whole shebang.

In a previous book I wrote, Wing Chun for the Modern Warrior, I pointed out that some of us get categorically confused. We apply ethical reasoning to tactical application of mechanics. You see this online when someone gets seriously bent out of shape with something. They wail and complain, “that’s not Wing Chun…you can’t do this or that!” My Sifu, Tony Massengill, once had a video on Facebook wherein he ducked under a hook and then countered. By a couple of responses you would have thought that Sifu Tony had just desecrated a holy shrine or used a crayon on priceless art. I mean, wow! For having the audacity of ducking rather than using an “approved” Wing Chun technique like taan-sao he was denounced with religious ferocity for being a heretic.

“That’s boxing, dude!!”

“How dare you mix boxing with Wing Chun!”

One presumes in their (the critics) understanding of Wing Chun that if they can’t perform a taan-sao for whatever reason, they should simply take one for the team rather than, you know, get out of the way. As I pointed out in the book, if you think that way you’re in a cult, not Wing Chun. Use Wing Chun for your defense in the event of unavoidable violence, don’t be used by it. In other words, remember that Wing Chun is a system to be used via training, not something for which you’re to be sacrificed.

Wing Chun is, be sure, a system. We aren’t talking about martial nihilism or relativism. All truth claims and practices are based in systematics. They exist in a network of presuppositions and the auxiliary truths downstream of them. There’s no such thing as a “brute fact” or technique that exists in its own universe. This must be pointed out in our anti-conceptual day and age where we’re prone to think that truth is merely a matter of what works. This makes truth systems void, which is dangerous stuff since that thought is itself a system of truth - a philosophical presupposition about the nature of things. We are not saying in any way that Wing Chun’s system (forms, mechanics, primary drills, etc.) is irrelevant and we’re “only using what works.” Think of it this way: Wing Chun is like a guitar and has a nature to it. Therefore, we must learn the mechanics of the instrument. That isn’t negotiable. How to play the guitar isn’t an option; the style in which one can play is. That’s our point.

We are not advocating for blind adherence to Wing Chun (idolatry) nor abject relativism. We’re speaking about using the Wing Chun tools.

Incidentally, my addition of a chapter in which I pointed out this very real tendency - idolatry - proved the point at hand. Some people were quite upset and accused me of bringing religion into the conversation. Imagine that! In a chapter about turning Wing Chun into a deity some people were irked that I brought up (and defined) religion. Go figure. Talk about missing the point.

So, anyway, here we are and we’re talking about Wing Chun footwork. The critical thing is that there’s no way to know ahead of time precisely what kind of altercation we’re going to be in. If we knew that ahead of time we wouldn’t be in the fight in the first place. Self-defense violence is, by definition, unavoidable and, therefore, unpredictable. We might be in a parking lot. We might be in a cluttered living room. We could be attacked by a crazed druggie or by two home invaders. We simply don’t know these essential variables ahead of time and that’s the nature of the game.

For this reason a self-defense science must have adaptability baked into the cake. In another way of saying it: because we don’t and can’t know what ground and environment we’ll be forced to “make our stand” our system of self-defense, to be logically valid, must take these into account. In other words, our fighting method must as a matter of necessity have a footwork scheme consistent with these facts. The reality is that virtually no martial arts today give serious (or any) consideration to their footwork in regard to its adaptability to unfriendly terrain and surroundings. On this ground (sorry, couldn’t resist) we stake our claim that what’s being taught is either contradictory to the goal of self-defense or woefully incomplete. In either regard, with something so important as fighting for your life - with the stakes as high as they can be - you’d think people would be more concerned with getting it right.

We pause to note that just the other day in Georgia (my neighboring state) a young girl - a middle schooler - was killed, yes killed, in a fight with another girl. Their altercation occurred on pavement, in the middle of a road according to reports. The deceased girl’s head struck that unforgiving surface at some point (the exact details weren’t released as of this writing) and that caused brain trauma and cerebral edema. This isn’t a crazy, one-off occurrence. “Street fight” fatalities generally have their cause from this very thing. Man’s noggin meets the road and the road is undefeated.

The same is true indoors as well. An altercation took place a few years ago between football fans (Raiders and 49ers if I recall correctly). That’s not too uncommon sadly enough, but this one happened in the public restroom and the “loser” fell after being punched. His head struck a sink. He died too.

One rather unfortunate fella was in a fight, Jerry Springer style as it went, outside of a courtroom. In the melee as multiple opponents dashed in and dashed out, he stepped off a curb. The problem was, he didn’t know he did that until his ankle buckled and his leg obviously and grotesquely broke.

In another educational story, a man with a wrestling background shot in for a double-leg on a shoplifter in a grocery store. The former wrestler was an employee of the store and the shoplifter was already in a fight with security. Muscle memory is a fickle thing. Under pressure we do what we’ve trained and his double-leg was swift and effective. Ah, but there was a problem. The wrestler perfects his craft in a gym. On mats. The grocery store had the usual grocery store floor…hard and definitely not conducive to explosive takedown attempts.

The wrestler’s patella hit that reality and was quite literally dashed to pieces. I must make the point more obvious: our wrestler lost (and would have been beaten to death had there not been others there to subdue the attacker) because of his wrestling. The contradiction of his style with the reality of his environment clashed. They had a fight. Reality always wins.

My Sifu, Tony Massengill of the Ip Man Wing Chun Union, is indeed a Wing Chun master. His chi-sao is phenomenal. His forms are great. Yeah…all that stuff. He checks all the usual boxes there. But the thing is, he understands (and taught me) that all that stuff is like a toolbox. And tools are to be used. So, the question is, how do we use them? In Sifu Tony’s case, his use of those tools - the Wing Chun systematic - is guided by the reality he needs to use them in.

“In real fights, Jason, we hit people with things and things with people.”

That’s the thing a man who’s been there and done that will say. And only that kind of man.

In his career as a law-enforcement officer and first responder he’s been in his share of violent situations. He’s seen folks seriously messed up from unfortunate encounters with curbs, countertops, sinks, bathtubs, and stairwells. He’s seen a dude (a fellow officer) get his finger bitten off (!) in a fight with a career loser/criminal. A lot of “self-defense” instructors haven’t been in self-defense scenarios themselves. They’ve learned in the safety of their gyms. Some Wing Chun instructors haven’t been in real fights where someone is trying to seriously hurt or kill them, nor have they even done heavy sparring at any point in their lives. In other words, you have virgins teaching sex-ed. An instructor like Sifu Tony, on the other hand, literally is a Wing Chun master who has the wisdom and experience to put it to work in reality.

His footwork, therefore, is both “rooted” and mobile. This sounds like a contradiction but it isn’t. It’s real Wing Chun footwork/structure applied to the tactical reality at hand. The idea of simplicity is to narrow things down to their fundamentals. It’s to accurately identify, without contradiction, the facts of reality so that we may logically prepare it. Reality is always the main thing, not the system designed to solve a problem it presents to us. The Wing Chun footwork we use and teach, therefore, is that which conforms to this definition.

The thing to remember is that goal is to keep ourselves as safe as possible in the event of unavoidable violence. We’re using Wing Chun to achieve this goal. To attain this or any goal we must have a logical plan. To that end, Wing Chun seeks to attack the attack - that is, it attempts to cut off an enemy’s assault with a scientific counterattack. But any plan, to be reasonable, must consider likely obstacles.

Good footwork is, to that end, the big idea. It allows us to nullify our enemy’s offense via positioning while simultaneously giving us counterattack options. A few obvious truths to consider here are:

It’s more difficult to hit a moving target.

All techniques, in order to be effective, require the coordination of time and space or, in other words, accuracy.

The smart defender, therefore, seeks to master the art of movement. And this movement is capable on any and every “track.” This is the core idea behind Wing Chun footwork.