Grandmaster Tse’s Wing Chun Note 439

Advanced Level of Sahp Sīng Bouh 十星步 – Ten Star Footwork – Part 3

The footwork in any martial art should allow you to move in all directions. The same must be true for Wing Chun. We can go forward we can go backwards, we can go left, we can go right and we can be stationary. So we have Yìh Jih Kìhm Yèuhng Máh 二字鉗羊馬 -Basic Wing Chun Stance to be stationary on two legs and Yāt Geuk Jōng 一脚樁 – One Leg Stance when we are stationary on one leg. Then from stationary we can turn left and right on both legs using Jyún Máh 轉馬 – Turning Stance, but we do not turn left and right on one leg, instead, we move the hanging leg to the left or right. There are two reasons for doing this, one is for attacking and the other is for defending. This means that we can use the hanging leg for kicking or blocking. This is different from turning on two legs in Jyún Máh where we can also turn in order to attack and defend. Then we can go forwards with Jeun Máh 進馬 – Forward Step and backwards with Teui Máh 退馬 – Backward Step. Then, if we want to walk to the left or right we use Wàahng Máh 横馬 – Sideways Step. We might only actually walk one step to the left or right, but the application of Wàahng Máh is walking around the opponent in a circle and we can also use it for attack and defence.