THE AMBIGUITY IS IN THE BOX.

 

Simultaneous attack and defence is Wing Chun’s version of the “Schroedinger’s Cat” paradox.

 

Training is very different due to COVID 19 and the ensuing restrictions such as social distancing and limited personal contact, but as strange as things are I genuinely believe that looking back in a few years time the people that stayed engaged with their training will see this period as a great leap forwards.

At the moment our training has more words in it than kicks and punches.

Words are the tool we use to paint pictures in our mind that our brain relaxes in front of and studies.

These pictures can be fine, accurate and detailed, or they can be vague, abstract and suggestive but either way, it is up to each of us to return to them, again and again, to see if there is anything more we can glean from them.

I make an annual sojourn to the National Gallery down in Canberra to spend some time sitting in front of the Jackson Pollock artwork “Blue Poles”.

When I leave the gallery the world is a different place, or more accurately I am a different person.

Art changes how we view the natural world, a Martial Art changes how we view the martial world.

Geof Koons said that Art manifests in the fuzzy space between the artwork and the observer.

Accordingly, a Martial Art manifests in the fuzzy space between the attacker and the defender?

Simultaneous attack and defence is Wing Chun’s version of the  “Schroedinger’s Cat” paradox.

It only exists in the box we call drills such as Chi Sau, 4 corners and the like.

Once we open the box and reality presents itself it becomes one or the other.

It can never be both.

As a concept, SA&D is a powerful tool to dig deeper into what we do and how we do it, but it is just a concept.

We have been spending the last few weeks exploring the dubious world of attacking and defending, or as we like to think of it, issuing and accepting force.

The final analysis is that it is a myth.

 

 

This is not doom and gloom in any shape or form, as per usual we can find equivalencies in sport.

There are Table Tennis players that are described as aggressive and then there are Table Tennis players that are described as defensive, defensive players win by returning/using their opponents force not by creating/using force.

As we all know Wing Chun is a concept-driven Martial Art, having more time to ponder these concepts can never be a bad thing.

The issue is always language.

Or how we perceive language, and by extension communication.

Which of course aligns with how we perceive concepts.

The concept changes completely if we simply change the position of the words without changing the words themselves.

Issue the force.

Force the issue.

Very different stories.

Simultaneous attack and defence.

Simultaneous defence and attack.

Very different stories.

Accept force and issue force.

Let’s play with this and see where it takes us.

 

WORK ON YOUR WEAKNESS’.

PLAY TO YOUR STRENGTH.