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...

Defending against the roundhouse punch

This seems to be a common topic of discussion for many self-defense situations. The search for solution is apparent in many youtube videos from WC to VT to WT.

Examples:





I definitely like the ideas and have trained similarily.

In fact, I remember initially learning about the body mechanics of training against a roundhouse punch. Chum kiu step, palm strike or punching with the inside hand, and the outer tan/fook sau as a barricade. The key was to be close and driving the center. Later on, I've also learned about driving into the source of the punch at the shoulders, shocking the opponent's core, etc.

But - it's hard to do! Especially with a strong opponent.

Also, I've realized that a good roundhouse puncher would not necessarily telegraph that obviously. If in close quarters, with a short turn of the waist and boom, the punch is there!

And, sometimes, the force is so great that the arm may just loop around, hinge at the elbow and clip you in the face, with a good amount of force there still.

Demos of defense against a telegraphed roundhouse punch are similar to demos of defending against an ugly poorly timed slow spinning back kick. Yawn.

It's hard to defend when done the attack is done well.

Here's a good video by a WT practitioner I've only met through some recent videos this year - Sifu Riis:



Here's another video of him:



That video reminded me of meeting Sifu Ralph for the first time, when I learned that the classical WT defensive starting position can be too "perfect".

Sifu Riis seems to impart a similar sarcastic humour as Sifu Ralph:



Happy training!

If I were to learn a martial art for self-defense...

I have been attending a teaching course, the most recent one being about effective presentation skills. One of the recent assignments was to do a 10 minute talk on a topic of our choice.

I decided to do a talk about Wing Tsun Kung Fu. It was a combination of powerpoint slides to outline the history of WT, a short demo of the four principles of combat and strength, and a worksheet/handout.

One of the pre-presentation questions on the worksheet was to complete the following sentence:

If I were to learn a martial art for self-defense, I would want it to be...

These were the answers from the group:
- non strength dependent
- easy to learn
- proven effectiveness
- non-violent
- easy to apply

And also a footnote: *in an unfit person

Does your training fit with this small survey of answers?

Happy training!

Non-coding Wing Tsun

We have millions of base pairs of DNA, yet only 22,000 genes or so from so-called coding DNA. The rest of the DNA? Initially termed "junk" non-coding DNA by some.

We may not yet understand the function of this DNA yet, thereby calling it junk. Some researchers have looked into the splicing characteristics of these regions of DNA, magnifying the number of possible genes a-hundred-fold, all with different functions at different times of need.

A comparison, hopefully not too much of a stretch...


We have many ways of expressing WT, yet perhaps only 108 or 116 movements (for the sake of argument), in a form.

Do you understand every single movement in the forms? Not just the obvious punches or palm strikes or ____-saus, but every single movement from every single angle at every single moment?

Or how one movement can lead to the next?

What about how multiple different movements can either form into or result from multiple different actions?

Do you understand the non-coding portions of Wing Tsun Kung Fu?

The third formless form

Happy 2011!

For the first time, I have learned something from a movie that actually made me think about Wing Tsun Kung Fu.

Well, it was a movie about... you guessed it - Wing Chun. Kung Fu Wing Chun (功夫咏春):

If that doesn't work, try http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3MADTyp5dBA
[Updated 2014 October 21st with updated youtube clip]

Although it started off with a bit of silliness (as per many Chinese movies), and contained some wire-fu, I actually enjoyed it more than older movies such as "Wing Chun" starring Michelle Yeoh and Donnie Yen, the Prodigal Son, Warriors Two, or Stranger from Shaolin. Nothing so far beats Yip Man (2008) with Donnie Yen though, even with the fictional storyline. I don't watch these movies to critique the Wing Chun Kung Fu itself or for a realistic documentary, because these are films... for entertainment!

Anyways, in 功夫咏春, there is a scene where Ng Mui starts teaching Yim Wing Chun. Ng Mui has Wing Chun mirror the Siu Nim Tao form, and explains about how something so simple can contain so much. She then explains how the Chum Kiu form helps train the bridging arms and turning forces of the body.

When it comes time to tell her about Biu Tze, she doesn't show her a form. In fact, she only says that it can be used for long bridging, and stressed that it does not have a form, and evolves as needed.

Interesting!

Ultimately we want to be formless, to become Wing Chun (the kung fu, not the lady herself). "Formless, shapeless, like water... etc." - Bruce Lee

Sure, Biu Tze has some different "moves", like the hook punch, elbows, etc. And it does help train body movements in a vertical plane, amongst other things. But all in all, it's almost like a form of freedom with the goal of freeing the Wing Tsun to a point of formlessness and directness.

Over-thinking a simple comment from a movie? Perhaps...

Here's to a good year... in life, as well as in Wing Tsun Kung Fu!

Journey to soft pliable effective power

You may have heard before that in martial arts, softness wins in the end. I agree with this point. But, any softness should be backed up by good structure. To develop a soft, pliable, effective power, do you think it is better to start out strong or weak?

It may be easier to develop softness from a strong but stiff structure, as opposed to starting out weak and then adding both pliability as well as strong effective power. At least at the beginning. But then again, like most things, both paths have good and bad points.

I am influenced by my preference for subtraction over addition, for example as it relates to art sculptures. I have always enjoyed cutting or carving by subtraction (wood or soapstone carving), rather than building or molding by addition (clay-work).

When strong?

In the simplest sense, when we start out strong, in order to develop the desired pliable softness, it is done through subtraction. Have you seen photos of GM Kernspecht before his WT days?

Also, when strong to begin with, it is easier to overcome any weaknesses during training, if the softness is not yet trained properly. While training this way may not be as effective in the long run, doing so would at least give the trainee confidence in being somewhat successful in the meantime. It buys the trainee time while the proper strength and softness is developed.

The bad point? The same... relying on the brute strength too much and forgetting to develop the effective pliable power.

Remember the first WT principle of force? Free yourself from your own force.

When weak?

In contrast, when we start out weak, we need to develop both the softness at the same time as effective power, which requires strength at some point as part of the equation. This developmental approach requires both addition and subtraction throughout the path, which might be a bit much to juggle at first. Also, when weak, there is nothing to backup any failure of applying the softness correctly. And thus self-confidence may suffer.

When training, if there is no structure to begin with, then working on softness can often result in collapsing (of whatever little structure there is to begin with). It may actually result in giving way too much, with bad consequences.

The good point? Having a truly empty cup starting from scratch, and building the essential tools and backbone from the very start.

Which is better?

With this all in mind, is one journey better than the other?

Ideally, via these two different paths, there should be a similar end result, but only achievable with the right training methods.

What do you think?

In fact, what are the right training methods for these two different spectrums, and everything in between?
Are there different training methods unique to each person? Or simply different amounts of the same training methods needed?

Fear of failure

Sifu Ralph Haenel of Wing Tsun Kung Fu Vancouver held the 2010 year-end seminar at Si-Hing Philip Lee's Golden Monkey Martial Arts Studio. Sifu German of Calgary WT also attended, from one snow-laden city to another...

The seminar was entitled "Twenty-One Steps to Knock-Out Self-Defense Skills!"



Basic or advanced skills?

We learned many different exercises to aid our growth in WT. Some of you may be wondering if we learned any advanced skills? Well, to answer that question, I will borrow a quote from Sifu Ralph... "Yo!"

Although the motions of the various exercises from the seminar originated from a variety of different WT program levels, they could all still be considered "basic" exercises.

It's not whether the skills themselves are advanced or basic, but whether or not the practice of the skills is done in an "advanced" or "basic" way.

In order to practice any basic exercise in an advanced way, we must first embrace failure. Yes, failure!

Learn how to fail

Being advanced just means refinement and improvement in skills. And in order to improve, I think we need to fail, even purposely at times.

Here are three simple common pitfalls that hinder improvement and progression in our WT training:
1. Fear of failure
2. Reliance on strengths alone
3. Over-confidence and complacency

Of all of the various "aha!" moments I gained at this seminar, "fear of failure" stuck with me the most. But, as you can imagine, the above three points are inter-related and feed off of each other.

Students want to succeed. Teachers want students to succeed. We all want to succeed! Doing otherwise can be uncomfortable, embarrassing perhaps, not really a big confidence-booster.

So, what do we do to avoid this situation? One option: shy away from failure, revert back to our strengths in order to succeed, and then become over-confident and satisfied by our "extreme skills". Some of us are stronger, some may be faster. Some have great footwork, while others have a tree-trunk-like stable posture. While these skills are of course, beneficial at the beginning and helps build self-esteem (a good thing), it makes it difficult to improve if we use our strengths all of the time.

Fail in order to succeed

Another more useful option in the long run: analyze the failure in the scenario and discover what weaknesses to improve upon. In fact, try doing something wrong to check what you need to do to correct it. Failing itself is not the problem, but how we analyze and react to the failures.

It is okay to get hit in a training scenario. Better to experience this in a controlled training environment. We can't expect to succeed immediately after just learning a skill. We aren't going to perfect the skill after 1 trial, a dozen trials, a hundred trials, or perhaps not until 10,000 hours (as per Malcolm Gladwell's book "Outliers").

Next time you are training an exercise, try turning off one of your strengths every now and then and work on failing. Then slowly build a new-found weakness into yet another strength over time. And then cycle back again and again...

I gained a lot from this seminar, but I thought I'd share with you a small philosophical viewpoint in training WT, but yet hopefully still being a practical approach.

Happy training!