It’s best recommended that once the student begins learning how to do the centerline punch, he should immediately start preparing his fist to deliver that punch.  So, more often then not the wall bag training should be shown.  While learning the mechanics of how to deliver the punch is a must, the fist must also be ready in order for one to release the energy of the punch.  The fist must be strong enough to support  the delivery of the punch.  Otherwise,  it would be like a gun filled with nerf bullets if one neglects to do wall bag training.

As I slowly took a sip from my cup, I could feel  the warmth of drink start all the way from my tongue till it reached the bottom of my belly.   Macchiato-grande every morning, if only dad knew I was blowing my allowance on this instead of nutritional food at the cafeteria, he’d kill me.  But all Dad’s whether knowing or not, usually give their daughters that benefit of the doubt.   Cough.. Cough.....  Typical winters here in Chicago, cold and frigid and unforgiving to those with lesser means of transportation.  But there were no complaints coming from me this morning, it is what it is.   Winter is winter, and to expect it to be any lesser then that was foolish.   15 more minutes till the bus arrived, killing time was either done the typical jumping up and down to get blood flowing or the Wing Chun way.  


A quick peek to both sides, and I had the feeling I was going to be the only one this morning foolish enough to wait for the bus.  As Sifu had always told me, time regardless of the amount should be used wisely.  One of the rare times he didn’t sound like a fortune cookie and gave me the straight heads up.    


I had to get one more sip.  There was no way this Macchiato was gonna remain warm if I didn’t finish it on the spot.   The opening of the stance always consisted of 4 motions, and considering how hard the wind was blowing the snow, I figure I could get away with this at the bus stop without any witnesses spotting me.  Sifu had stressed upon the point never take for granted the 4 motions, each one, as with all things in Wing Chun served a purpose.  I have to admit, you would think these are one of those times I would break that rule, but I didn’t.


I finally got of the bus stop seat, and started using my boot to clear a tiny path for me to step in.   Man it was cold.  Finally, a path not that big, a mere 2 feet in diameter, but then again I was a mere 110 lbs, maybe 112 with all the snow on me.  Let’s see, let’s see... It was weird, while being with Sifu only 4 years, every time  I practiced by myself, it almost seemed like I could hear his voice echoing and his instructions.  I stood straight up, with both the heel of my boots touching each other and a small gap between both toes.  It took awhile to understand what Sifu had meant by standing straight up, but he really just meant to find a balance in all things that we do.  Had I done it on day one like I did military style, that was definitely incorrect, or I could’ve gone the route of my grandma and hunch over.  In the end, I had to discover the balance of both being relaxed and tensed.  You’d think that lesson would be earned after 1 day, but in all honesty I really think I just figured that out a couple of months ago.


I stood there perfectly straight, adjusting every new-ounce of motion in my body, till I finally felt I was most relaxed and had my center.  Natural, just stand natural, Sifu always said that was the goal, to find out what was natural for you and to make it feel that way without thought.  Ah, finally.  Stillness, great all this effort and I still haven’t done the first move and still no signs of life coming to the bus stop.


Okay, here goes, left over right and cross the arms.... flip and pull back.  I had made it a habit to do everything step by step, and at the same time repeat exactly what it was that I was doing and why.  I had always enjoyed the fact that Sifu never taught the class military style. The old gun-ho concept of just do it, never appealed to me, coz I always questioned why we did it.   Early on dad forced my brother and I to take Tae Kwon Do (it is our national art) and that was strictly by the book.  He’d kill me if he knew I was taking Wing Chun, but good grades allows for the leash to be loosened, and Wing Chun skills can be applied in more then just fighting.  Anyway, Sifu not only explained it but he seemed to enjoy going into basic and complex details as to each function of the art.   As far as I know, Sifu said that the cross of left over right was the only thing in Wing Chun that was one sided.  He stressed that it was simply done that way, so that you don’t crush the heart.  It is weird, but without that awareness,  I doubt I would’ve ever thought of that on my own.  The cross of the arms is something I’m sure most girls my size would dread, the last thing an asian girl needs to do is make herself look more flat, but the sinking in the chest and maintaining it in order to finish the first step, allowed me to move the center from being top heavy all the way to my belly.  Speaking of which, Macchiato-grande’s aren’t really the breakfast of champions, and I was feeling the ill-effect of not making breakfast my priority. 


The second motion always was difficult for me, for whatever reason, but I bent my knees slightly and tucked in my hips.  I think the difficulty for me was the actual tucking  the hips in.  When Sifu actually demonstrated it, you can literally feel the L4 and L5 stick out a mile away.  He mentioned to me, with more time and practice I could achieve the same result, so yes there was hope for the future, even if it was a fool’s hope.   When I first started studying with Sifu, he placed such a great emphasis on structure.  But when you first here that, it really does mean nothing to you.  But, the 2nd motion, had everything to do with straightening out the spine, this emphasis or focus, was always present in all that we do in the stance.   I always had found the 3rd motion amusing, usually when everyone does this in class, you’ve got a handful of people opening up their legs, and the next thing you know they got their butt sticking out.  But as Sifu had said, do the entire YGKYM, and pretend you’ve got a glass of water on your head, no matter which of the four motions that you do in order to open the stance, never spill that water.  The third motion, even with all its amusement that it caused in class, was more of a future development for doing the Wing Chun front kick.  A lesson I soon learned quickly, is that lesson’s Sifu gives only scratches the surface, and its our job to dig even deeper.


Finally the last motion, opening up and ending up pigeon toed.  I know Sifu says technically their are only 4 motions to open up the YGKYM, I often wonder if he should be more specific and say that there are 4 major motions and a ton of minor adjustments.   After I finished the 4 motions, I literally had a check list of mental notes in my head, just to make sure that I was at the very least, doing the YGKYM remotely correct.


After the 4 steps, Sifu would often mention 2 of the major things to play around with to see if you actually did have your center.  The most major of it, was basically another case of you stretching your spine, so that your vertex would point up to the heavens, while your cocyx would tuck in to allow for that full stretch.  The second thing was simply a case of shifting the weight slightly just to see if maybe by chance you had either too much on the ball of the foot or on the heel.  Either way, the goal was to make sure the foot was flat and the weight was easily distributed throughout.  I can remember it just like yesterday, when Sifu first showed me the YGKYM, it look awkward and felt weak, but 4 years later it feels strong and the effects I’ve used in other things like sports seem unmeasurable.  But still, just like everyone else whose studied with Sifu, I know it, or I think I know what I know about it, but when compared to his stance, I have to admit, I know so little.


Ki- jian, Ki -jian.......... I heard my name muffled through snow, as one of my friends started trudging through it.  Well at least I got to practice 10 minutes, crap... my macchiato’s cold.



Ver 1.0

  1. -How often should I practice hand conditioning?

  2. -Considering that wall bag training could be the easiest training that you’ll ever do in Wing Chun, its recommend that you do it consistently for a certain period of time.  Often I recommend to students that doing a mere 1 or 2 minutes a day both sides will lead to results within months.


  1. -What does it mean if my fist is sore?

  2. -Sore fist means your hitting the wall bag to hard.  Remember the key is to tapping the wall bag and being consistent, and not hitting it hard and hurting yourself.


-How long will it take to develop the fist, palm and fingers?
- The general rule of thumbs for the length of time in development, assuming you do roughly 1 or 2 minutes a day both sides consistently, will be for the fist = 1 year, palm = 5 years, and for the fingers = 10 years.


- What should I fill my wall bag with?
- The wall bag can be filled with a variety of “uncooked” eating products such as beans or more commonly rice.  I would just recommend using the typical rice coz its the cheapest and easiest to get access to when filling in your wall bag.


  1. -Where can I get a wall bag?

  2. -Wall bags can be purchased directly through Sifu Fong’s website, I believe they sell anywhere from $15 to $20 bucks.  Now, if you want to take the cheaper route, you can make your own homemade wall bag from scratch.  Take either a sack or a ziplock bag, and filled it tightly with your wall bag ingredients, (rice) and then wrap it thoroughly with duck tape or something that can maintain the structure of the bag upon impact.

  3. -Do I need Jao?

  4. -Jao is a healing ointment if you have a soreness or bruising on your hand or other parts of your body.  Typically I would say you don’ t need any jao if your merely tapping at the wall bag.  Unfortunately though, Sifu is unable to make anymore Jao due to one of the ingredients needed is difficult to obtain.  If however you do have soreness, rest and you can also substitute vinegar on your hands and gently massage it on the sore parts.

Basic Fist development

Variety of fist, palm, and fingers.

The iron palm exercise covers all aspects of the hand in conditioning.  Through the years the easiest way to remember doing the entire drill, is simply remembering the count down of 4, 3, 2, and 1.  The 1st for motions have to do with the palm, front, back, side and heel of the palm.  The next 3 are based on the fingers, which is all 5 touching, the ginger fist, and the phoenix eye.  Finally the last 2 is simply the fist and the hammer part of the fist, and you end it by simply doing the elbow.  I have also told students that if you don’t want to do all 10 at a particular time, you can simply pick out one of the 10 and simply concentrate on that for 1 or 2 minutes of conditioning.