Ding Chun Chou was by no means a weak fighter in terms of conventional fist and kicking martial arts, but his *real* strengths...the ones that inspired the fear of his enemies...were his expert use of poisons and his Fa Gung Dai Fat (Diffusion Force Technique).
During the most difficult fight of Ding's life, the struggle against Kiu Fung at Shaolin Temple, Ding strangely used neither poison nor Diffusion Force Technique against his powerful Khitan foeman. He tried to match Kiu Fung at Kiu's own strength (i.e. straightfoward hand-to-hand combat). Even though Mo Yung F'uk and Yau Tan Tze were there to take most of the heat off of Ding, it's really surprising that Ding didn't pull out the poison or the Diffusion Force against this most dangerous and fearsome of enemies.