There are no second goes or makeovers in a street situation.
Where or how does the non-physical interconnect or interact with the physical?
On many occasions, you guys have heard me say that training is just software.
To better draw this picture think of complex programs like Photoshop or Illustrator, they can take months to get the basics down and then every few years there comes along an upgrade {we could think of them as gradings or belts}, that require a whole new truck-load of effort to get back to competency.
Here is the thing, if we put all of our effort and capacity into understanding and internalising the program, the only thing we will know is the program, and the only thing we will be capable of doing is teaching other people how to use the program.
Hence the saying…
Those that can, do…
Those who can’t do… teach.
In a martial art like Wing Chun that has almost zero force-on-force training knowing how to navigate this conundrum is vital.
Humans are social creatures and Wing Chun schools are social places, cliques and friendly groups form as if by magic, and we always seem to train with the same handful of people.
So much so that the first half hour of training is not really training at all, it is a form of socialising.
As I say, we humans are social creatures, training becomes a somewhat social event, and as such training becomes a form of social behavior.
Same time, same place, same people, and the same training.
You know the thinking, if it is Thursday, it must be Kung Fu.
Add to this that what we call the work is learned and practiced in a social environment.
It becomes a social event.
Violence is the antithesis of a social event.
It is anti-social in the extreme.
So the challenge we face is not how to excel at the training, but more how to use what have become ‘social mores’ { ‘mores’ are social norms that are widely observed within a particular society or culture} in an anti-social environment.
If we find ourselves in a violent situation, whatever we choose to do MUST work on the first time of calling it up.
There are no second goes or makeovers in a street situation.
This in itself causes a dilemma, how do we bridge this shortfall in our training without descending into a ‘Fight Club’?
The place to start the change is to place more importance on the result than the action, essentially know what you want to happen when you use a specific aspect of training and then ‘make it happen’.
Another good habit is to stop telling ourselves we got it right if it was our third attempt, if we are in a “REAL” situation that needs that specific aspect of our training we MUST get it right on the first attempt.
Training is software, we are the hardware and the shit we are in is simply a problem to be solved by the hardware using the software.
But like any computer.
G.I.G.O.
THE EDGE, TO BE HONEST, THE ONLY PEOPLE WHO KNOW WHERE IT IS HAVE ALREADY GONE OVER.
HUNTER. S. THOMPSON.
Wing Chun Sydney, Australia 