Author: The "D" Man

This aspect of the training is where some people get confused or threatened and think that we are drifting into pseudo-spirituality.

I am still working on the E-book, but to be honest sometimes I am happier just posting.

EXPLAINING THINGS TO OURSELVES and the little idea.

There is a non-physical side to what we do, we need the physical aspect to be established before we embark on this, but we should briefly mention the non-physical here to get us ready.

Developing our power is 100% in the Mind, consciousness is not an option, if we are awake we are aware, conscious power is everyday power. 

Developing our subconscious power is less automatic, we reach it through consistent, deliberate practice.  

The key to developing our self-image is positive self-talk.  

This is nothing new, every self-help guru on the Internet will tell you the same thing.

This aspect of the training is where some people get confused or threatened and think that we are drifting into pseudo-spirituality.

Thinking this takes us away from our training, away from the WAY.

The ‘Way of the Little Idea”.

The Sil Lim Tao, is the development and understanding of the Wing Chun ideal, in body, mind and spirit.

To phrase this in easy English the aim is to Act, Feel and Think in the same way to the same end. 

This could be any end, even enlightenment, so it can be a suitable vehicle for spirituality, but what type of person thinks that developing violence is a suitable approach to spirituality?

For Wing Chun these two paths cannot be mixed, the Sil Lim Tao is the opposite of spirituality, it is about becoming not only fully aware of ourselves and our potential but the best version of US there can be.

To be fully aware of every living, dynamic aspect of ourselves, not to blend into the void and achieve Nirvana.

Think on this,  jumping from a high building is mechanically  the same as jumping from a low step, but when we land the results are not remotely similar.

What we believe to be ourselves, US, our self-image was built up over many years and is still being added to today, every minute of everyday.

If we can imagine a situation that we would be using our Wing Chun training in, it will be the image we have of ourselves and the image that we have created for our attacker that will engage each other.

The physical image of ourselves is the simplest to refine, that is the first aspect of every FORM that we do, this is the entry to the “Way of the Little Idea”, our physical self-image, the bit of us that acts in the way of the “Little Idea”.

When observing ourselves doing any Form, any movement set any physical action whatsoever we must address it positivity. Yes, at all times we can think that we would like to do it better, but we are never doing it wrong.

Paying attention to what we are doing is the job of the conscious mind, activating our conscious mind by being deliberate is how we start to learn a new skill. 

We must know what we want to learn, and then we must break that down into its seperate parts. Each part is then practised individually until it’s grooved, solid, imprinted onto the subconscious mind.

Sound familiar? 

This is how we do the FORM.

This is a very wide and deep avenue to cross and it will be the focus of a seperate E-Book.

But the way in is through honesty, understanding and remembering.

Did we forget why we started this journey, did we forget that the goal was not to learn how to defend ourselves or how to fight? The goal was to become that person that was ready for the fight.  

If we stop training we stop being that person. 

Mastery of any skill fades, masters remain even when their skill diminishes.

We don’t see things as they are, we see them as we are.

Anais Nin.

“Never let the drive for perfection be the enemy of doing things effectively”

Back in the late 1990s and early 2000s, a significant number of students from my Sifu’s school would travel to Hong Kong to train at Grandmaster Chu ShongTin’s school,   Chu ShongTin was our Sifu’s Sifu.

Very few would stay for more than a week but they would return shining with an inner light and full of tales of amazing feats, brilliant teachings and the sheer joy of being in the company of greatness.

A fair call.

But they also returned with an arm structure that for some reason was much less efficient and effective than it was before they left Australia.

This condition humorously became known as ‘Hong Kong Spaghetti Arms’.

Those afflicted with Hong Kong Spaghetti Arms would act as if they knew something we did not, despite not being able to prevent themselves from being hit when playing Chi Sau.

If ever there was a case of “Never let the drive for perfection be the enemy of doing things effectively” this was it.

I know where the condition of Spaghetti Arms comes from and I also know that it is a correct step on the path to a capable and effective body, but it is only a transition phase, it is a means to an end, and not an end in itself.

But hey, what can you learn in a week?

Sadly these Wing Chun tourists were stuck half-way along the road to amazing unbendable arms, if they had stayed longer in Hong Kong they would have learned how to correctly take the “impractical softness” out of their arms and replace it with rigidity without using muscular strength.

The Sil Lim Tao Form, or rather the “A” section of the overall Sil Lim Tao has three major learning objectives.

1. Set up the neutral body.
2. Move the arms without disturbing the neutral body.
3. Energise the neutral body so that it becomes an active body.

Step #2 is what results in Spaghetti Arms.

The purpose of the Sil Lim Tao Form is to become familiar with our own body structure, it is not in any way intended to make contact with another person or outside force so having Spaghetti Arms is of no consequence when doing the Form.

In fact, it is as it should be.

The third learning objective of the Sil Lim Tao Form, energising the neutral body, brings everything together, torso, arms, and legs by various stabilisations, both global and local.

 Stabilisation of the lower torso or Pelvic Girdle is achieved by recruiting the DEEP MUSCLES…

1. The muscles of the pelvic floor…. Contract the glutes.

2. The transverse abdominals…. pull in the navel

3. The multifidus….. Stand tall.

4. The Internal Obliques… breathe sideways.

5. The Diaphragm… tuck the diaphragm under the ribs.

In short our core muscles that attach to and hold our spine secure.

Local Stabilisation of the torso is not addressed in the S. L. T.  as there is zero body movement, it is introduced in Chum Kiu and Biu Gee.

Stabilisation of the upper torso or Pectoral Girdle is achieved by recruiting

 1. The Levator Scapulae …  Pull the head back and stretch the neck.

2. The Rotator Cuff Muscles…. Bend the Bar.

As you can see when we follow the simple set-up of…

1. Contract the Glutes.
2. Pull in the navel.
3. Stand Tall.
4. Breathe Sideways.
5. Tuck up the diaphragm.
6. Bend the Bar.
7. Stretch the Neck.

… we stabilise our complete torso.

This set-up could well still suffer from Spaghetti Arms as there is still some work to do.

One of the many reasons we do the S. L. T. Form so slowly is to allow us to observe and make contact with the bones and most importantly the joints of our arms.

The shoulder joint, the Elbow joint, the wrist joint, and the finger joints.

If we ‘bend the bar’ we stabilise the shoulder joint, this results in a natural, pliable solidity in the shoulder joint.

When we hinge the elbow joint we create a kinetic force that pushes our forearm down into the wrist and our upper arm back into that stable shoulder joint connecting the upper arm to the torso and creating a return force back down the upper arm that crosses the elbow jointed reinforces the forearms force.

It is just physics.

In a contact any force pushing my wrist back toward us is met by the return force from our body, if the muscles surrounding and crossing the Elbow are contracted I have real problems, in effect both of us are putting pressure on the elbow joint, if it is natural and only working as a hinge the partner/opponent has real problems due to the aforementioned return force.

We, people, are not used to using the elbow joint as it was intended, as a hinge, instead we think that it is a way to move our arms and as such when the elbow struggles we engage all of the local muscles that we can call upon to get the elbow to move the arm.

Each muscle and there are 7 major muscles attached to the elbow joint and 9 that cross the elbow joint, calls up a favour from its neighbour, soon every muscle in our body except the little muscles in the Pinky Toe are giving a hand.

Result – Gridlock.

It is misleading of me to say just “control the Elbow Hinge and you control the whole arm” because teaching our body to trust that simple, natural movement when we are in dangerous situations is more than we can hope to get from an intense week in Hong Kong.

It can take a very long time to convince our Monkey Brain that this is a good IDEA.

Best we start today.

Book a flight.

Or come see me because as my Sifu would say about himself, “I am closer than Hong Kong”.

“A mind that is stretched by a new experience can never go back to its old dimensions.”

Oliver Wendell Holmes

NOTHING HAPPENS UNTIL SOMETHING MOVES.

Albert Einstein.

In Wing Chun we are all and for always beginners.

BIU GEE FOR BEGINNERS.

Many Wing Chun students think that Wing Chun training is a linear progression, Sil Lim Tao – Chum Kiu – Bill Gee and that every time we progress along that line things become more advanced.

This may be true of some other styles but it is not true of Wing Chun.

In Wing Chun, there is no beginner level, no intermediate level and no advanced level.

In Wing Chun, we are all and always beginners.

In this respect, Wing Chun is akin to Jazz!

When asked ‘What is Jazz’? Dave Brubeck replied, “Jazz is”.

By this logic, Wing Chun “IS”.

So the question becomes “can you riff”?

If there is a set progression in Wing Chun it is circular, hop on anywhere and keep going round.

THERE IS ONLY ONE MOVE, ONLY ONE SHAPE, AND ONLY ONE BODY.

Saturday morning we decided to explore Biu Gee’s actions from the perspective of how to recover from a situation where we had lost our favoured Wing Chun position.

Sometimes referred to as emergency Techniques”, something I find over-elaborate, we explored and discovered that Biu Gee contains all the things we did, albeit badly before we even began Wing Chun, and definitely did on our first day of Wing Chun training.

This video footage is of a normal training session, it is not an organised seminar, we made things up as we went along and repeated things over and over again at a pace and intensity that we could feel, see and understand what our body was doing while we played Biu Gee.

If you are a visitor to this blog these clips may well lack continuity and possibly context, it is a bit like one of them “you had to be there jokes” but there is good info here.

At 20 minutes it is a lengthy video grab so there are some timestamps to help you navigate.

INTRO, CHAT AND WAFFLE…… 00:00

THE OPENING SWEEPING LEG….   05:37

SOME THOUGHTS ON LAP SAU….  06:47

THREE ELBOW MOVEMENTS…..     10:00. 

OPENING WRIST MOVEMENTS….   12:18 

THE  THREE BOWS TO BUDDHA…. 16:48     

It is the brushing away that makes it Bong Sau and not the shape.

-Wing Chun is a set of IDEAS, not techniques, that we explore and develop through playacting in a variety of staged situations to see if we can deploy them.

Chi Sau is a perfect example, nothing we do in Chi Sau is in any way genuinely useful, but it does allow us to put meat on the bones of our IDEAs so that we get to understand them better.

The reality of random violence, as opposed to sparring or role-playing, is that unless we are ‘extremely lucky’ we will always be in the wrong place at the wrong time, that is where and when we need any skill-set that we have developed.

We must understand how to unpack our skill-set to find what might be un-related little pieces of info that can be reassembled into an action that can be deployed in very close quarters.

Wing Chun is a Body Method, our training has two objectives.

1. Learn the method in a controlled environment.
2. Apply the method in an uncontrolled environment.

The closest we can come to the second objective is to put ourselves into what may appear to be the wrong place for us to use established Wing Chun stuff and see how other stuff can become Wing Chun.

I have heard people opine that the arts that start from positions that are already in tight contact, such as Jiu-Jitsu starting from a mounted position or Wrestling styles that begin from a clinch, are not very practical.

Whatever scenario we imagine we may encounter we will sooner or later make contact with the Bad Guy, it is what we do next that is the work, moving into contact or waiting until the Bad guy makes contact is just a step in the process that Jiu-Jitsu and Wrestling see as unnecessary. 

Getting into trouble is not the aim of the game, and not worth splitting hairs over, it is getting out of trouble that should be our focus.

————————————————————————–

Over the years I had numerous discussions with my Sifu about how Chinese does not translate into English or any European language. The main hurdle is that Chinese is a Logogram Language built around glyphs and all European languages are Alphabetic Languages built around letters and words.

He said this was why it is just not possible to understand Wing Chun by using words, spoken or written.

In English we expect a word to mean something specific whereas in Chinese a word simply points toward a glyph that may form part of a picture that must be deciphered to be understood.

In Wing Chun we have Chit Sau, the cutting hand, Garn Sau, the ploughing hand, Fook Sau the controlling hand, Tai Sau the raising hand and of course Bong Sau the wing hand.

If we ask ‘what is Bong Sau’ to a westerner we will get a bent arm gesture that comes out from the shoulder.

Really, that’s it?

If we retreat to the genesis myth for a moment, a Nun observes a fight between a Crane and a Snake, every time the snake attacks, the Crane brushes or sweeps away the attack with its wing.

The nun meditates on this and then decides to change her Kung Fu to reflect this idea.

What IDEA?

The IDEA of sweeping or brushing away an attack and not the IDEA of growing a wing.

It is the brushing away that makes it Bong Sau and not the shape.

It is the cutting that makes Chit Sau, the ploughing that makes Garn Sau, the controlling that makes Fook Sau and the raising up that makes Tai Sau.

If we use Tai Sau to brush away an attack does that make it Bong Sau?

This is what I refer to when I say we need to unpack the Forms, everything is pointing somewhere else.

“There is only one move, only one shape, and only one body”.

As always at this morning’s training, I told the guy’s the usual, what I think is critical, stuff.

Everything we do needs to happen in mid-air {before contact} and will be in effect for around 1/10th of a second.

This puts everything in context, we must be correct before we make contact, albeit 1/100th of a second before contact.

Also my second sacred saying…..

“There is only one move, only one shape, and only one body”.

This one is a bit curly around the edges.

So check this out.

Take on movement, any movement let’s just pick the first movement, Jit Sau.

Spend as much free time as you can learning everything you think you can learn about Jit Sau.

If your head is in the right place you have just learned everything there is to learn about Wing Chun, but relax, it won’t be.

To help convince ourselves of this pick a movement you do not feel that you know very well, let’s pick the Biu Sau that comes from our chest in the Biu Gee Form.

Compare what you are doing, and what you are feeling in Biu Sau to what you do and feel in Jit Sau.

If there is only one move, and I assure you there is, these two moves are the same.

The first job, just observe and note where they differ.

The second job, resolve the differences.

This is a lot more difficult than it sounds, mainly getting the Head part correct, but if you can do Jit Sau how hard can it be?

As always, be kind to yourself if you are not making the progress you would like to make, and bear this in mind…..

…”when we hear or see anything we do not understand our brain translates what we are hearing or seeing into something we do understand, at this instant, we are no longer hearing or seeing correctly, we have lost it“.

This is part of the human condition and no amount of wishing or training can change this.

Fortunately, our body has its own intelligence, lets’s be Nerdy and call it “Deep Learning”, given enough time {think repetitive training}, our body will understand what our mind cannot, and hey presto we have the answer.

We all know this to be true, how often do you wake up in the middle of the night with the answer to something that has been evading you.

Long story short……..

If you wish to know everything, learn one thing completely.

“There is only one move, only one shape, and only one body”.

What we are ‘really’ learning is how to access our skills, not learn some specific Sport or Martial Art style.

This post is not meant as a tongue in cheek jab at anyone, that is not my way, it is simply sharing things I know and believe, things that may help you.

What are the unseen benefits of Martial Arts training?

Self-confidence, good decision making, dependability the list goes on, where do these attributes come from.

The secret is, as my Sifu told me, turning up to training and paying attention.

Rain hail or shine, sick or healthy, hangover or tired.

This is not a secret.

When you watch an interview about a world-class sportsman or sportswoman one thing that all their contemporaries say is that they were always the first into training and the last out of training?

Not that they trained any harder.

Martial Arts training is at heart about training to be a better version of who we are, it is not an investment in our style, our club, or our Sifu it is and always has been an investment in ourselves.

And we must understand that over time it will be a considerable investment.

But we are worth it.

We only have one life, let’s be the best we can be.

When prospective students ask me if I give any kind of “Free Trial” or free uniform or free anything I just tell them to go somewhere else.

This is not arrogance on my behalf, but if they are not willing to put their hand in their pocket to benefit themselves and their lives why would they be willing to listen and pay attention to me.

Again quoting my Sifu, he would tell me that “People put no value in things they get for free”, I have seen this first hand for years and years.

Something that chips away at a student’s chance of fulfilling their dreams is when they turn up late, leave early and generally chat more than do the training.

Let me clarify something, turning up late is not according to any particular clock at any particular training hall, we all have life pressures that dictate what, where, and when, if the class starts at 7pm but you cannot get there until 7.45pm that is your time, 7.45pm, always be on time to your own clock, to yourself.

What makes some people so good?

I have played in a number of competitive “Social Level” Sports Teams in my life, Ice-Hockey, Five-a-Side Football, Tennis, and of course as a kid I fancied my chances to become a Boxer.

Like everyone I was as keen as mustard and put in the hard yards but despite the effort, I did not make it past “A” Grade in any sport I competed in, which is a long way from State Grade and a universe farther away from what is needed to be a pro.

But I would train like I was in with a shout.

Come ‘Match Day’ there was always one guy, sometimes two, that was simply streets ahead of the rest of us and somehow did it without trying too hard.

It is an easy excuse to say that they were just more skilful than the rest of us but that is not true.

They were better at accessing their skills that is all.

They knew what their skills were and they believed in their skills.

We do not learn this on ‘Match Day’.

We learn this at training.

And of great importance, we learn this over the days and weeks later by reviewing what we did.

What we are ‘really’ learning is how to access information, not learn some specific Sport or Martial Art style.

The physical side of what we do in training is just playing.

The goal of all training is to play to our strengths and avoid our weaknesses and not learn some new trick.

Play hard.

The Sil Lim Tao Form is the filter we apply to our structure, and to basic arm movement.

A Form, any Form in any style, is nothing more than a filter.

A filter that allows us to examine certain natural movements, postures, and shapes through the lens of that particular style.

When playing a Form……… and that is all we are doing, ‘playing a Form’ ……. how we engage our mind is what takes us forward, not how move our body.

In Wing Chun, how to play the movements of any of our forms can be learned in one weekend, that is one weekend spent on each Form.

However, understanding how any Form relates to us as individuals can take a lifetime.
Central to our explanation of Wing Chun Kung Fu is that all the work is based upon the ‘Sil Lim Tao’.

Which as we know is an IDEA.

The first step, in fact, an essential step, is to understand that the Sil Lim Tao Form …. is not the Sil Lim Tao IDEA.

The Sil Lim Tao Form is the filter we apply to our structure, and to basic arm movement.

The Chum Kiu Form is the filter we apply to making contact and accepting force.

The Biu Gee Form is the filter we apply to develop a greater understanding of generating striking power and issuing force.

The practice is to see how the IDEAS that are presented in these Forms are at work in all and any movements we make.

Especially movements we already make.

To see that the IDEAS that are presented in all three of these Forms are at play simultaneously in every SINGLE MOVE we make.

And have always made.

The training is to observe and where needed make adjustments to better the alignment of mind and body.

At best it is fine-tuning, there is nothing to learn in any of our Forms.

There is nothing to learn because we already know everything we need to know.

From a still position think Fook Sau, perform Fook Sau, stop.

WHERE IS THE DISCIPLINE TRAINING IN EVERYDAY WING CHUN?

If we get in trouble our best chance of getting out of trouble is to stay disciplined, to do what we need to do, where we need to do it, and when we need to do it.

But what does that mean and where is it in our training?

As young kids engaged in Western Boxing, this was drilled into us by a 10-minute sparring exercise where we could not defend ourselves, hold up a guard or counter-attack our sparring partner.

Our sparring partners were free to {lightly} hit us anywhere and any way they wanted to, all we could do was evade, but without retreating, we could step away but not run away.

Without fear of a counter-attack, our sparring partner was relentless, often leaving themselves wide open for a counter we were forbidden to deliver.

This was preparing us to not fall for dummies or feints by trying to get in cheap shots that in a real fight could easily lead to our undoing.

Every few minutes the coach would shout ‘HIT’ this gave us permission to take one shot at our sparring partner and then back to the drill, this taught us how to be disciplined, how to wait until the shot was on, to not try to force the fight, to be patient.

This was an excellent drill that ‘really’ paid out when needed.

Do we have anything in Wing Chun that remotely approaches this kind of training?

That depends.

If we can look beyond what we think we are doing, and look at the fundamental IDEA we are seeking, then the answer is YES, we do.

First up, what is the IDEA we are hoping to find?

A method to develop PATIENCE and DISCIPLINE.

These are, of course, CONCEPTS, or IDEAS.

If we are completely tuned in to our training these IDEAS can be found anywhere, but an ideal, easy, and convenient place to begin is to be found in doing the Forms.

Not the specific movements of the Forms, but rather in the way we approach the Forms, the mindset more than the movement set.

The rhythm we establish, the flow from one thought to another thought more than the transition from one movement to another movement.

Essentially all Forms are a collection of single movements and not a movement set per se, there should be an established start point and an equally established finish point for each and every shape/movement.

When we finish one shape/movement we change our thinking to the next phase before we transition our posture or shape/movement.

For example, if we think of the progression of Fook Sau, Huen Sau, Wu Sau, Tor Sau {if we could endure the boredom we could do this forever and learn everything}. 

From a still position think Fook Sau, perform Fook Sau, stop.

Think Huen Sau, perform Huen Sau, stop.

Think Wu Sau, perform Wu Sau, stop.

Think Tor Sau, perform Tor Sau, stop.

 Rinse and repeat until the ‘End of Days’.

As a two-person training drill, there is nothing better than ‘Single Arm Chi Sau’.

At first, the very IDEA of ‘perform, stop, think, perform, stop, think, perform, stop, think, perform’ may seem very robotic and unnatural, but PATIENCE and DISCIPLINE, and of course awareness, will allow us to control the timing of the pauses between stop, think, perform so that it becomes Human, natural, responsive instead of reactive. 

Obviously, this exercise, this way of utilising the Sing Chi Sau Drill, requires that both players disconnect their EGOs.

 Which in itself is training us to be DISCIPLINED.

Training in any Form should never be easy, it should never be enjoyable, it should always annoy us at some level, it is learning to ignore the thing that we think is not needed and still do it, the thing Sifu says is important but we do not think is in any way important, this teaches the greatest lesson.

DISCIPLINE.

The “Real Truth” of every Martial Art is Body Organisation.

What most people think of as Martial Arts training is really nothing more than a game of Tag played with moves that look like fighting.

Like Will Smith at the Oscars.

Do not misread me here, this TAG is an important game to learn because the movements become the vehicle for the Style Specific Bodywork that turns this version of Tag from a game to a useable defensive or attacking fighting system with real power and ability.

This is all and every Self-Defence-Systems and all and every Martial Art Style without exception.

How can we claim our training is not just TAG when all we ever do is to pretend to hit each other, no one is ever seriously attacked, and this is a good thing.

There is training and then there is fighting, they are not the same thing, they are not even close to being the same thing.

This is especially true of “Reality-Based Martial Arts”, these guys just sweat a lot, pretend louder, pretend harder.

Everyone goes home, and no one goes to the hospital.

When we understand that it is not the shapes and movements that save the day but the QUALITY of the BODY that is making the shapes and movements, things become clearer and all styles become equal.

Different situations require different qualities.

If we intend to compete as an amateur or semi-pro fighter, as a “Combat Athlete” the most important qualities are physical qualities, skill, though obviously desirable is of secondary importance, the overriding “Super Quality” is the ability to go the distance and take the hits for as long as it takes to win, sometimes up to 30 minutes.  Hence the term “ATHLETE”.

Public Domain Self-Defence styles are more concerned with escaping a violent situation in one piece than victory at all costs, hit them hard, knock them down, and walk away, all of our efforts are to survive a violent 5 to 10-second window.

The ‘Super Quality” we need is organisation, good movement, and self-control, again skill, though obviously desirable is of secondary importance.

WING CHUN is a Public Domain Self-Defence System, a Five-Second answer that says F@CK YOU to people that mean us harm.

Think of this when you watch your favorite YouTube video of someone throwing 20 or 30 different strikes in a row, and yet the Bad Guy gets up to be hit again.

As brilliant as these guys are, and I am just as much a fan as anyone else, that is dancing.

 That is WING CHUN TAG.

In all fairness it would not take very much for these brilliant dancers to change what they do into genuine fighting skills, in their own way they are also athletes, just drop around 95% of the movement, in fact, if possible stay still and do the work.

But that “Still” stuff only works in reality, it sucks on YouTube.

The “Real Truth” of every Martial Art is Body Organisation.

If you are interested in learning the deeper levels of Wing Chun Body Organisation, if you are up for the work needed to open up the full potential of Chum Kiu and Biu Gee ping me a message, I am here to help.

How we decode the data is the key, not what we call it or opine about it…..

A while ago I was having a conversation with a D.J. about how Karate was sourced from White Crane Kung Fu, and that at their heart they are the same thing, this led to him asking me if Chinese Forms and Japanese Kata are essentially the same things.

There is an opinion within Kung Fu circles, or at least within the Wing Chun circles I was part of that Forms and Kata are completely separate and different from each other.

I disagree, from my standpoint FORMS and KATA are just different words for the same thing, all training, be it subtle or overtly physical, is nothing more than the accumulation of information, the collection of raw data.

How we decode the data is the key, not what we call it or opine about it.

I think we can benefit from the approach that Wing Chun has FORMS and KATA.

Where is our starting point, and what is our position?

It is the usual thinking that FORMS are about understanding our shapes/postures, understanding their physical/emotional/mental make-up, and how to create and maintain that shape/posture.

The practice of moving slowly, and softly, allows a greater opportunity to ‘clearly’ observe how the shape/posture is constructed and how it relates to the rest of the frame, an observation that would be disrupted by the overt use of active muscles that would cause such tactile feedback as to wipe out the subtle nuances of joint control.

On the other hand, KATA is considered to be Shadow-Boxing exercises performed at full power with the mental image of actual contact and the deliberate injection of overt strength and tension.

Sadly, I have often experienced partisan, myopic snoberry calling out KATA as being way too forceful for a person to be able to feel anything, implying that they are somehow less than FORMS.

I think it is worth repeating myself here, all training, be it subtle or overtly physical, is nothing more than the accumulation of information, the collection of raw data.

How we decode the data is the key, not what we call it or opine about it.

FORMS and KATA do not teach us how to FIGHT, they teach us how to THINK.

As a memory aid FORMS and KATA are two different methods to explore the same sequence.

FORMS are somewhat passive, while KATAS are somewhat dynamic. 

They are two sides of the same coin, a touchy-feely tactile method that we use to help us connect with our training.

It is so important that we do not drift off into some fantasy world in any aspect of our training, but especially so in FORMS and KATA, they are memory aids and not fighting tools.

When push does come to shove both FORMS and KATA are inappropriate and useless.

FORMS and KATA do not teach us how to FIGHT, they teach us how to THINK.

Some say that FORMS are a type of mindfulness training while KATAS are a type of shadow-boxing, but in reality, the only difference between these two ideas is not the content just the context, i.e. If you think that you are being mindful, you are being mindful, or if you think that you are shadow-boxing, you are shadow-boxing as you go through the same set of movements.

If you think you are on the can… it is what it is…

With this is mind, if we so wish, FORMS can be used as KATA and KATA can be used as FORMS.

Forms and Kata are just data, albeit two different methods to extract information from the same data.

FORMS are information about ‘SHAPE and CONDITION’, whereas KATA is information about ‘MOVEMENT and SEQUENCE’.

When observing the complete SIL LIM TAO FORM { comprising S.L.T. Chum Kiu and Biu Gee} our focus is on how we create certain shapes, firstly just hand/arm shapes but leading on to whole body shapes, but of equal if not greater importance is how we live inside of these shapes.

Our Body Being, or the ‘Condition’ that I refer to as CRAZY HORSE.

In FORMS there is no promenading, no movement through space, everything happens in one spot, and what movement there is in the FORM is just repetition, mental reinforcement.

The shapes/postures we study in the SIL LIM TAO FORM are starting shapes/positions and finishing shapes/positions, there is no set, organised way to get from one place to another, from point ‘A’ to point ‘B’.

The SIL LIM TAO FORM is, as we all know, an IDEA.

The whole reason for doing THE SIL LIM TAO FORM is to observe our Body doing the SIL LIM TAO FORM, to observe the shape and condition of our body as it does the SIL LIM TAO FORM, and not to observe us doing anything else.

Especially fighting off an attacker.

This point alone is worth serious contemplation.

FORMS exist like a frozen moment in time, an aspect of ‘ONE SHAPE, ONE MOVEMENT, ONE BODY’ but let’s not go there today.

So what of KATA in Wing Chun?

KATA is everything else, the missing bits, the reflections.

If we regard FORMS as still pictures, KATA is a movie made from those still pictures.

If FORMS are simple shapes, conditions, and intentions KATA is a method to transform those simple shapes, conditions, and intentions into action.

 And then optimally progress from one action to another action.

FORMS are impractical, KATA is the very heart of practicality.

Heads/Tails, Yin/Yang, two sides of the same coin.

If we buy into this type of thinking that says we can have the SIL LIM TAO FORM as well as the SILL LIM TAO KATA, where is this dynamic physical practice to be found and explored?

MOK JAN JONG, the wooden dummy.

 LIK BOON DIM QUAN the six and a half point pole.

 BAAT CHAM DOA, the eight cutting/slashing knives.

From the perspective of the Wing Chun structure, there is nothing new introduced as we progress beyond the Biu Gee Form.

What is introduced is a method of dynamic movement and physical power production.

Performing KWAN SAU on the Dummy, the vigorous side slash of the Knives or the lunging thrust of the Pole what are these actions if not a KATA.

Understanding why FORMS ‘are the way they are’, has the potential to teach us more about FORMS than practising them ever can.

Spend time contemplating this statement…..

We do THE SIL LIM TAO FORM for no other reason than to observe our Body doing the SIL LIM TAO FORM.

For no other reason than to observe the shape and condition of our body as it does the SIL LIM TAO FORM.

We do not do THE SIL LIM TAO FORM to observe our body doing something else!

Especially fighting off an attacker.

Why does man kill?  He kills for food.

But not only food: frequently there must be a beverage.
– Woody Allen