Wing Chun Long Pole Liu Dian Ban Gun - 咏春六点半棍法

The Wing Chun long pole which is also known as the 6/12 point pole, Dragon Pole or Luk Dim Boon Kwan is often regarded as one of the first weapons to be ever learned. As an historic weapon, the Wing Chun long has always been in high demand. However, there have been shortages in supply of quality long poles that are correctly made from the original wood. These poles are employed as defensive weapons aimed at developing unarmed power generation.

Wing Chun Liu Dian Ban staff which is also termed as Lok Dim Boon Kwun is translated in English as the “Six and a half Point Pole”. Wing Chun Liu Dian Ban staff is weapon training for the Wing Chun. The Long Pole is a tapered wooden pole; the length of a normal pole can vary but in most cases its length is around 8 feet but sometimes other poles will go as far as 10 feet but not easily found outside of Hong Kong and Mainland China.

The Long pole is also referred as to as the Dragon Pole by some quarters. These wing chun forms requires one to use tremendous strength from all parts of the body hence form is essential in developing the back and the shoulders, the biceps and the triceps, the forearm and the wrists plus the legs.Wing Chun Liu Dian Ban stick is a form that involves a series of around seven moves with each of them being the half point. The power that is achieved when wielding the weapon is thereby concentrated at the point of a flexible force.

Grandmaster Yip Man is often credited as the master who brought the Wing Chun long pole to a wider audience, himelf being highly skilled in its practice. As a respected weapon that is used in the kung fu style of Wing Chun, Wing Chun pole is highly respected by many fighters of Kung fu. Due to the difference in diameter of one end of the pole to the other end (the head) which is even thicker, the Wing Chun long pole has been nicknamed the ‘tat-tail pole.’ The creativity involved in creating the Wing Chun long pole is amazing. The typical pole is a creation of an ironwood work aka teak that is worked out of pure dexterity to possess a smooth surface.

Possessing only 7 essential techniques, this Wing Chun weapon has proven to be very precise, simple and elegant with a rather compact form sequence which as always demonstrated the efficient nature of the Wing Chun martial art. The techniques involved in handling the long pole are based on a number of major theories which enable the practitioner to effectively correct and reorganize his or her own movements as soon as it is fully understood.

It can be important to note that there have been several misconstrued forms of long pole however, the late Grandmaster Yip Man is the only person who has practiced and mastered the essential sequence of pole fighting as an authentic long pole form and has passed it down to several generations. These include his seven basic movements which are flip, spear, cover, sweep, sideward flick and the half fence.

When Ip Man moved to Hong Kong several years after, he taught friends and relatives as well as some students including Bruce Lee. Even after his death, Ip Man Wing Chun is still being taught to many martial arts students.

In 2008, a Hong Kong film starring Donnie Yen called Ip Man was released in cinemas. The movie was based on the life of Ip Man. Many artifacts of Ip Man’s life and history of the art of Ip Man Wing Chun had been left behind when he died. Many of his followers and martial arts fans visit the Foshan Ancestral Temple’s Yip Man Tong museum to view these.

Decades after his death, indeed, the legacy lives on with Ip Man Wing Chun.

To learn wing chun or to learn self-defense, one can go to The Taizu Traditional Martial Arts School in China, where full time all inclusive kung fu training is given to students of all levels.