It is just us doing some stuff by using our ‘Body’.
Monday evening I was hosting a small group session with Kunal and Rick.
Kunal has only just returned since the beginning of the lockdowns so there was a good deal of chatter and updating going on.
While trying to explain my “Only one body, only one movement, only one thought” IDEA, Kunal had a lightbulb moment.
He said…
“It is like if I made 12 models of myself in different positions, squatting, lunging, throwing a ball and that kind of stuff when people who knew me saw one of the models, a different model for each person, they would say there is a model of Kunal.
They would not say there is a model of Kunal lunging or squatting or throwing a ball”.
They would see me because every model was me, always the same ‘Body’ doing the different things”.
Mr K. Nailed it.
At first, this does not sit right in our head but this is something to engage with, to think deeply about.
Whatever position we are in, whatever shape we adopt or whatever action we are involved in we are doing it with the same Body.
Our Body is always just our Body if we are standing up, laying down, running up a hill or falling off of a chair.
The shape of our ‘Body’ is always the same no matter what we are doing.
Body shaped.
Thinking that we need to relate to our bodies differently in different situations is a trap that many students fall for, with no understanding of why or where that idea came from.
It most certainly does not come from me.
As I said, Kunal nailed it.
It is just us doing some stuff by using our ‘Body’.
Once we understand how our ‘Body’ operates, we instantly and effortlessly adapt it to different needs without any apparent conscious input.
If we are playing a game that requires us to pass someone a ball to begin, if they are close it is simply ‘here you go’ from our hand to theirs.
If they are a metre or two away it is a soft and gentle loop, if they are four or five metres from us it is an overhand throw.
No need to think, just ‘pass f***ing the ball’.
How does this happen?
Because we all know that it does happen.
Why did we not need to make deliberate changes to our body shape or our thinking and strategy to make the different actions?
Just as in the last video, I got Knunal and Rick to walk around the room keeping a ball balanced on the back of their hand.
Easy.
They even started doing a little jig without dropping the ball.
No overt thinking is involved.
Just a clear, simple, intention.
Nothing we do in training is trying to teach us Wing Chun.
It is trying to help us organise our thinking and movement into a coherent whole.
Once we see this it is simply a case of moving the Bad Guy’s hand out of the way and hitting him.
I hear you ask.
How do we move the Bad Guy’s hand away?
My answer.
How do we open a door?
Bring this up next time you train and perhaps you will have a lightbulb moment.
The WORK then becomes ‘how do we keep the light on’?
WHEN YOU UNDERSTAND, THINGS ARE UST THE WAY THEY ARE.
WHEN YOU DO NOT UNDERSTAND, THINGS ARE JUST THE WAY THEY ARE.
ZEN PROVERB.
Wing Chun Sydney, Australia 