More on "What are you Training"?

I am sure you aew well aware by now that a pet theme of mine is

 “Do you know what you are training, and why you are training it”? 

  In 17 years helping with peoples Wing Chun training it has become very obvious that few people do. 

Most people completely miss the point.

I watch Students hitting Bags and Pads as hard as they can and then not even making contact in normal training, I watch people posing Bong Sau or Tarn Sau and still getting hit. I see Students with absolutely no Structure in their Arms and when questioned they say they are working on “Softness” and not using force.

Q. What are you training?

A. Wing Chun Kung Fu, a Martial Art.

Q. When we Strike someone what are we trying to do?

A. Hit them, Duh.

Q. When I intercept an opponents Attack what am I trying to do?

A. Prevent him from hitting me!!

This is what we are training, to hit and to not be hit, everything else is just how we do it, and there is always more than one way, that is why we have so many ways to do it.

So when you are training any Strike you need to be really aware of the intended objective, which is usually to drop your Body weight through the contact into the opponents Body/Face/Leg. 

If you have been doing Wing Chun for more than 6 months then you should be well aware that we aim to hit the same Target multiple times in rapid succession, the reason for this is that trauma is cumulative,  it builds up, when someone tries to hit something really hard what they are trying to do is get more weight to land on the Target at the first chance, so let us say that a really hard Punch is 40Kg. Punching really hard is almost impossible to do simultaneously with your defensive posture, it is always just coming from one side, it usually requires Strength, Strength creates Tension, and Tension prevents us from dropping our Body weight through our Frame, it also requires a huge commitment and is unsuited to a follow up Strike, but lets pretend it lands, bang 40KG {that is of course if our opponent has not stopped it because they are also often telegraphed}, on the other hand a fast 10Kg strike can be done simultaneously with our defence, and can be easily followed up with 7 or 8 more strikes, so I can in fact deliver twice the payload for a fraction of the effort and with a far greater success rate.

When you are training your defensive postures, lets use Bong Sau as an example, the objective is to avoid being hit and not to make a good Bong Sau, and remember that Bong Sau is a movement not a shape, so the rotation up from Tarn Sau to Forward Guard {Man Sau the Asking Hand, and very important and often overlooked position} is Bong Sau, and the rotation down from the shape many refer to as Bong Sau down to Forward Guard is also Bong Sau. Any Strike is a Force Vector from my opponent to myself, my objective is to change this Force Vector so that the Strike misses, Bong Sau will change the Vector by rolling it out and away from the Target in the Tarn Sau upward rotation and inward and away from the Target if I use the downward rotation.

I am sure we have all heard of “Mind Power” or “Nim Lik” in Wing Chun, my Sifu used to call it “The Power of Intent”. We must be aware of what we intend to do, we must be aware of our objective in both attack and defence. In many ways Wing Chun is just a Tool we use to achieve our intention.

Focusing on the Mechanics will help you understand better how to use these Tools but without the intention of achieving the objective it becomes just an academic study and is no longer a Martial Art.

I hope this post raises some questions in your Mind, write them down and bring them into training.

Do you know what you are training?

I have a couple of weeks off work so I am really trying to get my self Healthy, no Booze, walking everyday and watching my food intake, I fasted all day yesterday and I intend to go without food until tomorrow morning {I do this on at least one Day most weekends if I am not working, it increases the bodies production of H.G.H.} with just Water, some of it flavoured with Coffee Beans. It is a lovely Day out there so I extended my Walk to 6km, with it being Sunday there was of course plenty of "Joggers" to keep me company, thump, thump, pant pant, wheeze, wheeze they go as they limp past me, most looking in some kind of Pain.

This made me think of something I have spoken of before, and it crosses borders so it is relevant to our Wing Chun Training,

1.  Do People really know why they are training the way they train?

2.  Do they know what they hope to achieve by doing these things?

3.  Do they think that what they are doing is actually achieving their objective?

4.  Is there a better way to get the same result?

5.  Are they just following someones Bullshit?

I know a few "Joggers" so I have asked them before "Why do you do it, why do you Jog"? The usual stock answer is for some sort of Health reason, to which I point out that "Jogging" damages your Ankles, ruins your Knees and creates life long Back Problems so I cannot see how it is any way related to the pursuit of Health.

Then there are the ones that say it is for "Fitness", "Cardio" or "Weight Control", well sure you will get a little bit of these from "Jogging" but not very much, if we take my 6km Walk, more Kilojoules are burned by walking it than by running it, it simply takes more energy to move something that is still than it does to keep something moving, I am sure that at some time or another we have all pushed a stalled Car, it gets easier as momentum kicks in, so does running over walking, running is more about using strength than energy.  As for Cardio if you rode a bike for the 6km you would take your heart beat count higher and keep it there longer so get a much better Cardio workout, so "Jogging" really does not help them achieve their objective and neither is it the best way to reach these Goals. But if you try to tell them they become all Tribal and their little Ego's refuse to contemplate any other options.

Interestingly enough I know a couple of Runners, who Run as a Sport, Cross Country, Half Marathons and such, a large part of their training does not include Running, they do Pilates and Swim for suppleness, they do weight training for Strength, they ride Bikes for Cardio and Endurance, all of these regimes are aimed at helping them become better Runners, because they Run for Fun.

When I ask "Joggers" what got them started, who's advice are they following, most do not even know, they mumble something about "Sixty Minutes", "The Internet" or some skinny chick I  know Jogs so it must be good. Some follow the advice of Guru's in Magazines, no one appears to be working with any sort of qualified Trainer / Instructor.

All training needs to follow the same approach, Football, Swimming, Wing Chun, Playing Guitar, training is a method even if the content is varied.  Training is a "Means to an End" and not an End in itself.  Understand what it is that this training will show you, then understand the training, and then understand how to use it.

As an Instructor I benefit greatly by watching Students do things incorrectly, I then try to make sure that I am not making the same mistakes, usually I am, usually we all are, but some peoples Ego's make it impossible for them to see themselves as they see others, especially "Junior Others", so it helps to look at things we do not do, like "Jogging", and ask ourselves the same questions that I have asked the "Joggers".

1.  Why do you do the Form / Chi Sau / whatever  the way you do?

2.  Do you know what you hope to achieve by doing these things this way?

3.  Do you think that what you are doing is actually achieving your objective?

4.  Is there a better way to get the same result?

5.  Are you just following someone's misunderstanding?



By the way if you answer "Yes" to question 3, which by default answers "No" to question 4, then you are more than likely beyond help.

Advanced Information and Frames of Reference

Some of my guys have just completed the first big step in their training, in many ways the biggest step in their training, they have progressed to Level 1. It is quite reasonable to think that seeings as there are 6 training Levels in Wing Chun that Level 1 represents one sixth of the Journey, 16.66% , but in reality it represents something more like 80%.

Firstly I need to digress before I continue, many Years ago, when I was still in high School, we were studying the arrival of Corte´s and the Spanish into the Americas, one thing that always stuck in my Head  {apart from the fact that the Aztecs cooked Fish with Chocolate} was that my History Teacher told us that the Science of the Day {1967} believed that because the Aztecs had no previous knowledge of any kind at all of the type of Ships the Spanish arrived in they could not process the information when the Giant Ships appeared on the horizon, so their Brains just did not see them, so the Spanish appeared to just walk out of the Water like Gods, add to this the fact that they held Sticks that flashed and then people died and the Aztecs where well and truly Brain Fuged. They had no "Frame of Reference" with which to build a Mental Image, and without this Mental image there is no reality.  These Days this is often referred to as an "Out of Context Problem".

Back to Wing Chun, one of the reasons many Students struggle with the early stages {pre Level 1} of training is because to a certain extent everything we do is an "Out of Context Problem", it is all new and ever so strange, especially Single Chi Sau. Is it any wonder that it is slow and heavy going.

Now that you have arrived if you think back over what you have been taught up to Level 1 it is not hard to see that it covers just about everything you would ever need in any given situation, so Level 1 is really about filling the "Tool Box", Level 2 is all about learning to understand the uses and applications of all of the tools in the Box, the big difference between the training in pre Level 1 and the training towards Level 2 is that now you have a complete and effective "Frame Of Reference" to help you "SEE" what you are trying to achieve, there is very little new information, you have all learned enough now it is time for understanding, in many ways the upper Levels represent no "New Knowledge" just deeper understanding of all the things you experienced in pre Level 1.

A great deal of what you have been through has been about establishing future "Frames of Reference", even in the very early Days of training you were being introduce to actions and concepts that you may not re visit and cover again until Level 3 or beyond, with the sole intention being that when the new information is presented to you it will not be so strange that you will struggle, you will have a "Frame of Reference" to hang your training on { and so you will see the Ships when they arrive, and not think that Gods have stepped from the Water}.  The attainment of Level 1means that you posses knowledge that not even you yourself are aware of at this point in time, by the time you all attain Level 2 you will be much, much better at what you do but will not really understand why.  By the time you attain Level 3 you will begin to understand and by Level 4 you will wonder why you could not see it in the first place.

If you think that training towards Level 2 is just another forced march forward, more techniques, more Chi Sau, in short more of the same then you will never bridge that Gap that you have just created, the physical work is almost over, stop pushing yourself, the whole idea of not using force applies even to how we approach our training.

It is time....

Turn off your Body.....

Engage your Brain....

Avoid Force....

The Principals of Wing Chun

Most Wing Chun People when asked about our style drag out the really tired cliche´ that Wing Chun is a "Concept" based Martial Art, while this is true it is also misleading, it allows Students to be sloppy as long as they are following the "Concept".

 But what are these "Concepts"?

And where can they be referenced from?

Most Students look at me as if I have started speaking Swahili when I ask them "Then where can we find these Concepts to show our Students"?

Even the idea that Wing Chun is based on a set of "Concepts" appears to be a "Concept" itself, so what do we have to base our training and our Future on?

At its Genesis Wing Chun was heavily connected to the Secret Societies committed to the overthrow of the Manchurian oppressors, as such little if anything was written down, add to this the fact that few Chinese could read or write it is no surprise that the information regarding Wing Chun's workings were passed down orally from Master to Student,  to try to avoid the natural entropy of "Chinese Whispers" they where formatted into sayings or songs, the Keun Kuit,  training hints that of themselves give away little but with the help of a good Instructor can contain all the information needed.  But it should be obvious that different people will quite naturally translate the same thing in a slightly different way, so from the outset these Songs where never meant to be a definitive guide.

A quick search of Wing Chun Principles on Google and you become aware that just about every School has its own idea of what the Principals are, some have 5, some have 7 some even have 13, indeed the Concept of there being a Concept is just a Concept itself.

In my Sifu's School we had 5 "Core Concepts", Directness, Simplicity, Practicality, Economy of Movement and Non use of Brute Force, through these my Sifu would explain the workings of Wing Chun, often when he was expanding on something he would say something like "Conventional Wing Chun Wisdom" offers us this suggestion, in time I realised that he was referring to the Keun Kuit but he seldom mentioned it by name, the things he mentioned the most where having a Body that holds no tension and the avoidance of force, both incoming and outgoing.

Of course we have our Forms, and for each School there is only one way to do the Forms, and for all Schools they must be done correctly, because our forms are the blueprint for how we move our body, both in shape and effort, after many Years of playing your forms it is hard to decide if the forms comply with the Principles or if the Principles are derived from how we do the Forms.

If the Principles do come from the Forms, then the Principles are real and actual, and not "Conceptual".

Wing Chun is a Circle that eventually returns to where it began, we ask a question, we receive an answer but the answer just creates more questions, more answers, and everything begins and ends in Stillness, or at least the idea of Stillness.

The Dictionary definition of a "Concept" is...

 "An  abstract idea, a plan of intention",

 I very much doubt that there is any coincidence in the fact that Siu Nim Tao translates to the way of the small idea.

Or to the fact that my Sifu used to refer to Nim Lik as the "Force of Intent".

Once my Sifu told me the "Secret" to understanding Wing Chun, he told me to turn up to his classes and pay attention.

Now there is a Concept.

M.A. Self Defence & Fighting.

This is a further conversation on something that I touched on earlier, most People think that Martial Arts, Self Defence and Fighting are the same thing, or at least a different way of talking about the same thing. This way of thinking can have a very negative effect on your training and turn it into a muddy Grey soup of mixed Ideas and Emotions that really has little value and no practicable use.

The vast majority of People take up a Martial Art as Fear Management, they fear that somewhere at sometime they may get attacked so they hope to develop some Fighting Skills to aid them on that dreadful Day, should it ever come. Some like to pretend that it is in fact Danger Management, but if you do truly believe that you are in danger then you need something "right here, right now" and no M.A. can offer this. Buy a Dog, preferably a very Big Dog, keep it with you at all times and do not feed it enough.

Others come understanding the Dilemma of time to train versus a need for action and just hope to learn a few good tricks to help them "Fight" their way out of trouble, these Guys tend to do 6 months at every different M.A. School in their area and end up falling foul of Hicks Law.

We would do well to know what we are looking for in our training, because this can change from Year to Year, even from Week to Week, mostly it is a matter of intention. What do I intend to use this training for?

A Martial Art, is as it says on the Box an "Art", in this respect the Goal is to reach a level of competence that is high enough to be able to perform all moves or sequences in as close a state to perfect as is Humanly Possible, it is this never ending Quest for perfection that keeps many People involved in the Martial Arts for their whole lives, because when one actively sets out to achieve Mastery there is no end to the Journey except when the Journey itself comes to and end. The overriding objective of Mastery of any Art is to "Achieve Perfection". Personal growth is often associated with the achievement of set Goals, and the much valued attribute of being strong willed and having self control and dependability is gained through Years of dedicated training with no acceptance of second best.

Self Defence is quite simply preventing someone from hurting you and departing the scene to a quieter and safer environment, on many levels this can be done without any formal training in any style of M.A.  Example, a Bad Guy wants to hurt you and steal your Money, you push him to the Floor and "Run away", Job done.  Real Life is never as easy as this, but there is really no need for a strategy that is any more complicated, if you are training for Self Defence then you should focus on actions that would stun your attacker and enable you to knock him to the Ground and then "Run away".  In Self Defence the overriding objective is "Escape".

Fighting is an activity that can only be acted out with the co-operation of both sides, it could be a contest, or it could be as extreme as a War, but fighting is 2 or more sides using force against each other to achieve the same result, if it is a Contest then both are fighting for the win, the Belt or whatever is at stake, if it is a War then the sides are fighting for control of a Country or at least part of a Country, the overriding objective is "Dominance". If you are in a Fight then it is partly your choice to be there, you could of ran away and escaped if your Ego was not involved and seeking to dominate your attacker.

While it may somehow be possible to achieve "Perfection" in "Escaping" from your Opponent and "Perfection" in "Dominating" your Opponent it seems pretty clear that the three different objectives have nothing in common, so it is unlikely that you will progress in any significant way without Tailoring your training to a Specific End.

 Martial Art, "Achieve Perfection"
To Achieve Perfection in your given Art then you will want to Focus most of your time toward whatever forms you practice, and try to make all your techniques follow your Forms to the point of being Anally Retentive, rest the temptation to move on to the next form before you have an excellent understanding of the previous form. And of course if it is possible assist in teaching your Juniors, we all have Ego's, and it is often the wish to not be "wrong" or "look stupid" that  drives us to be sure we are correct.


Self Defence, "Escape"
When escaping the present situation is uppermost in your Mind you will be surprised how quickly this opportunity will present itself, just about every Basic Technique will allow you to effect your attackers Balance and slip away, but this is very rarely addressed in Classes, all that is done is to hit, reload and hit again, next technique and so on. Everything you need is there if you look for it and work with it, practice taking the "Blind Side" and getting behind your Partner after a Strike, ask for instruction on how to break your opponents Structure and put him on the Ground {and once he is on the Ground Run away, do not start to stomp him} and make your Escape. Self Defence is about getting Home in one piece. Develop an "Exit Strategy" in your Mind at training and hopefully your Ego will not get embarrassed carrying it out.

Fighting, "Dominance"
Political correctness aside you may find yourself in a situation where you do wish to Dominate another Person or Persons for some reason, sometimes the only way to prevent someone from dominating you is to turn the Tables, often the only chance of Escape from more than 1 attacker is to completely dominate and overpower another person to change the odds in your favour. The most important thing to work on in training is Speed, not just hitting fast but thinking and moving fast, practical, operational speed. Stepping Drills and co-ordination Drills will help you develop good movement, fast movement. Keeping your list of techniques to a minimum will help you think quicker and make quicker decisions, another case of  Hicks Law. Understand the weak points of the Human Body, and learn how to easily access them with the techniques you know. Develop a Strategy, do not expect your techniques to appear out of nowhere and save the Day, use your imagination to visualise a couple of different "Confrontation Scenarios" and see your self get out of them, then really work those techniques until they are like Breathing, natural and normal. Mentally condition yourself to be unmerciful if the situation demands it, most Martial Artists are good People that under normal circumstances would not hurt a fellow Human Being, this is "Hard Wired" into you and may work against you if you do not develop a strong "Fighting Mentality".

Every Martial Art has the ingredients to cover Perfection, Escape and Dominance. It is up to you how you use these ingredients, how you adapt them and flavour them, going to training is just like going to Woolworth's and buying a selection of foods, if you just go Home and throw it all in the same Pot you will get a very strange and unsatisfying Soup, the more you understand your ingredients the more varied and interesting will be the dishes.  Just as there is more than one way to cook a Leg of Lamb, there will be more than one way to use your Basic Techniques, basic movements, your Instructor is like a Master Chef, ask him to give you some new {other} ways of using "Old {Basic} Idea's", and if he cannot then look for another Instructor to get advice from.

Martial Arts were developed to ready the Troops for War, as such they needed to be able to pass on the information effectively in a relatively short time span, you cannot afford to train for 20 Years if the War has already broken out!!  If you have been in training for over 100 Hours and still do not feel that you could get yourself out of trouble then there is something very, very wrong with your Style, your Instructor or Yourself, many people do not do any training or study outside of their Dojo, Kwoon or whatever you call your training Hall, and then wonder why they are not progressing, a great deal of what I have spoken of in this article can be done anywhere at any time, things like developing a "Fighting Mentality, Visualising Conflict Scenarios and Exit Strategies" can only be done away from training, and then you bring them in to try them out, if your Instructor does not understand this then perhaps he is not the best person to be training with.  If you as a Student cannot find the time in your Day to practice the Forms of your Martial Art then you should seriously think about giving it up, the forms of every  Martial Art are the foundation that everything else is built upon, you cannot build anything solid on weak Foundations.

When you go to training you have the right to ask your Instructor to cover any topic that worries you, but as an Instructor I find that Students never do, it would help me if more Students came to me and said something on the lines of "Can we cover a Scenario that deals with getting into trouble on a Train against 3 guys"?  This would benefit everybody in the Group.

If your Instructor is unwilling or unable to do this,  find a new Instructor.

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.

Self Defence is not Fighting!

When I am teaching my Students it becomes very clear that many do not see that there is a huge difference between Self Defence and Fighting, most think that the two are the same. Self Defence should be a method used to get out of a violent Situation as quickly as possible and as such should always, always include and escape strategy, usually the "Nike Defence". Fighting is a lot more complicated and is usually more about Ego and Dominance than escape. Fighting is a contest between two or more individuals that by definition needs to have a result, Win or Loose. Self Defence needs an outcome, Survival. This becomes very obvious when Students start adding flourishes and extra little tweaks to a Scenario than they where instructed, they start using Techniques that they think have more "Visibility and Social Credibility" than direct shots that just do the Job and go largely unnoticed.  If someone Lunges at me with a Punch, and I have the chance to side step him, push him to the floor and then make of in Great Haste {the Nike Defence}, then this should be the choice, and not choosing to try to off load all my favourite techniques, and join in Battle. Self Defence is about survival, not about becoming Jackie Chan. And fights are very Dynamic and have a will of their own than cannot be controlled, the longer you are involved in a fight the more chance there is that you will come second.

Become a Hunter, look for a way to not alert the Prey, look for a way to finish the event before the other guy knows that it has started and then depart.  And not a Fighter that will hang around trying for a result instead of leaving.