One Wing Chun kuen kuit is; “yat jiu yat da”. This translates as: “one block one strike”. This hardly needs to be stated to those who have been taught legitimate Wing Chun. What can we learn then from this kuen kuit? Actually, quite a lot despite its brevity and seeming straightforwardness!
Certainly if ever you see someone deflecting sequential strikes without immediately countering at the first opportunity, they are acting contrary to this kuen kuit and several of the Wing Chun principles. Ergo, although they may be employing structures that may look more or less remotely like Wing Chun structures, what they’re doing is simply not Wing Chun. They can proclaim its Wing Chun from the rooftops, in martial arts DVDs, videos, books or the populist martial arts media all they like. They can be as well-known as they like. None of this changes this simple fact! If you break the Wing Chun principles which are present in every Wing Chun technique, you’re not doing genuine Wing Chun!
Blocking in the sense of this kuen kuit is not taken to mean blocking with great muscular power and tension as in some other arts. It simply means stopping the attacker’s strike. This can be by deflection, sweeping the attack aside, or by stopping it dead in a gate. I must comment on that last phrase. Some people say there are no blocks in Wing Chun. Whilst this is true in the sense that Wing Chun doesn’t tense up and doesn’t swing an arm out beyond the outer body line to meet and strike an attacker’s arm by “chasing hands”, we do pose structures in gates and our attacker strikes onto them, hurting himself in proportion to his own force. This could be seen as blocking his attack line. It is different to the blocks of arts such as karate or Tae Kwon Do or Hung Gar in execution and powering but the effect on the attacker is similar in terms of pain. In terms of striking the attacker’s limb and then sticking with it, it is different. I refer to this as “closing the gate” rather than “blocking” to emphasise this difference. I occasionaly demonstrate this by posing a relaxed posture in a gate and having a student strike at it or by putting out the structure in a very relaxed fashion to show the student just how much it hurts them without me having to exert myself.
What we also learn from this kuen kuit is to always return a strike for a strike. Never miss the opportunity to attack. Never simply block an attacker’s strike. We can also interpret it at the level of it meaning that we can stop the attacker’s strike and strike him in return either simultaneously or almost instantly. Contrary to popular belief not all Wing Chun counters are simultaneous. Some are pre-emptive and some follow the "thunder and lightning" strategy. Sometimes this involves the kuen kuit "the hand that deflects, strikes". It’s certainly related to the concept of lin siu die dar. Although anyone well versed in applying Wing Chun in realworld combat can attest that it isn’t always possible to strike simultaneously. At one level we might interpret “yat jiu yat da” in terms of choi siu choi. It’s also related to the kuen kuit; “the hand that deflects strikes” from which the practical application of choi siu choi comes, and on which I comment elsewhere in this series.