One of the requirements of a genuine yee jee kim yeung ma is kim sut. My students can attest that I’m forever calling out “kim sut” – along with a few other key words. I hear, much to my amusement, that some so-called notables in the Wing Chun world eschew this vital aspect of yee jee kim yeung ma. This is despite that fact that they’re (sort of) in a lineage associated with Leung Jan. Leung Jan was a stickler for kim sut! So too, was Yuen Kay San! Now it really makes me smile to hear of far lesser lights telling students that they’ve “sunk too low” or “can’t move from there”. Yeh? Gents, I can move very quickly whilst maintaining root, sinking and maintaining kim sut! So can my students! Kim sut is essential for several reasons. The stance, yee jee kim yeung ma, is explained as being an adduction stance. Now you can’t say that if there’s no adduction! If you stand looking like the Leaning Tower of Pisa with your knees wide apart you are, quite obviously, not adducting! Secondly, I think the guys who prattle on about “standing too low”, have missed seeing top line practitioners of arts where they can kick your groin as fast as I can jab your nose! (And, hint: I’m not slow!) I consider it a real gift if I encounter anyone with a wide open groin! Next, if you want to link your knees properly as you juen, then you have to have them adducted.
I’m not talking about the heel based turning that merely changes the direction of facing and leaves the central line where it is rather than re-locating it off the attacker’s center-line as you do when you juen correctly using your ball of foot and toes as the pivot point. (Not to mention that you gain far more body unity, power and fluidity this way!) Lastly, if you don’t adduct you can’t sink properly. There’s a lot more limitation on sinking appropriately if your knees aren’t in the kim sut position. I note, incidentally, that the two practitioners I’ve heard, or read, criticising correct sinking with kim sut, have far senior and far more skilled practitioners in their lineage who do display correct kim sut! One of my disciples reported to me recently that he had an internet exchange with a guy who, sadly but objectively correctly, can only be described as an overweight, egotistical fool with no skill (and who proves it by posting on Youtube!) wherein he was told that the correct yee jee kim yeung ma with kim sut didn’t provide enough torque! Yeh? I’ve experimented extensively with stance options, including heel turning versus ball of foot turning. So, I’ve used both methods and I can definitely attest that ensuring you incorporate kim sut into your yee jee kim yeung ma will give you far more torque, a faster, stronger, more stable and more fluid stance and afford your groin better protection – in accordance with the kuen kuit: “protect the groin below”. So, the choice – be lazy, or trendy and don’t employ kim sut – or follow the advice of the ancestors and the combat logic of kim sut.