To a large extent, we don’t need to, because Dr Leung Jan found himself at this very juncture and made that call for us.
As someone that completed an apprenticeship, I have first-hand knowledge that the things I was expected to learn to get my Trade Papers, were things that were of limited value out in the field.
I would imagine this holds true for every trade, every profession, and every discipline.
Apart from anything else the outside world moves on.
After years of use, not overnight, inherent deficiencies in the old method come to light and because of this, the training IDEA gets seriously modified, if not abandoned.
Training is, by its very nature, years behind what is wanted at the ‘Coal Face’.
Fortunately, when we do enter the workforce, we are surrounded by journeymen that are up to speed with the job at hand and a new phase of training begins.
When we sit down and think about it, training in any discipline or subject is never enough, it is just a bridge to get us from where we are to where we need to be.
And if we are still actively training, we are not there yet.
Two things become clear…
1. Because the outside world moves on, it is required of us that we are constantly trying to keep pace with it.
2. As situations change our job changes, and as our job changes our training must change or we get left behind.
In the workplace whole Industries vanish, factories retool, and workers undergo re-training in a new field, this is what we all know to be true and has been a constant since the beginning of the Industrial Revolution.
Do we really miss Steam Trains?
When we think of this and then turn our thoughts to the suitability of our ‘Old Training’, things like, where it came from, what its was intended for, and measure it against what is needed in todays world can we be objective enough to be honest?
To a large extent, we don’t need to, because Dr Leung Jan found himself at this very juncture and made that call for us.
When it comes to problem-solving and decision-making, the clunky, heavy bits, like machinations, applications, and fabrications all change, but something ethereal remains.
The one thing that puts Homo Sapiens at the top of the tree remains.
The ability to engage in reasonable, analytical, logical thought remains.
Our ability to take old, perhaps outdated information and change it into a new IDEA.
A new way.
A new answer.
But here is the “GOOD NEWS”.
When all we need to change is our thinking there is no need for a wholesale retool, no need to abandon all of our previous hard-won skills.
At its heart Wing Chun is a set of IDEAS that sit inside the boundaries of…
Directness,
Simplicity,
The Economy of Movement,
Non-Use of Brute Force
Practicality.
If we can engage these concepts along the lines of De Bono’s 6 Thinking Hats they become timeless, malleable and always fit for purpose.
Any method that abides by these principles, irrelevant of source or intention, as if by magic, becomes Wing Chun, so in practice, there is no set M.O.
With no set or default method, the catalogue of commonly used, practical techniques, is, to be expected, somewhat fluid.
Wing Chun is constantly improving, always starting anew.
Continued growth along a set path or set direction is evolutionary.
The ability to change in any direction, along any path, which I.M.O. is ground zero for Wing Chun, is revolutionary.
Wing Chun translates into English as “Everlasting Springtime”.
Spring is the season of rebirth.
Wing Chun could just as easily be translated into ‘Never Ending Rebirth”.
Continuous improvement and continuous growth are fuelled by change and pragmatism.
In true Mandalorian spirit…
This is why there are so many different styles and training methodologies in Wing Chun, and yet they are all Wing Chun.
To less experienced students that are looking for, hoping for, guidance, secret knowledge, or perhaps a splash of special sauce, this could be a concern.
However, for more experienced students who know in their hearts that a punch is just a punch, this becomes a 2Ltr bottle of Special Sauce.
As I mentioned in the last post, there must have been a first-ever violent confrontation between two men, so whatever they did, even though it had never been done before, became normal human behaviour because it was being done without outside interference or coaching.
By normal human beings.
As simple as this sounds it is not not all plain sailing.
Even with our eyes wide open ‘Training’ can become a trap.
An invisible, imperceptible trap, that we build with nothing but good intentions.
It can become the antithesis of what we think it is.
None of us are safe from this, we are all prone to fall for this trap, even Instructors and Masters.
Come to think of it especially Instructors and Masters, at this level most practitioners have forgotten why they took up the training in the first place.
Avoidance is impossible so we need a key, a file in a Cake, or a get-out-of-jail-free card.
For Dr Leung Jan, who was only interested in finding a way out of his own trap, Wing Chun was that get-out-of-jail-free card.
But what do we use?
If learning and understanding Wing Chun has become the reason we train, Wing Chun has become the trap.
Perhaps we should stop reading the Kuen Kuit and start reading Hegel.
History teaches that people have never learned anything from history.
Georg Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel