EMPTY AND FULL.

The only constant is the concept of a DYNAMIC STRUCTURE.

WORKING ON FORM 2.

One of the claims we make about Wing Chun is that every move or shape can be used for defence or attack.

And this is correct.

As I have pointed out many times, defensive postures and structures are the opposite of attacking postures and structures: defence is soft, attack is hard, defence is passive, attack is dynamic, defence is reactive, attack is active- the list goes on.

Connected to disconnected, linked to delinked.

EMPTY AND FULL.

What I take away from this is that there is no ‘ONE WAY’ to do anything in Wing Chun, which means there is no sweet spot; everything is on a sliding scale.

We use different shapes and postures to deal with tall people than we do with short people, heavy people or light people; there is no one size fits all.

Personal experience of violence confirms this: no two violent incidents are the same, and as such the way to deal with them is likewise not the same.

The only constant is the concept of a DYNAMIC STRUCTURE.

Working on Forms is working on a DYNAMIC STRUCTURE.

But there is a problem here: how can we work on ‘DYNAMIC STRUCTURE’ in a PASSIVE  environment where the ‘STRUCTURE’  is not being tested?

STRUCTURE is both manufactured and maintained by tension, minimum tension to be sure, but tension nonetheless.

Resistance training is a way of understanding how much tension, understanding the parameters of what is too little, and what is too much.

Before we can begin working on how much Tension, we must understand what Tension is and understand at what point acceptable tension, the natural amount required to maintain any structure, becomes unacceptable tension, which creates blockages and misalignments.

This is a sliding scale from Spaghetti Arms to turning green and becoming the Incredible Hulk.

How can we find the Goldilocks zone if we do not know where the opposite ends are?

Where this becomes confusing is when we use descriptions such as empty the arm, or open the joint, or release the tension, even worse when we are told to just RELAX.

The simple act of creating energy causes tension.

This is the role of solo forms training: to be able to turn a word we may not fully understand into a picture we recognise and can move forward with.