Category: FIST LOGIC

“turn on, tune in and drop out”.

To understand Wing Chun, we need to understand or at least reconnect with something we have always known.

An aid to this end is to think like an Artist, not a Martial Artist, but an “Art” artist.

We need to be more like a playwright, such as Bill Shakespeare.

Or a visual artist such as Mark Rothko.

Or even better a poet such as John Keats.

It was Keats who coined the phrase “Negative Capability”…

for a writer to pursue a vision of artistic beauty even when it leads them into intellectual confusion and uncertainty, as opposed to a preference for philosophical certainty over artistic beauty.

J.K.

In many ways, this spins me back to the heady days of my misspent youth, to the hip ‘Harvard’ professor Timothy Leary who advised us all to “turn on, tune in and drop out”.

Every time we get astonished by some new information from our teacher, when we cannot believe we can do so much with so little we are in the universe of “Negative Capability”, and the citizens that thrive there.

What did these diverse individual entities such as Shakespear, Rothko, Keats and Wing Chun have in common?

The Human Condition.

The most amazing, and perhaps perplexingly disturbing thing about the Human Condition is that we are all born with it.

There is nothing to learn.

Just acceptance and understanding.

If we wish to understand Wing Chun, we must first understand what it is to be human.

We should work on this.

As always…

WORK ON YOUR WEAKNESS – PLAY TO YOUR STRENGTH.

This new normal

Hi Guy’s.

If you are a visitor to this site, and I do get many, this post is for mostly for my students, you are more than welcome to enjoy it but it may have little of interest in it, plus the video is a tad long at 15 minutes.

This new normal, this post covid experience is a test for all of us, those that have not completely given training away, and here in my school that is almost 50% of pre-Covid numbers, have reduced their attendance to just one session a week, and of course modern life being what it is, this often means that this becomes zero sessions a week.

Solo training is more important than ever.

Over the next few weeks i will re-visit all of the information on Solo Training and bring it up to date, in the meantime…

As always…

TRAIN YOUR WEAKNESS’ – WORK YOUR STRENGTH.

“Vision without action is a daydream. Action without vision is a nightmare.”
– Japanese Proverb

HI GUYS,

Just a simple method to help you get the most out of your solo training.

Covid has brought about a lot of changes but the one that i think has the potential to derail us the most is that most people have moved to only having one session a week of supervised training.

Obviously this places greater emphasis on what we do on our own.

If there is a secret to moving forwards it is working on expanding our understanding of the knowledge we have and not the pursuit of new knowledge.

Working alone is not always a negative, but to prevent it from slipping off into the weeds concentrate on what is available to you in the here and now, the difficulty is attaching context to things that are really only going on in our imagination so as always ask…

“Why would I be doing this, what would need to be happening”?

Create an imaginary scenario th measure your IDEA against.

“Vision without action is a daydream. Action without vision is a nightmare.”
– Japanese Proverb

WORK ON YOUR WEAKNESS – PLAY TO YOUR STRENGTH.

The author is a Social Scientist that has a deep professional interest in S.E. Asian Martial Culture

To anyone with an interest in Wing Chun and an interest in the reality of Southern Chinese Martial Arts, this is one blog that is a must to visit.

https://chinesemartialstudies.com/

On the home page, linked above, there is presently an article on Chan Wah Shun and the creation of Wing Chun Kung Fu that is well worth the 8 minutes or so it takes to read.

Here is a direct link to that particular post in case the homepage has been changed by the time you visit.

https://chinesemartialstudies.com/

My advice is that it is worth reading all of the posts on this blog referring to Wing Chun.

The author is Ben Judkins Ph. D. a Social Scientist that has a deep professional interest in S.E. Asian Martial Culture with a personal investment in Wing Chun, he is one of us, his stuff is well researched and unbiased unlike people like myself that in reality just offer opinions.

Here is a link to Bens C.V… https://chinesemartialstudies.com/cv/

As always…

TRAIN YOUR WEAKNESS’ – WORK TO YOUR STRENGTH.

WORK ON YOUR WEAKNESS – PLAY TO YOUR STRENGTH.

These two videos are from over 24 months ago but they are in line with what we are working on at this present time, they need updating and I will, as promised, get this done but until then check them out as it is what we are currently working on.

WORK ON YOUR WEAKNESS – PLAY TO YOUR STRENGTH.

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.

WORK ON YOUR WEAKNESS – PLAY TO YOUR STRENGTH.

Chi Sau is a game that we play by our own rules to get an outcome that we alone wish for, for reasons only we know.

I can only give my opinion here, and if we are honest that is all anyone has ever done from Leung Jan through Ip Man, C.S.T. or my own teacher Jim Fung.

I will not try to pretend that I know things that other people do not know, even though I do, as we all do.

Chi Sau is a game that we play by our own rules to get an outcome that we alone wish for, for reasons only we know.

In this way it is both remarkable and hopeless.

I think it is remarkable.

Many years ago when I was getting Tennis Instruction from an Australian National Coach, I was informed that we can only ever learn what we already know.

That explains why i never made it to State Grade, but what does it tell you about your Chi Sau?

WORK ON YOUR WEAKNESS’ – PLAY TO YOUR STRENGTH.

Plans are worthless, but planning is essential.

Two for one you lucky INCas.

First up a brief look at how the First form is important in the set up for striking, even though it is static and not intended to be used.

Secondly for those not back yet our man costas was in a very nasty car crash that wrote off his truck but luckily only damaged his hand.

All in all it is good news for Costas on the injury but bad news on no training for 6 weeks, keep him in your thoughts guys.

If there is anything any of you would like me to cover ping me. It is your Blog.

Forms are more than just a bit weird, they are simultaneously the most useless things we can spend time on but also the most important thing for us to understand.

To put this into a more Martial contex, Dwight D. Eisenhower is quoted as saying…

Plans are worthless, but planning is essential.

This is how to not go crazy when we approach the Forms.

As always…

WORK ON YOUR WEAKNESS’ – PLAY TO YOUR STRENGTH.

‘Wing Chun is not based on any particular “Small Idea”, but on the WAY of a small idea’.

I had a very long conversation with my teacher ‘Jim’ Fung Chuen Keung about the heart of Wing Chun, the Sil Lim Dao, long as in short individual discussions over many years and not one marathon conflab.

One thing that came up time and again was his view that the difference between the ‘Chinese Collective Consciousness’ and the ‘European Collective Consciousness’ was so vast that translations became impossible.

When trying to explain/translate nuanced concepts, he would say ‘there are things that we Chinese people know that we are not aware we know’ but we know we cannot explain them in any other way than Chinese.

European and Chinese cultures stem from a different root.

Even though he was not a Daoist, Daoism influenced his and all Chinese peoples thinking and values, just as Judeo – Christian thinking influences European thinking and values, even when like me, one is an atheist.

As is the way with these type of conversations, ideas would lay dormant for months sometimes years and then bubble up unexpectedly to be rehashed, revisited.

In one exchange he said ‘Wing Chun is not based on any particular “Small Idea”, but on the WAY of a small idea’.

To my surprise, this made a lot of sense to me then and still does today.

The continuous practice of Wing Chun is about resolving everything down to its smallest and simplest possible state.

The work now becomes how do we reconcile this concept/idea/practice with 6 Forms and Chi Sau.

WORK ON YOUR WEAKNESS. – PLAY TO YOUR STRENGTH.

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.

WORK ON YOUR WEAKNESS – PLAY TO YOUR STRENGTH.