Believing what we are told!

Just about every Martial Art Student thinks that their teacher actually knows what he is talking about, so does just about every Martial Art Instructor, who believe that their teacher knew, and so on. But what happens if the mistake was made so long ago that it is now considered correct?
In Wing Chun we are told that it was invented by a Bhuddist Nun that watched a Crane and a Snake {or rodent depending on your School} fighting and passed down to a Bean Curd Sellers Daughter, said Daughter used it to beat up on a local Warlord to save her Honour. My own Sifu assured me that this was true, his Sifu had told him and the Great Sifu Ip Man had told him so it must be true. But we all know that this has to be a Fairy Tale, there is no evidence that either Woman existed, and any way it is unlikely that a Chinese Warlord in the 17th Century would just walk away after a beating, especially from a Woman.

So the tale is False, the modern understanding is that the tale was told to junior Members of the "Red Junk" insurgent group that used Wing Chun so as to protect the Heads of the Group if the juniors where captured and tortured. It makes sense, the reasoning is solid but it does not become the Truth.

As a Student I was shown things by my Sifu that had no real application, the techniques where shown to be able to explore how our Structure coped with Force, and how it could be used to redirect force, but the technique itself was nothing but a made up example of how it might be used, basically a Fairy Tale. As in any Group lesson some Students do not hear what is said prior to the exercise and think that they are learning a technique, they then teach this to other people as a genuine technique that they learned from there Sifu, and a Lie is accidentally born.

The first few Years in Wing Chun training are all about developing Structure that works to absorb Force, it is relatively static and completely defensive, and yet we are taught this as a way to be able to fight, if you understand that this is of very little use in a real Violent Encounter unless you make certain adjustments to meet the situation then it is a valid way to train {once you know what to adjust of course}, but if you just take for granted that it will work straight out of the Box, "Face to Face" and "Straight Down the Middle" the you will be in for a shock.

It is easy to identify a technique that has development value rather than combat value if you observe, question and verify. We all know that Wing Chun adopts simultaneous Attack and Defence, so if your technique does not allow for this to happen it is more than likely developmental, an example that springs to Mind is defence against a Roundhouse Punch, we teach that your Dai Sau should be moving into an intercepting position as your Punch is attacking your opponents Head.  But then another technique we show that you can turn a heavy Roundhouse away by turning your Dai Sau to Bong Sau and Pivoting.

Think about this for a moment, how is it even possible?

The collective Wisdom is that your Chi Sau Skills will have developed your sensitivity to such an extent that you can identify that this incoming Roundhouse Punch may overwhelm you so you redirect it.

 How, or even why, do I redirect an attack just as my own attack is about to land? Or am I meant to redirect one of my Arms but not the other?

Just because we have been told that this is done does not mean that it is really done, our Instructor could be quoting someone that was wrong, so we need to involve our Brain in every aspect of our teaching, my own Sifu told me some things that I pointed out to him would never happen in a real conflict, on a few other occasions he made suggestions that where totally ridiculous, no matter how good your teacher is he is only a Man like your self and can take things that he has been taught for granted without question, because to some cultures to question your Teacher is unthinkable.

Many early Students of Wing Chun believe that we attack straight down the Middle.  This is wrong.

Many Students think that we stand Face to Face with out attacker. This is wrong.

Many think that the Centre Line is a line from me to my Attacker. This is wrong.

All of the above come from a complete misunderstanding of how to engage in Wing Chun.

Many people will argue against this, but you need to ask yourself are you attacking the way I think or just blindly defending the way you think.

 If we did not need to move why do we have Chum Kiu.