THINK IT, SEE IT, BUILD IT, BE IT.

Expert level performance is as much about internal communication as it is about external movement.

I know that this hot on the heels of yesterday’s post but I wanted to address something before I became distracted and forgot about it.

FORMS AS A MEMORY FUNCTION

Something that is not in our face and as such often overlooked is that FORMS are also DRILLS.

We repeat the same set of movements over and again to “GROOVE” that action.

Performing a perfect movement may appear to be a physical thing but in reality all movement is a product of our thinking, an output from our C.P.U.

Our Brain.

Expert level performance is as much about internal communication as it is about external movement.

Think – send the memo – move.

Understanding the movement that we wish to perform is essential if we hold any hope of doing it correctly.

There are great gains to be had when we use our FORMS as a drill to aid and enhance our memory.

When I was quite serious about playing tennis I would spend hours working on just my service action, as a result my serve rarely let me down in matches when the pressure was on.

There is no difference between a body playing tennis and a body doing Kung Fu, or a body fighting.

This may sound a bit like compu-tech babble but better memory equates to higher competancy rates and better completion rates, vital stats in a violent encounter.

PHASE 2 [this is just a wee bit weird].

A deeply important aspect of FORMS training is that we are quite literally building a new person, and building a new universe for that person to operate in complete with new rules and new expectations.

This Universe is the Chum Kiu / Biu Gee Universe, if it helps in any way think of it like the ‘Marvel Universe’ and we are developing a new character to go help save the world.

This is not as ‘OUT THERE’ as it may sound, we have no REAL proof that we exist in this universe.

If we are training our Wing Chun for practical competency in fighting, which is of course the only goal to train for, the end game is to arrive at a predictable, repeatable, powerful, correct position and ‘physical end-state’.

It is all and only about the ‘END GAME’!

Do I hear you ask why?

Because where we begin any action will not be in our control as our action will be a response to an oponents action.

This is called ‘Counter Attacking’, wait a minute, that sounds a lot like Wing Chun.

And as such all of our training is about achieving the desired ‘end state‘ on the fly.

The SHAPE THAT WORKS.

In the place it works best.

As I frequently mention we need to be capable of thinking flexibly, of performing some at times tricky bits of mental gymnastics

It is an absolute ‘No Brainer’ that if we expect our training to work when we are in a perilous environment, then that environment needs to reflect, as much as possible, our training environment.

Most students shy away from even considering this.

But in reality, this is where the rubber meets the road.

MENTAL GYMNASTIC #1.

There is no way on Earth that the environment we find ourselves in will reflect the environment we trained in.

The task becomes being the same person doing the same thing in these diverse environments.

That Marvel Hero, doing marvelous things, in ‘our own’ marvelous universe.

MENTAL GYMNASTIC #2.

“The only way that we can live is if we grow.

The only way we can grow is if we change.

The only way we can change is if we learn.

The only way we can learn is if we are exposed.

And the only way that we are exposed is if we throw ourselves into the open.” — C. Joybell