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THE WING CHUN FORMS.

In the beginning there was only one Form in Wing Chun, the Sil Lim Tao, to flatten the learning curve ,for easier digestion and comprehension, this Form was split into three sections, “A”, “B” and “C”.  This was more than likely firstly implemented  by Chan Wah Shun but it became standard practice in the time of Ip Man.

Before long the fact that it was originally three parts of the same Form was forgotten, particularly in Hong Kong this is evident when we look at the Forms from non Ip Man lineages from Malaysia, Vietnam, Taiwan etc {that came about after the dispersal of the Canton Wing Chun Community as a result of the Chinese Civil War and later the Cultural Revolution}.

To this day there is an echo of this practice in how we approach all the other Forms, sections A,B and C.

What the majority of the Wing Chun community now refer to as the Sil Lim Tao is in all reality only the “A”Section of the Sil Lim Tao.  The “B” Section is now referred to as Chum Kiu and the “C” Section is now referred to as Biu Gee.

As a rule Wing Chun does not name specific movements it simply describes them, e.g. Tarn Sau, lay flat hand, Fook Sau, controlling hand, it is contrary to standard practice to suddenly give a name to two of the Forms instead of the usual method of describing their function.

Chum Kiu is a description of the objective that this part of the S.L.T. is working on, namely seeking the Bridge, and with Biu Gee the objective is to unify our Body and Intention, even out to the tips of the fingers.

Not understanding that all six Forms are in fact just different aspects of the Sil Lim Tao, and even worse regarding each of these aspects of the One S.L.T. Form as stand alone Forms not only prevents unification of the IDEA but  leads away from the natural progression down a path that is scattered and often contradictory.

There are complete lineages that base all of their training around just one of these Fragments of Form, it does not matter which Fragments of Form is chosen it is only part of the totality of Wing Chun information.

This is the cause of many of the problems inherent in making the leap from Form to Function, especially in the Ip Man lineage.

The collective information in the Wing Chun Forms is at heart organic, it grows from itself, it is not limited to what is already known, what has already been discovered, in all avenues of human endeavour progress is the result of new previously unthought of combinations of the common building blocks of the base IDEA being realigned, composited.

The “Old Way” is disassembled and then reassembled in a new way that closer reflects todays needs.

New people with different vision see new and different things in the old pattern, new questions bring new answers from the old information.

Tomorrows Wing Chun is only as good as todays questions.

And the first question should always be……….

Does it work?

 

 

WHAT IS WING CHUN.

Wing Chun is different things to different people, sometimes very different things, I have close friends that I trained alongside for 17 years, we heard the same information at the same time from the same Master, yet our opinions, approaches and methodologies are so different that we almost do different styles.

More confusing still is that we are all correct in our own thinking and we all do and teach very accomplished Wing Chun.

Being different things to different people is both a blessing and a curse.

A blessing because it allows the freedom and creativity needed to adapt the base idea in such a way as to be a perfect and completely individual fit for each and every one of us.

A curse because until we do find what our own way is it is more or less pot luck, using other people ideas, other people’s approaches in a vain hope that they will somehow work.

They never do, we can only ever learn and use our own Wing Chun.

But we all need to start somewhere and following a celebrated master is as good a place to start as any, it is after all what I did myself.

The good news is that Wing Chun works brilliantly if you trust it enough to use it, happily it is easy to trust when you invest the time to understand it on a personal level, and by personal I mean physical.

It makes little difference how you approach the work, if you are part of the Wing Chun community that believe doing certain movements in a certain way can develop some kind of Chi Power, the fabled Monkey Magic from the Chinese classic “Journey to the West”.

Or if you are from the opposite side of the Wing Chun community that thinks any Internal Power is nothing more than a faerie tale, Chinese Mumbo Jumbo, there is no argument about the value of the base information.

The IDEA that Wing Chun originates from, the physical alignments and the approach to managing force act in accordance with basic physics, kinesiology, bio – mechanics, and modern sports science, in short the laws that govern our Universe.

Wing Chun is based on normal human body movements, if you are a normal human being and you move the chances are you are already using Wing Chun you just did not realise it.

When that dreadful day arrives and we find ourselves in a violent situation no matter if we win or lose it will be down to us and no body else, no favourite YouTube channel, no long gone Sigung’s or Guru’s, ultimately we and we alone will be totally responsible for the outcome.

Choose wisely.

Be responsible in training, be honest with yourself as to whether or not what you’re doing, what you are learning, would be of any use outside of this situation in this training hall, take no ones word for anything until you have tested it, and above all keep an open mind.