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?
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