Category: FIST LOGIC

FIST LOGIC

SPRINGY FORCE.

The "D" Man

Something to be aware of is that Springy Force is the reaction and not the action, we do not consciously try to create Springy Force.

Movement and Springy Force.

Everything we do, whether we are issuing force or accepting force, automatically, as a by-product of the Laws of Newtonian Physics, invokes return force.

Return Force in Kung Fu speak, is named Springy Force, but we can substitute return force if it makes things clearer.

It would make sense for us to develop a deeper understanding of why and how this happens in direct relationship to and influenced by Wing Chun. 

Springy Force is the Kung Fu layman’s term for Newton’s Third Law of Motion.

‘Every action creates a reaction of the same magnitude in the opposite direction’.

Just like a spring, hence Springy Force.

Something to be aware of is that Springy Force is the reaction and not the action, we do not consciously try to create Springy Force.

If we push something, or something pushes us, it is Springy Force that pushes back.

If we pull something or something pulls us it is Springy Force that pulls back.

It is however perfectly reasonable to train our actions with the desired outcome being the condition that brings about the activation of Springy Force.

In this way, we can anticipate the activation of Springy Force upon contact, even build it into our intention, but we are never truly in control of it or overtly involving it.

This is head-spin stuff.

The overall effectiveness of Springy Force will always be influenced by the quality of our connection with the antagonist, and to physical alignment.

The application of Springy Force in a genuine situation will be somewhat random, it is influenced much more by the action of the agitator than by our own actions.

The best vehicle to explore and set up the optimal condition for Springy Force to happen is controlled, organised, conscious movement.  

In other words, the best training protocol for this is Forms training, with the Pole being my go-to Form if time is restricted.

Every move we make should either be of compression or release [not expansion].

This is more a drill than traditional ‘Forms’ training with the goal of being aware of the different phases of movement.

Absolute stillness should be avoided and awareness should be focused on the transition phase of compression to release and release to compression.

In a genuine situation, compression will often be brought about by making contact or moving to anticipate making contact with an incoming force. 

In Forms analysis training, we deliberately set up the compression to give us context.

The only reason we create compression is to empower the release phase, the Springy Force, and not to affect our training partner.

Coordinating all movement from the perspective of the creation of ‘Springy Force’ compression and the release of the ‘Springy Force’ we have compressed, is an important aspect of all of our movement sets.

Especially for transitioning to a practical application or the issuing of force.

All of this type of training is about being aware of the thought behind the action and the relationship between each of them, with training this can become automatic where the thought alone triggers the action associated with that thought.

This is how Springy Force is activated.

We cannot feel our own Springy Force, we can only feel our training partner’s Force pressing on us.

Terms we use to describe this, such as “constant forwards pressure” lead us to think that it is an active pressure when it is a passive pressure.

To understand Springy Force it needs to be felt, to be experienced, no video can ever get close.

Interestingly, once we understand the condition to bring Springy Force into being, and its vital role in our defensive philosophy, returning their own force to them, doing the opposite is how we maximise impact, we prevent our Force from being returned to us.

I will make a video of this aspect the next time I am with the senior students.

IN A VIOLENT SITUATION,

THE ONLY WRONG MOVE,

IS NOT TO MOVE.

FIST LOGIC

GOOD CHOICE, OR WHAT?

The "D" Man 


















How can we describe something when we do not even know if it will happen?












Hi Guys,





I am struggling a bit to find the best way to open this post, to find the right opening words and right feeling, so if it starts to come off a bit scattered or weird just stick it out, I am sure it will make sense by the finish.





Q…Is it possible to know if we have chosen the best Martial Art to get us out of a future, unknown situation, that we hope will not even happen.





A…As counter-intuitive as it may sound the answer is yes we can, and we can describe this situation with at least 90% accuracy.





This is what I mean about it may sound a bit weird.





How can we describe something that we do not even know if it will happen?





Every Martial Art is a specific solution to a specific problem.





So if we can describe the very things that Wing Chun is optimal to deal with, what it says on the box so to speak, we are describing the situation it is best suited to solve.





If this situation does not match the situation we fear we may end up in perhaps we have made a poor choice of Martial Art.





For us this is Wing Chun, but it applies to all Martial Arts.





In what situation is Wing Chun optimal?





If we are considering a situation that puts us in harm’s way, we only want what is optimal, any other choice brings a greater chance of failure.





WING CHUN KUEN.  





A COUNTER-ATTACKING, CONCEPT-DRIVEN, FIST-FIGHTING STYLE.





If we can unpack this description it shows us the type of situation we are preparing for, and just as importantly what we are not preparing for.





COUNTER-ATTACKING… By definition, we cannot be counter-attacking unless we are, first of all, under attack from an outside party.  We cannot be considered to be counter-attacking if we instigate the confrontation, Wing Chun is not intended for any kind of ‘Mano a Mano’ confrontation. We can dig into this a bit later.





CONCEPT DRIVEN… The ‘CORE’ learning objective is to understand the ‘CONCEPTS’ or ‘PHILOSOPHY’ of the style, the Forms, Chi Sau, and techniques are there to highlight or relate physical actions to the philosophy.  This is why it is so hard to say what is or what is not Wing Chun by simply observing a persons actions. We can dig into this a bit later.





FIST FIGHTING STYLE… Wing Chun is predominantly, but not exclusively, a hand-striking style.





Wing Chun does use kicks, knees, elbows, and even head-butts, but these are the exceptions and not the rule.  We can dig into this a bit later.





On first look, the situation Wing Chun will be optimal in is a surprise attack, something like a mugging, or an unexpected, violent turn in a difference of opinion that we did not really anticipate.





The level of surprise that we encounter will determine our chances of survival, if the surprise is absolute, if we do not see the attack coming, we have zero chance of success.





What can we do to lessen any chances of absolute surprise?





Sadly, nothing, that is why it is a surprise, however, we can increase our chances by not sleepwalking in dangerous places.





Awareness, but not hyper-vigilance, can prevent most surprises.





As short as this post is there is a lot to think about so I will leave it here to sink in, I will break everything down later on and hopefully you guys can bring things into training so we can flesh it out in a way that everyone can relate to.












If we train for what happens most, 





we will be ready for most of what happens.










		


			
		
	






	
	

		FIST LOGIC
INTRO TO ENGAGING AN ATTACKER
	


	

							

			 The "D" Man		
		
		

			


















The Forms are nothing more than a loose collection of mnemonics, aids to memory.












For a very long time, I struggled to work on the Wing Chun FORMS.





I would get angry because so many of the moves in the FORM were just plain wrong, even by Wing Chun’s own metrics and I felt that I was being asked to accept something that I knew to be flawed.





How and when did things change?





Things changed once I realised that it just did not matter.





For some unknown reason, I thought that the FORMS were a complete and finished pattern that I needed to copy immaculately and that somehow I could not understand them if I did not do them perfectly.





This is not the case.





The Forms are nothing more than a loose collection of mnemonics, aids to memory.





Realising that it was not the content, the shapes or the moves that I was trying to learn changed the game.





The content of the FORMS was just a way to access the process.





Once I understood the process, the non-physical aspect, and the IDEA theory, I revisited the previous work and set out to correct the mistakes.





It was with untold delight that I discovered that the mistakes were really quite minor and concluded that they may have been included deliberately as a kind of hidden test and that the needed correction was already there, in the Theory of the IDEA.





I wrote about this some time ago in the post ‘Hidden in plain sight’, here is a LINK if we need to refresh your memory.





At that time I only saw Biu Gee in this way, but it is everywhere.





How could it not be?







































		


			
		
	






	
	

		FIST LOGIC, Uncategorized
COUNTER ATTACKING.
	


	

							

			 The "D" Man		
		
		

			


AN ATTACK ON MY DOG IS AN ATTACK ON ME!!!








 it is so much more important to understand the philosophy of what we do as opposed to the methodology.







Hey Guys,





We have spent the early months of this year working on the not-so-obvious and not-so-visible side of Wing Chun, but at the end of the day, this stuff is only needed once we engage someone.





To get us back into the correct head-space to survive violence we need to change which thinking hat we are wearing.





We need our Counter-Attacking Hat.





What is the action we refer to as a Counter Attack?





Whenever we try to get deep into it we are confronted by the fact that we need additional information to put it into the correct context.





It is just not possible to talk about Counter Attacking without a concrete reference to what an Attack is, and this of course opens up the need to have a concrete reference to what Fighting is, the different phases of Fighting, the difference between Attacking and Defending, Fighting and Attacking, Fighting and Defending, in short, we need to have at least a personal opinion of the dynamics of violence.





 We train and approach Wing Chun as an answer to Violence.





This affects everything we do and everything we train, and it unavoidably creates a bias towards Function and Application.





I have been involved in enough violence to be acutely aware that no man can ever truly understand or in fact prepare for violence, it is just too expansive, and its appearance is usually random and unpredictable.





But as individuals, we owe it to ourselves to try to understand what we think violence is.





This will be different for every one of us, this is why it is so much more important to understand the philosophy of what we do as opposed to the methodology.





The reason we spend a decent amount of our training time attempting to relate what we are training to where and why we think we would use it, we often learn more about the practicality of our training from exploring our conversations than exploring the physical aspect of the training.





As a teacher I find these conversations so engaging because I find myself in a position where I am trying to answer many different questions with one simple answer, this leads to my own further development.





Before discussing the Philosophy of Counter Attack, let’s talk about the dynamics of rightly or wrongly expected violence.





VIOLENCE – A GENERLISATION.





Violence is multi-faceted and layered, it comes in many shapes and sizes, one on one, many against one, gang on gang, country against country every event is a new event that has so little in common with what came before the value of prior experience is far less than we may imagine.





 In general terms violence comes in two flavours, let’s call them Social and Anti – Social.





SOCIAL VIOLENCE, 





This is a FIGHT.





Fights are events between two people that have agreed to fight, a Match Fight, a Combat Sports competition or when outsides of sports someone says to the other something along the lines of ….





’I will meet you at such a place at such a time and we will sort this out’.





In this type of engagement, both parties know why they are there and what is about to go down, it is consensual, and they have given each other permission to use violence, there is no surprise here, there is usually some kind of support and a designated endpoint such as a knockout, one person being unable to continue or submission and then the thing is over. 





 If one of the fighters is injured help is never far away.  Schoolyard fights fall into this category unless it is a bullying situation.





ANTI-SOCIAL VIOLENCE,.





This is an unprovoked ATTACK, and in general what Non-Combat Sports Martial Artists train for, only one of the people involved knows the reason for this, only one person knows what the end point is, and it is usually incapacitation, there is very rarely support for the person being attacked and if at the end that person is left injured there is no guarantee of help. 





This is a bad headspace that has a dramatic often debilitating effect on performance.





In the middle of this event, the intended victim may get the upper hand and turn the tables on the attacker, but only the roles change, the outcome remains the same, the victim simply becomes the attacker, and the attacker becomes the victim. 





ANATOMY OF A VIOLENT EVENT.





Fighting, Attacking and Defending are three very different situations that cannot and should not be looked at as different aspects of the same thing.





Fighting is when two people are both engaged in the same event, trying to reach the same goal,  for the same reason, it is consensual, usually preplanned and allows for strategies to be thought out and implemented. This is primarily a competition mindset. 





Think Boxing or M.M.A.





Attacking is when one person without any thought or concern for the other uses violence to further their own agenda. This is predatory behaviour, a predatory mindset.





Think of something along the lines of a mugging.





Defending is when a person that is under attack in any situation tries to prevent an attacker from hurting them.  This is a survivalist mindset. 





It is important to acknowledge that defending does not mean fighting back, to fight back requires a change of mindset, this is the problem with thinking that Wing Chun’s Simultaneous Attack and Defence is a methodology instead of a concept, to be able to implement S.A & D we would need to be in two different mindsets at the same time, being in two minds is an expression used to illustrate indecisiveness or confusion.





MINDSET.





Mindsets govern how our body works, how it reacts to stimuli, what hormones the body creates and how much control we have over our movements.





There are major physical, emotional, mental and physiological differences between the mindsets that automatically develop when Fighting, Attacking or Defending, they are not even close to being the same thing, and they are incapable of being combined.





Do not just take my word for it, do some research, and check it out.





PHASES OF A VIOLENT EVENT.





From the Wing Chun training perspective what we think we would face in a violent event would have three distinct phases that require different thinking and application.  This does not include totally random surprise attacks, they are undefendable, most violence has some kind of precursor so we will at least be aware of the possibility of violence.





Phase #1.  





The attacker is aggressive and animated, Wing Chun man is passive and ready, the attacker mistakes passivity for weakness and launches the attack without fear of retaliation, W.C man intercepts and presses forward with relentless attacks, possibly ending the threat there and then.  





If successful we move to Phase #3.  This is a typical training scenario.





Phase #2.





W.C.Mans first response did not end the threat, both men separate and regroup, the element of surprise is gone, and the attacker knows the game is afoot and will now be cautious, possibly use kicks, possibly try to rush in and overwhelm us, possibly set in for a long thoughtful brawl, Mano e Mano. 





 This phase is completely unpredictable, and as such is rarely if ever approached in training.





Phase #3.





W.C. Man ends the threat and enacts a preplanned exit strategy. 





This is another aspect that does not get enough time in most training, it brings its own bundle of questions, the most pertinent being……..





What constitutes a win?





Do I stay or do I go?





To be continued…





COUNTER-ATTACKING DOES NOT REQUIRE DEFENCE, ONLY THAT WE ARE UNDER ATTACK.






WHAT KIND OF DAY IS IT FOR YOU?


		


			
		
	






	
	

		FIST LOGIC
CHUM KIU, BIU GEE, AND BEYOND.
	


	

							

			 The "D" Man		
		
		

			























Once the body has been developed in this way everything we do becomes Wing Chun.












I know from my own experience that it is difficult to see how just doing FORMS can make somebody a more effective fighter.





This was my default position for a very long time, in fact, it is why as a young man I stopped training in Hsing Yi Chuan and Baguazahng, both Kung Fu styles that share a central focus on FORMS.





This began to change once I began training in Wing Chun Kung Fu back in the early 1990s.





The first stage of Wing Chun training, the first 12 – 24 months,  is approximately 80% practical techniques and physical self-defence applications,15% theory, and only 5% FORM work.





This allows students to feel that they are learning ‘Real Stuff’ for use in ‘Real Fights’ without any need to understand what is going on under the hood.





After around 2 years of this type of training, everybody that applies themselves to the work has a skill set that can get them out of just about any kind of trouble, this is an observable fact.





More importantly, everybody that does this training believes that they have a skill set that can get them out of trouble, if we believe, we will accept, and by accepting we will choose to use what we have practiced if we find ourselves in a bad situation, and yes it will and does work.





Many students give it away at this point having achieved their primary goal and do not stay to study what makes Wing Chun work and how to improve it.





This is what Chum Kiu and Biu Gee do, they help us understand the why of it all, there is nothing new, once we understand Chum Kiu and Biu Gee we can look back and see that we had been using these tools since day #1.





From here on in the trajectory is lifelong continued improvement.





Chum Kiu introduces us to Wing Chun’s thinking on how to accept and redirect incoming force, in short, our defence, while Biu Gee introduces us to Wing Chun’s thinking on how to issue force, in short, our attack.





From the first day when we performed our first Tarn Da {Tarn Sau and punch}, we were influenced and informed by both Chum Kiu {Tarn Sau} and Biu Gee {Vertical Punch}.





To describe Wing Chun in as simple a way as possible, when someone throws a strike at us, we move it out of the way and hit them at the same time.





An oversimplification to be sure, but it also covers every situation we may face, be it a kick, a punch, or even a weapon, move it out of the way and counter-attack at the same time.





Developing the shape and the alignment of a structure that can intercept incoming force without buckling under pressure is the prime objective of Chum Kiu.





Developing the shape and alignment of a structure that can transfer accelerating body mass to a chosen target without the need for excess effort or strength is the prime objective of Biu Gee.





There are many secondary objectives that we can explore and discover in both Chum Kiu and Biu Gee, but our first goal should be to achieve competence with the prime objective.





It can be a challenge for all of us to deliberately choose simplified solutions to solve what we think are complicated problems, but when we consider that one of the central pillars of Wing Chun’s Fist Logic is simplicity, this approach is more than just far-sighted, it becomes necessary.





There is an often unnoticed benefit to FORMS training.





It allows us to divorce the training from ‘real-time’ fighting.





If we look at our primate relatives, the Chimpanzee or the Gorilla, we can observe them fighting in very human-looking ways.





Who taught these guys how to fight?













No one, it is innate, as it is with us.





Training is not about learning how to fight, it is about learning how to be better at fighting.





How to develop a body that is better suited to fighting.





The Shaolin Monks knew this and styled at least two of their training sets,  Hóu Quán (猴拳, monkey fist),  and Baiyuan Tongbei Quan 白猿通背拳,  White Ape Connected Arms boxing, after the way Monkeys fight.





Chum Kiu and Biu Gee allow us to continually improve the condition and coordination of our body to take our basic fighting skills to another, much higher level.





Once the body has been developed in this way everything we do becomes Wing Chun.













Learn the form, but seek the formless.





Learn it all, then forget it all. 





Learn The Way, then find your own way.

The Silent Monk













		


			
		
	






	
	

		FIST LOGIC
IT IS NOT ABOUT FIGHTING.
	


	

							

			 The "D" Man		
		
		

			













Martial Arts do not teach us how to fight.












Firstly, Gong Hei Fat Choy.





Secondly, Happy Birthday to us, 13 today, hip, hip hooray.





On with the show.





I have been in and around Martial Arts since 1960, which is a very long time in any currency.





I started with competitive styles and then moved to the more personal development styles.





But for me, it has always been about the work.





The skill set.





It still is, even as my body begins to let me down, perhaps even more so, now that my body is starting to let me down.





What have I learned that I think is worth passing on?





Martial Arts do not teach us how to fight.





After 60+ years I know this inside and out.





Yet still, I do the work.





Helio Grace, the founder of Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu is quoted as saying “Learn to fight like an old man, because one day you will be”.





Perhaps he meant “Learn how to not fight like an old man does not fight”





But that type of advertising does not fill dojo’s.





We will be closed for 2 weeks or around that so here is something to keep you awake at nights.































Although we say we realise that Humans are part of a bigger family.





A  family of primates along with Orangutangs, Chimpanzees, Gorillas and Bonobos,  collectively known as the Great Apes.





We somehow think that we will act differently when placed under survival stress.





Without training, we will not act any differently.





I can almost hear the ghost of Grouch Marx saying…







… The difference between an Ape and a Man is that an Ape knows that it is an Ape.

THE “D” MAN, posing as Groucho.








		


			
		
	






	
	

		FIST LOGIC
AT THE HEART IS SIMPLICITY.
	


	

							

			 The "D" Man		
		
		

			













In a world where too much Wing Chun is not enough, we all gave more.












This Saturday just past turned into a monster training session, the guys were all right up for it and I really felt the vibe.





The training was as the training is, but we all dug deep, so deep that I had way too much video footage.





I have cut the video up into 3 chunks so that you guys can watch one over coffee or what have you, and then tomorrow and the next day.





In a world where too much Wing Chun is not enough, we all gave more.





For tribe members that did not make it Saturday bring it in with you next time you train.





If your plan is to watch one a day then I suggest starting with the last video we shot, “The last 10 minutes” it was more a chat than training but it was tasty.















































Most of the training that we improve from takes place between our ears, without it, there is nothing, so train every day.












Warriors don’t raise to the level of expectations, they fall to the level of their training.” 

Archilochus

		


			
		
	






	
	

		FIST LOGIC
MY BOOMERANG WON’T COME BACK!
	


	

							

			 The "D" Man		
		
		

			

DON’T DO THIS AT HOME KIDS.












Because if we ever do get into a fight, it will be on that bridge.












This post is only 6 or so months old so hopefully, it is not totally forgotten, it pretty much applies to what we have all been exploring this past week, albeit through different methods.










Everything will work to a certain extent, and everything will fail to a certain extent.





It is about 3 things.





Understanding how our body works





Understanding our ‘FIST LOGIC’.





And… Understanding how to build a bridge between the two.





Because if we ever do get into a fight, it will be on that bridge.





We are not people learning Wing Chun, we are people using WingChun to learn about ourselves.





There is a joke here in Oz. 





“What do you call a boomerang that doesn’t come back”?





A stick.





Asking “will my Martial Art work” is a little bit like asking will this stick work?





It will.





But only if you know how to use it, and are willing to use it.





If we do not align our training with hitting someone, and hitting them really hard, we have the wrong stick.





At the end of the day, everything we do is about hitting people, and not about defense.





The moral of this tale is knowing the right stick.





STABILISATION THROUGH COMPRESSION AND ORGANISATION.





Biu Gee introduces us to stabilisation through compression and organisation of the body, mostly, but not only, through ‘Core Winding’.





The various but sometimes subtle rotations of Biu Gee are intended to induce spontaneous martial Innovation’.





How can we approach this work to gain an understanding of these Concepts?





We should use something, anything we use frequently, and have a very natural feeling for, in my case, it is the Knife Hand.





Learn the shape of the Knife Hand.





Learn the shape of the transition from defense to attack and how this action creates and stores kinetic energy.





The best place to explore this is in the Biu Gee Form not in free play.





Any movement in the Form that extends into the ‘Hit Zone’ can be regarded as a Knife Hand, or if you prefer a punch mechanism.





By now you should all be aware that I believe that when training doing all of the Form slows your understanding down.





The best approach is to repeat the segments that can transition from a defensive {Chum Kiu} posture to an extension, be it Knife Hand, finger Jab, or Punch, they all use the same mechanism.





 The next step, take it into active play, in Chi Sau steer your partner out of his zone and into yours, this will simulate taking the Position of Dominance in a real fight.





How did you achieve it?





Did you push?





Did you pull?





Check it out.





C.K. shift left, B.G. upper body pivot to the floating ribs, do not let the feet dissolve the torsion.





In general, most Wing Chun practice does not improve overall movement, the information is there, but it is veiled in subtle inferences that are not openly discussed, it is the whole ‘Secret Information’ aspect of Biu Gee.





However, if you have good movement and agility, when you play the Biu Gee Form they will stick out like Dog’s Do Dah’s, here is a link to some good info on movement from outside of Wing Chun.







All difficult things have their origin in that which is easy,





 and great things in that which is small. 

LAO TZU






HOKKA HEY!







WHAT KIND OF DAY IS IT?


		


			
		
	






	
	

		FIST LOGIC
NON WING CHUN PREP FOR CHUM KIU.
	


	

							

			 The "D" Man		
		
		

			


















Forms are organising patterns that have little if any genuine purpose apart from dexterity and proprioception.












This post was originally for Rick, but as I said back then… 





It never hurts to go over stuff we think we know.





All Forms are a way to organise our body along certain lines to fit certain agendas.





Forms are organising patterns that have little if any genuine purpose apart from dexterity and proprioception.





Added to this we are training our body to be in a specific and exact shape.





This is very important and frequently overlooked or at the very least misunderstood.





Creating an exact shape is a transferable skill, once we can accurately make one exact shape we can accurately make any exact shape.





Chum Kiu introduces us to contact and as such introduces us to force/power and how to deal with it, use it.





Force/power comes from Gravity, sinking or dropping. It comes from Momentum, moving in a straight line and it comes from Torque, rotation.





Instead of just taking all this as a given try to identify these IDEAS in the various FORMS.
























Don’t tell people how to do things, tell them what to do and let them surprise you with their results.    George S. Patton











HOKKA HEY!












WHAT KIND OF DAY IS IT?


		


			
		
	






	
	

		FIST LOGIC
ALL-DAY TRAINING.
	


	

							

			 The "D" Man		
		
		

			

HELLO…..










Thursday evening 6.50pm.  Jordel has just let me know he is stuck at work, Sam S. is not up for it due to a big day’s work and yes George has been called back into work, and Costas is staying home.





Rick, Saleh and Sam B. do not train Thursday.





8.00pm no one is coming but I am here, ready.





So here are a few quotes to think about and a small video.







“ Talent hits a target no one else can hit; Genius hits a target no one else can see. 

Arthur Schopenhauer 







Knowledge is gained by adding something every day. 
Wisdom is gained by taking something away every day.

Lao Tzu












Violence happens by Surprise, Closer, Harder and Faster than in most Martial Arts Training.

Everyone that knows anything.












Hit hard, hit first and keep on hitting.

Jackie Fisher.
 First Sea Lord of the Royal Navy 1904











https://videopress.com/v/pepFKXTL?resizeToParent=true&cover=true&preloadContent=metadata&useAverageColor=true











If this brings up any questions bring them in.
















WHAT TYPE OF DAY IS IT?