Saturday, April 14, 2012

Wing Tsun 2012 Review Seminar - Part 1


This past seminar in April by Sifu Ralph Haenel of Wing Tsun Kung Fu Vancouver, hosted by Si-Hing Philip of Golden Monkey Martial Arts Club, was once again enlightening.

Great training partners as usual, with Mike, Sia, Sifu Steve. And such warm sunny weather, making it all the more enjoyable.

A proposal:

All of the "moves" in Wing Tsun with the word 手 ("sau", hand) should be replaced with the word 身 ("sen", body).

Time and time again at various seminars and classes, Sifu Ralph repeats concepts about using the body, sinking the weight, being mindful of the anchors to the ground, etc.

What does this all mean?

In 2008, after a Wing Tsun seminar in Calgary by Sifu Ralph, the blog entry was about "moving the body." The main points in that post were about freeing yourself and not being shy about moving. In this blog post about the most recent seminar, "moving the body" can mean two concepts:

1. Having your body weight behind your technique
2. Moving or shocking the core body weight of the opponent

"Moving the body" can also mean:
3. Slipping through the barriers
4. Giving way but eating up space
5. Utilizing the 3 axes of rotation and 6 degrees of freedom
...

So, a tan sen or lan sen should be formed not only by the hand but with the body as well, and having structure behind it. A gan sen or gwat sen should shock the opponent's core, A pak sen or a fak sen should move the opponent's body. Just some examples.

That's the proposal. All the 手's being changed to 身's!

Except perhaps 黐手 ("chi sau"), because that would mean we train 黐身 ("sticky body")... and even if we do train "sticky body" with our shoulders or chest for example, that name is just not appealing and wouldn't attract too many students...

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