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Simple and Effective Kettlebell Training for Wing Tsun

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Picking the kettlebell up and placing it back on the floor after lifting, is of paramount importance! Many injuries  occur as the result of being lazy at the start and end of training movements. Imagine doing a powerful set of heavy Swings and then tweaking your back as you put the bell down at the end… not feeling so good about those Swings now, are you? The Kettlebell Deadlift, performed correctly, will save your back and your pride!

The Kettlebell The KettlebellDeadlift: Deadlift:

Start with a slightly wider than shoulder-width stance. Sit back as if you are trying to reach a chair about a foot hehind you (movement starts with the hips), letting your weight rest on the heels. Keep looking forward so the upper back remains straight. You will feel the bell with your hands and do not need to look down!

The arms are straight and loose, letting the legs do the lifting. Also, make sure your knees track over your toes, with the feet turned slightly outwards. At the top of the movement, straighten your legs and fully-contract your quads (pulling kneecaps up), fully contract your glutes and allow the hips to tip back, contract your abs as if bracing for a punch, keep your shoulders back and down in the sockets.

The Swing’s the thing… The Swing’s the thing…

As I mentioned earlier, the Kettlebell-Swing is the foundational exercise of the system. Let’s discuss exactly how the Kettlebell-Swing will enhance your Wing Tsun performance.

The Hike-Pass:

Start with the bell just behind your heels, making you reach for it and emphasize a straight back. Get one or two hands on the Kettlebell via the Deadlift. Ensure to push chin and tailbone away from each other, feeling a pull in the hamstrings. Same alignment applies when in motion. Make sure to push the bell back down using your lats, keeping shoulders firmly in the socket.

The Hip Snap:

Keeping your back straight, thrust up and forward with your hips. Your shoulders remain locked into the socket via the lats, and the blades squeezed together via the mid-traps and rhomboids. Remember to keep the arms loose, like a pair of ropes. The fingers hold the bell in a hook-grip.

The Top Position:

Quads maximally contract, pulling kneecaps up and straigtening legs.

Glutes fully contract, tipping your hips back and allowing for relaxation of the hipflexors. Contract your abs fully, as if taking a punch, keeping ribs tucked in (like a partial crunch). Continue to fire your mid-traps and rhomboids to keep the shoulder blades together. Continue firing your lats to keep shoulders firmly in the sockets.

Arms remain rope-loose, fingers hold the bell in a hook-grip. Lastly, keep your chin retracted (double chins) and neck in neutral.

The Swing is the most basic ballistic kettlebell movement. This movement forms the basis of the other ballistic kettlebell movements like the Snatch and the Clean. The Swing requires you to hike-pass the bell behind you then explode to standing, locking your knees (quad contraction), squeezing your glutes & abs (hips tilted back - ribs tucked in) and pressing your shoulders into their sockets.

All of this is done with relaxed rope-like arms and perfect spinal alignment. Right away, we notice the familiar glute-powered anterior hip-tilt and  abdominalpowered rib-tuck essential for a powerful and rooted WT stance. This core-stabilizing movement also allows the WT practitioner to transfer force from his arms into a passive turn and/or an active stance-powered attack.

Next we look at the straightening of the legs. The quad contraction to a straight knee-joint, while driving through the heel works the same muscular pattern as in our WT Thrusting Kicks. The spinal erectors, trapezius and rhomboid contractions are responsible for our upright WT stance as are the contractions of the chinretracting subocciptals and deep neck flexors. The trapezius muscles also assist the lats in keeping the shoulders back, down and in the socket, exactly the position they must occupy in order to allow us to transfer force down into our stance.

The loose joint at the elbow with corresponding light-tension in the hook-grip almost exactly mimics the pattern needed to throw a powerful WT punch. Since the Deep Fascial layer is directly affected by the way we position our bodies actively and passively, the Swing’s posture-correcting and powerful muscular contractions will also restore strength and balance to this layer, encasing our bones, joints and muscles in the most structurally sound manner.

You can see now how useful just this one exercise can be to your WT training!

A great way to incorporate Swings into your WT practice is to use Circle-Steps and punches as your recovery between sets. The common movement and contraction/relaxation patterns make this a perfect pair. After we get through the Floor Press, I will present a simple Swing and Press training plan to put it all into action!

The Floor Press for Striking- The Floor Press for Striking-Power!

Our strikes are supported by the lats, rhomboids and traps but are powered mainly by the triceps and to a degree the pectorals (chest). In order to work the triceps and pecs for striking, we turn to the Kettlebell FloorPress. Figures 5.1 and 5.2 show the Start and Finish of the KB Floor Press.

Start Position:

Lie on the floor with your knees up and feet on the floor, the bell beside you just below your shoulder on the weak side. Roll your body towards the bell and bring it to the Press start position using both hands (shoulder safety). Squeeze your shoulder blades together and press your shoulders down and into the socket, keeping this position for the duration of the set. Make sure to squeeze the glutes and keep the ribs tucked in (low back moves towards the floor).

Finish Position:

Exhale as you Press the bell to elbow-lockout, keeping the wrist straight. It helps to visualize pushing your body down and away from the bell. Lower with control and repeat. To make this Press even more WT-specific, “turn” the elbow into the lockout as we do with our punches and palm-strikes.

Using a lighter bell held bottom-up will help to strengthen your wrist for a more structurally-sound punch as well as provide additional grip-training.
Make sure to have your other hand ready to stabilize the bell should it tip to the side. This Press requires a greater amount of concentration and puts you at a higher risk of dropping the bell!

As with the Swing, in The Presswe see the glute-powered anterior pelvic-tilt and abdominal -powered rib-tuck  common to our structurally sound WT stance and body-position. We also focus again on safe and strong shoulder mechanics, a necessary element of striking-power and the ability to transfer external force from our arms into our stance or turn. Pressing while lying on our back ensures we develop the exact force-direction needed for powerful strikes.

A common mistake when trying to increase striking power is to stand up and throw punches while holding dumbells. This movement mostly works the front and sides of the shoulder and only very minimally adds strength to the triceps and chest. That being said, slow and heavy Thrusting-Punches with a decent weight will make your WT-wedge much stronger and make it harder for an opponent to press your arms down and against your body (material for another article perhaps : ).