The most difficult thing to accept and the steepest learning curve is to ‘NOT’ try to prevent someone from hitting us.
We develop the use and understanding of the Shield Arm, like so many other aspects of Wing Chun through Chi Sau.
Or to be more precise and correct through the thoughtful engagement with an opponent in Chi Sau while operating with the knowledge that Chi Sau itself is a practice from Chum Kiu.
As seductive as the idea of osmosis is we should not place any faith in it, a reality in every walk of life is that ‘People without questions rarely find answers’, just playing Chi Sau will not deliver an understanding of the Shield Arm unless we are actively looking to understand the Shield Arm and using Chi Sau as the means to that end, unless we can manifest the IDEA of the Shield no amount of Chum Kiu will teach us how to move it.
The most difficult thing to accept and the steepest learning curve is to ‘NOT’ try to prevent someone from hitting us.
That is Defending.
Wing Chun Counter Attacks.
The Shield is there to stop the Bad Guy hitting us, it is not used to try to hit the Bad Guy, the only time a shield was used to hit the opponent was once knights started to wear plate armour that could resist sword cuts, then the damage came from being knocked down crashing about inside a metal suit, a bit like a car crash, not from the shield bash.
I mentioned that in all probability we will need to bring about the transition from the initial chaos of contact to a position where we can implement our Counter Attack philosophy, this does require physical use of the shield, but not by attacking.
Using the Shield to make the space to transition from the initial chaos of the first encounter to phase #2 is about using our own force or energy to move us to a safer place by using the opponent as an anchor, it is not about trying to move them to better position to attack them, that is not to say that we could not or should not do that, it would just not be considered ‘Counter Attacking’, it would be diametrically opposed to this philosophy.
Once we are in a safer place the Bad Guy is once again invited to attack us.
Philosophies should be guides, not dogma, this is the deep philosophy behind Wing Chun, the deep philosophy behind our training.
Theory and reality are not in anyway similar, in reality if we find ourselves in a violent situation anything goes, if it works it was the correct choice.
Over the years quite a few people of accused me of trying to re invent the wheel with the way I approach Wing Chun, my usual reply is that people accused John Dunlop and Charles Goodyear of the same thing when they introduced the pneumatic tyre, it is incorrect to imply that I am involved in reinventing the wheel, It would be a lot more accurate to say that I am trying to upgrade the suspension.
Wing Chun Sydney, Australia 