CONCEPTS AND OTHER SPOOKY STUFF!

Nothing we do in training is what we are trying to learn.

I retired from the workforce in 2015, and the extra time that freed up allowed me to indulge in my favourite pastime of trying to better understand the ever-widening field of modern science.

With the head stuff such as General Relativity, the Quantum Sciences and Neurophysiology, and the body stuff like BioMechanics, Kinesiology and Sports Science, our access to information is astounding.

What has all this pseudo-study taught me?

Everything in the universe has changed since I left school in 1970.

Dai Sigung Ip Man died in 1972.

What we once thought to be carved in stone turned out to be written in sand.

Our understanding of the Human Condition is constantly changing, to stay in touch we need mental flexibility.

Especially once we start to talk of concepts, strategies or ideas.

Which is the very heart and soul of Wing Chun in a nutshell.

Without mental flexibility the best we can hope for is confusion.

Here is a good place to test that flexibility.

Nothing we do in training is what we are trying to learn.

????????????

What we are trying to learn is the thinking that brought about the things we do in training.

This is once more venturing into the non-physical aspect of our training, some of these things initially appear nonsensical, new thinking always does, but that’s O.K.

Given time they will change everything we do.

In the First Form we talk of a triangle bordered by our two arms with the apex rising from our sternum {this line very often gets mistakingly called the centerline} and a circle with ourselves in the centre, these are early concepts to aid us in exploring more refined and complex IDEAs, later on, the First Form is just the view from 30.000 feet, a Global IDEA made up of large brush strokes.

In Chum Kiu we see the IDEA of that one equilateral triangle split into 2 right-angle triangles with our 2 arms becoming the hypotenuse of each triangle and the apex of the previous triangle being the opposite side of this right-angle triangle.

The apex of these two triangles can move independently, when this happens it could be thought of as being anchored to the shoulder point and not the sternum point.

In Biu Gee, the extra rotation brought about by the manipulation of the shoulder girdle effectively turns these two triangles into cones.

If we take a slice through a cone we get a circle or disk, if we turn this circle/disk from horizontal to vertical and back we get the function of a Ball.

These are just concepts and thought exercises.

What is a Centreline?
A Centreline is a real or imaginary line through the centre of something, especially one following an axis of symmetry. for instance, a centreline of a body.

It cuts the body into two halves.

As nothing exists between ourselves and an opponent except space there can be no centreline between us as there is nothing to cut in half, thinking that there is a centreline between 2 people creates major problems when trying to deal with the more progressive ideas that populate Chum Kiu and Biu Gee.

I get it that all this talk of Physical and non-Physical is a bit whacky but the payoff can be huge, you will just need to trust me on this.

A finger pointing at the moon.

All difficult things have their origin in that which is easy, and great things in that which is small. 

Lao Tzu