PLATEAUS.

The old map has been shattered and the discomfort comes from the delay in the delivery of the new map.

I was working with William, one of my students, this evening, he has been with me for several years and his progress makes me think that I might just be a decent teacher.

He is at the Chum Kiu – Bill Gee cusp.

However, he finds himself frustrated, not making any significant progress, finding everything foggy, confusing.

The dreaded PLATEAU.

Not just a normal Plateau, but the ‘Beast’, the mother of all Plateaus that seems to stretch beyond every horizon.

In the fiercely formated Japanese Arts, this stage is called ‘Brown Belt’.

We have all been there.

Not everyone came home.

For many, a Plateau is where ‘that thing they love’ starts to lose its magic and within a year or so they have walked away.

This stinks of snatching defeat from the jaws of victory.

A Plateau, as uncomfortable as they are, is an indication of an incoming paradigm shift.

A lightbulb moment.

The old map has been shattered and the discomfort comes from the delay in the delivery of the new map.

Sometimes, only sometimes, but for sure this time, the best course of action is inaction.

 Settle in, settle down, be still and let the universe change around you.

Instead of thinking that somehow we can change the universe.

You all know my love of cheesy maxims…

“You cannot push the river”.

During the course of the evening, the training prompted William to ask…

“Do you think that my mindset is attack influenced or defence influenced, which one works best”?

This is a great question that we should all address.

But address it just like Frank, in our own way.

There are always and only personal answers to these type of questions.

My ‘two bobs’ worth was that the appropriate answer will present itself if we treat our opponent with respect.

If we respect our opponents’ ability to hurt us then it is a no-brainer that we initially adopt a defence influenced mindset.

If it turns out that we have overestimated our opponent, perhaps paid them too much respect, we can simply change our opinion and fix the problem.

If we have no respect for our opponent it becomes a game of chance, 50/50, this is and never has been the Wing Chun Way.

The challenge that I see a great many Wing Chun people struggling with is understanding exactly what a ‘Counter-Attacking’ mindset IS.

If we do not understand it how can we be expected to adopt it?

Who we are never changes through our whole life time.

Who we think we are changes every Day!