In Wing Chun, in particular, there is a perception that using “Softness” translates to there being no need to be fit, fast or strong.
As you all know in the 60 years that I have been a practising Martial Artist I have explored many variations.
Different styles and different approaches within styles.
Some, such as Bagua Zhang, Xing Yi Chuan, Kali {Doce Peres} and R.M.C.C.Q.C. for less than two years so I do not consider myself proficient at these but their influence was valuable.
Others like Western Boxing, Judo, BuJutsu and Wing Chun I trained in for quite extended periods, as such I consider myself knowledgable and capable in this space.
In the competitive arts, Boxing, Judo, there is an equal weight given to non-specific physical conditioning training as there is to skills specific training.
In my experience, this is missing in the “Real World, Real Self-Defence Style” training that Kung Fu inhabits.
In Wing Chun, in particular, there is a perception that using “Softness” translates to there being no need to be fit, fast or strong.
We should think about this and determine our own position.
I can, if needs be, hit someone softly with an Iron Bar, but I doubt that I could knock them out with a Foam Pool Noodle.
When I did these videos this morning my intention was to cut and paste them into one video, however when I did this the result was uneven and the ambience was a bit off so all three of these videos are essentially the same but with some differences that may just make one of them easier to understand.
At the end of the day it is only your understanding that will take you forwards.
This is the same info delivered a little differently.
Beginners want instant gratification from their training, instant improvement, measurable, observable improvement, that they can see and feel.
As in Instructor, I spend a great deal of time trying to inspire my students to spend time engaged with our Forms.
Usually, it takes about three years before a student engages with the Forms on any level that is likely to enable genuine improvement.
The First Form gives no tactile feedback and in no way relates to dealing with violence.
Hence the hesitation to engage.
I get it, I ‘really’ do.
Beginners want instant gratification from their training, instant improvement, measurable, observable improvement, that they can see and feel.
{ it was this aspect that led to my abandoning Bagua Zhang and Xing Yi back in the ’80s, there was not enough of what I thought was “Real Work” that would improve my fighting ability}.
Actual improvement in how we play a Form is exceedingly difficult to measure and a long time coming.
Here is the rub, our improvement in Wing Chun is nothing other than a reflection of our understanding of the Forms.
It really is a ‘no brainer’ that the sooner we engage with our Forms the better.
The Paradox is that from a practical point of view all Forms are useless, but without Forms, we can never progress, never understand and never become competent.
Let’s have a look at that.
It is not the movements, the shapes or sequences that make the Forms pivotal in our advancement, they are all close to pointless, it is the how and the why we make those moves.
Engaging with the Form is a far cry from simply waving our hands around, it is about thinking, feeling, questioning and exploring.
If we aim at a target and miss it by 1 millimetre we have missed the target completely. We may try to console ourselves by saying that we only just missed, but had we missed by 20 Metres the result would be the same.
We missed.
Whether we like it or not some things are absolute.
Being correct needs to be 100%, if we think that we are 99% correct we are, in fact, 100% wrong.
Although the area I live in was a ‘COVID Hot Spot’ for a while there are no active cases anywhere near the Studio so training is as safe as it ever was
This pandemic is 6 months old and no signs of vanishing, how often do we hear “The new normal” is what we are experiencing and we need to get used to it.
Way back at the beginning of the ‘Lockdown’ I had great intentions of posting at least one video a week to help all of us in the club, myself included’, keep our mojo active, I did not quite do that, I tried and came close, but not good enough.
Getting our routine back means different things for different people but at its heart, it is the same thing, the same challenge…
“How do we get today to look a much like way back then as I can”?
We have all invested time, energy and money into our pursuit of Wing Chun excellence, we train to be able to defend ourselves and our loved ones against any or all attackers, only to be beaten by a bug.
Although the area I live in was a ‘COVID Hot Spot’ for a while there are no active cases anywhere near the Studio so training is as safe as it ever was, perhaps safer now that we all take precautions.
In an attempt to help you all {my fellow INCas} resume your own routine I will endeavour to resume mine and post a training help video every week, if there is any particular aspect that you would like covered just ping me, this blog is our Club’s after all, your blog as much as mine.
Muscles are binary by default, they are either on [tense] or off [relaxed]
I have never been a fan of the IDEA of Mind Force with regards physical movement and specifically Wing Chun and fighting.
Nothing I have ever experienced in 60 years of Martial Arts and a vast assortment of sports training has given any credence to that position.
Check this out.
I was recently watching a presentation from Dr. Kelly Starret when he made the following observation…
‘There is no movement that specifically turns on a muscle, that is not how the brain works, the Brain doesn’t work on musculature it works on movement’…
Disagreeing with something I may say is pretty healthy, but disagreeing with what a world respected expert says is bordering on stupid.
This presents a whole different way to think about releasing tension and dare I say it, Relaxing.
Muscles are binary by default, they are either on [tense] or off [relaxed], if our Brain does not turn our muscles on how on Earth can it turn them off?
Mind force begins to sound a little bit like Space Force.
Forms allow us to develop the habit of paying attention to what we are doing so that we gain a deep and wide understanding of that action.
Only 25% of my students have returned after the lockdown, I imagine that this is average as the pandemic wreaks havoc with our old systems.
Despite this climate of social distancing, I have 2 new people just embarking on the journey, 2 new people to explain the “Big Picture” of Wing Chun.
A Big Picture of the Little Idea.
WHAT ARE FORMS FOR?
You could ask 10 different teachers and get at least 9 different answers to this question, and that in itself tells us what Forms are for.
Forms are for different things for different people.
Not only that, but our understanding of Forms will change as we progress through our training.
We find that we can use the same Form to explore very different topics using it in very different ways.
Forms are a consistent vehicle we use to measure the level of our understanding against.
Before we go on it is important to understand that there is no such thing as an “Internal” or “External” martial art.
There is only Internal or External training.
Any Martial Art is and can only ever be a Martial Art, a rose by any other name is still a rose.
INTERNAL.
People who engage in “Internal work” use the Forms as a distraction to help them focus more on moving their Chi, circulating their Chi, being in control of their Chi.
This is not my area of training and I have very limited knowledge of it.
Can it be used for fighting?
Anything can be used for fighting, it depends on the person, but the main aim of Internal training is to develop the Body-ability to meditate.
EXTERNAL.
People that engage in “External work” use Forms to develop more effective movement.
There are many different types of effective movement, always doing a Form the same way will only deliver the same outcome.
Smoothness, connectedness, speed, power, mobility or stability all require a different approach to the same Form.
Westerners have difficulty understanding the Eastern IDEA of “Softness”, especially when we talk about powerful or strong softness.
Forms offer a way to explore this.
We should be balanced and ask the same question here…
Can it be used for fighting?
Anything can be used for fighting, it depends on the person, training the physical side will not guarantee fighting prowess.
Another very important aside that we must consider is that there is an element of “External” training that frequently gets confused as “Internal” training.
That is what today is referred to as being in a flow state, focusing on the moment, being in the zone.
Internal work is ultimately aiming at enlightenment through the teaching of the Buddha, through stillness and meditation.
To empty the mind.
Flow state is something that we can suddenly fall into while single-mindedly involved in an activity.
To be so consumed by we are doing it fills the mind.
Being in the zone, ‘flow state’ is spontaneous and not capable of being trained.
However, the better we are at something the higher the chance of falling into ‘flow state’, being in the moment.
Forms allow us to develop the habit of paying attention to what we are doing so that we gain a deep and wide understanding of that action.
Conditioning.
Forms can be callisthenics that exist solely to prepare the body to move in a particular way.
A skilled and intelligent movement practice that allows us to work on the shapes that we are going to need to access in any of the diverse ways that we will call upon our body to use what we refer to as Wing Chun.
From warming up to flat out fighting to save our lives, the actions we may use and depend upon so we would do well to understand these moves.
Forms can also be remedial bodywork.
If we look at the “B” Section of Wing Chun’s First Form we have a set of exercises that are perfect for resolving impingement of the shoulders.
The opening of the Yi Chi Kim Yeung Ma is a suitable movement for resolving impingement of the hips.
The Chum Kiu and Biu Gee Forms develop balance through the stability of stances and mobility {the opposite of stability} through weight shifting and explore the whole gamut of perambulation.
But where are the steak knives?
Oh yes, doing the Forms provides maintenance of the soft tissue system to improve the overall health of essential joints, and eliminates the potential for motor control problems that happen when the wrong part is in the wrong place trying to do the wrong thing.
Self-correction.
Why do we perform them so slowly and so often?
The main reason is not one of memory retention but rather an active survey to see if we have any holes in the movement, just like athletes and weight lifters any ‘holes’ in these movement sets will invariably lead to failure and by extension injury.
If we can look at all of the Forms collectively we see an integrated system where we modulate through all ranges of motion on all 3 planes with full extension and rotation options explored.
Forms can be looked at as very gentle Crossfit.
Getting bag for our buck.
Simplify what we think is important and what we need to do to support those things.
As always, deconstruct – reconstruct.
For example; extending to the Tan Sau position from the first Form while acting out a single rear step from the Chum Kiu, while rotating the torso from Biu Gee.
Reset and reverse, step forward, pose Tan Sau and rotate.
Rinse and repeat.
If you are a senior student you are more than likely thinking.. “but wait, that is just the Bart Cham Dao”, which of course it is.
This approach makes it so that we can understand what it is we are trying to learn/program in a couple of years as opposed to decades.
This is in no way a shortcut, understanding anything fully, our job or our Martial Art takes the best part of a lifetime, but we can understand all the components that make up our job or Martial Art in a surprisingly short time and then dig in at our leisure.
it is we will have to work with when the ‘Brown gets Airbourne’.
I am posting this video not to have a dig at the gentleman involved, but rather to shine a light into a dark corner.
I first put it up on my Clubs Facebook page, I know that a good many senior Wing Chun people, even Instructors with their own schools visit this page so I was hoping to start a genuine conversation.
Yeah, good luck with that.
Only one Instructor approached it critically and serious by firstly pointing out that the guy was way out of his depth just by being in the ring.
Gdonya Snowy!!!
Apart from that, it was the usual drivel.
I have one friend, who is also an Instructor, who claimed…
“I just get so bored by these videos”
…which is such a ‘sad and sorry’ thing to say.
How can anyone be “So Bored” by something that validates everything that we say and claim about Wing Chun, something that clearly shows what can happen when you cannot access the intelligence of our Fist Logic, something that on so many levels proves us right when we tell the haters to ‘go eat a dick’.
His comment was, to be expected, followed up with the default Wing Chun position of “Wing Chun is not intended for use in the Ring or Cage”!
Such a mountain of Bullshit it made my eyes water.
Watch some of Bas Rutten Pancrase fights {the forerunner of today’s M.M.A. but with fewer rules} where he just ‘Bitch Slaps’ the shit out of his opponents.
How does a “Bitch Slap” become more fit for purpose than the whole of Wing Chun?
If what you do can transfer force and deliver pain it is well and truly fit for purpose in the Ring or Cage.
But there is something in the Wing Chun Universe that is not fit for purpose in the Ring or Cage, and that, of course, is most of the worlds Wing Chun players, including “Yours Truly”!
Most of us are not fit enough, not fast enough, not robust enough and have little if any of the attitude it takes to engage someone ‘Mano e Mano’.
Why pretend otherwise?
We should embrace this and structure our expectations accordingly because…
“it is what it is’!
And it is we will have to work with when the ‘Brown gets Airbourne’.
Just before the “Lockdown”, I organised a sparring session with a local Karate School, I worked with my guys for about a month on how to spar with someone other than a fellow W.C. guy, what to look out for against a Karate player, how to use what they knew, how to use the things I had shown them, we worked hard and we were as prepared as we could have been.
When my guys started sparring there was no Wing Chun or at least none that I recognised.
At first, they would not believe me, but in the debrief they realised I was speaking the truth, but I was still really proud of them, they did as well if not better than I expected.
Been there, done that!
When I was a young boxer my coach would ask me after a fight “why did you not use what worked on for so long”?
I always thought that I had and that he was just a hard arse.
Go figure.
When we watch these videos, and we should, we should watch them all and watch them many times, we should give our Martial Arts cousin well deserved respect, understand that he is our equal, a fellow Priest of Mars kneeling at the same altar, dancing the same dance, singing the same song.
“Do we really think that this is what he trained for”?
“Do we really believe that this is what he wanted to do”?
We should not just slag the shit out of him, like ourselves he is digging a deep and lonely furrow.
One thing I think about this particular W.C. Master to some of the other W.C. Masters that found themselves in the same place is that this man took it to his opponent, he gave it ‘as good go as he could’, I just think that he was overwhelmed by the experience lack of ring experience, global video audience and all that crazy stuff and not necessarily the fight itself.
IF WE ARE HONEST WE CAN LEARN SO MUCH FROM THIS VIDEO.
The commentary in this video is spot on in places, he talks about the Wing Chun Man losing his shape in the clinch, as we all know the final move in Biu Gee, the 3 Bows to Buddha, would not only get him back into a good shape but help him to a position that he could easily have won from.
As a Master level Tactician, he would surely know this, but that is the thing, knowing may be good, but doing is better..
Would we fare any better?
Personally, I do not think so, I would imagine that he will watch this video and weep.
We should approach these videos with respect and understanding.
If we are honest there is much we can learn from them.
All of these guys must have thought that they had a chance, why be involved if not, I also expect that they trained hard to get ready for the fight, harder than most Wing Chun Hobbyist does.
Which means they would be better prepared at that time than we are right here right now if we went out and got in strife.
This could so easily be us, so what should we be working on to do our best to not be ‘that Guy’?
‘Sinking and Rising’ are not methods in and of themselves, rather they are ways to improve things we already know and trust.
This is a follow up to Saturday mornings training with Sam, Costas and George, something to help it all sink in [no pun intended].
Sinking and Rising is not bobbing up and down, it is not ‘ducking and weaving’ although if you watch early Mike Tyson you can see how he incorporated it, it is not accidental it is deliberate and purposeful.
WHY DO WE SINK?
The answer is two-fold…
We sink so as to deliberately apply bodyweight to any defensive structure.
We sink to enable us to Rise Up.
WHY DO WE RISE?
Again we have a two-fold answer…
We rise to uproot an opponent and take his stability.
We rise to increase the power of our attack.
‘Sinking and Rising’ are not methods in and of themselves, rather they are ways to improve things we already know and trust.
Knowing what we are doing is the first step to being able to use what we know.
One thing that is becoming very clear to me as we reopen for training is that so many Wing Chun Students, including some Senior Instructors, have a remarkably poor IDEA of what violence is.
This really is a serious worry because the only aim of Wing Chun is to deal with violence that is being acted out upon us, if we do not understand the nature of violence how can we ever hope to train to survive it?
Yes, due to COVID 19 these are difficult times, changes need to be made and adhered to, but what changes?
Even a complete idiot would tell you that you cannot teach a counter-attacking Close-Quarter Martial Art from a distance of 1.5M.
At this time practical Wing Chun must take a back seat, our focus should be on understanding the environment of violence, understanding the ‘mindset’ that leads to violence, and of the utmost importance the mindset needed to deal with violence, without this there is no Wing Chun.
I will expand on this over the next few posts and hopefully offer suggestions to take us forwards.
Even from 1.5M.
Let’s start here with an approach to attitude, and what it takes to develop the right type.
As Martial Artists, even if we are just a bit half-arsed, we all trust our training, and expect it to work if and when needed.
But what do we really expect the outcome of our training to be, do we even know?
For instance what ‘BOX’ does it live in?
From a biophysical standpoint, training is training, there is no difference between training to play a sport or training to defend ourselves from violence.
I personally find that my training fits perfectly in the all-round General Sports Box.
But so many of my Martial Arts friends and associates rail against this opinion.
Kung Fu is kick ass man, sport is just sport.
I believe that to become functionally effective it is, in fact, more beneficial to approach our training from a sports perspective, to embrace and include modern sports science, if for no other reason than to foster a lesser involvement of the Ego.
We are less likely to respond to a situational question with ‘I will just step in and hit him’, which we may well do in reality, but we cannot train for that.
Especially from 1.5Mtrs away.
All training is task-specific, it just is.
So what specific task is what we are doing preparing us for?
Is it enough?
Is it too much?
Is it just right?
Anyone with a schoolboys experience of sport is well aware that before playing we go through a routine using the same movements and actions as we may use in the game at an easier, softer, slower level of participation.
This allows the body to prepare itself for the greater demands to come.
We all know this as the ‘Warm-up’.
Anyone that has undertaken training to improve their sports capability knows that here as well we do similar movements and actions as we may use in the game but this time under increasing load.
Increasing weight, resistance and speed.
This brings about an overall physical improvement, this is the ‘Training Effect’.
The ‘Training Effect’ helps us to develop a higher power output for a lower effort input, hence the maxim ‘Train Hard, Play Easy’.
This also indicates that the environment we expect to use these skills, to be operationally effective in, is considerably more involved than a ‘Warm Up” but not as full-on as “Heavy Training”.
Traditionally in Chinese Martial Arts both the ‘Warm-up’ and the “Heavy Training” fall under the banner of Chi Kung while the operational aspect is, of course, Kung Fu.
On the face of it, Wing Chun does not have a Chi Kung component, everything is useable Kung Fu.
Sadly this is just spin, marketing, selling less for more.
How can we tell the difference between Chi Kung and Kung Fu in our Wing Chun training?
This a great deal more simple than you may imagine, and Simplicity is one of the central pillars of our ‘Fist Logic’.
If whatever it is we do is not aligned with our ‘Fist Logic’ it is not Wing Chun.
Similar is not the same.
Close, but no cigar.
The absolute ‘Central Pillar’ of our Fist logic is ‘Practicality’.
I have said elsewhere that there are only 2 important aspects to using Wing Chun effectively.
We must not get hit.
We must be able to accurately and powerfully hit our opponent.
If we defending against a genuine attack that is genuinely meant to harm us we are using Kung Fu.
If we are hitting our opponent with full focus and total commitment to finish this right here, right now we are using Kung Fu.
Everything else is Chi Kung.
This is not a bad thing, this is in no way a negative, it is in-fact an absolute and dynamic positive.
Knowing what we are doing is the first step to being able to use what we know.
The big test, the real goal in all of our training is to not allow our Ego to coax us into self-delusion, this starts with being honest about our training, what it is, what it can do for us but most importantly…
WHEN YOU DON’T UNDERSTAND, THINGS ARE JUST THE WAY THEY ARE. .
In our post COVID world, we are still more involved in the mental aspects of our training than the usual physical aspects, there is a lot more to be gained from this type of training if we know what to look for.
On Saturday the senior guys and I spent some time working on a video to expand on why what we do is not what we think it is.
How the learning objective of the things we are doing is not the things we are doing themselves and as such how the things we do are of little if any practical value.
How the fact that nothing we do will work if we try to use it and why this is not even the slightest of problems.
However, it was 6 days before my 67th birthday and I appear to have had a ‘seniors moment’ and forgot to press the record button.
This video is a preamble to the next video.
This line of thinking brings me back to one of my favourite maxims…
WHEN YOU UNDERSTAND, THINGS ARE JUST THE WAY THEY ARE.
WHEN YOU DON’T UNDERSTAND, THINGS ARE JUST THE WAY THEY ARE.
Wing Chun Sydney, Australia 