Letting the Mind do the work begins with thinking about the work.
LET THE MIND DO THE WORK. What IDEA does this statement lead us to? There is no doubt that the mind plays a vital indeed critical part in all and any movement.
If we do not think it, it simply does not happen, quite literally.
So on one level LET THE MIND DO THE WORK could be as straightforward as being aware of what we intend to do.
INTENTION is most definitely a component, but there must be more for it to manifest itself dynamically.
All movement is the result of an impulse from our brain that informs the nervous system to move the muscles.
VIDEO
Letting the mind do the work is not Mindfulness.
Be very weary about Mindfulness, my advice is to avoid it, and any that speak it.
Letting the Mind do the work is not circulating Chi or any other esoteric IDEA.
Be very weary of talk of esoteric forces, again, avoidance is advised.
Letting the Mind do the work begins with thinking about the work and nothing else.
It begins with simply thinking anything and seeing if it resonates with the work.
The ultimate aim of training is INCLUSION.
How do we include all of the attributes of all of the FORMS into one single whole, it is only when we do this that we begin to approach what Wing Chun IS.
Wing Chun is the art of “Counter Attack”without this understanding to anchor our training everything is just dancing and arm waving.
Since reopening after the 15 week lockdown we are all going through a kind of rebirth, or at the least a re-start that demands a new approach to the training to get back the lost time.
My lockdown training was taken up to a very large extent with playing with swords and poles, working on tying the body to the footwork in a dynamic and meaningful way and understanding that Wing Chun contains all of this movement.
The overwhelming benefit of playing with hand weapons is that they are direct and uncomplicated, just as Wing Chun is meant to be.
With weapons there is one and only one reason for using them, take out the Bad Guy.
Refreshing, re-invigorting, rewarding.
Wing Chun is slightly more complex than using a weapon but the goal is surely the same.
What is the goal of Wing Chun?
The goal is not to do Forms, or to excel at Chi Sau as important as those things are, it is to understand and become at the very least capable and competent at the art of “Counter Attack”.
Wing Chun is the art of “Counter Attack”.
This thinking is not a product of the Pandemic Shutdown, it has always been the case.
I covered this in some depth over 2 years ago and I am still happy with how I presented my opinions and idea so I am reissuing the posts here for you to revisit.
Do yourselves a solid and bookmark this page so that you can revisit it every few months, this is the most important thing to understand about Wing Chun, without this understanding to anchor our training everything is just dancing and arm waving.
The closest we have to a working history of our style is the Kuen Kuit, a ‘Grab-Bag’ collection of training ideas and maxims created by numerous authors over different generations and situations.
Something that becomes obvious after time studying and teaching Wing Chun, is that none of the original ‘Fist Logic’ was passed down in any kind of stable or readily definable condition.
The IDEAS were passed down more like pieces of poetry than as an operating manual.
This is complicated by several magnitudes simply because we work with translations of the original ‘Fist Logic’.
Mandarin Chinese, and even more so Mandarin Chinese from before the mid-20th Century, does not translate well to English, this is the fault of English, the language is too compact and bereft of the necessary tools to accurately describe poetic nuance.
This is hampered even more because the same piece of Mandarin script can be read in different ways.
Even by native speakers.
Add to that that each speaker translates the script differently into English we end up with nothing concrete to work with.
The closest we have to a working history of our style is the Kuen Kuit, a ‘Grab-Bag’ collection of training ideas and maxims created by numerous authors over different generations and situations.
My Sifu {Jim} Fung Chuen Keung who was born and raised in Hong Kong and spoke excellent English said that even in Chinese they were not meant to be taken literally and that most of them did not make direct translations.
For instance take the maxim ‘Loy Lau Hoi Sung, Lut Sau Jik Chung’
One of if not the most pertinent of the Battle Songs.
My Sifu could translate this to be applicable to just about any situation.
Three that I can remember are
Stay when he comes in, follow when he goes out, break contact and attack.
Escort what comes in, follow what goes out, when the hands are free strike.
When they advance, do not retreat, when they retreat advance. Discard the hands and rush straight in.
Subtle but genuine differences can make a very big difference in understanding.
Other Maxims worth thinking on are ‘The Wing Chun Punch comes from the Heart’, add to this ‘Wing Chun does not take a backwards step‘, my reading is that this was not meant as a positioning advice or a restriction on movement but rather what we English refer to as ‘Bottle’.
There are many more, Google Kuen Kuit and pick one that spikes your interest.
Exactly what does ‘He walks the bow but I walk the string’ mean to you?
These Battle Hymns, these Maxims can of course mean anything you want them to mean, choosing what you want them to mean is how you develop your own Wing Chun.
WHAT DAT?
“Out of every one hundred men, ten shouldn’t even be there, eighty are just targets, nine are the real fighters, and we are lucky to have them, for they make the battle. Ah, but the one, one is a warrior, and he will bring the others back.” Heraclitus .
From day one, we are told that Wing Chun does not use two hands to defend because we use ‘Simultaneous Attack and Defence’.
As we all know and tell anyone that is willing to listen, Wing Chun is a concept-driven Martial Art.
Therefore everything we are taught is a CONCEPT.
A suggestion not a rule.
Nothing is set in stone.
This can induce bewilderment, on one side of the coin nothing is wrong, on the other side of the coin nothing is right.
It is our job to think and decide.
The decisions we make will change from one situation to another and be dependent on context.
Tricky stuff this context stuff.
At the centre of Wing Chun’s “Fist Logic” we have a number of ideas/principles that are meaningless without context.
Simplicity. What is simple for one person is impossible for someone else so what do we teach?
Practicality. We do not know if something is practical until we use it, and only then if it works and we live to tell the tale.
Economy of Movement. Is ‘continuous punching’, a mainstay of our attack, Economy of Movement?
It is a minefield.
Another pillar of our Fist logic is ‘Simultaneous Attack and Defence’.
From day one, we are told that Wing Chun does not use two hands to defend because we use ‘Simultaneous Attack and Defence’.
And it makes perfect sense.
Until we forget.
Wich does not take very long.
By the way, it is never pointed out but we do not use two hands to attack for the same reason.
‘Simultaneous Attack and Defence’
F.F.S. NOW YOU TELL ME.
But then we have Chi Sau, the Chum Kiu Form, the Biu Gee Form, the Mok Jan Jong Form and the Baat Cham Dao Form all two-handed exercises.
Whiskey Tango Foxtrot.
There is a good reason for this two handedness, it is because even when we train we should try our best to be aware of and adhere to the Principles, to make them second nature instead of just a suggestion.
Paradoxically the principle in this instance is Economy of Movement.
We are not learning to use two-handed defences or two-handed attacks we are practising single-handed moves with each hand simultaneously, maximising our training time.
Our supervised training time, where we can learn new stuff or just get our homework marked, is a limited resource, so it is wise to maximise it.
Our solo training time is practically limitless.
Wherever possible do everything with just one hand, especially the Forms.
Think about it.
It changes everything, and it changes it for the better.
“this is the thinking, this is the shape, plug and play”.
This is a short clip from a private session I had with my student Rick.
Rick is new to Chum Kiu so it presented a perfect opportunity to change my methods from traditional approach of…
“this is the Chum Kiu Form, learn it, study it and in 10 years you may be able to use it”
…to how I think it should be taught from the perspective of Sports..
“this is the thinking, this is the shape, plug and play”.
If we can separate the primary aspects of a sequence and see them simply as “Shapes That Work” transitioning from one shape to another in any way that feels natural, instead of trying to make it look like a FORM, results in power and speed.
In Sports if we are trying to learn the motor function of an action it is broken down into shapes we should be in at certain points in the progression/sequence.
Think of FORMS as throwing a Discus or Swinging a Bat to hit a Ball.
If we practice progressing the shapes of
1. Neutral stance {Crazy Horse}
turn left into
2.Huen Ma {Cat Stance}
from here pose
3Hanging Horse Stance {Crane Stance}
step down into
4. extended Huen Ma {Reverse Lunge}
square up into
5. Huen Ma {Cat Stance}
turn back into
6. Neutral Stance {Crazy Horse}
Rinse and repeat in the opposite direction.
Make the transitions in any way that feels comfortable and in any direction that takes your fancy, this covers just about all moving possibilities we may need in any environment.
Expert level performance is as much about internal communication as it is about external movement.
I know that this hot on the heels of yesterday’s post but I wanted to address something before I became distracted and forgot about it.
FORMS AS A MEMORY FUNCTION
Something that is not in our face and as such often overlooked is that FORMS are also DRILLS.
We repeat the same set of movements over and again to “GROOVE” that action.
Performing a perfect movement may appear to be a physical thing but in reality all movement is a product of our thinking, an output from our C.P.U.
Our Brain.
Expert level performance is as much about internal communication as it is about external movement.
Think – send the memo – move.
Understanding the movement that we wish to perform is essential if we hold any hope of doing it correctly.
There are great gains to be had when we use our FORMS as a drill to aid and enhance our memory.
When I was quite serious about playing tennis I would spend hours working on just my service action, as a result my serve rarely let me down in matches when the pressure was on.
There is no difference between a body playing tennis and a body doing Kung Fu, or a body fighting.
This may sound a bit like compu-tech babble but better memory equates to higher competancy rates and better completion rates, vital stats in a violent encounter.
PHASE 2 [this is just a wee bit weird].
A deeply important aspect of FORMS training is that we are quite literally building a new person, and building a new universe for that person to operate in complete with new rules and new expectations.
This Universe is the Chum Kiu / Biu Gee Universe, if it helps in any way think of it like the ‘Marvel Universe’ and we are developing a new character to go help save the world.
This is not as ‘OUT THERE’ as it may sound, we have no REAL proof that we exist in this universe.
If we are training our Wing Chun for practical competency in fighting, which is of course the only goal to train for, the end game is to arrive at a predictable, repeatable, powerful, correct position and ‘physical end-state’.
It is all and only about the ‘END GAME’!
Do I hear you ask why?
Because where we begin any action will not be in our control as our action will be a response to an oponents action.
This is called ‘Counter Attacking’, wait a minute, that sounds a lot like Wing Chun.
And as such all of our training is about achieving the desired ‘end state‘ on the fly.
The SHAPE THAT WORKS.
In the place it works best.
As I frequently mention we need to be capable of thinking flexibly, of performing some at times tricky bits of mental gymnastics
It is an absolute ‘No Brainer’ that if we expect our training to work when we are in a perilous environment, then that environment needs to reflect, as much as possible, our training environment.
Most students shy away from even considering this.
But in reality, this is where the rubber meets the road.
MENTAL GYMNASTIC #1.
There is no way on Earth that the environment we find ourselves in will reflect the environment we trained in.
The task becomes being the same person doing the same thing in these diverse environments.
That Marvel Hero, doing marvelous things, in ‘our own’ marvelous universe.
MENTAL GYMNASTIC #2.
“The only way that we can live is if we grow.
The only way we can grow is if we change.
The only way we can change is if we learn.
The only way we can learn is if we are exposed.
And the only way that we are exposed is if we throw ourselves into the open.” — C. Joybell
A General Theory of Fighting Arts becomes grounded in Human Movement and not, as it so often is, ‘Esoteric Ideology’.
The General Theory of Fighting Arts is a term widely used to try to get students to identify the mutual movements of all martial styles, and the alignment with most dynamic sports.
One thing we have all been told, and if we are talking to beginners or non Wing Chun people often repeat is that ‘Wing Chun movement is based on normal human body movement’.
I do not think that students give enough credence to this statement, that ‘Wing Chun movement is based on normal human body movement’.
It gets treated as if it is just some sort of cagey advertising spin just as many Instructors still claim that Wing Chun was invented by a woman, a device to encourage smaller, less athletic men to take up Wing Chun instead of a rival code.
But Wing Chun IS based on normal human body movements.
If we approach the work from this perspective and look at what is presented and how it is presented, we see a pattern emerge, that in the progression of the FORMS, as we move from the first Form to Chum Kiu and then Biu Gee, this progression is nothing more than the introduction of more complex movement for people not familiar with this way of moving.
This approach more than likely had merit back in 1860s Foshan but today, due to the average sporting curriculum of most western schools every 12-year-old child is familiar with these moves.
A very large proportion of what is introduced through the Forms is simply unnecessary, at least from the point of view of controlling our body.
Do not get me wrong, the FORMS are needed for other reasons so I am not suggesting abandonment.
But we can easily be moving at a level that is needed for any aspect of the work be it the Dummy, the Pole or the Knives if we put more practice and focus into moving better as a Human.
Take any movement or action from any sport, especially a throwing or bat and ball sport, and you will find the moves somewhere in the Form.
A General Theory of Fighting Arts becomes grounded in Human Movement and not, as it so often is, ‘Esoteric Ideology’.
This week spend some quality time exploring the similarities between Martial Movement, Sports and Dancing, once you see how they amalgamate, consolidate and integrate FORMS become a secondary consideration.
IMAGINE, MANIFEST AND WORK ON THE IDEA OF THE FRAME.
And while you a re at it put some minutes into the MAGNIFICENT SEVEN.
Here they are, and here is a recap.
WHEN YOU UNDERSTAND, THINGS ARE JUST THE WAY THEY ARE.
WHEN YOU DO NOT UNDERSTAND, THINGS ARE JUST THE WAY THEY ARE.
THIS IS A PUSH, IT NEEDED TO BE. BUT THE POWER IS STILL THERE.
The amount of power needed to abruptly push someone off of their feet is commensurate with the amount of power needed to break things.
Richard asked the following question on our whatsapp Group page…
“Hi Derek, question for the week. The 1 inch punch. I have seen vids of Bruce Lee do it with a lot of torsion, and Sigung Fung doing it square on. Is there any practical use? Was Sigung Fung that powerful?”
It is important to understand the nature of any demonstration is basically ‘Infotainment’.
The amount of power needed to abruptly push someone off of their feet is commensurate with the amount of power needed to break things.
Like ribs and eye sockets, good luck finding a volunteer for that trick.
There are many internet trolls that watch a video of my Sifu and scream “Fake”,.
From a video.
How smart are they.
One of the reasons Wing Chun does not have sparring is because the average Wing Chun player wishes to avoid getting hurt and not engage in it, it is the same with any demo.
I have seen my Sifu perform this on many occasions, the body movement is minimal, the focus sublime, it is as real as a car crash.
But it is also a gimmick, or at the least a training exercise.
As I recount in the video my Sifu once gave me a serious tap, not really a punch, but it was as hard as anything I have experienced.
And I used to box.
EVERYONE. HAS A PLAN, UNTIL YOU PUNCH THEM IN THE FACE.
Or of course there is always someone that asks ‘Will this work in the street’?
This is just a bit extra to keep our heads somewhere near what our training was.
It is meant to be light hearted and off beat but it may just come over a tad confused and delusional.
CABIN FEVER.
Over the years I have been teaching there have been many students that when shown something a little bit outside the box say ‘Can we do that in Wing Chun’?
Or of course there is always someone that asks ‘Will this work in the street’?
I get it, we understand that there is a bunch of ‘shitheads out there and we may just bump into them so we best be ready’.
But we do not know who they are so we do not know if what we are doing is enough.
Wing Chun Sydney, Australia 