Not Using Strength

I know from Years of Teaching that Students get confused about the whole "Do not use Strength" idea, firstly we should realise that it should be described as "Do not use too much Physical Strength" because we all use Strength, using a Strong Structure is in fact still using Strength, just like a strong Focus, so we need to separate Physical Strength, also we all know that if we do not use some Physical Strength then we will not be able to move at all, we will always use a certain percentage of Physical Strength but our aim should be to use less and less Physical Strength as we continue on our Wing Chun Journey, there are a number of reasons for not using Physical Strength, but the most important is that using Physical Strength activates your Muscles, and an activated Muscle does not work as well as a Relaxed Muscle, so using Strength prevents our Muscles from doing the job that we want them to do, and ironically that is the reason we tense our Muscles in the first place, to do a Job that we believe needs Strength, we just tend to use way too much to get the Job done. When we strive to remove the use of Physical Strength what we are trying to do is find out the minimum amount of Strength needed to perform whatever it is we are attempting, this is usually a great deal less than we are willing to believe and so we spend Years and Years taking away a bit at a time.
And then there are some people that immediately stop using all Strength and then they have nothing to defend themselves with, if your Arms have no Structure, and no Natural Strength then they will just become Spaghetti, and if you try to defend your self against someone with Spaghetti Arms they will just have you for Dinner. We must never forget the Wing Chun has a specific task to undertake, to stop us being Hit, deep down we all know this of course and this is one of the reasons we have difficulty taking Physical Strength out of our Arms and our Wing Chun.
The best way to begin to reduce Strength without loosing the ability to keep the Dogs at Bay is to pick one exercise that you are willing to do every time you train for at least the next Year and consciously use less and less Strength / Effort, it is only when you do the same exercise that you can tell if you are really reducing the Strength. The biggest trap and the worst practice is to use Strength in Chi Sau, because Chi Sau is in contact with another Person it is a bit more "Real" than other training and is more affected by your nerves, if you are mentally tense when doing Chi Sau this will result in Physical Tension that will prevent your Muscles from working efficiently and cause you to use Strength. It is really, really important that you do not hit each other in Chi Sau, just Roll.

Wearing Protection when training!!

Last week at a training group session I noticed that someone had leg Protectors in their Bag, they did not get them out but it does prompt me to Blog this.

I am against any type of Protectors {Mouth Guards excepted} in training, this is not because I am so tough I do not need them, but because as far as I am concerned they promote an environment of unreality, I have expressed my opinion many times that we gain confidence in the functional ability of  Wing Chun more from the perspective of the Bad Guy that does not successfully land his strikes or find any way through our Training Partners Wing Chun set up than by being the Good Guy that stops our partner who may just be throwing Half Arsed generic attacks.  Pads prevent you from realising that it is painful to make contact with Good Structure, that this contact can be debilitating and actually take away any chance of a good follow up to the present attack, and this can work at deep levels upon you to stop you having the confidence to offer “Structure” instead of “Strength” in your defence.

From the perspective of a Wing Chun Man attacking a padded Partner, when our Partner can just keep throwing Punches and Kicks without stopping due to injury it can lead to us to believe that we do not have enough “Fire Power’ and this again can lead to the use of Strength and loss of belief in our Wing Chun. I also believe that it takes a far greater amount of “Be Here Now” to strike softly than it does to just go off, and a great big piece of our Relaxation is in the “Be Here Now” and in not loosing our Emotions / Head. 

Lastly, it is only training, do we really need to hurt each other?

Simultaneous Attack and Defence in Chi Sau

Following on from the last post, do we use or can we find Simultaneous Attack and Defence in our Chi Sau practice? Lately we have been having a closer look at Chi Sau and Chum Kiu especially focusing on the Concept of the "Spinning Ball" for defensive duties and the "Spinning Cone", or "Witches Hat" for attacking duties, but what about Simultaneous A & D? Sometimes we forget that Chi Sau is nothing more than a Drill, a dynamic environment in which we can explore and try out the things that the various Forms show us, and that it is up to us to look for our training in Chi Sau and not just be shown "Moves". If the "Spinning Ball is defensive and the "Spinning Cone" is attacking then Simultaneous A&D must contain both. In Chi Sau the first part of the Taan Sau / Bong Sau rotation is the Man Sau or  Searching Hand, when intercepted this redirects the force away by turning into Bong Sau, but if it is not intercepted it continues forwards to strike, while this is happening we are applying pressure through our Fook Sau to our Partners attempt to roll from Bong to a striking position, at this point we are utilising the concept of "Simultaneous Attack and Defence", if we think the situation is open to perform the Basic Fook Sau Latch it is usually here, and of course any other Gwoh Sau application is also using Simultaneous A&D. Often advances in understanding come from simply looking closely at what you are doing, observing your actions and reactions to the dynamic exchanges that make up Chi Sau and then doing them deliberately when the chance allows.

Simultaneous Attack and Defence

I was involved in a discussion on this on another site and thought that I would post this here as well, "Simultaneous Attack and Defence" is one of the underlying attributes of Wing Chun, does it mean that we Strike and Defend at the same time? No it does not, sometimes it will be the case but most likely not, sometimes we will Strike before we Defend, what we do is begin the Process of "Simultaneous Attack and Defence" at the same time, what lands first will be determined more by the position and action of the opponent than by our design.

Knowledge, where does it come from?

I had a group of my more senior charges at my home over the weekend, we were going over some work on Chum Kiu and Gwoh Sau {crossing Hands, trapping}, it is really easy to teach intelligent people that actually want to learn, somewhere in the middle of the Day I suddenly thought to myself "how and when did I amass this knowledge"? I have not had much guidance since my Sifu passed away 3 years ago but I have moved forward and improved quite noticeably, and I feel confident in saying this, so it must at least be almost true.
Sometimes when you keep trying to learn new things you just loose some of the old things, I doubt that I know anymore today than I did the last time I spoke to my Sifu, but by continually trying to pass on his teaching through my own teaching I am beginning to understand it and make it my own, I still have a great deal to learn I know that, but I am happy with where my knowledge is at this time.
After my Sifu's passing there was a lot of negative talk about us not being given all the relevant information, in hindsight my Sifu was very frugal with information but if you asked a question he would answer it, happily I asked lots of questions, recently my Sifu's own Sifu had his book translated into English, I awaited its arrival with great excitement, I have read it a few times already and there is nothing in it that I was not told at least once by my Sifu, this is a cause of great Joy to me.  Even today when I make new connections, find new ways to understand my Wing Chun it is all based on the seed that my Sifu planted, and always will be.

YouTube Channel

I am starting a YouTube Channel, http://www.youtube.com/user/InstructorDerek  this is not meant to be a Wing Chun Instructional Channel, I am simply using the available Technology to keep in contact with all of the INCa's, often when there are some sticking points in training it is only when I get Home that I realise a better way to explain things or I remember something that I was told or shown at a similar point in my own training that made it a bit easier for me to go forward, and of course I completely forget before the next training session, so now I can quickly record something and stick it on YouTube. It is also a way for me to keep in touch with Guys that I used to train with that live in different parts of Sydney or even N.S.W. We still talk and ask questions on the Phone but words always fail when it comes to Wing Chun, Pictures make it so much clearer. Because what I post will be in response to something that we were either working on or talking about the segments may not hold up very well if you do not know what we are addressing, so turn up to training.  Or if you are awaiting Surgery to get the couch of your Arse and cannot make training give me a call or an E-mail.

Peripheral Vision

I was talking with someone the other Day and the old Chestnut of Peripheral Vision came up, I do not understand the thinking with many Wing Chun People that they say you defend yourself using Peripheral Vision, this is madness and will certainly fail if you are in Deep Poo. Peripheral Vision is very good and identifying even tiny movement in a wide Field of view, but once the movement is noticed you need to change back to focused Vision to see what was moving, this is what Eagles, Hawks and Army Snipers do, and many years ago when I was taught to shoot Game Birds this is what I was instructed to do, Peripheral Vision spots the movement and then Focused Vision Marks the Target. In Wing Chun I have heard even quite Senior Instructors say "Keep your Eyes on the Chest and pick up the attack with your Peripheral Vision", in a nice friendly session of 4 Corner Defence you may get away with this, but in a Street Encounter when someone pulls a Knife from out of their Jacket you will be going home in a Bag.

Dropping Your Weight in Chum Kiu.

One problem a lot of people suffer from when doing Chum Kiu is that they loose their upright Structure and Vertical Spine, usually they get a bit soft and squashed in the Middle, I have seen this in people that have been training even longer than me, so what is going on, why is it so hard?

I think that as usual the problem is with the Words used to explain what should be done, or rather the understanding of the Words used to explain what should be done. 

Drop your weight!!

What does this really mean?

From my observations most people take it to mean drop your weight to the Floor, or at least into your Feet, and this is were the trouble starts, Chum Kiu is mobile, dropping all your weight into your Feet is not likely to make you move easier, on the contrary it will make it even harder to move, especially Pivoting.

So where do we drop it?

In reality we drop it nowhere in particular, we just drop it.  If you drop a Cup or a Book it may land on the floor, but if there was a Table or something under it you would drop it on the Table or whatever, landing has very little to do with dropping, in fact once the object has landed the drop is over. Once you have dropped your weight into your Feet all you have is heavy Feet.

We need to find a way to allow the things we drop to stay in free fall and not land at all, almost as if there was a string attached to them so that they are both falling and being held in space. Visualising the Concept is so important to moving forward in Wing Chun, if you can visualise it then at some level you understand it.

We are all very different with different powers of imagination, different references that we use in our imagination so it is up to you to film your own Movie, the one you will play to understand the concept, do not blindly accept someone Else's description of events, start from there and then see if you can find a better way to explain it to yourself.

My own movie of this is that my Spine is a Ladder with tens of tiny Rungs, I drop the weight from the top Rung only down to the one below, this begins a Cascade that sends the weight of the lower rung on down to the one below that and so on until my upper body is in my Pelvis. Once my weight is in my Pelvis I imagine that my Pelvis is a Plate and that all of my Body above it are other plates that create a "Stack of Plates", in the "Real World" when you pick up a "Stack of Plates" you only really pick up the "Bottom Plate" you only ever move the "Bottom Plate" and the rest just go along for the ride, at most all we do is make sure that the Stack is kept vertical by monitoring the middle of it.

This is my movie, words are a poor Tool for describing Feelings and it may make no sense to you, but even disagreeing with this will give you somewhere to start.

Motion Defeats Strength! So if in doubt MOVE.

Going Backwards in Training!!

Yesterday one of my Guys was over to train with me and at the conclusion of the evening he told me that he felt he was going backwards with his training. I know the feeling he was experiencing but is it really going backwards?  In the first couple of years of training everything is new, everyday you feel that you have added something to the Tool Box, it is an almost constant addition to your Knowledge Base, people quite wrongly {I.M.O.} think that this is moving forward, advancing, but it is really only collecting. 

The real training does not even start until you try to understand how to use all of this stuff you have collected, and how to relate everything to the "Core Values", it is often at this phase that people give it away, it just becomes "Too Hard" and they tell themselves that they just don"t get it often deciding to go and do B. J. J. instead. The truth is that this phase should be seen as an indication that you are finally beginning to make moves in the right direction, it is only when you start to ask Question's that you realise you do not have the Answers, if you are really lucky you will find that you are not even asking the right Questions and so you begging the search in earnest.

Any Kung fu takes a lot of time and a lot of thinking if you hope to get close to the real "Heart of the Matter", it cannot be achieved by only being involved for 2 hours an evening twice a week, it requires that you involve yourself in some related activity everyday, especially doing the Forms and thinking about what you have learned, and it is only when you start to think about what you have learned that you realise you do not know very much. The reality is that you do know quite a lot, it is just that for some reason in the early years we all think we know a lot more than we do, and if our Ego is driving the Wing Chun Bus this realisation can seem like a minor failure, which of course it is not.

There will be many times through the life of your training when you quite simply need to "GO BACK AND START AGAIN" and this usually reaps huge Rewards in Knowledge, but this does not really mean going back to grade 1 and do the work all over again, it is more that you need to take your Mind back to an earlier place, a place with no preconceptions and no aims of advancement and look at the information with new eyes, and a clear Mind, when you do this often you find that there was "One little thing" that you missed or overlooked that changes everything and propels you farther forwards than you could of ever imagined.

When ever I hit a Plateau I do not sink into a sticky Funk, instead I get excited, a Plateau is a sign that I have collected all the Clues to this section of my training, so instead of loosing momentum I get even more involved, I know that as soon as I digest all of the current information I will be hurled into the next phase of training if I am ready or not...................

Scenario Training

Last night we introduced a Scenario to training, quite simple, you bump into a Guy in a Pub as you are walking past, as you turn to apologise the Guy throws a Haymaker at you, the aim was to start from a non traditional Martial Arts position, from a position of surprise and unreadiness, discover how our body will respond to the surprise and then find how to get to a place to use your training. In theory it was very straight forward, but as always the reality was not what I expected. A lot of the people involved could not / would not start from the not ready position, they were pre-empting the attack, turning with their Guards raised even turning and striking as they did their play act apology, when I stepped in and asked for them to just turn around with their Hands down and no attempt at defence there were complaints that it was not what they would do in this situation, which is ridiculous because it is exactly what everyone would do in this situation.  No matter what type of "Killer Commando Ninja Warrior" you may think you are if you are not expecting violence then you will be surprised when you find it heading your way, and any "Bad Guy" that has decided that you will do quite nice in the role of "Latest Victim" will make absolutely certain that you are not ready for what he is dishing out, that you are in a very bad position and they will aim to keep you there.  Pretending that you can use your training without even the slightest notice is just going to make it even harder to get back on terms when someone has dropped their shit on you, and this should be obvious to everyone.

It is only Ego that has people pretending that they will not be caught like a Bunny in the Headlights, and sometimes it is also lack of confidence in their ability that stops them from starting in second place, but this is where we should spend most of our training time, it is easy to win a fight when everything is set up in your favour, when you are in the best position and the "Bad Guy" shows his Cards way too soon, if we are going to train in this way we may as well prepare to fight one legged Blind People.  If we hope to be able to get out of trouble we must learn how to operate from weak and almost hopeless positions, because this is where the Street Predators that we think we are getting ready for will do everything in their power to put us, find our way back into a position where we can use our training, and then play out your fantasy.

Some people do not understand what "Training" is, if we are training we are attempting to learn something new, we should not be surprised or disheartened if we cannot do it at first, we will be able to do it eventually, and when you are doing things that you can already do you are no longer "Training" you are "Practising".

Creating power in a Punch {Impact Strike}

Where does the Power come from in a Punch {Impact Strike}?

How do we improve the power of our existing Punch {Impact Strike}?

The conventional wisdom dictates that Power is achieved by acceleration, going faster {in Science speak even going slower is referred to as acceleration}, by making our Impact weapon of choice accelerate {increase velocity} into {not through} the Target,

But is this really true? Or is it just a way for people that do not like Physics to explain something that they do not understand?

Because increasing Velocity does not increase Power, despite all the T.V. commercials from the R.T.A.

Speed does not Kill.

 It is the sudden stop that causes the damage.

Sudden almost instant deceleration to Zero.

A lot of people will laugh and say "Yeah I know that", but knowing something and understanding something are completely different, so much so that it is as if you really do not know at all.

Without going into a discussion of the Laws of Motion, for one thing I understand it better than I can explain it and if I am honest my understanding is not exactly World Class, so let us just say that as things increase Velocity they get heavier, and as they slow down they become lighter {a quick example of sorts, if you are driving along in your Car at 60 km and you see a Stop Sign and gently apply the Brakes the Car slides to a gentle stop and actually feels as if it is getting lighter, however if the same Car at the same speed were to slam on the Brakes the Car skids and lurches to a sudden halt and you can feel the weight of the Car actually increasing as it grinds to a stop}, everything that moves gathers momentum, stored Kinetic energy, and as the Velocity increases so does the momentum, and so does the stored Kinetic energy, as the Velocity decreases the Kinetic energy decreases {or is discharged as Heat and Noise as in skidding Tyres in the case of the Emergency Stop}.

Real Power is in the rate of deceleration, the slower the deceleration the weaker the force the faster the deceleration the stronger the force, when a Boxer rolls with a Punch he is actually extending the amount of time it takes for the Punch to be forced to a stop, to be brought to Zero so he is weakening the strength of the Punch that lands on him.

In everyday usage when a guy is just standing still and you Punch him in the Nose, it is the amount of time that it takes his Nose to stop your Punch that creates the Power and not how hard you hit him {also worth thinking about is the fact that you will put a lot more force into the nose of a "Big Guy" than you will a "Small Guy", the "Big Guy's" extra mass will slow your Punch down much rapidly}, added to this when you latch him forward into the same Punch everything happens even quicker, you effectively reduce the time it takes for his Nose to stop your Punch and increase the Power even more.

Acceleration will obviously improve power production, but you need to understand what you are accelerating, when to accelerate it and where you are accelerating it to if it is to be of any real use to you in increasing Power. Because to much acceleration will increase penetration, which is actually extending the time it will take for your Punch to come to Zero, and as such it will decrease Power.

Let us use the Car analogy again, if a Car is travelling at 120km and it runs into a Wooden Fence it will crash right through it, extended penetration, the Car is hardly deformed by the release of the stored energy, picking up significant damage along the way to be sure, but more than likely mostly cosmetic, but when the same Car at the same speed hits a Concrete Wall the front of the Car comes to an instant stop, minimum penetration, but the back of the Car keeps on moving forward crushing the rest of the Car as the stored Kinetic energy looks for release.

When I teach my Guys how to Punch I instruct them to try to sink only 10cm into the Target, and to leave their Hand in the Target as long as possible, this creates the best environment for rapid deceleration to Zero.

This is not meant to be anything more than discussion to inspire you to do your own research, so do not bother correcting the Science, for one thing there is the whole topic of the Vector of the Momentum that is so important and can change all of this, it is just a conversation.

Understanding the Laws of Motion can teach you more about Impact Striking that 20 years of training.

End Game

In an earliert post I asked "What is the End that your Means is leading to?", or to put it another way 


What are you training for? What situation, what event?


You need to think deeply about this, because if you cannot be specific then you are not training for anything in particular, and if your training is so unfocused how do you know if you are on the right track? How will you know what to use when the Wolf jumps out of the Shadows?
Right now use you imagination to create the most likely scenario where you will use your training, visualise the sequence of events and note exactly where your training becomes operational, and of the greatest importance note when and how it finishes.


All conflicts have a beginning or "Opening", a "Middle" and a finish or "End Game", the opening is usually some form of Verbal exchange { although Silent Ambushes do occur they are so rare it is not worth wasting training time on them because if they are done correctly you get no chance to do anything!} , does your training do any more than pay Lip Service to this phase, does it teach you how to navigate this? Do you have any deescalation techniques? Does it show you how to spot the transition to Violence? Does it advocate Preemptive Strikes?


 Most Martial Arts by Default train from after the Antagonist has attacked, training is the kind that goes "He does that so you do this", a lot of this is a type of Social conditioning that wants people to act more responsibly and not just take out anyone that you have an issue with, is it really what we would want to do if given free choice? The Laws of Physics in our Universe make it very clear that "Action is faster than Reaction" but still we train to react. Does your training allow for this?


When you take Piano lessons you are taught how to play the Piano, and as I am sure you know playing Piano is not giving a Concert, to give a concert you need an understanding of Music, sometimes this is innate, sometimes it is gained through research, it is very difficult too teach understanding, it needs to grow.  Millions of people play Piano, very few spend long enough trying to understand Music to give Concerts.


When you take Wing Chun lessons you are learning how to play Wing Chun, playing Wing Chun is not Fighting.


It is outside the Scope of any Martial Arts School to teach people how to fight, they will all disagree but sadly it is a fact, all you will learn are the Tools that you could use in a fight, if you ever get in one and ever learn how to use the Tools. The onus is on you to decide what Tools you will need and to get familiar with how to wield them, no one needs 15 Punches and 21 defences! Find the ones you trust, that you can perform well and make them your own.


If you survive the initial attack then the "He does this and you do that" training can actually work if you trust it, this is the Middle Game, it is rare that more than 2 blows are needed to get to the "End Game", but if you do not have an "End Game" you could be there all day and eventually one of you will get beaten to Death.


Do you train how to finish the Conflict? How to close down your opponent? Do you have an exit strategy?  These things cannot be taught, you can be advised but at the end it comes down to what you think, and your thinking can be changed by what you research. Read up, ask questions.


This post may at first appear to be negative toward M.A. School training, it is not, without the normal School type training you will have absolutely no skills to help you out of trouble, but you need to get your Instructor to address the problems that are distinct to yourself, and not just stay in the Generic Zone.

More on 2 Statements.

Statement #2. Expansion.

All training in all things is Task Specific, when a Swimmer lifts weights it has nothing to do with Swimming, it is all about body Conditioning, making a new, stronger body that the Swimmer believes will allow him to swim faster and farther with less effort.

The weight training does not replace the act of swimming, on the contrary it usually demands more swimming as you learn to adapt your new body to your old routines, and to integrate the new training successfully requires a knowledge of what you are trying to achieve and an understanding of why you wish to achieve it, after all any outside or support training is simply a means to an end, so we need to know the end we are seeking.
Occasionally some of these imaginary Swimmers get confused and start to focus on the support training at the expense of the "Core Discipline", and then they become weight trainers that swim, and usually swim poorly.

Another direction to take our thinking is this question.   Is all swimming the same?

 Is Breast Stroke basically the same as Back Stroke, basically the same as Butterfly Stroke, basically the same as Free Style.

And if we think it is then is Swimming for recreation, basically the same as Swimming for competition, basically the same as Swimming to save your Life.  

Of the above what do Swimmers train for?

How does this relate to our Wing Chun training?

There are areas of our training that it is easy to attribute more importance to than some other areas, Sil Lim Tao, Chi Sau, Chum Kiu, Bill Gee, and of course Nim Lik  {thought force, power through relaxation} and any other of our favourite practice's.  Once we convince ourselves that any particular part of our training is more important than any other we are just becoming Weight Lifters.
Wing Chun is a System, every part is inter - related and must be in balance. If we become aware that we have progressed in our ability in for instance "Relaxing" Then we must manually integrate the new stuff into everything we know, to fail to do so would mean that you are no longer doing Wing Chun, just "Relaxing", and if some Big Hairy Arsed Biker is trying to do me harm standing there and "Relaxing" all over him is not going to get me home in one piece, neither will doing one of the Forms in front of him nor Chi Sau.

Sifu Jim would often say to us Instructors "if you do not want to punch someone in the Face you should not of picked Wing Chun".  Our system is a Circle, everything we do should eventually be a means to improving our Punching, our Punching should be a means to improve our Chi Sau and so on.

If you focus on just one thing you become that one thing.

Statement #1.  Expansion.

Wing Chun is not Fighting.

What event are you training for?

What is the End that your Means is leading to?

2 Statements and a Question.

Statement #1.  Weight Lifting is not Swimming, most people would agree with this {those that do not are Mentally ill}.

Statement #2.  A organised program of Weight Lifting can improve Swimming Ability, this is even easier to agree with than Statement #1 {again if doubt persists see your Doctor}.

Question.  Does Statement #2 in any way change Statement #1?

This may not at first appear to have anything to do with Wing Chun, but it is the main reason some people just fail to improve.

More to follow.

Getting the most from our Blog.

Often after training things occur to us that we would like to say to your Wing Chun Brothers but they are not there, this is what happens when I post to the Blog, at the bottom of every post there are the box's to mark your reactions that many of you use, but also there is a highlighted Comments link next to the time, often it says 0 comments, if you click this it will allow you to make comments or ask questions about the post, even start a conversation about the post with other followers, Wing Chun more than any other M.A. I know improves with thinking and talking. Use the comments button.

Derek

Meetings with a Grand Master

We have all just been treated to some help and information from a member of Wing Chun Royalty, our Sibak, Grand Master {Frederick} Mo Chiu Po who was over here as a guest of our Wing Chun Brothers Tony Chiu and William Leung of the A.W.C.A.  Mo Sibak is a senior disciple of our Sigung Tsui Shun Tin and as such he is an exponent of Nim Lik, the mysterious internal energy of Wing Chun. I was lucky to have 3 Private sessions where we went over what I knew and understood of Wing Chun and of course of Nim Lik. Some changes where made to the Forms that I had been shown by my Sifu, some refinements and improvements that I will implement with my Group the INCa's as soon as possible, most of the Group have not been training for more than 3 Years so the changes should be easy, but for the rest of us making changes to long held ideas can present all kinds of problems, loss of confidence in the rest of what our Sifu taught to mention the least. There where other Wing Chun Brothers at the A.W.C.A. over this period that expressed disappointment at the fact that we appear to have not been taught everything we should of been by our Sifu, but I personally think that this is an unfair accusation, Mo Sibak spoke to me of things in a different way than my Sifu did, he went into greater detail and appeared to really want me to understand what he was teaching, and he is a gifted Teacher, but he did not say anything that my Sifu had not told me at least once, so perhaps the fault is mine for not fully comprehending what I was told, and even Sibak said that he was just expanding my Knowledge and not teaching anything new.

One thing I do know is that I need to find a way to join the two trains of thought, to bring them together as one otherwise there will only be confusion, and this is the same for those of my group that met Sibak, our teaching comes from our Sifu Jim Fung, we cannot just throw it away because we have been told something more up to date, we cannot change Horses in mid-stream, it is easy to get impressed by someone of Mo Sibak's knowledge and to think that this is the new way, but this leads nowhere, unless we can have regular almost constant contact with Mo sibak we must stay with what we know, you can only follow one Path at a time if you wish to not get lost.

This reminds me of a time good few years back, our Sigung Tsui Shun Tin was brought over by Sifu Jim and we where of course all overwhelmed by him, at a Seminar for Instructors he gave an open invitation to visit him and experience his way of training in Hong Kong, Sifu Jim said he would allow this so a fair number of Instructors started making plans to visit, one evening a few weeks after the Seminar Sifu asked me if I intended to go over, I replied that I did not mean any disrespect to Sigung but that I had no reason to go to H.K. I had everything I needed here with him, he smiled and said that I was better off not going for another reason, he told me that I should observe the Guys that come back from Hong Kong on their return, he said at first they will be all fired up and be at training every Day and be keen to show off what they learned in Hong Kong, but soon many of them will get confused, train less and some will even leave the School, and those that stay will go backwards for a long time before they start going forward again unless they already have a very high level of knowledge, it is not possible to keep two different ideas in your Head for very long, soon they eat each other.  Sure enough these things did happen as he said, so I asked him to expand on this, he said it is not possible to train with two different People at the same time, it has nothing to do with Skill or Ability, it is just that every individual sees and explains things differently to the point that even though they are talking about the very same thing it all sounds a bit opposite {some times this is even noticeable with Senior Instructors teaching the same Syllabus}, and that to benefit you need to stay long enough to loose the old way and absorb the new way or at the very least work hard at finding the point where the two thoughts are the same and work from there.

This is what we need to do, find the point of most similarity and then work backwards to where we have always been.

Simultaneous Attack and Defence? Really?

As I mentioned in the last post in my own opinion "Simultaneous Attack and Defence" is effectively impossible in situations of extreme stress {for example when some ars*h^le is trying to beat your Head in} due to the different Mental states that you will inhabit when attacked or attacking,  the totally different outcomes that you are looking for with your own action and the diametrically opposed use of body Weight that you need to employ.

So when I am teaching why do I say that Wing Chun makes use of "Simultaneous Attack and Defence"?

As with most things it is the Language that confuses us, the term "Simultaneous Attack and Defence" leads us to believe that we are in fact performing two very different operations at the same time when it is more accurate to say that on studying what we did the result fell into two different categories.

If someone throws a Punch at me and I chop off his Arm with a Sword, have I defended myself from his Punch or have I attacked his Arm? This is an obvious candidate for "Simultaneous Attack and Defence" but more than likely not what we think of when we hear the term.

Once you have been training in Wing Chun long enough to understand and trust the Concept of our defence mechanism {the sliding Triangular Structure} and you have learnt the ability to absorb and transfer Force, it becomes clearer that we use our Structure as a kind of Shield that we present to any incoming Weapon, as we concentrate on our own attack inside our opponents action {Classic Counter Attack, hit inside the opponents hit} focusing on landing our blow and allowing our Defensive Structure to simply get in the way and deflect or obstruct our opponents attack.

 If you are were able to look inside the Mind of a Wing Chun operator during a fight you would see that it is "Attack and only Attack" that is the Focus with very little thought to defending against the incoming Punch or whatever, but if you were to just make your judgement by what you witnessed you would say that he did in fact employ "Simultaneous Attack and Defence" due to the fact that he intercepted the attack.

A very large part of training people is to get them to trust the things you are teaching them, to get them to believe that they will work, "Simultaneous Attack and Defence" sounds a lot more believable that "Just stick your Arm in the way of their attack and Punch them in the Face".

Humans have been using Shields of one sort or another for thousands of Years, this type of action is pretty much "Hard Wired" into each and everyone of us from a Roman Soldier with a "Scutum and Gladius" through to a "Lion Tamer with a Chair and a Whip", every 5 to 7 year old boy knows this from his first pretend Sword fight.

I will still tell prospective Students that Wing Chun employs "Simultaneous Attack and Defence" because it is what they want to hear and it breeds confidence, but I will train them to attack from behind their Shield.

Self Protection, Self Defence & Fighting

A friend of mine that is not a Martial Artist but never the less surfs quite a few Martial Arts sites asked me if there was a difference between "Self Protection" and "Self Defence"? He was confused because the two terms seemed to be used for the same purpose by certain Styles he had researched and wanted to know if it was just "Sales Talk".
Not wanting to get involved in an argument about Styles I do not know too much about I responded by telling him what it means to me, and what I try to get across to the People I teach.
No matter what style you train in you should learn different things for "Self Protection", "Self Defence" and "Fighting", because they are all very different things and cannot be thrown in together, and the way I see it is that-

 "Fighting starts when Self Defence has succeeded, and Self Defence starts when Self Protection has failed"

To me "Self Protection" is making decisions that do not put us in harms way.
"Self Defence" is stopping Attacks from hitting us.
"Fighting" is hitting the other guy.

Let me paint a Picture.

You are standing near the Bar at a Night Club, there is a loud, obnoxious Guy acting like he owns the place that you have seen on the other side of the Room, he comes over to the Bar to get himself a Drink and stands there making fun at the people dancing in front of him, something happens he spills his Drink and turns to blame you, next thing he hits you, {The Bad guy is now Fighting}  you attempt to Block his attack {You are now in Self Defence} after the first few Blows you start hitting him back {You are now Fighting} and he starts to Block your Attack {He is now in Self Defence} and the Dance begins.
If you had chosen to move away as soon as the Ape had come to the Bar {Self Protection} none of this would of happened,

Fighting starts when Self Defence has succeeded, once you stop him hitting you it gives you the chance to hit him.

Self Defence starts when Self Protection has failed" if you are not there to be hit you do not need to defend yourself.

As Mr Miyagi so rightly said   "Best Defence, don't be there"

It is important to understand these differences, because it is almost impossible to think about attacking if you are in Self Defence mode, and it is almost impossible to think about defending yourself when you are hell bent on attack. 

On the Face of it this comment may appear to contradict what we teach in Wing Chun, that is "Simultaneous Attack and Defence", it does not though, firstly in Wing Chun we "Counter Attack' as opposed to flat out attack, and this really is a very big difference especially Mentally, and once you begin to understand your training you will see that our Simultaneous Attack and Defence is actually more like attacking from behind a Shield. I will go into this in depth at a later date, but for now , Read, Think and Ask Questions.

Training transitions into fighting

Myself and some of the more Senior Guys are doing some serious revision to get ready for the Visit of a highly regarded Sifu from Hong Kong, apart from the training we are also trying to formulate a list of Questions to ask so as to not waste time with the usual stupid Questions asked at these events, one of the Guys wants to know "How do we turn what we learn at training into useful tools for Fighting"?

This is a great Question, and like most really sharp Questions will generate a lot more Questions before we get anywhere near an Answer.

I myself have been involved in some form of M.A. for 50 years {I started Boxing late in the Year of 1960, a long time ago} and one thing I know without any doubt is that the vast majority of Martial Artists are not what you would call "Violent People", even though at some level we re training to be Violent. The opposite is more likely to be found, that most Martial Artists abhor Violence, but they realise that it is out there and realise that it could fall on them unannounced like Rain from a clear Sky and that the only chance they have of escaping in one piece is to have "Better Violence" at their command. Many have never had a Violent Encounter {excluding Schoolyard Tiffs} and as such will have absolutely no Frame of Reference to assist them come that Dark Day.

So how do we turn our training into usable Fighting Skill?

Or more pertinent "Is it even possible to turn our Training into Fighting Skill"?

My own take on all this is that we will find it impossible to use our training in a real nasty Street Encounter {been there, done that}, mainly because the Person in that fight will not be the Person that turns up for training every week.

How you Feel affects how you Think, how you Think affects how you Feel, and they both affect how you Fight. In training we Feel good and we Think clearly, this is the body that we inhabit while we are training, this is the Person that is learning the Skill Sets, and it will all evaporate instantly the Minute the Wolf leaps out the Bushes.

So why do it, why train at all?

Again this is just my take on it, but underneath all of our Flash Physical training there is another training going on, a type of training that develops Confidence, Intent, Strength of Will and Self Respect, you could almost regard this as Spiritual Training because we learn it at such a depth that it is training our very Soul, and when that "Hard Rain" starts to fall it is our Confidence and Self Respect that have us say to ourselves " this Guy does not have the right to Terrorise me" and it is our Strength of Will and our Intent that will allow us to Counter Attack and hit out with Righteous Anger and win the chance of Escape, which is all any intelligent Human being should be looking for.

If we are in a Violent Encounter it is not really all that important "How I Hit, it is not important "Where I Hit", it is only important "That I Do Hit", at the end of the Day it is always Will over Skill.  If I get into a Violent Situation my aim should be to get out any way possible, and not be looking for a chance to validate my training, if I embrace the "Escape at all cost " ethic you can be certain that some elements of my Years of Study will surface even if by accident, but you can also be certain that if there is a nice Fat Stick handy I will pick it up and use it.

In my opinion many people create Major Problems by depending on their training instead of depending on themselves, for almost 20 Years I have trained in Wing Chun, I have great belief in the effectiveness of Wing Chun, but I do not consider myself a Wing Chun Man {even after all these Years}, rather I see myself as a Man that uses Wing Chun as his primary Tool, and I would have no hesitation in changing Tools if the situation required it.

So in answer to the original Question; "How do we turn what we learn at training into useful Tools for Fighting"?

My Answer is "What makes you think you need to"?

But then again I could have it all wrong.

Protecting The Rice Bowl

Many years ago, sometime in the late 1990's, I had a home Movie kind of Video taken at a Workshop in Hong Kong at the V.T.A.A.  It was hosted by Sigung Tsui and was by all accounts a Junior Master Level {Level 5ish} only workshop, there was translation of a kind because two of the participants did not understand Cantonese, but as always with Sigung it was mainly done via example not explanation, you can no doubt imagine that as an instructional video it was of limited value, however one section of it completely changed how I viewed my training, and how I trained.  The whole Group of very Senior Students where having immense difficulty doing a test from the Biu Gee, ultimately Sigung called a halt to their efforts and remarked that their problem was that they did not fully understand Sil Lim Tao.

Junior Masters and they did not understand S.L.T.

 If they did not understand after however long they had been training I decided that I would know even less after only 4 or 5 years so I started from the very beginning once again and sought out as much information as I could from anyone Senior, especially my Sifu. Now it is widely held that Hong Kong Masters are very frugal with their information, many postulate that the longer it takes you to learn the more you end up paying, it is referred to as "Protecting The Rice Bowl"and I promised myself that if I ever ran my own School that I would avoid falling into this type of attitude, and give information freely to any that looked for it.
Now that I run my own School, or to be exact now that I run the training for a Club that I have formed, I have been putting my ideas into action, and on the whole everyone is progressing far better than under the old system, but not everyone is making significantly better progress, in fact not many at all, there are two guys that are really taking advantage of what is on offer and they are flying along, but the others seem happy to just plod along, one or two are actually going backwards but still seem content????
I am beginning to think that you cannot really teach another person anything, at least not in your own time frame, that they need to somehow find their own way, find there own questions and then come to their Instructor for answers to these questions, and that perhaps giving out lots of information may in fact overwhelm them instead of helping them, and that they may be better served by not being given information until they ask for it, how easy would it be to see this as "Protecting My Rice Bowl"?
I may owe a few apologies to people that I have thought poorly of.

Wave if you know me.

I am just answering an E-mail from one of our Club Members, in fact one of the Foundation Members and he is basically asking "maybe we should start a Blog!   DUH!  If you are one of us and reading this then join as a friend or do something to let me know you are there. Just tick a Box beneath.

HELLO, IS THERE ANYBODY OUT THERE!!!

A slow start to the Year

Training has recommenced, James, an old friend that I used to train with at the Other School has decided to come and train with us, it is always a great addition when you get a New Member that is really quite senior and knowledgable, it kind of improves the Gene pool, and there is a real chance a couple of other Senior guys may be coming over soon as well, we have 24 people on the books and 10 of these would be what can only be called Serious Wing Chun Students, this is really good for the less senior Students, the knowledge base is really deep and the pace of progress is furious.  With it being the first Day of the New Years training I went over some of the information that we should all know, as is always the case a few of the guys heard it for the first time, I can remember many occasions when I was training with my Sifu and he would tell me something and I would think "Why did he not tell me this years ago, why has he left it so late", but of course he had told me, like everyone once my Brain was full {which seems to not take very much} any new information would go in one Ear and out the other without leaving any trace, I think I will spend some time every lesson making sure that everyone has all the early information secured in there minds, and I will post up some of the more easily forgotten things here, for instance I tell everyone the main reason for shouting OOSH" breathing out very forcefully} when we Punch. Next time.

Happy New Year

Well we have made it to 2011 and in fact we are in really good shape, the Committee is working hard in a number of different ares that excite me, not least the fact that a new Web site is underway and we are getting organised to do some Fundraising in an attempt to finance the Club without increasing any fees, on the Wing Chun front, we have a few Instructional D.V.D;s in the pipeline and would hope to have them out by our first anniversary in late February, and also I am going to actually keep the blog alive, 2011 should be a great year.

WATCH THIS SPACE.