Wing Chun Sydney, Australia

 

At the moment we begin thinking we stop paying attention.

 

What is Solo Training?

At its most obvious it is training on our own, our own space, our own time, agenda and intentions.

In the Martial Arts solo participation in a Form provides us with the tools to approach our training on an even footing, to see it as it is and not as how we think it is or might be told it is.

This is the main purpose of all Forms, they achieve different reasons later but initially, it is this.     Objectivity.

The ultimate expression of any Art, Martial or otherwise, is to become one with it, lose one’s identity and become the thing we do.

But there is a paradox afoot here, doing is not being, in fact doing prevents being.

‘Doing’ requires thinking, ‘Being’ requires attention.

At the moment we begin thinking we stop paying attention.

We arrive at an awkward situation, once we start to actively do the Form, in a certain manner, to a certain pattern, once we begin to follow the instruction we enter the world of the subjective, and just like that {imaginary snap of the fingers}, doing the Form becomes a contradiction of the reason we are doing the Form in the first place.     Objectivity.

However, if we can explore the space between the contradictions of being and doing we can learn, or perhaps it would be more accurate to say discover, how to become creative ‘in the moment’, how to turn something that is on the surface quite useless, such as a Form, into a useable and powerful action.

The key is ‘Intention’.

But in this context what is ‘Intention’?

If we think of causality then Intention is the effect.

This is a mental game, not a physical game, and it can be a real head spin, the effect is the thing we achieve with the being state, not the doing state.

How do we transition from doing to being to effect?

Once we are working in the realm of different mental states it does not need to be bounded by any limitations that our Martial Art may require stylistically.

This means we do not need the Form to understand the Form, and by extension, once we reach this understanding we no longer have any reason to physically do the Form.

Go ask Alice, I think she’ll know.

In the last 50 years, there has been remarkable progress in the fields such as neurobiology, psychology, psychoneuromuscular theory and even technology through A.I. and machine learning that gives us a very different explanation of how we do stuff.

My own experience with this began in the late 1970s with Timothy Gallwey’s ‘The Inner Game of Tennis’ and in the early 1980’s Sybervisions Tennis and Golf psychoneuromuscular training systems and it is why to this day I approach things via sports.

In particular, Gallwey’s book could very well be ‘The Inner Game of S.L.T.’

If you are one of the many people that spend a large amount of time doing the Form there is a very real chance that you are working against yourself.

You may not be, but the recent findings in the applied fields of human behavior would suggest that more than likely you are.

Don’t panic, this is not a dead-end, but it will require a change in direction, or at least a major change in thinking because it does not matter what we are doing physically, what style or shape, fast or slow, you can safely keep the old body patterns.

This post is about Solo Training, and about changing our thinking, a good place to start is to ask ourselves a few questions, there is no right or wrong answer the purpose is simply to put a pin in the map and see where we are.

Q. What is the Goal of Solo Training?

Q. Do we know why we are doing this?

Q. Can Solo Training exist in a group situation?

Q. Can it be realistically thought of as Solo Training if we are in a room full of people doing the same thing?

Q. Why train on our own if we can have a partner help us?

Q. If we are in a group situation why not use the group?

Q. Can Solo Training teach applied techniques or practical applications?

Q. If not what do we expect to learn?

 

Sometimes we see more clearly when we look at things from an alien perspective, such as looking at out training through the lens of economics.

 

The economics of Solo Training.

Q. What is the cost against the returns?

Q. Do I take out more than I put in?

Q. What’s in it for me?

Q. When do I expect a return on my investment?

 

This is a big area to explore, I will come back to it later on.

 

WORK ON YOUR WEAKNESSES, PLAY TO YOUR STRENGTHS.

 

 

We cannot find something that is not there.

 

Why is it that different schools, different lineages even different teachers think so differently about the Wing Chun Form?

Why is there no overall consensus on what the Form is all about?

The issue, if we consider it an issue, is not with the different schools, lineages or teachers but to be expected is with ourselves.

Each individual student.

Q. What can we expect to get from practicing the Wing Chun Form?

A. We can expect to get the same thing as we would from any empty vessel.

We can only take away what we put in.

If you want softness and relaxation then you must put in softness and relaxation.

If you want strength and speed then you must put in strength and speed.

If you want to observe balance and stability you must put in balance and stability.

We cannot find something that is not there.

How could it possibly be any other way, that would require magic or at least the intervention of an outside magical force?

As always I like to relate all things Wing Chun to sports and sports training.

Today I choose Tennis.

If we have an important game coming up in a couple of months we decide to prepare for it by 6 weeks of daily, intensive training.

But imagine if all we train is our forehand, what do we think will happen to our backhand?

If we train nothing but groundstrokes from the baseline, what do we think will happen to our volleying or dinking?

If all of our training is with a Ball Machine set to the same speed/force always into the same corner of the court how will we learn to cope with rythm changes and speed changes, drop shots or lobs?

And during all this time the most important shot of all, our service, is going to the dogs due to lack of use.

It is foolish to think we can engage in one aspect of training and yet learn something completely different.

What many students expect to get from the Form is at best unrealistic, most, if they think about results at all, expect to get multiple benefits from a single action.

Where else in life does this happen?

If you know please leave a comment, we will all benefit from such information.

We can take away only what we put in.

We have been hearing a variation of this since we were kids, but what does it mean?

Most of us, and I have most certainly been guilty of this in the past, think it just means more effort, longer hours, to engage more attention to the subject at hand, to get a better teacher.

None of the above have anything to do with what we put in, only how we put it in.

If I was to ask you to go into the forest and find me a Rana Caerulea the very first thing you would do was find out what the hell it was.

No one would just trot off into the forest hoping that somehow they would stumble upon it.

But that is exactly what most people do with the Form.

We can take away only what we put in means that we must know what we are looking for.

As with all training, a good place to start is to seek advice from someone skilled, but no matter who that person is they can only tell you what they were looking for, tell you what they found.

What I put into my Forms today has nothing in common with the things I put in to get me here, where is the value in describing the destination without pointing out the path?

‘Intention’ is a nebulous word, hard to pin down to a single IDEA but that is what we put into our Forms, this is not a ‘get out of jail free’ card, a one size fits all type of answer, it leads to other questions such as what is Intention? What are you Intending to do as you practice your Form?

What are you putting in?

Many years ago I was diligently practicing my First Form at my Sifu’s school, I knew he was watching so I put in extra effort, applied more focus, engaged more attention.

Sifu came across to me, watched as I played Tarn Sau and asked ‘What are your feet doing right now’?

He knew by my blank expression that I did not know what my feet were doing.

‘Why would you expect that Tarn Sau to be effective if you do not know where your feet are, what they are doing or how they relate to the rest of your body’?

We tend to think that wisdom and knowledge arrive like a flash of lightning out of a clear blue sky, the reality is that wisdom and knowledge are a hole in the ground that we accidentally fall into while walking in the dark.

What we need is a flashlight.

 

 

 

There are some CONCEPTS in Wing Chun that that require us to use different mindsets, wear different hats, different levels of thinking

 

WING CHUN is a counter-attacking fighting style, we believe that to strike first is to show our hand, and in doing so to open ourselves up to our opponent’s counter-attack, we stand, we wait, we watch, we see him begin something then we end him.

It is a very sound system that has been proven effective time after time in real-world situations.

There is also a mass of real-world empirical evidence that points to preemptive strikes predominantly leading to a successful outcome.

If we are certain that violence is going to happen do we stand and wait or do we act preemptively?

To effectively use counter-attack we engage our senses to observe any indicators of an incoming strike. Once a trigger is noticed, primarily at a subconscious level, we act.

To effectively use a preemptive strike we engage our senses, usually at a conscious level, to observe any targets of opportunity, openings we can exploit to land a blow. Once an opening is noticed we strike through.

We cannot effectively do both at once, look for openings as we scan for attack indicators, they use different parts of the Brain, different Mindsets, different levels of interaction, conscious, subconscious.

It is like playing Rugby, a ball is coming my way, so is the opposing sides defender, do I catch the ball and run or do I catch the ball and pass?

If I wait to decide until I have the ball I will be flattened.

Escaping violent situations is not really about what style we use, what technique we employ or how good we are at fighting, it is about making good decisions on time.

There are some CONCEPTS in Wing Chun that that require us to use different mindsets, wear different hats, different levels of thinking, in some cases they are contradictory, when jointly engaged they just neutralise each other.

Attacking uses a different mindset to Defending, different focus, different goals, positive and negative, matter and antimatter.

As a concept, ‘Simultaneous Attack and Defense’ is an enticing theory, one that is easy to make happen in a controlled environment, seductive.

But it is a duality.

Violence is a singularity.

 

TRAIN YOUR WEAKNESSES, WORK TO YOUR STRENGTHS.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

My approach is Kung Fu first, Qi Kung second, this often puts me at odds with my old training friends.

Wing Chun is a concept-driven Martial Art, and this is the core of most disagreements amongst the different practitioners, we all interpret the concepts differently.

Despite the overwhelming disagreements, I do not think any would argue that there are two main approaches and these approaches depend on whether a person is doing WingChun as a Qi Kung or doing Wing Chun as a Kung Fu.

Ultimately both approaches are needed if we wish to be truly effective.

The majority of the people I know, who are from the Choy Shung Tin – Jim Fung lineage approach the work mainly from the perspective of Qi Kung, establishing the ‘condition’ to do the work of Kung Fu.

There is absolutely nothing wrong with this approach, all roads lead to Rome, as long as somewhere along the line they start learning how to use that ‘condition’.

It is not possible to have good Kung Fu without Qi Kung, but it is all too common these days to have good Qi Kung that has no Kung Fu.

Qi Kung is not Kung Fu.

When doing a Form from the perspective of Qi Kung the awareness and intention should be a whole-body awareness,  easy comfortable movement with no predetermined use, releasing tension, opening the joints to let the energy move freely.

When doing a Form for Kung Fu it must be almost the opposite, the awareness needs to be singular, direct, focused, we must ask ourselves what are we trying to do here? Where is the work being done?  What is powering the work?

My approach is Kung Fu first, Qi Kung second, this often puts me at odds with my old training friends.

Because of this perspective what I believe to be the most important of the Wing Chun Forms and the one that I would recommend spending more time on is not as many think the First Form but is, in fact, the Fourth Form, the Mok Jan Jong or Wooden Dummy.

Each of the first three forms brings us to part of the total information that we can then work on uniting through the practice of the Dummy, Knives, and Pole, however only the Dummy works as a hands-on solo training that allows us to explore possible combinations of the various movements and ideas introduced in the first three Forms with tactile resistance.

The Jong makes it very clear that the two most important things to be comfortable with, are time and space.

The time to do the work and the space to do the work, without this control everything goes out of the window, only the dummy gives us this aspect of training, everything else is little more than imaginary training, and is only of use in imaginary fighting.

Working on the Dummy is working on all of the previous Forms in a compounded and more practical way, this is, in fact, the raison d’être of the Dummy.

To understand and benefit from the Dummy it is critical that we abandon all fantasy,  50% of the moves in the Dummy Form are wrong and the other half are useless, it is a training aid that helps us understand ourselves and how we move, how to accept force and issue force, it is not a sparring partner.

Before we can have any hope of gaining benefit from the Dummy we must understand the working or core aspects of the first three Forms, and have at least a basic understanding of how to combine them.

From the perspective of Kung Fu, not Qi Kung.

How do we know if we are doing Kung Fu or if we are doing Qi Kung?

If it is just you doing a Form it is Qi Kung, if you are not hitting something, it is Qi Kung, if you are not moving dynamically, it is Qi Kung.

As I said earlier, there is absolutely nothing wrong with this approach, in fact, it is an essential ingredient, the problem arises when someone is training Chi Kung while thinking that they are training Kung Fu.

Qi Kung is not Kung Fu.

 

Work on your weaknesses, play to your strengths.

 

 

A very simple Bomb, a very powerful Bomb.

 

A while back I asked ‘what is the pointy end of your Wing Chun training’?

The pointy end referring to the aspect that delivers the pay off to all of the training that has been done, the why and the how made into one corporeal expression.

To show where I am coming from with this, to guide our thinking in the correct direction I have created an allegory or if you wish a parable.

 

 

There were two countries locked in a war that appeared to have no end, every move was countered every battle ultimately ground to a stalemate, no end was in sight.

It was decided to build a giant bomb and drop it on the enemy capital finishing the war at one stroke.

A Factory was built, the most modern Factory imagined, fully automated, carbon-neutral, the best and brightest scientist were assembled, cutting edge tech invented and the Bomb was created.

A very simple Bomb, a very powerful Bomb.

Even though there was no other factory anywhere in the world equal to this factory, it existed for one purpose and one purpose only.

To build the Bomb.

As the Factory was under construction a tunnel was dug from the Factory to the airfield, the tunnel was secret, safe and the track was a Magnetic Levitation system that could transport the Bomb safely with no chance of fire.

No tunnel of this kind existed anywhere else on the planet and the Mag-Lev system was the first of its kind, but this was unimportant, its only reason for existence was to transport the Bomb.

At the Airfield a new prototype Carbon Fibre Stealth Bomber awaited, it was completely undetectable to all known scanning technology, it was fully autonomous and capable of reaching speeds of Mach 8, there was no equal to this plane.

Without the Bomb, this plane would have never been built.

Looking backward at everyone that had been involved in the project, in all the support, all the innovation all the progress and sheer audacity it all came into being only for the Bomb.

Years later when the war was long over and the world was at peace people only spoke about the Bomb.

 

Aligning this with Wing Chun training what is our Bomb?

What is our Factory, our MagLev Train, our U.A.V. Bomber Drone?

Just for the sake of this conversation let us nominate the First Form to be the Factory, it could, of course, be anything or even a combination of things, a piece of the First Form, a slice of Chi Sau and a pinch of something else.

Is the way you do the First Form capable of creating your ‘Bomb”?

Delivering the Bomb to the airfield is pretty much what Chum Kiu is all about.

Dropping the Bomb could be the IDEAS formulated in Biu Gee.

In training, we can focus on the three different stages, build it, deliver it, drop it. This not only helps to understand transitioning but can lend an air of semi-reality to the movement.

The most important thing is to understand that even though we have a fantastic Factory, even though we have a cutting edge Maglev system, and even though our Drone is the most hi-tech and advanced when push comes to shove it is all and only about the Bomb.

 

Train up your weaknesses, work to your strengths.