Mark Spence

Originally coming from Napier, New Zealand, Mark Spence has been practicing Wing Chun since 1984 under Jim Fung, a dedicated student of Chu Shong Tin. During his Wing Chun career Mark made regular trips to Hong Kong to learn directly from Master Chu Shong Tin. Mark continued visiting Hong Kong up to 3-4 times per year until Chu Shong Tin’s passing. Mark runs his own school, Chi Sao Club, and teaches full time there in Sydney.

Wing Chun Circles

In this very informative clip, Sifu Mark Spence clearly explains the power of using the arm structures in a circular way. He explains with a roller how if you have a relaxed shoulder the shoulder joint both spins freely to roll the force under a Bong Sau to Tan sau movement. This has a very disruptive effect on a partner’s balance and structure as shown in the video.

 

The Edge and Face of Circle

Circles are seldom talked about in Wing Chun outside the Chu Shong Tin lineage. I always find this puzzling as it is a crucial concept and can explain why almost all structures work in Wing Chun regardless of which method or lineage you follow. Here Mark Spence teaches the difference between the edge of the circle and the face of the circle. We always want to have people on the edge of our circle and not the face. The edge of the circle in wing chun represents the strongest and most anatomically correct body structures when pressure is applied to us. If a partner applies pressure to the face of our circle we will find ourselves compensating with excessive muscular force and against someone skilled our structures could collapsed or be broken.

 

Wing Chun Trapping in Chi Sao

Mark Spence shows two typical traps as well as the counters for those traps that occur in chi sao.

 

Wing Chun Chark Gong

Chark Gong roughly translates to breaking guard. In this video we see how effective this can be.