EGO and COUNTER ATTACK.

The biggest challenge we all face is quietening the EGO.

I had another rewarding session with our senior students this morning, how can it not be rewarding to explore Wing Chun with other Master level practitioners?

I cannot physically teach Costas, George or Sam anything new, they have my knowledge, all I can do is hold up the mirror at a different angle than usual, this allows for a different perspective.

Human memory is fickle, if we are told 5 things, we remember one thing in every detail, another somewhat clearly, and then we forget the other three, this is just the way it is, and this is why we must revisit things.

Many times I said to my Sifu, “Why did you not tell me this earlier”? He would just laugh, because of course he had told me earlier, often MANY times.

In these situations, it is the conversations that we have that are important, somewhere, perhaps deep inside, the physical knowledge is sleeping, waiting to be rediscovered.

It should come as a surprise to nobody that our conversation revolved around Counter-Attack.

But as I said, the mirror was at an unusual angle.

The biggest challenge we all face is quietening the EGO.

By ‘EGO’ I am not talking about always choosing a shirt that is one size too tight, or trying not to look in the mirror while we are training, not even criticising trying to look good, these are minor, surface traits of EGO.

What I am alluding at is the fear of being hit, the fear of losing, in short, FEAR itself.

To use Frank Herberts litany against fear…

“I must not fear.
Fear is the mind-killer.
Fear is the little-death that brings total obliteration.
I will face my fear.
I will permit it to pass over me and through me.
And when it has gone past I will turn the inner eye to see its path.
Where the fear has gone there will be nothing”.

To successfully Counter Attack we must not FEAR being attacked.

Counterattack means inviting an attack, in its own way, this decision desensitises us to the fear of being attacked.

To the uninitiated, this will sound like industrial-level self-delusion, because no matter who we are, or even think we are, we all fear being attacked.

This is just another aspect of Mind Boxing.

I have told you guys many times that I cannot be taken to the ground, that there is no-one alive that can take me to the ground, and I assure you that I believe it, or more importantly that I have browbeaten my nervous system into believing it.

I am obviously wrong, but I am not self-delusional.

My rational is that when someone adopts a shape that tells me they intend to try to grapple me to the floor, my self-created belief will prevent my nervous system from trying to “Anti-Grapple” my attacker, something I am not trained in, and instead I will treat it as any other attack and punch the attacker in the head on the way in.

I could still get taken to the floor, but at least it will not be because of poor grappling skills.

Accepting that we are going to be hit, basing all of our training around being hit, is an absolute pre-requisite if we hope to effectively use Wing Chun.

Counter-Attack only manifests in the wake of an attack, accept it, move on, and then kick some ass.

Everything else is just fighting, and fighting is EGO.