HOW DO YOU SPELL THAT?

This is how Wing Chun is usually taught, the way I was taught, the old way, perhaps the wrong way.

I have a small number of private students that train with me to achieve specific goals, not just the blanket IDEA of “I want to learn Wing Chun”.

This suits me fine as I position myself to fill the role of a coach a lot more than I position myself as a Sifu or whatever honorific we may use.

My job is to help the student get the most they can from the information I give them, to help them think, and hopefully to help them think in a different direction when thinking of Self-Defence in general and Wing Chun in particular.

I do this by understanding what the student wants but seeing it from the vantage point of what the student can do at this point and then try to carve a specific path for each student to achieve their aims in an acceptable timeframe.

I do not just turn my brain off and teach/mime the Sil Lim Tao.

This is how Wing Chun is usually taught, the way I was taught, the old way, perhaps the wrong way.

I still use Forms as a teaching aid, but that is all, they can help us traverse blockages and illuminate homework but they are not important, at least not to the extent that they were impressed upon me, and most certainly not in the numerical order they were presented to me.

6 should be 1.

The core of Wing Chun is an IDEA, that is what everyone that is anyone tells us.

I agree with this completely, as a result, this is how I approach the work, trying to teach the IDEA, only using Forms if words are falling short, which occasionally they do.

What is the Siu Nim Tao Form?

The Sil Lim Tao Form, {the whole Form that includes C.K. & B.G}. Is a way of organising all the relevant body movements that we would use to express our style in a way that is easy to store to and retrieve from memory.

It is not a sacred dance.

It is a hard drive.

The Sil Lim Tao Form is a vehicle that if we are simply honest with ourselves allows us to make a series of self-discoveries about how the human body works and how we can use it.

Or become aware of how we were misusing it previously.

Self-discoveries are personal, we may, indeed will all make different discoveries, they will still be Wing Chun despite their differences.

It should come as no surprise that I have an opinion of what the first section of the Sil Lim Tao Form {the bit that retains the name S.L.T} is all about and what it brings to the system on a fundamental level.

What is the IDEA behind the {first section of the} Siu Nim Tao Form?

The first section of the S.L.T. is about establishing and understanding the IDEA of NEUTRALITY.

Before we embark on any physical exploration I start by introducing this IDEA as something to get our head around and fill it out with sections of the cosmetic/physical movements that make up the Form.

What is the IDEA of the Chum Kiu Form?

The Chum Kiu introduces ideological and philosophical ideas that define the style like nothing else, it introduces the IDEA of ACTIVITY, as a Martial Art the activity this refers to is fighting.

How to – when to.

For whatever reasons these ideas were never seriously broached in my Sifu’s school, the Form was presented as just another rung on a long ladder.

Chum Kiu is not part of a progression, Wing Chun is a system, a whole, there are no parts.

Any grading system or standardised progression is nothing more than a financial/business-minded decision, not an effort to advance Wing Chun as genuine Martial Art, thankfully the immense value of Chum Kiu is self-evident.

What is the IDEA of the Biu Gee Form?

Biu Gee is often represented, quite disingenuously, as an advanced/secret information Form, this is the money path.

There is no Bigger, Better, Stronger in Wing Chun, but there is faster.

Biu Gee introduces variations on moves already introduced but delivered ballistically. Biu Gee introduces the IDEA of DYNAMISM.

Do their FORM movements spell out that IDEA?

NEUTRALITY, ACTIVITY, DYNAMISM.

For me, the answer is YES.
And it is spelt out clearly.

But as with all spelling, understanding is determined by how well we read.

KNOWLEDGE IS GAINED BY ADDING SOMETHING EVERYDAY.

WISDOM IS GAINED BY REMOVING SOMETHING EVERYDAY.