Category: FIST LOGIC

Sil Lim Tao translates to the Way of the Little Idea. The little Idea is simple, but the ‘Way’ to discover the Little Idea is less simple.

Hi guys, this is to try to prompt those of you that do not yet spend quality SOLO time working with the Form to get more involved with it.

I get it, it can be frustrating trying to understand how doing a Form can be fundamental to our core abilities.

Been there, done that.

It took me about 7 years before I finally understood the importance but once I did my Wing Chun improved on an almost daily basis.

I am just trying to save you time. Lots of time.

Understanding complex ideas easily is as much about understanding the analogies we use as it is about genuinely related information.
Analogies are the pictures we use to bring into focus or gather up the loose ends of a vague idea or underdeveloped concept.

Try to consider the Sil Lim Tao Form as a physical manifestation of an analogy. Let it paint you a picture.

Sil Lim Tao translates to the Way of the Little Idea. The little Idea is simple, but the ‘Way’ to discover the Little Idea is less simple.

Because we confuse the “Way” with the”IDEA“.

The “Way” is not the “IDEA“.

“The Map is Not the Territory, the Word is Not the Thing” as pointed out by the philosopher Alfred Korzybski”.

The Sil Lim Tao Form is not the Sil Lim Tao, it is a Form, a movement set, as easy as it is to read this it can prove difficult to digest.
The Sil Lim Tao Form is not the Way, it is a vehicle to approach and then explore the Way. But it is not just a vehicle it is also a scaffold that supports and reinforces the IDEA while we build it. And it is also the concept that told us we needed a vehicle to find the IDEA in the first place.

There are three aspects to training, a physical aspect, what we do. A mental aspect, what/how we think. An emotional aspect, how we feel. These three separate aspects are tightly interconnected, how we feel affects how we think, how we think affects what we do, what we do affects how we feel, around and around and around we go.
Understanding this interconnection shines a light on the importance of self-talk because self-talk is the major contributor to how we feel.

What does your self-talk say when you consider spending 10 minutes on the Form?

Wing Chun was thought up many years before ‘data retrieval systems’ were invented, years before people understood the role of the conscious mind or short-term memory and the subconscious mind or long-term memory, and how these systems worked together. Years before neuroscience discovered that all physical action begins in the Brain/Mind.
From one synapse a signal is sent, that signal is received by a different synapse, a nerve or muscle is activated, an action is performed.

Even the action of standing still, doing nothing is something we actively do!

It is via this interconnection that we come to understand the “IDEA” that became Wing Chun.

When we are in training mode, moving slowly, deliberately and accurately, we are in our conscious mind, accessing short-term memory doing what we are thinking. Our brain is impressing/recording this action to our subconscious mind or long-term memory so that later if we find ourselves in a situation that we do not have enough time to assess and choose the right action, no time to think, we just hit the replay button and allow our subconscious to choose.

If we are not regularly engaging with the Sil Lim Tao Form then on some level we are telling ourselves that it has little or no value.

Without knowing it we are moving into a good/bad, right/wrong, correct/incorrect mindset.

Every action we do, every defence/attack choice is created from aspects of the Sil Lim Tao Form.

Why would our subconscious mind choose to respond with something that we keep telling ourselves is of little value?

Developing our power is 100% in the Mind, consciousness is not optional, 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.  

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

Three different paths, one vehicle.

The Sil Lim Tao Form.

Stack it up, power it up, build it up.

In the lower of the two videos, I mention that we are trying to be the best we can be at this or any other singular time.

There will be days in training when we appear to never get with the project, nothing goes the way we want it to go, even on this day we are the best we can be…. on this day, at this time in this place.

No one chooses to train poorly, we all give it all that we have, so if it starts going sideways be aware of this, do not try to train harder, do less, even take a break.

When it comes to fu**ing up… TODAY IS NOT THAT DAY.

Words of advice for young people….

IF WE HOPE TO SUCCESSFULLY BE NASTY TO OTHER PEOPLE IT BEGINS BY BEING NICE TO OURSELVES…..THE “D” MAN.

“And we may ask ourselves, well, how did we get here”?

KUNG HEI FAT CHOY to all of you guys and all visitors.

A new year a new start, well that is the dream, but this year it is tinged with doubt due to the Pandemic.

There is always hope or there is nothing, but new starts lead us into thinking of the past period that we have just endured

The changes our school has gone through are many, and some of you do not know the full story.

Chinese New Year is our anniversary.

It was the first Monday of the Lunar New Year for 2010, the Year of the Golden Tiger, that we held the opening night of what is now Wing Chun Sydney.

On the first Monday of this Lunar New Year, the Year of the Water Tiger, we turn 12 years old, and we are only just hanging on.

I know that there are many schools in a similar perhaps even worse situation, many have already upped stumps and headed to the Pavillion.

In the wake of the ravages the school has suffered due to the ramifications of Covid-19, what was once a healthy 40 students and 2 schools is now just 8 of us in the Studio at the back of my home.

To paraphrase David Byrne…

“And we may ask ourselves, well, how did we get here”?

My Sifu, Jim Fung Cheung Kuen passed away in 2007, to many who trained with him this was unexpected.

Out of nowhere, we were rudderless.

His school, the I.W.C.A. was suddenly adrift and taking in water.

The consensus at the top was to keep on keeping on, but this was always a flawed IDEA.

There was no natural successor.

So the school’s 7 most senior students assumed control, the governance of the school fell upon what was at best a non-aligned, non-cooperative committee.

The writing may not have yet been on the wall but the signwriters Van was in the Carpark.

Skip to 18 months later, Wednesday evening after instructor training, in the Cosmo pub over the road from the Training Hall, most of the remaining Senior Instructors carrying on like Wednesday night was party night.

In particular, as usual, me complaining about the fact that the new school had nothing in common with the school our Sifu ran, the school we helped him build.

The ‘Old School”.

A good friend and long-time training partner Greg turns around to me and says…

… “For f*cks sake Derek, are you still going on about this? Either get over it or just leave.”

The chances are that Greg had responded this way to my non-stop complaints every Wednesday evening.

But this Wednesday, perhaps I had not drunk as much, I heard him.

I nodded.

I thanked him for his insight.

The next day, Thursday, I turned up to the sub-school I was responsible for in one of Sydney’s outer suburbs, a group that I had managed for the past 11 years, and gave the students the news that for me…

… the race was run.

To be expected the sub-school continued but a few months and a few replacement instructors later one of the more serious students, Sam, asked if I would be willing to independently teach a breakaway group he had assembled.

A group made up of the core members of the old sub-school.

12 students met with me to lay out their IDEA and asked if I would teach them.

It was a good IDEA, more importantly, it was not my IDEA.

On the first Monday of the Chinese New Year of 2010, we came into existence.

Wing Chun Inc. Began as 14 people with the same goal.

12 students, my wife Mandy, and myself.

The first few years kicked on brilliantly, and there was a moment when we were almost famous, 2 schools at different ends of Sydney and over 40 students.

Things change, life is tricky.

Today, of the 12 Foundation Members, only Sam is still on-board, which is fitting as it was Sam’s drive that created the whole IDEA in the first place.

Thanks to Covid-19 we are now just 8 people.

But we are the best 8.

In February 2010 we grew from 14 people.

We still have Sam.

We can do it again.

Rise up, get on board.

THE REAL VOYAGE OF DISCOVERY IS NOT IN SEEKING NEW LANDSCAPES,

BUT IN SEEKING NEW EYES.

MARCEL PROUST.

HI GUYS,

Try to watch this video a couple of times before your next training, and of course, find time to work the movements.

Things will make sense a lot quicker and sink in a lot easier if you have this in your head.

Stay Frosty.

video

What message are we sending ourselves if we are trying to engage an opponent at medium to long-distance?

As you guys all know I believe that the most important attribute for a Martial Artist is honesty.

So honestly…

…does kicking have a genuine place in a Close – Quarter Combat style such as Wing Chun?

Let me clarify this when I say kicking I am talking about using our leg or foot as a primary attack weapon.

My teacher, Jim Fung {Chuen Keung} was an astonishing kicker and I witnessed some spectacular demos of his ability over the 17 years I trained under him, refer to the picture above to get some idea.

The thing is that kicks like the one above are, by my Sifu’s own admission, NOT Wing Chun.

He did them for the show, to attract more business because it was the type of thing new students wanted, and he always wanted new students.

Kung Fu Movie stuff.

But he was good at it.

Without starting a ‘Bun Fight’ over what is or is not Wing Chun kicking, because it really does not matter in the bigger picture, only results matter, surviving street violence is not an Olympic sport, no one is keeping score or awarding points.

However, if we claim to be doing Wing Chun then we should train Wing Chun.

Because ultimately it is not about Wing Chun kicking, it is about understanding the thinking behind Wing Chun kicking.

Those elusive ‘CONCEPTS’, that ‘Little IDEA”.

If, as we all repeatedly say, Wing Chun is a Concept Driven Fist Fighting style {KUEN} our theatre of operations is, at most, where we play Chi Sau, touching distance.

What message are we sending ourselves if we are training to engage an opponent at medium to long-distance?

I have always believed that Wing Chun is a ‘clever’ Martial Art, so let us take a clever approach to {sic} ‘Kicking’.

The video below was originally intended as the intro to a larger discussion on the merits of kicking, but I think that it is a good enough thought exercise to be viewed as stand-alone information, as a primer for the bigger picture of what is to come regarding how Wing Chun people use their legs in a violent situation.

As always, Y.M.M.V.

WHEN IT COMES TO ASS-KICKING, BE SURE IT AINT YOURS.

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.

This is where the work begins.

This is where one movement lives.

This is the Mind thinking.

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

1. Stay when he comes in, follow when he goes out, break contact and attack.
2. Escort what comes in, follow what goes out, when the hands are free strike.
3. 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.

“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’

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.

WORK ON THE SHAPES.

DO NOT STRESS ABOUT THE TRANSITIONS.

We will work on this for the next few weeks.

Watch the vid and lets get a healthy chat going, this really is the pointy end.

A common thread since the end of ‘Lockdown’ has been trying to understand how to actually make use of all of this sometimes exotic information.

Last night at training Saleh brought in some video capture of genuine street violence and it encouraged a decent conversation.

As hard as it is to understand and justify we will never use anything we learn in class out on the ‘Pavement Arena’ as Geoff Thompson calls it.

Watch the vid and lets get a healthy chat going, this really is the pointy end.

Many men appear calm for the simple reason that they have never faced a storm.

But when the storm comes they falter.