Articles – Page 9 – Wing Chun Lexicon

Sum Nung Wing Chun Kuen Methods

by Rene Ritchie

The fifteen year old had been learning Wing Chun kuen for the last couple of years from a fellow Foshan restaurant worker. During those years, the he’d oticed that every once in a while, a slender looking old man would come to the restaurant to take tea. Sometimes, following dinner, the old man would remain behind long after the establishment closed and watch their Wing Chun kuen practice. Although the old man looked on intently and was presumably quite interested in their activities, he always sat quietly, never criticizing anything he saw. Thus, it came as quite a shock to the youth when, one day, his teacher came to him and stated that the old man was in fact a Wing Chun kuen master of highly advanced skill. His teacher went on to tell the youth that the old man had been impressed by his dedication and hard work and had offered to take over his training. The youth was uncertain how to proceed. He turned his attention first to his teacher, large and powerful and then to the old man, who was small and thin and presumably long passed his prime. The youth’s observations led him to express doubts about the old man’s abilities. Nevertheless his teacher, Cheung Bo brought him over and introduced the youth, Sum Nung, to the old man, Yuen Kay-San. They spoke for a few minutes and Sum again stated his reservations. Intrigued by the youth and sensing his potential, Yuen decided to offer him a potential solution. The old man told the youngster that he was going to place eggs inside his pockets and then they would have a match. If, during the match, the youth succeeded in breaking even one of the eggs, the old man vowed he would admit defeat and be on his way. The youth quickly agreed to the simple sounding challenge and the contest was soon underway. Sum attacked repeatedly with all the power and skill his hard work and training had given him, yet each time he felt himself cut off and unable to continue after only one or two actions. Yuen remained calm throughout and hardly seemed to be moving at all. Nevertheless, when the match ended, Sum Nung stood back, confident that he had been victorious. It took mere moments for that confidence to shatter, however, as Yuen Kay-San slowly pulled all the eggs from his pockets. None were broken, not even so much as a crack.

Wing Chun kuen is not a technical style, it is a conceptual system. More than a set combinations of pre-patterned movements, it is an ingenious index and guide to the core principles of Southern Chinese martial arts. Thus, in the Wing Chun kuen of Yuen Kay-San, as taught by grandmaster Sum Nung, it is the yiu dim (yao dian, important ideas) that are vital, since from them come the many individual applications and implications.

Origins

Yuen Kay-San (Ruan Qishan) was born in 1889 to a wealthy family who owned a fire-works store. The fifth son of the family, he was often called by the nickname Yuen Lo Jia (Ruan Laozha, Yuen the Fifth). At a young age, Yuen Kay-San and his elder brother Chai-Wan (Jiyun) began studying Wing Chun kuen under a Foshan constable named Fok Bo-Chuen (Huo Baoquan). Fok had learned the art from Hung Suen Hay Ban (Hongchuan Xiban, Red Junk Opera Company) classmates Wong Wah-Bo (Huang Huabao) and Dai Fa Min Kam (Dahuamian Jin, Painted Face Kam). After completing their studies under Fok, the Yuen brothers sought out another student of Painted Face Kam named Fung Siu-Ching (Feng Shaoqing). Fung had worked as an Imperial Marshal and a guard for the Sichuan governor but by the time the Yuen’s approached him, he was just over 70 and ready to retire. The Yuen’s invited Fung to move into their family estate on Foshan’s Songyuan Dajie (Mulberry Gardens Main Street) where he taught Wing Chun kuen to them and a few of their friends. Since Yuen Kay-San was already accomplished in Wing Chun kuen, Fung Siu-Ching concentrated on teaching him practical application and close-body fighting (including joint locks and breaks, reverse locking, etc.)

Following their training with Fung Siu-Ching, the Yuen brothers took different paths. In 1936, Yuen Chai-Wan moved to Vietnam where he taught Wing Chun at the Nanhai and Shunde Expatriates Association. Yuen Kay-San, on the other hand, stayed in Foshan and worked on developing his Wing Chun kuen. Throughout his lessons, Yuen had always taken copious notes. He then spent time analyzing the scientific principles of Wing Chun kuen and became one of the first to document its formal concepts. Linking together and refining all the knowledge he had acquired, he developed a complete understanding of Wing Chun kuen and went on to found remarkable methods and principles encompassing its forms and functions.

One of Yuen Kay-San’s close friends at the time, Cheung Bo (Zhang Bao), worked as a chef at Tien Hoi, a local restaurant next to Kuaizi (Chopstick) street. Cheung, a large and powerful man, taught san sik (san shi, twelve separate forms) based Wing Chun kuen to a small group of fellow staff members at night when the establishment was closed. One of his students at the time was a teenager named Sum Nung (Cen Neng).

After a brief introduction and quick lesson in the skills of Yuen Kay-San, Sum Nung became Yuen’s student. Over the years, Yuen and Sum spent much time together, constantly practicing Wing Chun kuen. From Yuen, Sum learned the siu lien tao (xiao lian tou, little first training), chum kiu (chen qiao,sinking bridge), biu jee (biao zhi, darting fingers), muk yan jong (mu ren zhuang, wooden dummy), luk dim boon gwun (liu dian ban gun, six-and-a-half-point pole), yee jee seung do (er zi shuang dao, parallel double knives) and worked at developing his chi sao (chi shou, sticking arms) and other skills. When not practicing, Sum would sit beside Yuen Kay-San while Yuen discussed Wing Chun kuen’s concepts. Under Yuen’s guidance, Sum continued to refine and polish his Wing Chun kuen, developing an intelligent and practical system, as efficient as it was effective.

By the mid-1940s, Sum Nung had gained a great reputation in Foshan for his depth of knowledge and fighting skills. In the late 1940s, Sum Nung moved to the nearby provincial capitol of Guangzhou to pursue his medical career. In the early days, he supported himself by teaching Wing Chun kuen and providing medical services to members of the local Workers’ Unions.

Although Sum Nung, like Yuen Kay-San before him, did not boast of his abilities nor seek out confrontation, he did on occasion have friendly tests of skill with practitioners of other martial art styles. Although he seldom spoke of the encounters out of respect for his opponents’ reputations, it is said that in them, he never met with failure and his reputation in Guangzhou grew steadily.

Following Yuen Kay-San’s passing in 1956, Sum Nung renamed his system in his teacher’s honor in order to ensure Yuen’s name and contributions to Wing Chun kuen would live on. Due to the turbulent times of the Cultural Revolution that followed, Sum Nung taught his system privately. Over the last half-century, however, teaching only those whom he felt were upright and trustworthy, grandmaster Sum Nung has gone on to train many outstanding students.

Due to the quality of his training, and the many sources from which Wing Chun kuen flowed down to him, grandmaster Sum Nung was able to give his students not only his practical experience in application, but also his deep insight into the concepts and principles behind it.

Wing Chun Kuen Concepts

There are many important concepts in Wing Chun kuen such as “linking defense to bring in offense”, “techniques come from the heart”, “sticking hands is like asking the way”, and one of the most famous, the “meridian line”.

The jee ng sien (zi wu xian, meridian line), sometimes referred to as the central line, sagittal place, etc. is behind many of the major concepts of Wing Chun kuen. Like most Chinese concepts, it can be viewed in several different ways. Firstly, it defines the line that vertically bisects the practitioner’s body from the crown-point all the way down to the central point between the feet. Secondly, it indicates the same line through an opponent’s body. Thirdly, it encompasses the most direct root between the practitioner’s center and that of the opponent.

Wing Chun kuen seeks advantage by aligning its structure and weapons on the central meridian, striking the opponent’s center of balance, and maintaining dominance of the line between the two throughout combat.

In addition to the general principles, Yuen Kay-San left behind several formal written sets in poetic form, including the sup yee faat (shi er fa, twelve methods). Wing Chun kuen is based on these methods of joining, intercepting, sinking, darting, sticking, feeling, pressing, swinging, swallowing, slicing, stealing, and leaking. They are at the same time the simplest and yet the most profound of Yuen Kay-San’s written principles. Profound in meaning, the twelve methods provide a gateway to deeper understanding of the style.

Although each of the twelve methods can be interpreted and applied in different ways, basic explanations can help give insight into their potential. Joining is to make contact with the bridges. Intercepting involves the cutting-off the offense of an opponent. Sinking deals with the destruction of the opponent’s structure. Darting advocates the relaxed and accurate thrusting of power. Sticking relies on contact to gather information. Feeling uses contact to maintain positioning during the dynamics of combat. Pressing applies power like an iron on clothing. Swinging turns the reactions of opponents against them. Swallowing accepts an opponent’s power instead of resisting it. Slicing carves into an opponent to disrupt their center of gravity. Stealing fills the empty holes in an opponent’s defense. Leaking runs through an opponent’s actions.

Tactical advice is passed down in the system through sets of four character rhyming couplets such as the yiu ku (yao jue, important rhymed formulae) and the similar faat mun (fa men, methodologies).

These formulae impart advice including; as force comes, it should be received and kept. It is never resisted or knocked away but accepted and adhered to. As force goes, it is accompanied, escorted back, and added to. When a loss of contact occurs, or the body is crossed, a practitioner is advised to charge straight down the central meridian.

Wing Chun kuen does not prepare or plan out ahead of time and stubbornly enact these plans regardless of circumstance. It attacks according to current conditions and is alive and ever changing. Every offense is a defense and each defense is an offense. When changes are done skillfully, a practitioner can achieve twice the results with only half the effort.

Wing Chun kuen boxers must learn to apply their power in the most advantageous way, moving with the wind rather than against it. Its power is soft, calm, and quiet. Practitioners must therefore have faith in themselves to use it. Soft is employed to overcome hard, but both hard and soft are combined in use. Enemies are fought fiercely and attacks may be initiated in order to gain control. Once an initial attack is made, it is followed in succession until the target is no more.

Sets of five character rhyming couplets pass along training principles in the Yuen Kay-San system. They include the yiu jee (yao zhi, important ideas) and the ching yan (qian yin, introductions). These sets relate to working hard, being healthy, studying, being nimble, using the eyes, and being first.

Some of the training principles include that strength must be exacting in position, never overextended. It is aware, follows, and changes with feeling. During training, the eyes should be angry and look straight forward. Changes should be explored through sticking with a partner. A teacher must correct these practices. When there is no teacher and no partner, a mirror and dummy should be used to aid in this pursuit and one must imagine an enemy is present.

In addition, practitioners are advised to follow the methods of the ancestors, but to remember to change according to conditions. Lastly, it is said that if one works hard and trains, one is unlikely to meet with failure.

Preserving the Legacy

Among the better known individuals fortunate enough to have learned from grandmaster Sum Nung (with apologies, far to many to list completely here) are Leung Dai-Chiu (Liang Dazhao), Ngo Lui-Kay (Ao Leiqi), Kwok Wan-Ping (Guo Yunping), Lee Chi-Yiu (Li Zhiyao), Wong Wah (Huang Hua, Tom Wong), as well as Teddy Wong and many, many others.

Ngo Lui-Kay followed grandmaster Sum Nung from the mid-1960s until he relocated to Canada in 1982. As the concepts were passed from Yuen Kay-San to grandmaster Sum Nung, and from grandmaster Sum Nung to Ngo Lui-Kay and his many classmates, so have Ngo Lui-Kay and his classmates begun to share them with their own students and descendants. It is hoped that by introducing these concepts in the west, it will help to preserve the rare and unique system of Yuen Kay-San Wing Chun Kuen, and the teachings of grandmaster Sum Nung for future generations

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The One Inch Punch

The one inch punch is a stage effect which illustrates that even from a short distance, strong force can be generated. To try it, have your partner hold a pad or phone book tightly against his chest. Get into the Wing Chun square stance. Put one hand at your side and press the top knuckle of the punching hand into the opponent to force his center of gravity down (to almost off balance him). Now using a sharp wrist action (the wrist goes from a bent down to a straight position), and a body knee action, punch to off balance the opponent. From the side, your body action looks like a wave in motion. The zero inch punch is a trick based on moving the center of gravity of the opponent but the punch does contain many elements of the real thing. The body action and wrist action are the same. For a real punch, use the sinking stance, the wrist power, the elbow power, the shoulder power and the rotational force of the body. If the punch is performed with a body charge, it is even stronger.

We have observed many books and tapes where this punch is performed incorrecty. Often the punch shown is a pushing punch, where the distance travelled by the fist is more than one inch or three inches. The punch should definitely feel like a shock and not a push. Although pushes look very dramatic because the opponent seems to fly backwards by several feet, they are easier to perform than a short range shocking punch.

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Five Principles of Wing Chun (1)

Receive What ComesThe saying “Receive What Comes,” or “If the Attack Comes, then Meet it,” means that if the opponent initiates the attack then you should meet the attack with an attack response of your own.
For example, if the opponent throws a straight punch, then meet the punch with a thrusting hand or Bil sau movement directed towards the opponent’s center. Alternatively, you can apply a palm up hand (Tan sau) and punch.

If you immediately counterattack, then the opponent risks getting hit. This places him on the defensive and slows down his attacking action.

By meeting the opponent’s attack, you are simply engaging the opponent’s force so that you can determine the next actions based on what you feel. When you feel the opponent’s force, you can tell if it is strong, weak, stiff, sticky, soft, centered, off-centered, etc. Your next action depends on what you feel.
Follow What GoesThe saying “Follow what goes,” means that if the opponent withdraws his force, then you must stick to the opponent and hit. As long as you are sticking with the opponent, you are unlikely to lose.
If you do not stick with the opponent, then you have lost an important indicator of what will happen next. The indicator is your sense of touch. Upon loss of contact, the opponent can kick or perform many kinds of deceptive hand techniques which are bound to succeed.

If the opponent retreats the stance, then you rush in with your stance. If you just stand there, then you will get kicked. If you decide to retreat, then you must again close the gap between you and the opponent. Since this part is less scientific than sticking hands fighting, you risk getting hurt in the clash.

In the sticking hands training, you can practice retreating while your partner chases and sticks.
No Contact – Rush InThe saying, “Rush in upon loss of contact,” means to hit straight if arm contact disappears. Imagine being blindfolded. Your hands are in contact with the opponent’s hands. You can detect and feel every movement that the opponent is about to make. Now imagine that there is a loss of hand contact. You do not know where the opponent’s hands are. You have no sensory clues about what is going to happen next. You are bound to get hit.
Close range fighting is often like the blindfolded case. Your visual system can’t always see what is going on because the action it too rapid or the vision is blocked (the action is too close). If you maintain a slight forward pressure directly towards the center line of the opponent and strike in a straight line upon loss of hand contact, then you will hit the opponent first. The reason is that a straight line is shorter than a curved line. If you are in the center, the opponent must travel a curved line to disengage.
Make The First MoveThe saying “Make the first move to have control,” is also expressed as “If he stays I go.” What these expressions mean is that, if the opponent is facing you and does nothing, then don’t hesitate, but attack right away. Otherwise, you may be tricked by an opponent who has figured you out. The intention of your attack is to make contact with the opponent. Once you have made contact, then you can use your knowledge from the sticking hands to win.
What the above saying does not mean is to just rush in recklessly without fear of getting hurt. If you are weaker than your opponent or slower, or if you don’t know anything abut how your opponent fights, then you stand to get hit. In Wing Chun, advance slowly and cautiously toward the opponent, always threatening him. At the right moment, suddenly charge. The right moment may occur during an attention lapse or during the time an opponent tenses up, or at the completion of an opponent’s movement. Lift the leg immediately against a low kick.
Use Proper TimingThe saying “Attack according to timing,” is meant as a caution to not just blindly rush in.
The Wing Chun idea of how to attack is like a cat trying to get a mouse. The cat sneaks up very slowly to the mouse. The closer the cat gets, the more careful the cat gets. Once the cat is close enough, then the cat does an explosive forward springing action to get the mouse.

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The Root of Wing Chun Kuen Power: Four Methods to Test Your Structure

by Robert Chu

I had awakened from my afternoon nap. Grandfather was snoozing away in his peculiar method of inhaling through his nose and exhaling through his mouth, a little puff at the end of each exhalation. There was no television, no radio, so I decided to entertain myself with a plastic coffee can lid that I threw about the kitchen like a Frisbee. I threw it at the wall and watched it bounce off. Then I threw it at angles and watched it ricochet! I thought, in my 7-year old mind, “What would it be like if I had some real room?” I decided to go into the living room where grandfather was still napping away. “It’s pretty quiet, so I guess I can throw it and he’ll never notice,” I thought. I threw it and retrieved it once. No disturbance! “Wow! Look at it fly! Let’s try that again!”

The next thing I knew, Grandfather was awakened, furious! “Lao san (Number 3), why can’t you be quiet when I rest?!”

Uh, oh! I was in big trouble. I had awakened him from his nap! “You’re a mischievous boy and now I’m going to punish you!” He grabbed me by my collar and told me to squat in the corner in a peculiar stance for a half hour. I had no choice. Grandfather had decided and so there I remained, legs quivering, hands at my sides, panting and straining and sitting in the dreaded horse stance for the next 30 minutes, which seemed like an eternity. Grandfather grinned, “That’ll teach you to wake me up!”

Here I am now, some twenty-nine years later writing this article to tell you the benefit of that torture, er, I mean training. Whether you practice Hung Gar, Wing Chun, Tai Ji Quan, Northern Shaolin, Xing Yi or Ba Gua – there’s no getting around it! Whether you call it Zhan Zhuang (Pile Exercise), Jut Ma (Sitting on a Horse), standing meditation, or simply, stance training, it is the same. It’s a boring, strenuous exercise that even the advanced students want to avoid. But would you believe strenuous training is one of the quickest methods of developing internal power?

For the martial artist, one of the most important quests in learning and mastery of your art is the study of power (“jing” in Mandarin, “ging” in Cantonese, and often described as “internal power” in English). The most important thing in the quest for internal power is learning body connection for issuing that power. In my studies, body connection is the first way to developing power and sadly, too many practitioners are still searching for power after 20 years or so of practice. A student of mine, Kim Eng, once remarked that when he studied a so-called “internal art”, he was waiting to get the “qi power” after 20 years of practice. I laughed. I then gave him an understanding of body connection and One of the best ways to get power: stance training. This article will focus on Wing Chun kuen as it is the principle system I teach, and a few simple tests for the practice and development of stance and power.

The way I teach Wing Chun, the body structure and connection comes first. Later the forms solidify that training with the tools becoming involved. Partner exercises are introduced to be able to get used to utilizing this body structure in combat, and weapons skills are taught later to be able to project power with the body through a weapon. Personally, having seen many magazine articles and read many books, I first look at the demonstrator’s body to see if the can express power through their torso. Just a look at their pelvis and stance, and I can get a good idea if the martial artist is skilled or not. Quite often I am amused by the lack of body usage in their demonstrations of technique, even by advanced practitioners.

Power depends upon both internal and external factors. Oral tradition states, “Power originates from the heels, travels up the ankle and knee joints, is in conjunction with the waist, issues forth from the body and rib cage, travels down the shoulders, to the elbow, to the wrist and manifests from the hands”. A proper positioning of the body, muscle relaxation and contraction, breathing and timing are also factors involved in this.

Basic Alignment

Proper body structure comes from aligning the 3 dan tian and is crucial to the development of this power. You must align the Yin Tang (an acupuncture point between the two eyebrows), Tan Zhong (Ren 17, a point located on the midline of the body, level with the 4th intercostal space) and Qi Hai (ren 6, also known as dan tian, a point 1.5 cun below the navel) points in one line. (See illustrations). With this basic alignment in place, you can easily attain the “Qi feeling” in the body – that would be first what is called “Xiao Zhou Tian” (Small Microcosmic Orbit), then later advance to “Da Zhou Tian” (Big Microcosmic Orbit) which extends awareness of Qi flow throughout the body. As the focus of this article is more on the more physical aspects and benefits of body structure and stance training, I will discuss this more in detail in a future article or advise you to look for other qualified teachers in standing meditation.

Test # 1

robert chu3 With this basic posture aligned, you should try a simple test of alignment with the Yee Ji Kim Yeung Ma (Yee Character pinching goat horse), the basic stance practiced in Wing Chun. First, you should try to stand when a force or pressure is exerted upon you. For example, let’s say a person puts their palm on your chest and presses with continuous force. The pressure should not send you flying back, but should root you to the ground. You cannot develop this power if you are leaning backwards like the Leaning Tower of Pisa, or “hunchbacked” like Quasimodo of Notre Dame. You need to relax and sink and maintain the proper alignment in doing these tests. You equalize the pressure exerted by adjustmenting your balance and pushing forward with the pelvis. The buttocks and the quadriceps are brought into play and also help with this equalization. You should not be as limp as a noodle when relaxed, nor as rigid as a board. You have to have a Yin & Yang, a dynamic interplay of the soft and hard to be able to do this.

This first test often upsets people who think that the basic stance is not a fighting stance at all, and not strong in the face of frontal force. What I write here is contrary to the majority of Wing Chun practitioners’s experience. Most who lean backwards or are hunch over like a patient sick with pulmonary emphysema will fail this test. Some will have practiced Wing Chun kuen for many years and not be able to pass this simple little test. I consider this a shame. The basic stance, Yee Ji Kim Yeung Ma, is practiced about fifty percent of the time in Wing Chun training. It is used throughout the first form, as the beginning and end of every section in the second and third form, the dummy set, and the knife techniques, and and forms the basis for many partner exercises as well.

Failing this test may suggest that your lineage is stressing form over function. My motto is “stress function over form and allow application to also be your sifu”. The benefit to learning something like this is that you can see if you are actually using power with your entire body, rather than from the limbs alone. The key here is using the pelvis and making sure that the buttocks is ahead of the heels.

Whether you are standing on both legs or one, the alignment remains constant. Again, if early and advanced Wing Chun training emphasizes this basic stance, and you cannot pass this test, you really should robert chu4 seek some qualified instruction.

In the beginning, I suggest that you stand in Yee Ji Kim Yeung Ma with hands held at the sides first. Later, you can do these tests with variations. Instead of pushing on the sternum, you can have hand postures of double Tan Sao position (Dispersing Arms, test one, variation 1), double Fuk Sao position (Subduing Arms, test one, variation 2), and double Gum Sao position (Pressing Arms, test one, variation 3). You can then test the structure by pushing on the arm position. With this, you can see if the arms are ideally connected with the torso. The idea is the feet grip the ground and support the legs, the legs support the knees, the knees support the thighs, the thighs transfer power to the pelvis, the pelvis to the waist, the waist to the torso and from the there, the torso connects to the shoulder. From the shoulder, the arms connect to the elbow, the elbow to the wrist, and finally to the hands. From controlling your intent and having awareness and sensitivity to adjust for changes, you should be able to easily have this feeling of being rooted.

Test #2

The second test is essentially the same as the first, however you should stand in a Bik Ma (forward stance, as illustrated), and allow your partner to exert robertchu2 the same pressure over your sternum. If you have the proper alignment and root, your rear foot will feel as though it is sinking into the ground. If you are striking someone, you will also have this feeling of pushing strongly into the ground with your rear foot. Since my method involves this stance with a 50/50 weight distribution, people who practice with a different emphasis with weight on their rear leg may find it difficult to pass this test. Those who do may want to investigate or discover why their lineage uses a stance in that way.

Test #3

Following this, the third test also finds you in a Bik Ma and has your partner pulling your lead arm, now held in a Lan Sao (Obstruction Hand). If properly aligned, you will feel rooted
to the ground, with additional pressure on the lead leg. If you were in this stance/step, and you were pulling your opponent, you would also feel the lead foot strongly planted in the ground. For those who practice with weight emphasis on the rear leg, you now have your reasons why.

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Test #4

The fourth test has you in the Chum Kiu Ma, a turning stance also found in the second form. In the form, we typically use a Bong Sao (Wing Arms) from a straight facing position and have the weight robert chu 7 distributed 50/50 in both legs. We test this by putting pressure on the Bong Sao and see is we can maintain the weight of our partner. If you failed test one, you probably cannot do this one. People who turn at a sharper angle may also find themselves unable to pass this test. The key, as before is to equalize pressure with the pelvis and maintain the torso in alignment. If your body structure looks like an “S” or “b” from the side (see illustrations), you probably do not have the body properly aligned.

The Purpose of Structure

My speaking of alignment in Wing Chun Kuen is similar to Xing Yi’s San Ti Shi (Trinity Stance), Tai Ji Quan’s Peng (bouyant / expansion) position and Ba Gua’s Niu Zhuan alignment (twisting power), as well as most forms of Zhan Zhuang (Standing Meditation) exercises. Wing Chun also follows this concept of alignment. Wing Chun’s oral traditions state, “Internally train a breath of air, externally train the sinew, bones and skin”. Yip Man was known to practice the Siu Nim Tao set (Little Idea, Wing Chun’s 1st form) for an hour. He was training to develop power.

I believe that power development comes to a student from day one in their training. It comes from the basics of stance, posture and relaxation. It’s just that beginner students are not robert chu 8 coordinated, nor do they understand how to put things together, and it is often not explained why they do things a certain way. In my opinion, they are just doing things “externally”, simply mimicking a teacher’s motions without the understanding of why they are doing so. If a martial artist only emphasizes “purely external training”, they typically use weight training, stretching, and maintain an emphasis on endurance and speed. That’s fine, yet it does not tie into the rich concepts of complete body alignment, which is advanced training and provides a deeper understanding of one’s art.

One of my Wing Chun students, Gerry Pang, asked me while we had tea, “Sifu, does our art favor a larger person?” I asked why would he ask that? He said because he saw a majority of the students were bigger than him and they could make the art work. Then I told him that he must look at our core training, the core that emphasizes structure – turning it on and off, adjusting to the pressure and scientifically linking and unlinking the body at will. All of our forms emphasize structure, all of our partner exercises drill structure and all our weapons work supports it. I told him our art is designed for a smaller person to maximize his potential for power. Many teachers don’t emphasize that, so the body structure is emphasized when people are smaller than their opponent, not larger. I think he left our tea session satisfied with my answer.

My words do not only apply to Wing Chun here. They are universal for all systems of traditional Chinese martial arts. Many mimic the words “structure” and “alignment”, but without adequately testing their basic postures, they do not understand the depth of the meanings of these words.

Some may also think it is a waste of time to stand in these static postures. To be able to use power from the ground up is the epitome of all martial arts. I don’t think many emphasize the body alignment unless they, too, are looking to maximize the potential of issuing power. I have always studied other martial arts forms not for the sake of beauty or collecting systems, but for the sake of understanding their body connection concepts. Whether you be a practitioner of Hung Gar, Shaolin, Xing Yi, Tai Ji, Ba Gua, or Wing Chun Kuen, you should understand how to get power from your basic stance training.

Wing Chun people say “Yau, Shen, Ma Lik” (Waist, Body and Horse Power) and “Jang Dae Lik” (Elbow down power) to hint where the power comes from and how we should align ourselves. The Wing Chun Kuen Kuit (Fist Sayings) only hint how to develop power, however.

Conclusion

When you have developed one type of power very well, you begin to learn the variations of issuing power, and can manifest different forms of Ging (such as inch power, long power, and the like) by varying your timing and length of expenditure and direction of your power. You can only get this through training total body connection and coordination. If you do not have this form of training in your system, perhaps you can seek it out from other accomplished individuals in your system, or read the classics of your art, that may point the way. Perhaps my Grandfather found this as a form of “punishment”, but I was glad he gave me a head start in my journey in martial arts training and pointed the way for me to learn many great things.

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The three Ranges of Wing Chun

by John Paul

Short range is the range that is most associated with Wing Chun, even with those who are only remotely familiar with the style. This close range infighting is very advanced and can only be properly learned, practiced, and understood after the longer range concepts are fully grasped. This distance is also commonly known as trapping range. In Wing Chun we practice sticky hands, or chi sau for this.

My teacher has a specific and unique method for teaching sticky hands.

First, the preliminary training for long range and mid range techniques teaches students in our family to close the gap, move in and “stick” to our opponent. Easier said than done. We spend a great deal of time perfecting our mobility, foot work, not wasting movements, stamina, speed, timing and agility.

This is the forward energy often mentioned in Wing Chun but hardly understood. Students in our family “bug the opponent like a bee or a fly or a hummingbird”. Starting from a distance, as most confrontations do, and then ending up “too close for comfort to the opponent”.

Every technique we use, every weapon we use, and every principle we follow carries this spirit. The close range principle is easily understood by soft style practitioners, but it seems to be mysterious to some Wing Chun artists. I will adress this later because it is very fundamental.

Once after sparring 3 or 4 people in a row, Sifu asked me, “Now, what do you think you can do better next time?” I thought for a second. Then I said,”Workout harder!”, because I was completely out of breath. He said, “Hmm…no that’s not it…once you get in, you don’t know what to do!” At this point I am familiar with the long and medium ranges but the short range I have yet to master.

In application, from my past experiences with other challengers and Kung Fu brothers from other schools, I see people often neglect this part of Wing Chun principle that is vital to a Wing Chun practicioner, or they demonstrate actions that are different than what they preach about Wing Chun.

My teacher says sticky hands is a fragmented part of Wing Chun training. There is more to Wing Chun than just that. As a result, Wing Chun has gotten a bad reputation for only looking good but with no practicality. That’s why people try to mix it with Muay Thai or some other hard style of boxing when it comes to real fight training.

Totally incorrect.

Everyone who practices martial arts, has had a few fights, or is fairly intelligent when they start martial arts always gets the idea to take the best stuff from every style and create their own personal superstyle. In fact this is how martial arts evolves. But most people are not qualified to do this for one reason. In order to get the best from every style you practice requires years of training. But most people study only short while, or even worse they study for years but never fully grasp the principles and never master the style. So when they take from the style they only end up taking a few moves or techniques; never carrying with them the spirit, the essence of the style.

They dont get “the best stuff”.

In our family one of our founders, Fung Siu Ching, incorporated Tai Chi grappling into our Wing Chun. Many people practice some form of Tai Chi and some form of Wing Chun and try to mix the two. So what makes ours different?

Well, Master Fung was well known to be a very experienced general, marshall and bounty hunter for the Qing. He had real hand to hand combat skill for most of his life. He knew Tai Chi grappling probably better than he knew his wife. It was in him, it was a part of him. A soft, internal style principle that is our Kung Fu is internal–its in your soul, your DNA. Many readers frown on the Wing Chun and Tai Chi relationship, and confuse us with some of the masters who add Tai Chi technigues into their Wing Chun techniques like adding apples and oranges together.

Some swear that Fung had studied Shaolin Crane Style (Shaolin practitioners have said this). Most of them have never heard that Ng Mui was from Aumei White Crane Cave (stated by the Master of Lost Track style in the book Lost Track Style Kung Fu and Master Sum Nung). The Aumei Pi style of Kung Fu is actually a family of many mixed styles of Shaolin and Wudong, by many masters of the two, over hundreds of years! It became a new fruit! Back to my point.

Closing the gap in our Wing Chun is similar to Xing Yi and Tai Chi principles. In both styles the master gets close. In Xing Yi they close in. In Tai Chi they allow the opponent to close in. We do similarly but still different. We move forward in a yielding manner. Once in close, short range, trapping range, the most deadly, powerful, accurate finishing blows are executed. In this range we also differ from other Wing Chun families because we emphasize much more stand up grappling, White Crane sweeping and throwing, take downs, and breaks.

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6 Forgotten Pole Secrets

by Robert Chu

The more boxing became a focal point of kung-fu, the more pole sets were ignored or dismissed entirely. mikebaker1

“Gwong’s pole set movements were as ‘graceful as a flying dragon, and as powerful as a tiger.’ ”

“With the fist, fear the young adept; with the staff, fear the old master.”

I first wrote about and published an article in the Spring of 1999 in Exotic Martial Arts of South East Asia Magazine on the Flying Dragon/Tiger Gate system, also known as the Fei Lung Fu Mun. This system was brought from China to the United States by my master, the late Lui Yon Sang (Lei Ren Sheng) of Guang Zhou, China. Lui was a native of Toishan and had lived in New York City as a Traditional Chinese Medical doctor and herbalist.

Lui was 80 years old when I met him. Although practically unheard of in the West, Lui was famous throughout China during his lifetime. This was because of his knowledge presented in a long running series of articles during the early 1980′s in China’s famous martial arts magazine “Wu Lin” (“Martial World”) and articles in Sun Mo Hop Magazine in the late 1970’s. Master Lui was so famous that he was dubbed the “Southern Staff King” or “Nan Fang Gun Wang” (Cantonese: “Nam Fahng Gwan Wong).

Since my youth, I had studied the Southern Fist in New York’s Chinatown, practicing Hung Ga, Wing Chun, Lama and Bak Mei Pai. I was no stranger to the fist methods and staff methods. Most systems of Chinese martial arts have weapons, and the sets of these systems, hail amongst the best. Hung Ga has the Ng Long Ba Gua Staff and Spear (5th Brother Ba Gua Staff and Spear), Bak Mei’s pole (called “Ng Ma Gwai Cho” – Five Horses return to the stable) set is short and practical, Lama and Choy Lay Fut have their versions of the 13 spear staff (Sup Sam Cheung Gwun) and Ba Gua Gwun, and of course, Wing Chun is known for the 6.5 point pole or Luk Dim Boon Gwun (6.5. point staff) and it’s highly effective use.

Master Lui’s Fei Lung Fu Mun system primarily consists of weaponry skills. Weaponry skills are taught first, then progress to empty hand skills. His boxing and spear and staff methods derive from the old traditions, and draw many parallels to the fist and weapons arts found in Qi Ji Guang’s Ji Xiao Xin Shu and Wu Shou’s Shou Bei Lu, both famous books on ancient military arts.

In his youth, Master Lui was taught by the famous Leung Tien Chiu. Leung was a champion boxer, who at 55 years old, entered a tournament in Nanjing in the 1920′s and won 2nd place in open class full contact Lei Tai fighting (no protective gear, and winner throws the loser off the stage). Leung was famous for his mastery of many systems that included Wing Chun, Hung Gar, Choy Lay Fut and other Shaolin Fist systems. Leung Tien Chiu later created his own systems, which his disciples later passed on called “Fut Gar Kuen” (Buddhist Fist boxing), and another system called “Sae Ying Diu Sao” (Snake Form Mongoose Hands). This was the source of Lui’s boxing system.

Lui’s specialty was the spear and staff, and he studied with a Manchurian named Gwong Sai Lung. Gwong was famous for his pole and spear techniques that came from the Yang family in Southern China. Gwong’s pole set was known as the “Fei Lung Fu Gwun”, so named because the movements were as “graceful as a flying dragon, and as powerful as a tiger”.

Master Lui taught some of New York’s top masters of martial arts his spear and pole system. Lui’s art was not widespread and to learn it, one had to become a disciple. One must have performed the “Bai Si” ritual in order to gain entry. As a result, Lui only taught a select group of disciples his specialty, including Chan Bong (David Chan), Lee Gok Chung (Thomas Lee), Chan Jim, David Wong, myself, and others. Of my training brothers, I know that the men I mentioned here have complete transmission of the complete system as taught by Lui.

The Fei Lung Fu Mun uses the “Cern Gup Dan Gwun” (Single end staff, but both ends are used). The weapon varies in length with the height of the user, and it is properly measured by standing straight and extending your arm. The pole should be the length of the outstretched arm. The wood is the common Ba La White waxwood that is typically from Shandong, and common in martial arts circles. We specially treat the pole by immersing them in Tung oil for a period of six months so that the pole remains flexible and virtually indestructible.

When I met with Lui Sifu, he asked me to perform a staff form. I demonstrated the Wing Chun 6.5 point staff form him with full speed and power. Lui Sifu said I had sufficient power, but surprisingly criticized my footwork and positioning. He asked me to attack him, and I obliged with a Biu Lung Cheung (Darting Dragon Spear) maneuver. Before I completed my maneuver, I was the recipient of five blows to the hand, groin, top of the head, instep, and neck! I was disarmed as a result of the blow to the hand.

All of this was done by an 80 year old man who was only about 5 feet tall and less than 120 lbs! I recalled the Chinese saying of “Kuen Pa Siu Jong, Gwun Pa Lo lang” (With the fist, fear the young adept; with the staff, fear the old master) came to me. I had found a real master of the pole.

I became a disciple of the Fei Lung Fu Mun by undergoing the “Bai Si” (Bow to Sifu) ritual. I knelt and kowtowed three times and offered tea and a red envelope, Lui Sifu took my offering and drank it, and assisted me up. He held my hand and said in Cantonese, “I am 80 years old and will teach you all I know without reserve. You have come to me to learn, despite your being an accomplished expert, and just as I knelt to Gwong Sai Lung when he was 80, I must now teach you.”

Lui Sifu spoke to me in Cantonese, “Ah Gee, (“Chu” as he would call me in Toishan dialect) there are six principles to our system – these are the “Sam Faat” (Nature or Mental Methods), which are passed down orally and physically. You should learn them well. The first principle is the concept ofSang Sei Muhn Faat – the live and dead gates methods. Do you know what I mean?” I shook my head. Sifu explained, “The live gate is when you can still attack your opponent, and your opponent can still attack you. You must try to position yourself to be in the opponent’s dead gate.” With staff in his hands and staff in my own, he positioned and moved to my dead gate. This principle corresponded to Wing Chun’s mutual centerline facing principle and moving to the opponent’s blind side.

The second principle is the concept of the Sang Sae Gwan Faat – Live and Dead staff methods. “When your staff is constrained and you cannot move without endangering yourself, this is a dead staff. If you can move freely about, your staff is alive.” I nodded in agreement. It is best to have a live staff.

Lui continued, “You must understand your opponent’s point of power – theLihk Dim Faat (Force Methods). In a staff, you only use the last six inches, or the point. This is just like when you use a spear or a gim (Chinese two-edged sword). To understand this is to know where the focus of power comes from. You do not have to go force against force.” To know the focal point is common in all martial arts, one has to know this in issuing force and when you want to absorb someone’s force.

“The fourth point is to understand the concept of Huen Dim – the circle and the point.” Lui demonstrated by making a big arc with his pole. “This is the distance which you must be aware of. ” To illustrate the concept of the point, Lui demonstrated a series of thrusts with the pole. “We have eight major spear thrusts, you must know where and how the point is coming at you to be able to stop it.”

Lui Sifu continued, “Mastering the fifth point referred to as Keoi Lei Hing Chuk Dou Faat – the methods of distance and speed.” Lui demonstrated a series of steps called “Ng Hang Ba Gua Bo” (Five element and 8 trigrams stepping. “Stepping like this, one can enter in the circle or exit the circle with proper footwork. This is referred to as Chut Yap Huen – you need to know when you can enter the circle and when you can exit the circle. ” All of the steps were tiny and had made use of my previous systems’ training. Lui drew an illustration for me. “These directions represent Metal, water, wood, fire and earth and are so named the five elements. The eight directions are namedQian, Dui, Kun, Li, Xun, Zhen, Gen, and Kan and represent the Ba Gua.” Master Lui’s illustrations drew the Wu Xing (5 Elements) and Xian Tian (Pre Heaven) and Hou Tian (Post Heaven) Ba Gua diagrams. Lui was a scholar and was well versed in the Yi Jing, Chinese medicine, and other classics.

“The last concept is Louh nyuhn gwan faat – the concept of the old and young pole methods. The old staff is when the pole cannot move easily, but it can still move. The young staff is when your pole is nimble and quick and can move about freely. These methods concern methods of extraction and retraction of the pole. You may not understand it all now, but you will when you have trained in the staff and it’s applications.”

All of the concepts were important in that they were principles of motion in relation to an opponent. Master Lui’s staff skill was so exceptional, he exemplified the Wing Chun saying, “Gwan Mo Leung Heung” (Staff has not two sounds) – meaning in application, attack and defense are one. One does not deflect first and then attack – one strikes in the first move, then delivers a finishing blow. Too often Wing Chun people were taught to defect with pole as in Tan Gwan (Dispersion), then strike with a Biu Gwan (Spear). After understanding Lui’s methods, one knows to immediately strike and disarm the opponent with the first move, then finish them in a follow up blow.
In learning the Fei Lung Fu Mun system, it enhanced my understanding of the Wing Chun Luk Dim Boon Gwun and how it is applied. I once asked Lui Sifu, “Why didn’t Wing Chun and other Southern Staff systems preserve the fighting applications of the spear and pole?”

His reply was, “They all once had it, but as they passed down, the teachings became distorted or neglected and became secondary to their boxing.”

I wrote this article for my fellow martial artists so that they may know that real skill and knowledge exist with the pole, and if they find this information interesting, they can understand the source of the information and research more. I have also placed copies of the original source material presented in Wu Lin magazine in the 1980’s and a related article from New Martial Hero as well as a picture of my discipleship with Master Lui, and the top New York martial artists that did the Bai Si with Master Lui. Interested parties may contact the author to obtain complete copies for further research.

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Wing Chun Seminar Review: Kenneth Chung’s Boston Seminar (1997)

by Kathy Jo B. Connors

Many of you have heard and read about Ken’s methods, and have a good idea already about how he conducts his seminars. For the best technical overview of the types of things Ken covered, I would refer you to “A Path to Wing Chun” on the Planet Wing Chun web site. Rather than taking the same approach, perhaps the best way for me to tell you about Ken’s seminar in Boston, is to share my experience with you in a more subjective and personal way. So here is part of my story…

On Friday, I made my 6 ½ hour drive from my home in Rochester New York to meet my former teacher and his girlfriend at their home in Burlington Vermont. The drive was gorgeous. I ventured off the NYS thruway at Utica in order to cut through a corner of the Adirondack State Park. The road cuts kitty corner from New York to my destination in Vermont. It was like driving through a landscape painting of mountains in the latter stages of fall foliage, with the surprise of a hidden lake or stream, clumps of white birch, amidst the hills and mountains at each turn. The peaceful drive gave me time to reflect on what I’d read and heard of Ken and his approach to Wing Chun, and also to reflect on my own training thus far.

I arrived to meet Eric & Erica in the afternoon. To stretch out from the ride, we walked to a nearby park overlooking Lake Champlain, and chi sau’d by the water’s edge as the sun set. They then served me with a delicious meal of homemade nori rolls, and taught me how do dress and eat them. After dinner, we climbed into the car to continue the remaining 3 ½ hour trek to our motel in Waltham Massachusetts. When we checked in, we were greeted by a note from Dr. Jack Ling, saying to meet him and Ken the following morning in the motel lobby, so we could ride together to the seminar.

At the appointed time on Saturday morning, I found Ken waiting downstairs. When I walked in I recognized him immediately from the pictures I’ve seen on the Internet. He identified me also, either from the expression on my face, or perhaps from the video I made last March for the Sil Lim Tau video project which he said he had seen, and gave a warm and hearty greeting. A moment later Jack Ling walked over, with an enormous smile which is dwarfed only by the size of his heart. With Eric and Erica arriving just behind me, the introductions were hardly over before our conversations turned to Wing Chun. As we rode, Ken began explaining some wing chun concepts needed for understanding the “soft” way. He told us that the keys are position, sensitivity, and power, in that order, and that he applies his skill first by neutralizing the opponent, then by utilizing them. So in his way, Ken was warming up our Wing Chun minds before we even started.

We arrived an hour before the official seminar start time. This allowed Ken to give us and the other first time attendees an overview of the material from his last visit to Boston, and to begin explaining his interpretation of Wing Chun. As the time neared, more students filed in. Though there were only 13 of us over the course of 2 days, we were a very eclectic crowd, including people with backgrounds in Moy Yat, Yip Chun, Augustine Fong, Yip Ching, Fut Sao Wing Chun, some with a mixed background in other families, and of course a couple of people following the Ken Chung/Leung Sheung path. In fact, Dr. Jack Ling was also a student of Leung Sheung in Hong Kong, and with Ken’s help is now reviving and renewing what he learned there.

Ken began with demonstrations of his “soft force.” This is where Ken first really gets your attention. Through what seems like the lightest of motion and touch, Ken will rock your world. As he went around the room to give each person the first hand experience, I saw one by one, the big guys being off balanced, in some cases displaced by several feet, and others with no visible movement other than something akin to a shock wave accompanied by a look of total astonishment. When it came my turn, I received a very light and controlled version of his “girl hand,” and though I thought I was prepared for it I heard myself aspirating an involuntary “Oh my God!”

Throughout the course of the next two days, Ken demonstrated, illustrated and explained in painstaking detail both the implications and the mechanisms involved in producing the soft power. Ken is “hands on” in a multidimensional a sense; not just by letting you feel his force, but also by having you try the concepts out on him, and by actually having you touch and feel him. He will show how to do something, then let you put your hands on his arms, legs, or back to feel what is happening that is not visible to the eye. When you watch him in action, you will visually see the result of his effort and say to yourself, “only a very strong guy like him could do that!” but then he will have you touch his upper arm as he repeats the same application, only to find that his large biceps and triceps are completely relaxed and disengaged. I will not make a lame attempt at explaining his body mechanic, but see that it absolutely requires a relaxation, using muscle would only be a detriment. There is a physical development that supports and drives the relaxed force though. Ken let us feel the development of the knee and elbow areas which are acquired through persistent training. There is also a body mechanic, a sort of dynamic connectedness that I have yet to fully understand, but I believe it is related to the idea of what is often called “borrowing” force from the floor, up through the joints, the back, and out through the shoulders, arms and finally projecting somewhere behind or through the opponent.

But there is more to Ken’s Wing Chun than just body mechanic. It is his constant positioning, calm, lack of greediness. It is also his attitude, and his intent. He does not rush in, he will wait for you to come to him, then he will use you. He does not avoid you or push you away, he “embraces” you. Ken says he is “very sensitive” but there is more meaning in that than just the physical contact of his heavy “wet noodle” arms, which reminded me of limp Play Dough. He is also sensitive in a visual way; he will look at you, sometimes expressionless, sometimes with a great big grin, but always through you and all around you – his eyes are not tunnel visioned at yours. He can “sense” without touching you where your balance is, and how to uproot you. I also hypothesize that his “sensitivity” has a key mental and psychological component, but this is an area not easily explored in a 2 day seminar.

Ken showed us how to train the first form, stepping, punching and bong lop. On the second day, Ken gave us opportunity for his correction, in stance, first form, stepping, and for some in chum kiu. For those who may think this is too elementary, I guarantee that if you have not been training in a way that is consistent with Ken’s path, you are ripe for a big awakening. Ken’s approach is very personalized. While he is addressing the group, he is also working with each person individually, showing or giving each person something they need. To correct my SLT, he helped me into my stance, deeper and deeper, and more in and more back; by the time I was in it (as close as we were to get anyway), I was so challenged by my concentration on maintaining the structure, trying to understand my body position, and managing the pain, that I did not have enough concentration left to even remember the opening moves to SLT correctly. Ken corrected with exacting precision, the feet, the knees, the hips, the hands, the head, the axis, the hands again, the feet again, the sink, and so on. He even tells you to correct your facial expression, to smile (LOL) and how to use your vision. I don’t know how long I was in the stance, it may have been all of 30 seconds, though it felt like eternity. Again, Ken’s sensitivity came into play…just as he had helped me into the stance, he was kind enough to help me out of it and to lend support until I could reliably stand on my own again. Later, when checking my stepping, he immobilized my forward hip momentum, which I have been using to propel myself forward; no hip also immobilized me, and again, painfully, brought to my attention that I must learn a new way of moving. I have never had a teacher who provided such painstaking analysis and detail of my positioning and mechanic.

It is impossible to capture all the detail that Ken covered. But all the while, his incredible teaching and coaching skills were evident. He is sensitive and a multi-media presenter. He uses words and descriptive phrases and illustrates through demonstration. He has a most delightful sense of humor, which not only draws people in and relaxes them, but helps to illustrate his points. He mixes his humor with his intensity, which allows him to convey the gravity of the subject matter while keeping the atmosphere enjoyable and not too heavy. He uses his incredible persona to make a lasting impression on you. He has a knack for knowing what works to explain, and also who is receptive and who is not. And as much as he is demanding, he also has a deep wellspring of patience, which I personally put to the test again and again.

Ken’s Wing Chun does not turn off at the end of the class. At lunch and dinner, his conversation easily returns again and again to Wing Chun. He is in his element in entertaining an endless series of questions on technical issues, his training in Hong Kong, Wing Chun history, and more. Ken calls himself “cocky” but I distinctly see it as the kind that stems from validated confidence, and not the kind of cockiness rooted in ego. He is at once self assured and humble. He is also very generous and kind, and open in his sharing of himself and his Wing Chun.

I hated to see the seminar come to a close. Ken really does connect, and the impression he makes is a lasting one. By the time I left, I felt that he was not only a coach to each of us, but also an ally and a friend. He is a complete package. It was also sad knowing that all the wonderful people at the seminar live so far away from me. Fortunately, a number of them have email.

I have a lot to digest, and a lot to work on. No doubt I will have lots of questions. For those of you anxious to collect forms, drills, and fancy hands, best wishes to you. I am no longer worried about not being able to do pushups; in an ironic way, I’m kind of happy about it. As for me, my SLT and I will be spending a lot more time together. I believe that anyone truly interested in Wing Chun would be benefited by a seminar or training with Ken. Anyone can attend a seminar with Ken and enjoy the privilege of being reeled by his power. But to really receive something of value, I think you must also be willing to come with an open mind, an empty cup. Being among the “youngest” at the seminar in terms of my Wing Chun training, may in a sense have put me in company with the luckiest.

Well, there you have it, at least a start of my impressions. I’m off now to try and recapture my “girl hands.” But my first order of business is to eliminate that little head shaking thing I do when I know I’ve executed something incorrectly (which is most of the time)…Ken hates that, so if he asks, tell him I’m working on it.

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Sifu Said …

Random notes taken over several years
During classes taught by Sifu Chow Hung-Yuen
Compiled and edited by Dan Lucas

Other styles tell you what to think. In Wing Chun we teach you how to think. There’s a big difference.

Open your eyes and you can see further. I can’t see it for you. I can only open the window; you have to do the looking. I say one, you say one. I say two, and you say two. That’s not the way to learn. I give you the basics, you have to make three yourself. Nothing was explained to us when I learned, we just learned by doing. After a while we learned for ourselves what worked and what didn’t. I learned, for instance, after struggling to resist for so long, that it doesn’t work to resist. So I gave it up and tried to let go instead.

In the beginning don’t try to learn too much at one time. If you eat too much, its bad for your digestion.

Instead of trying to exploit your opponent’s mistakes, it’s better in the beginning to see you’re not making any of your own. If your foundation is not solid, the higher the building the more dangerous it becomes. The same is true with the martial arts. If your basics are not good, the higher your level of skill the more critical it becomes. The better your foundation, the stronger it is, the higher you can build on it.

For other styles, contact is the end. For Wing Chun, contact is just the beginning. Chi Sao is training for sensitivity. After class you can do the Bong Sao by yourself a hundred times, but if you can’t use it in the right way, what good is it? If you do it right, once is enough. If you do it wrong, a hundred times won’t help.

When styles rely on strength, there’s a limit to strength. As you get older your strength naturally declines. Wing Chun relies on letting go, and there’s no limit to letting go. As you get older you can also improve. It’s not whether or not to use power, but how to use it. It’s not whether or not to spend money, but how to spend it. Make every penny count.

Wing Chun isn’t a hard style or a soft style, it’s both. I don’t resist force, or meet force with force and so it’s a soft style. But when there’s an opening I use all the force I have, and so it’s a hard style too. Greater strength is a natural advantage. It’s also a disadvantage if you can’t let go of it when you need to. Strong people naturally rely on their strength and are unwilling to let it go, and so have a hard time learning Wing Chun. Are you more powerful than a car? If a car comes at you, you don’t try to hold it back – you get out of the way. Your real enemy isn’t your opponent; it’s you. Your natural reaction is to tense up when attacked, so train to replace this natural reaction with new ones. If you compare power with your opponent, you’ll eventually find someone stronger than you. I don’t care how big or how strong you are because I don’t resist you. It doesn’t matter if it’s a car or a train, I just get out of the way. How can you hit me if you can’t find my center? If you touch a spinning ball it sends you off in one direction or another.

When you aim at me I can’t move your aim, but I can move your target. When you change your aim I move the target again. But I always aim at you. If we run a race and you’re faster than me I don’t have much chance of beating you. But if I choose the direction I’ll always have a headstart.

Redirecting force is like opening a door. First I have to know which way the door opens. I don’t want to push sideways if the door opens up and down. I try one direction, if it doesn’t work I try another. Keep moving, like flowing water. If I stop, I give you the chance to use your strength against me. Instead I redirect any strength you have by moving with it. Don’t start something, then wait till tomorrow to come back and finish it. Keep moving; take action. Don’t stop to think about your next move; it may be too late.

The secret isn’t in the technique, but in the situation. More techniques don’t make you a master, it’s how you apply them. Each situation differs and nothing stays the same for long. Learn the principles and how they apply to one technique, rather than a new technique for every change or situation.

Wing Chun theory is firmly based in Yin and Yang. This can mean turning power on or off in one arm, but more usually means one arm is Yin while the other is Yang. It’s like breathing in and out, you can’t do both at once. Yin and Yang doesn’t mean I attack either hard or soft. It means that in any situation you or I will be stronger or weaker, changing with the situation. I constantly test you to find weaknesses to exploit or strengths to avoid. If one hand is heavy and the other light, don’t fight with the heavy hand. Attack the light one instead. If there are two doors, one hard to push and one easy to push, why not go through the one that’s easy to open? Chinese philosophy is based on harmony and balance. When you are positive I am negative. When you become negative I switch to positive. I don’t mean that I think about it. It has to come naturally through the movements.

Magic is only tricks, not really magic. There’s nothing secret, no magic, in Wing Chun. You only have to learn the tricks. Like the old Chinese saying about picking up a rock and hitting yourself with it: for instance, nobody traps your hands against each other, you allow them to be trapped. You offer them to be trapped.

I don’t know how dumb the fish is, or how strong; I just throw out the bait and see if it takes it. Of course I shouldn’t go fishing unless I know I’m skillful enough to reel one in.

I don’t move unless I have to. And if I move, I move as little as possible. For instance a punch on center defends as well as attacks. I keep my elbows on center and attack on center to make it difficult for you to take or use the center, and force you to go the long way around. A circular attack like a roundhouse punch is just an attack, but is in no way a defense. And I don’t have to get in on every opening. Sometimes it’s better to let one go by to set up for another. Put together the right ingredients and you’ll make a fine supper. In other words, if I set you up in the right way, it’ll be easy to finish you off.

Either make the right move, or make the move that’s right for you. Sometimes just being in the right position isn’t enough. What really matters is pressure: the pressure you apply and the pressure applied against you. When you’re in the right position but apply pressure in the wrong direction, I can take advantage of it and your position won’t matter. Good contact means the right amount of pressure at the right spot going in the right direction. Wing Chun is not for display or for competition. A bystander can’t see it, but you and I can feel it. That’s why we can practice blindfolded or in the dark, because it’s something you have to feel and not see. With your eyes open and in bright daylight, practice as though blindfolded and depend on what you feel rather than what you see.

The worst thing for you is if I know what your next move will be. In chess if I know your next move and the move after that, how can you win? So in fighting I put you into a position where you have to respond in a certain way. Then, by sticking with you, I know where you’re going and what you’re doing. When I’m dealt a hand in poker, of course I know what’s in my hand. If I know what’s in your hand too, I have a much better chance of winning. You may still have a better hand than me but at least I have more options. When I have contact with you I can sense your movement and so have a better chance.

And always remember that it doesn’t matter how good you are. What matters is how good you can become

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Let’s Learn and Do Wing Chun the Easy Way

by Hung Y. Chow

This article is written for people who have heard about Wing Chun, and are curious as to what Wing Chun is about. There are many books and articles in the martial arts magazines talking about the principles and techniques of how the Wing Chun system works. But I haven’t seen anyone who can learn the art successfully through books. It has to be taught personally and passed through hand-to-hand contact, from one generation to the next. For example, when an untrained person looks at the Wing Chun first form (Siu-Lin-Tau), it would be extremely difficult to figure out how it works without step-by-step explanation, without interactive communication.

Whatever you do in Wing Chun, forms or sticky hand or working on the wooden dummy, if you do the movement right it should be easy. Once is enough and you should get results from the movement. Otherwise if you do it wrong it will be hard even if you do it a hundred times. It’s only wasting time and effort and won’t work very often. Certainly it won’t get the results you expected. That is simple and everybody knows it. The real question is, how do I know I am doing it right or wrong before it’s too late? Different Sifu learn differently, so they teach differently, even if only the minor details.

Let’s start from when you decide what style of martial art you want to learn. Remember you are in a shopping mode. If you want to protect yourself, carrying a concealed weapon may do a better job. Maybe not. First ask yourself why you want to learn Kung-Fu, or Karate. You have to find out what you are looking for. There is some homework you have to do to help you make up your mind. Sometimes your choice is based on the name of the art, or a recommendation by a friend. Does the white uniform with black belt or fancy athletic movements attract you? Eventually you may get some trophy from a tournament, or just real survival fighting skills. How much do you know about the principles and the philosophy? Are they something you can agree with, believe and follow through? Will it fit your personality? What is the strange culture you are going to get into? What is the background and quality of the instructor, etc? When you learn a martial art, you also learn its view of the principles of life, self control, discipline, confidence, etc.

You have to make a decision, “Is Wing Chun the right style worth learning?” I assume you have made up your mind to learn and practice Wing Chun, because you continue to read this. Let’s understand it and find the easy way to do it. Practicing Wing Chun should be relaxing and fun, otherwise you won’t fully enjoy and love it.

The Principle

We all should know that the Wing Chun system is based on the Yin-Yan theory, the permanent structure of the universe. The two extreme opposite elements coexist. Let’s make it simple to understand: in our daily lives we know we have day and night, cold and hot, life and death, male and female, etc. If we draw a line we can make a comparison between positive and negative, major and minor, strong and weak. Without a middle line how strong is strong, how weak is weak? Does 10 lbs of weight belong to heavy or light. It seems a debatable question, but it is not. If you look at it in another way, how much is 100 lbs, or just 1 lb., the answer will be simple and quick. As another example: when we breathe we inhale and exhale; if we only do it one way, how long will it last? If we understand from this point, we can concentrate on how to put the meaning of (Yin and Yan) into a practical way of doing positive and negative, major and minor, on and off, open and close, get in and get out, forward and backward, turning left and right, etc, and how it applies to the forms, the sticky hand, wooden dummy techniques, etc. There are many small details like balance, center line, sensitive feeling, movement, on and off power, relaxation and creating tension, etc. These are the main factors which make the system work well.

The Form

When we do any one of the Wing Chun forms, there are a few things we need to pay attention to. (I’m not going to describe the form movements here, because it would take thousands of words to explain the action, and would only confuse you). The following suggestions are important and, I hope, will help the Wing Chun participant take maximum advantage.

Body and Position

The purpose of the stance is to protect our invisible centerline between left and right, upper and lower. We must remember to keep our body’s center of gravity low and within our body limit, and to keep our body weight supported by our feet, with the major portion on the heel. The heel is used primarily to turn. Focus on the centerline. Always occupy the centerline. Remember, a straight line is the shortest distance between two points.

Turning is very simple, but it is the most important thing in the system. Without the ability to turn naturally, you can’t even claim you know Wing Chun. We use turning as a basic movement, or use it to move forward or backward (Wing Chun movements do not go straight forward or backward). As a matter of fact, when we do sticky hands, we need the turning to do the Bong Sao or Tan Sao. There is an old saying: “Square body, no Bong Sao”, which means that when the body is square to the opponent, you cannot roll your hand into the Bong or Tan position.

Power and Relaxation

We have to know when and how to use power. Most important is to try to create power from our mind, not from our muscles. That means we control our muscles, not the other way around. When we generate power in live form, live power can change or disappear and adjust accordingly. Don’t get me wrong, I don’t mean how strong or weak the force is–I mean whether the power is alive or dead. Have sensitivity in the hands to determine whether the incoming force is alive or dead, and respond accordingly. This means power is concentrated and passed to the target in certain directions. So when the hand meets incoming force, it allows a certain amount of tension and should respond in a fraction of a second. That is the purpose of the sticky hand exercise. Try to relax at all times. Pass incoming force instead of resisting it. It has nothing to do with soft or hard. For example, don’t waste time to stop and hold a speeding arrow coming at you, but rather do the turning and move yourself away as a target.

By now you might start getting some idea of, but don’t quite understand, the whole thing. That is a normal, expected situation. In the future, we will continue to discuss more details about Wing Chun at an advanced level. Be patient with yourself. Time and dedication will help you in doing a great art successfully.

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Eddie Chong – Training Notes

by Ray Van Raamsdonk

Notes from a visit to Eddie Chong in 1982

Leung Sheung was noted for his expertise at the Bil Jee.
The knees are in to stop the front kick. When you turn a kick is also stopped. Practice with a brick between your legs.
Practice with a tennis ball between your elbows.
The Bil Jee is the enemy of the Chain punch.
Practice the wrist hit on the sandbag. Practice the slanted kick on the dummy post.
Never have a high Bong sau otherwise a quick slapping leverage technique can be applied against the elbow.
Always Pak sau the elbow. Even against a very strong guy it works.
Do the Huen sau slow and with some tension to build up the forearm muscle. Don’t move the elbow too much.
Do the Chi sau but learn to charge in with it.
Don’t lean back in the stance.
Eddie does not do the low Wong Shun Leung Gan sau like Leung Ting’s version in section 6 of the first form. Wang Kiu’s version is the same as Eddie’s version in this part.
Practicing the double palm hit, Jut sau, double Huen sau, double low palm hit continuously on the wooden dummy is good for building up power.
The knife can beat the stick and the stick can beat the knife.
In chi sau, as soon as my attack started, I was countered with multiple hits. They were good at catching the timing early.
Eddie prefers the pressing flat palm over the pressing vertical palm. (Gum sau vs. Chum sau)
Never take the hand back. Never suck back your force. Always keep a forward force.
Against Eddie’s TaeKwonDo kicks (brown belt level) Kenneth Chung charged in and double palmed him into the wall every time no matter which type of kick he threw. Eddie said he had very fast kicks.
When grabbing the opponent’s hand, never use the thumb or else you can’t punch quickly enough.
Against the Judo throw, put the palm into the hip and you can’t be thrown.
Eddie’s group had a lot of experience against Hapkido, Karate and Aikido.
Eddie was good at the heavy arm of Wing Chun.
Don’t use the long hand in Wing Chun. Just use it for demonstrations. Wing Chun also has shortcuts.
If you can do the Huen sau a few thousand times, then you are pretty good.

Against my left hand grabbing his right arm, Eddie applied the Bil Jee elbow. Against a straight punch, he applied the Tok sau to send me backwards. Against the Chum and punch he applied the Bil sau to trap both hands. Against the shoulder attack he applied the horizontal Chum Kiu elbow. Against my attempt to grab his fingers, he let me do it and then punched me with the other hand. Against a cross wrist grab. Eddie applied a simultaneous Tan sau and punch. Against my Tai Chi wrist and elbow control maneuver, Eddie just turned the elbow in and I was countered. Everything had very simple solutions. Against my front kick, Eddie circled his foot and kicked my support leg.

Eddie had nice controlled counters to my various attack attempts. The club was very friendly and treated other Wing Chun people like they are part of the same family. In 1990 I visited again and they were very friendly again. All of Kenneth Chung’s line treated me in a respectful friendly manner. To me this reflects well on the teachers.