Wing Chun has a range of techniques that are not found in the forms yet are still important. 

As a beginner, many of the techniques a student will learn, while practical in self-defence, will often be superseded by better techniques that they learn later, or they will eventually be left aside as they may not conform to many of the principals of Wing Chun, and so be replaced later. 

The reason we do them is, however, very very important in that many of these kinds of techniques train coordination. Though the student may never even practice them again after the first few months, what they gain from practicing them early on is indispensable and a crucial part of being able to do Wing Chun.

 Other techniques, however, are entirely practical from the very beginning and must be trained well in order for them to be effective. It is in training these kinds of techniques that students learn how to apply Wing Chun, and they need to be done literally thousands of times to make them a reflex reaction. It is training at these kinds of techniques that will make up the majority of a student’s training.

An important thing to remember in technique training is that, although only one of a pair may be doing a Wing Chun technique and the other is simply throwing punches etc. to the student to help them, the student not doing the Wing Chun technique is still getting benefit from the training too. They may be working on their stance, toughening their arms or improving their stability.