(Welcome back to Fighter Diaries, where fighters from all walk of the combat sports landscape share their tales with us. In part II, our own Benjamin Kohn is still recovering from an injured shoulder, so as he does, he shares some other memories from his training with us. You can read Part I where he talks about his injury here.)
Wing Chun and its Application in Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu
Now I must tell you I do not know a lot about Wing Chun at all and have never trained in it. The little I know about it is from movies and the member of my gym who trained in it for 7+ years. Wing Chun seems to put emphasis on using the hands in extremely fast combinations and there is a lot of hand fighting. The movements and strikes seem to do damage based more on the accumulation of strikes rather than a single powerful strike trying to end the fight.
Now everyone knows how Wrestling and Judo could be applied to BJJ but the application of Wing Chun would seem extremely odd to most. What I personally found out is that trying to control the hands/get grips on him (we were training gi) was nearly impossible. His hands were so fast and his sense so in tune sensing when my hands were going to attempt to make grips that I could not get a hold of his sleeve. I am taller, stronger, and much younger than he is and we are both blue belts but his hand fighting skills are way league ahead of mine. Aside from this, his grip strength was ridiculous. I could not break his grips like a normal BJJ guy. I was able to dominate him in virtually every position throughout the 8 minute roll and would have won on points probably 20-0 but I could not submit him. His hand strength and speed allowed him to prevent my armbar, kimura, and RNC attempts. It was a truly eye opening experience for me to realize how a martial art that has no connection to grappling at all could have such a major effect on his grappling game. What are your thoughts on this? Any feedback would be great.
-Ben can be reached at [email protected] or @agentbenten. Keep this bored man occupied!
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