BODY INTEGRITY AND OTHER SEXY STUFF.

We could ask ‘How long is a piece of string”?

 If we simplify wing Chun the training objective is to minimise incoming force while maximising outgoing force.

This is a game of opposites, accept incoming force with cotton and issue force with steel.

All techniques and strategies pay fealty to this IDEA.

Our concepts are suggestions and not directions, this leaves a great deal of room for interpretation, adlib, and creativity, but it also leaves us open to misunderstandings and working against ourselves.

One concept, ‘Wing Chun does not use Hard Blocking’ is a potential misunderstanding.

What is a ‘Hard Block’?

We could ask ‘How long is a piece of string”?

So what is a Hard Block?  A ‘Hard Block’ is a clash of Arms.

Question.

Is there a time and place of contact where we move from Soft Block to Medium Block? 

Or a transition from Medium Block to Hard Block?

The term ‘Hard’ is an infinitely variable metric that can never be in the same place on two successive instances or be the same quality or amount of HARDNESS for two different people.

Blocking is contact, and contact is a clash.

And clashing invokes the Law of Action/Reaction.

It is a shared event that is determined by two separate sides.

We need to re-explain this Concept as Wing Chun does not Clash with our opponent’s Arms.

One of the most overused cliches in Martial Arts is that of building a House.

When building a house, there are hierarchies that if avoided or approached out of order the task becomes infinitely more challenging.

We could for instance begin by building a roof, then suspend it and build walls down from that roof.

There is no getting away from the fact that a house is made of a roof, walls and a floor, eventually, we need to create all of these to have a house.

Conventional wisdom, and more than likely experience, favours building a slab, erecting walls, and then adding a roof. 

Learning Wing Chun is just like building a House.

We can work on and learn the Forms in any order we choose, but some ways are easier than others.

As wildly confusing as it may sound approaching Wing Chun as a Martial Art in a physical sense is beginning by moving in the wrong direction.

It is not possible to learn the truth of Wing Chun by studying shapes and movements alone, the shapes and movements that are most commonly used are, in all truth, shapes and movements taken from other styles that were popular at the time.

We could just as well use any known style.

Shapes and movements are important, but as keys and not as weapons.

The shapes and movements open doors upon practices that refine and improve those same shapes and movements.

I genuinely believe that we could begin our study of Wing Chun with any of the  Wing Chun Forms, even including the Mom Jan Jong, but just like the house, it is easier if we start with a good foundation.

This foundation is what I refer to as ‘CRAZY HORSE’, a device to hang the clothes known as Sil Lim Tao, Chum Kiu, Biu Gee and Mok Jan Jong on.

Once we have developed ‘CRAZY HORSE’ we could well start with Bill Gee.

But staying with the house-building analogy for a moment, to achieve good foundations it is vital that we build on solid ground.

The ‘solid ground, that we build on in Wing Chun is a previously learned skill set.

If we do not have a previously learned skill set then it stands to reason that we first must develop one.

The physical aspect of Wing Chun training, the aspect that so many people, especially YouTubers, think is what makes up Wing Chun, you know, the making contact bit, is nothing more than the setting up of solid ground to put our foundations on.

The real work begins once we have shapes we trust, once we have an effective way of moving.

In short, the real work begins once we know how to fight.

The video below quickly became longer than I intended so I will cover the manifestation of weight and how to use it at a later date, it is a really interesting and powerful topic which is relatively easy to grasp.

Be aware that he audio volume of the following clip is overly loud so do yourself a favour and lower the volume before clicking play.

NOTHING HAPPENS UNTIL SOMETHING MOVES.

ALBERT EINSTEIN.