They say that the truth doesn’t need defending. I say the truth is no match for perception, and perception can be manipulated. We are most affected by how we think things are, not how they are. Cognitive biases can lead to perceptual distortion and illogical interpretations of reality. We see it all the time. The internet is full of delusional “Masters” with mysterious powers. Their delusion runs so deep that they accept challenges from professional fighters. Some of these Masters have huge followings. It’s hard to comprehend how so many people can “believe” without requiring any objective evidence of these so-called “powers”. But they do. One way to avoid falling prey to these delusions is to train yourself to ask one simple question whenever you encounter new information. That question is not whether the information is true or false. That can be a difficult thing to establish. The question you should ask yourself is, does this information have real-world applications? Can it be applied in real life to learn a practical skill or to explain and predict phenomena? From a Martial Arts perspective, this means using the skills you learn to spar against resisting opponents. With that as your benchmark, you can confidently move forward with your training. You will know that your skills are based on utility and not “truth”. Javier Garcia 0 Facebook 0 Twitter 0 Linkedin 0 Pinterest 0 Viber 0 Whatsapp 0 Telegram 0 Email
SLT Internal Methods by Dr John Fung
“小念頭主練內功” means “Sil Lim Tau primarily cultivated Internal Kung”. There is no Sil Lim Tau (SLT) in Kulo Wing Chun 22 Sansau (KL22). KL22 is based on 22 separate movements, rather than the more familiar Sil Lim Tau, Chum Kiu, and Biu Jee forms. The three Wing Chun empty hand sets were passed down by the “King of Wing Chun Fist” Dr. Leung Jaan, when he was teaching in Fut Shan. After he retired and moved back to his ancestral village in Ku Lo (Gu Lao), in Hok Shan (He Shan), he started to teach his Wing Chun differently. My suspicion is that, like many top level Masters I have encountered, Dr. Leung, at his age, had moved passed the foundation, and taught students under the assumption that they knew the fundamentals. In my opinion, no matter what style of Wing Chun you do, the SLT is still the single most important fundamental set that EVERYONE must do. It builds structure, stability, power (Internal and External) and conditions the body. I am aware that most of the audience subscribed to Wing Chun Origins Magazine is already familiar with the SLT. However, I will share some of the less discussed aspects of this form from the perspective of KL22. Training Your Tendons SLT contains most of the simple, yet useful techniques you would ever need in a fight. However, the Chinese have always liked to fit lots in as little space as possible, and that includes Kung Fu forms. “天下武功，唯快不破” means “In all the Kung Fu under the heavens, only speed is unbeatable”. In Wing Chun, speed is achieved via economy of movement. We do not utilise big swings, except as finishing moves. SLT trains us to turn our “小 Gun/Jin”, i.e., our tendon-muscular complex, to behave like high tensile steel springs. Striking power is based on the releasing of springs, and not the momentum of a swing. The basic method is based on “屈骨伸筋” “Bending the bones (joints) and stretching the tendons (tendon- muscular complex)”, a concept used in many Internal cultivations like the 易筋經 Tendon Changing Sutra of Shaolin. Shoulders and Associated Structures Many of the SLT movements are generated through the shoulders and shoulder blades. The movements are exaggerated to stretch the muscles and joints. Of course, we want to keep our elbows close to the centre-line. However, apart from the structural and protective perspective, you are also stretching the tendons from the middle of the back to the elbows. So place some attention to the stretch every time you place your elbow close to the centre-line. Do not just put the elbow there. The Arms The arms are usually stretched in most of the movements. For example, in Pak Sau, we stretch out with the thumb to load the muscles. In Fook Sau, we place the thumb between the roots of the Middle andRing finger to generate a stretch in the forearm. The Fingers At top level, it is important to be able to conduct power all the way from the core to the finger tips and beyond. For example, after the Huen Sau, we often dart the fingers out. When you do this, you must feel the stretch of the fingers, even when you do it slowly. In Tan Sau, feel the stretch all the way from the middle of the back to the tip of the Middle finger. Whole Body The 二字拑陽馬 Yi Ji Kim Yeung Ma (YJKYM) is a training stance. The YJKYM conducts a stretch all the way from the heels, to the hips, through the back, pass the shoulders and into your hands. Feel the stretch and the power-lines in such structures. The 二字拑陽馬 Yi Ji Kim Yeung Ma (YJKYM) In my opinion, there is no Wing Chun without the 二字拑陽馬 Yi Ji Kim Yeung Ma, even though there is a lot of confusion regarding this stance. Some of the top level masters no longer emphasise training of the YJKYM, but I believe this is partly because they are at such levels that the YJKYM is internalised. You should not train the muscles by “squeezing” the knees, unless you want knee replacements at age 45. Whether you keep your toes pointed in, or more parallel, is not really the issue (of course make sure you don’t overturn your toes). The issue is the “拑陽 Kim Yeung” . I was taught that we should “拑陽 Clamp the Yang” and not “ 拑羊 Clamp the Goat” which is pronounced exactly the same in Cantonese. So one of the most fundamental methods about the 二字拑陽馬 is in keeping the power source within the hip-thigh apparatus, i.e. the whole Dan Tian region. The Basic Tripod Structure The line between your heels forms the base of the triangle, while the toes (or the intention of the toes) points towards the opponent’s centre-line, thus forming a triangle. Your knees point towards this point while sinking towards it. Even though we have only two feet, dynamically, your feet are free to move to cover each of the three points of this triangle, forming a dynamic tripod. The triangle on the ground is projected upwards forming a Tetrahedron, with your arms forming the protected surfaces of the tetrahedron. Moving with the YJKYM In a fight you are not going the stand in a rigid structure, waiting to be smashed. You must move around. As you move, you are using the Clamped Yang as you power support and your central stability. It is like moving your whole tetrahedron by shifting or rotating your power centre. Drilling You can deliver extra stability and crushing power by imagining your YJKYM as a tripod with a weight hanging down from the vortex. By extending the centre weight and drilling it into the ground, you can rotate your whole structure, spiraling downwards, crushing your opponent. 本固任從枝葉動 The branches and leaves are free to move, while the trunk remains stable. Late GM Ip Man was famous for his immovable stance. As we all have only two feet, our stance will always be unstable comparing to other structures with four legs, such as a table or a car.
Shut Up and Fight
By Sifu Anthony Iglesias: I started my martial arts journey when my brother Randy took me under his wing and started teaching me boxing and Ishyn Ryu karate. But to be honest I never learned very much karate because boxing was much more my thing. He was best friends with NYC boxing champion, the late Mario Pontillo, and together, they would put me through my paces to toughen me up. I truly don’t think Wing Chun provides anything that boxing doesn’t. Well, technically in Wing Chun you have kicks, knees, elbows and stuff like that but I view both as beautiful systems and I still practice boxing to this day. Boxing to me is hand striking perfection. Even MMA guys who claim to have boxing skills, most of the time fall incredibly short when they face a pure boxer. I guess that’s why many MMA fighters go to boxing gyms to better their hands aye? My very first talk video on YouTube was called “Sport vs Traditional Martial Arts”. In the video I discussed how important a sport like mentality can be when training in traditional martial arts. The video mostly got good praise and as a result, I released a bunch of Youtube and Facebook talk videos discussing various topics, many of which are in relation to sports and traditional martial arts. Shawn Obasi gave you high praise when he said you are the only Sifu he has gone “all out” with. Can you tell us about this exchange? Why are so many Sifus reluctant to spar or chi sao with people other than their students? Shawn Obasi is a super cool guy and I am very proud to call him my friend. I don’t think he went all out with me. If he did I’d be a smudge on the floor. But he did go far harder with me than he has with most other instructors because I literally asked him too. I don’t play that political and polite game. I’m there to train and get better. Having rank means absolutely nothing. I wanted Shawn to push me because to me that is how real martial artists think and act. There are not a lot of real martial artists around these days. Most people (not all) in Wing Chun just dress up like Yip Man and play Chi Sau. And in most of those Chi Sau meets, if they know someone like Shawn is coming, they play politics and talk their way out of having him really go at them. I’m not very popular for this opinion but hey, it’s the truth. Shawn said it himself when he spoke of me on youtube. I think most of these “Sifu” are just too afraid to look human in front of their students because it will affect their wallet. If your students think you are this bad ass “Grand Masta” and you’re successful in keeping them in the dark about the truth, the money will keep flowing. There is a train of thought in Wing Chun circles that Wing Chun is too deadly to spar with. What are your thoughts on this? I think that is complete hogwash and only spoken by people who have never fought a day in their lives. They claim they have, but we all know the truth. Think about it, how many fights have you had in your life time? OK fine I had a bunch growing up in the Bronx when I was a little kid, but that all stops when? When we’re in our late teens? So most of us get normal professions that don’t land us in constant street fights. So then there are those who enter some sort of security job or law enforcement. They don’t fight most of the time, they have backup. Their job is not to fight but to subdue people. So they aren’t using “The Deadly” Wing Chun techniques either. So the excuse is nothing more than that, an excuse. Most of the people in Traditional Martial Arts live off the tales of GrandMaster’s former glory, and most of those glory stories are fictional or greatly exaggerated. Many years ago, I made this comment about Bruce Lee – “Next thing you know he’ll be walking on water and parting seas.” – My statement isn’t far from the truth. There are many people using Wing Chun in sparring and they often get accused of not using Wing Chun. To be fair, Wing Chun in sparring does not look like Wing Chun during forms or Chi Sao. Why this discrepancy? That’s because their accusers have watched too many wing chun movies and think that’s what Wing Chun is suppose to look like in a fight. These same people think it’s Ip Man instead of Yip Man. Wing Chun is Chinese boxing and its sole purpose is to be efficient and hit hit hit the other guy or girl. Sticking and trapping are just tools to that end. I don’t spar with someone looking to stick or trap. I look to hit them. However, sticking and trapping comes in to play when they have a good enough defense to stop your strike. Your strike is like a fishing line. You find your angle and toss out the line. Chi Sau training should have taught you what to do from there. To a trained and experienced eye, the Wing Chun can be spotted easily even in the midst of a skirmish. Recently one of my young fighters competed in a local tournament and used his Wing Chun very effectively. Like me, he grew up with a sports background and knows how to apply what he learns under pressure. He ended the fight with a Wing Chun kick that dropped his opponent who was unable to continue. Do you see Wing Chun evolving and perhaps losing some of its unique look and identity as sparring becomes more commonplace? Are future Wing Chunners destined to look like boxers and kickboxers? What doesn’t grow with the times fades. Everything evolves or at least it should. But I must ask, what exactly did Wing Chun
6 Half Pole – Sceptre of Power
When the late Wong Shun-leung taught me the Wing Chun pole, I was neither impressed nor excited about the content. The Wing Chun pole form movements are, after all, seemingly very tame and lacking in aesthetics. I took the necessary snaps of Sifu doing the routine, noted down what I considered to be the main points and decided to close that chapter in my learning of the Wing Chun system then. The Nullah Road premise, where Sifu taught, was often noisy, chaotic, confusing and yet challenging. The cacophony of the street noise, together with the blaring TVB broadcast combined with the practitioners coming to practice or to chatter, assaulted my concentration on the subsequent partner practice of the pole form and affected my take of the pole for a long time. Around that time I was also attending training sessions with Sifu Tsui SheungTin who lived only a short walk from Nullah Road. Old Tsui’s (Old as an adjective in Chinese is an affectionate and venerable term) premise was at that time only marginally quieter, and yes, I also watched a lot of TVB there. Although both Sifu and Old Tsui learnt from the same legendary Ip Man, their take on the system was divergent in emphasis and nuances, amongst others. Old Tsui, once told me that the pole should be more advanced than the knife form. Sifu normally would not teach the knife form without a red packet. In Sifu’s days, there were anecdotes of him, learning and arming himself with the Butterfly knives to protect Ip Man when the latter patronized certain dangerous clubhouses. The pole ain’t much mentioned as a practical weapon of choice then. By the early nineties I luckily also learnt some pole from Sifu Derek Fung Bing-Bol back in Sydney. Sifu Derek confessed he learnt everything Ip Man had to offer except the knife form. Understandably, because as I understand it, Sifu Derek wasn’t even 20 when he left Ip to go to Australia. As I remember it, his pole form was also pretty non-descript. This is of course without any disrespect to Sifu Derek. Sifu Derek was one of Ip Man’s most unsung hero disciples. In his days, Sifu Derek was so devastatingly fast that he was called “Lightning Hands”. So why learn the pole? How did it come by into the Wing Chun system? How relevant is it to students, practitioners and teachers nowadays? How should we incorporate the pole form into our curriculum and lesson plan? ORIGINS of the Wing Chun Pole Like many aspects of Wing Chun, there is NO definitive documentation on where the Pole came from. The anecdotes and stories vary from teacher to teacher, and lineage to lineage. My study of the Triunifiniti Goo-Lo Wing Chun system indicates they have a 3.Half Pole in the Goo-Lo tradition. Along with that, there are also the Wayfarer Staff (“Hang Tse Pang”) and the Beautiful Lady Paddles the Sampan Pole (“May Lui Tsang Tsou Kwan”). Leung Jaarn seemingly did not teach the 6 Point and Half Pole in the Goo-Lo village where he retired in his senior years. Collectively with the stories told of the 6.HalfPole, we can only at best surmise that the Opera Red Junk boaters used a 10 feet 4 inches long pole to help navigate their junks along the narrow waterways around the Pearl River Delta, where they ply their travelling opera shows in those years. We can only conjecture that over time, with the input from one or more sources (including possible spear forms), the kungfu practices they had then, evolved their boating navigational pole into a fighting pole, enabling them to fight with other boaters. This seems to be a realistic scenario playing out into the eventual formalization of the pole form that we see and practice today, as the 6. Half Pole form. WHY learn and practise the 6.Half Pole Wong Shun-Leung Sifu mentioned specifically that the 6. Half Pole cultivates the competency of fighting efficiently with one arm. My initial reaction to that was – huh? It remained so for quite a while until I realized that we need to see past the physical movements of the 6.Half Pole. It is one of the most potent power enhancers in the Wing Chun system. It also cultivates a structural geometric mindset. This means instead of swinging the pole as a weapon to hit, swipe, poke etc, we focus more on the pole mapping the horizontal plane, and the vertical plane, tracing both the eccentric and concentric cone shape, power lining and dotting the space the pole can probe comfortably with. While doing so, we cultivate the ability to use the shoulder, the hip, the Kneeling Horse (“Gwai Ma”) and the Hanging Horse (“Diu Ma”). “The secret? You will be pleased to know like I was, lies in applying bodily leveraging.” By leveraging different parts of the body, including the arms of course, we train up different parts to move and accelerate independently and interdependently. At the advanced level, you train all major moving parts of the body to generate the requisite power for fighting. At the most elementary level, we, of course, train the arms first. To train the arms to have the capability to operate independently with confidence and competence in combat. Some misunderstand this to mean strengthening the arms to get the job done. So, I suspect, some Wing Chun practitioners may replace the Pole training with gym work, performing weight lifting routines as a modern alternative. This, based on my understanding and experience, limits considerably their progress and retards tremendously their ultimate actualizationof what Wing Chun can do for them. Powerlifting in the gym has a proven place in body sculpting and overall body muscular strength. We cannot deny their value to gymnasts and other athletes. Even many of the old masters who could easily kill their enemies with their bare hands, trained with weights. What is not so obvious is the weights seem unbalanced like the Okinawan chiishi weighted levers (also referred to as sticks or weights). One of Bruce Lee’s favourite wrist training exercises was using a one-sided handheld barbell, where weights were removed from one end and kept at the other. The 6. Half Pole is like that.
Sifu Nima King – Wing Chun For Life
The lessons attained from delving deep into the mind and body through the internal (and external) practices of Wing Chun have entirely transformed my life and continue to do so. To illustrate this, I’d like to give a brief intro of my history prior to Wing Chun. I spent the first decade of my life in Shiraz, Iran in the midst of an 8-year war between Iran and Iraq, in which 1.5 million people lost their lives. Apart from the fear of the occasional bombing sirens and the Iranian military police, the majority of the memories of those days are fond ones because my mother’s extended side of the family was very close and loving. From the age of 3, I remember bike riding and playing football on the streets with the older neighbourhood kids after school. Naturally, getting into arguments and fights was not uncommon. I was one of the smallest and youngest kids in the neighbourhood and therefore bullied around when push came to shove. My family migrated to Sydney Australia when I was 9. It was a rather diffcult transition, as there was a huge culture shock and I couldn’t speak a word of English. Naturally it took a long time for my brother and I to be fully accepted by the other kids. Even at such a young age, we had to let it be known that we were not to be picked on by being involved in many schoolyard fights, which for me was starting to become a natural part of life. Since my family was living in the poorer area of Sydney, the schools that I attended were filled with troubled kids who were involved in local gangs. One on one and group fights were a weekly occurrence. When I was 15, I decided to improve my self- defense skills and found a local Wing Chun school in the yellow pages (a small local branch of Jim Fung’s Wing Chun Academy). There were 3 main instructors at the branch, and to my advantage, I was usually the only student. Therefore, I generally received a private lesson in every class. I started to become very interested in Wing Chun because I could see how simple and practical it was for self-defense. I trained diligently at this branch for a little over a year and didn’t miss a lesson! However, my life outside Wing Chun was quickly spiraling down a dark path. At the age of 16, due to very harsh times at home, and as soon as the opportunity came, I left home and started to lead a ‘street life’ in Sydney’s CBD and China Town. The people I was living with and hanging around were all at least 10 years older and had been living a negative life for a long time. I immediately became extremely engrossed in the violence and glamor of it all. Looking back at those days, I’m surprised that I was only hospitalized once. During a fight in which over 20 people with weapons ambushed 4 of us, I lost one of my closest friends who at the time was only 15 years old. Things got so dangerous, that I felt in order to stay alive, I had to move back home. The only way to leave that life was to run away and go in hiding. Having had time to refect on my anger and the internal damage I had caused to my body and mind, I decided to start working on myself. So I started going to a local Gym and within a few months was back at Wing Chun. I needed to earn money so I started working as a bouncer at the local bars and clubs. Within a few months, I was asked to join a security team that was managing a couple of clubs in Kings Cross (the red light district of Sydney). So again, fighting and violence started to come knocking at my door, but at least now I had experience, a little external Wing Chun skill and had bulked up at the gym. As time went on, I stopped lifting weights, because I noticed it was hindering the fluidity of my movements, and got more into Wing Chun. I also started practicing meditation to help control the built up negative emotions and anger. I went from training a couple of hours a day to at least 8 hours a day, only working security on Friday and Saturday nights. I stopped attending classes at the Jim Fung Academy and trained with a tight group of guys led by Mark Spence, a senior student of our Sifu Jim Fung, who was also an ex-bouncer from Napier New Zealand. Mark and I became very good friends, possibly due to both having experienced a violent background and therefore having the common interest of searching for some peace and calm in our lives. Mark had actually trained with our Grandmaster in Hong Kong for 6 weeks in 1993 and had 10s of hours of video recording of his training there, which we used as our Wing Chun scripture! At this point in my Wing Chun training, I felt I had an OK understanding and ability of the mechanics and applications of Wing Chun, but I was very intrigued and hungry for the internal side that I saw in the HK videos of Chu Shong Tin’s classes. In 2004, I was indeed excited when I heard that he was coming down to Sydney to conduct seminars! When I first met Chu Shong Tin, who was then in his early 70s, I was very drawn by his happy and passive demeanour. I attended all his seminars and was lucky enough to touch hands with him a few times when he asked for volunteers. Even though Mark had told me about Chu’s unbelievable power, I was in complete shock from the sheer force coming out of his every movement, which he performed in a slow, soft and graceful fashion! I was astonished as to how this skinny old man
Lo Man Kam – A Legendary Legacy
Grandmaster Lo Man Kam is Yip Man’s nephew and one of his original students. He has spent most of his life passing on his uncle’s teachings to new generations of Wing Chun practitioners. In this exclusive interview, he explains what training in those early days was like and how his Wing Chun has evolved over the years. We are honoured to feature him in our 1 year anniversary issue and we hope you find this interview as inspirational as we did: You started to learn Wing Chun from your uncle Yip Man in 1950. What was training like back in those days? Initially, there were around 5 to 7 participants. Including Leung Sheung, Lok Yiu, Yip Bo Ching, Tsui Sheung Tin, Chiu Wan & myself. My uncle Yip Man was very, very enthusiastic in passing on his Wing Chun to us. We also were very keen to take on whatever he taught us. For me personally, I never missed even 1 single lesson. It was very enjoyable. After class, Chiu Wan would cook us some sweet dessert soup (tong sui) which we all really relished especially after a great class. Yip Man truly taught out of a great sense of duty to pass on what he knew and our fees were not much. One Hongkong dollar per class. We would take turns to collect it after class, and respectfully and gratefully offered the collection to my uncle. Do you see any differences between modern Wing Chun and the style your uncle taught you? Even towards 1970, Yip Man never actually taught many disciples. Without infringing on the privacy of many casual students and without naming them, many came to learn from my uncle only very briefly. They learned superficially and only up to the Siu Nim Tau form. They quickly went on to open their own classes and openly promote Wing Chun. Thus, we can safely assume that there is a vast chasm between what they passed on and what my uncle knew and continued to teach. You can say that it is not a case of deviation from Yip Man’s teachings, because they only got so little before leaving, but more of what these people made up, or mixed up with, which gave rise to the differences which we now see in the Wing Chun community. Were challenge matches as common as movies make out to be back in those days? It was not as common as everyone thinks. The Gong Sau (“talking hand”) were there for us to research, study and validate the effectiveness of the Wing Chun system. The experiences helped us to identify gaps within the system, and to improve our understanding and skills in Wing Chun. Of course, everyone knows, movies belong to the realm of art and entertainment, and do not necessarily reflect reality. Why do you think Wing Chun has become such a popular Martial Art? Wing Chun does not simulate any animal in appearance and form. It is a martial art system incorporating the principles of physics, mathematics and other sciences, constituting an integral body of learning. It is very appealing to ordinary folks and the impression Wing Chun leaves with people is one of sheer practicality and ease of learning. Movies by Bruce Lee and those on my uncle Yip Man, no doubt, make a huge and lasting impact on the minds of so many aspiring martial artists. There is no doubt, many believe and act on the belief that Wing Chun is a martial arts par excellence. Personally, I came from a military background, spending more than 3 years, learning military strategies and combative requirements. These contributed to enhancing my understanding of Wing Chun, giving my students even more substance to what they are learning, making Wing Chun even more attractive to the enthusiasts. Your uncle has an awesome reputation in Wing Chun circles. What was it about his skills that impressed you the most? My uncle Yip Man was a most remarkable man. It is not just his Wing Chun skills and prowess, which were already very impressive and inspiring, but his character and disposition. He had a unique and practical wisdom on Wing Chun and martial arts, which enabled him to become such an awesome teacher. I remember he told me that kungfu by itself is “dead”, human beings are alive. We need to cultivate and bring life to this “dead” kungfu. He always encouraged us to seize the opportunity and excel in our training of WingChun. Yip Man had foresight and could see the weaknesses of Chinese coming to learn from him. He identified that foreigners, referring especially to westerners, are not only bigger in stature, but have dedication and a scholarly mindset to their martial arts endeavor. Chinese, he lamented, lacked perseverance, being hot for 5 minutes, loved to show off and could be very presumptuous. You have met Donnie Yen. What is your opinion of the Yip Man movies? Movies are there to entertain and to make a lot of money. Wing Chun is not an artistic expression but a skillset. It emphasizes on practicality and has no allowance for any aesthetic appeal. The movies succeeded very well in promoting my uncle Yip Man as a veritable master in his own right, and also the good name of Wing Chun. Many have come to experience real life Wing Chun as a result. We hope these people will gain all that Wing Chun can offer them. You established your first school in Taiwan in 1975. Was Wing Chun well known in Taiwan at the time? I opened my school early 1975 after discharging from the military. Wing Chun was not very well known in Taiwan at that time, although I believe the movies of Bruce Lee and his recent passing in 1972, exposed Wing Chun as Bruce Lee’s original core martial art and Yip Man, my uncle, as his teacher. You have fused Wing Chun’s approach with joint locks, throws and takedown skills to form the foundation of the Taiwanese police defensive tactics curriculum.
Internal Wing Chun
Internal Wing Chun: It’s all about Balance. Michael Watson has practiced Wing Chun and Martial Arts for over 30 years. He is also a qualified practitioner in Traditional Chinese Medicine and holds BSc in Acupuncture and Chinese Medicine, as well as a Post Grad Certificate in Tui Na and Herbal Medicine. Michael Currently teaches in London UK. The term internal Wing Chun has started to become very popular in recent years. Many practitioners are now claiming their art to be internal or are adding internal styles such as taiji, bagua or qi- gong into their syllabus. I first heard of this term, internal (soft) training, over 25 years ago when I first started training with my current Sifu (instructor), Grandmaster Joseph Lee. This was the first time I had heard the terms internal (Soft) and external (Hard) in relation to a martial art. I found this subject very intriguing. Under my Sifu, we would of course learn the Wing Chun hand forms, as well as the 12 sets of Gulao Pin Sun Wing Chu. In addition, we would also learn and practice Hei Gong, standing Meditation and other techniques such as breathing exercises and the cultivation of Qi (Chi). Once taught, my Sifu would then move his students onto the study of different energies and how to produce Fa Jing (emitting force). All these techniques would then be interwoven within all our form work, Chi Sau and with every part of our wing chun training. Since then I have dedicated the last 25 years of my training in trying to understand and pass on the internal aspects of Wing Chun in a simplistic and easy-to-understand way. On my journey, I went back to university in 2006 and obtained a Masters degree in Traditional Chinese Medicine, which has allowed me to compare and contrast the ancient texts with modern medical definitions. This has aided me into making internal wing chun training easy to learn. It’s all about Balance. The main question I am often asked concerning this subject is “What is Internal Wing Chun”? To me, there is only one word that truly explains this, and that word is balance. In this article, I will explain what this balance is and how it relates to Wing Chun. The ancient Chinese People described balance in terms of Yin and Yang. This concept explains how everything in the universe has an opposite and opposing force and how these opposites are reliant on each other to exist. In simple terms, we cannot have night without day, hard without soft, hot without cold and of course internal without external. Once this is understood, it can form a basis to our training. If we consider all movement i.e. Forms, drills, sparring and general training external and Qi Cultivation, efficient energy delivery, breathing and intention and concentration internal, we can begin to see a relationship to balance (Yin and Yang). At this point, I would add that any student should be careful in their training, as Yin and Yang will also wax and wain, which means they can transform. I always tell my students. “Yin and Yang are about balance and one cannot exist without the other. If we consider Yin to be Soft or Internal and Yang to be hard or External, we can start to apply these principles to our training. We also have to remember that just like night turns into day, Yin can transform into Yang and vice versa. So with this in mind, we must maintain a balance, as too much Yin or too much Yang will be detrimental to our training”. Understanding Qi (Chi) There are certain methods that I practice and teach that I would consider essential for internal training. These includes Qi (Chi) Cultivation, Shen and Yi, fluid dynamic structure, using the six bows and power generation. There are of course other factors and principles, but the ones mentioned above are core principles. The first step in all this is an understanding of what is Qi. This question has been heavily debated for many years, with no real agreement. In some circles, it has almost reached mystical levels, with some Martial Arts practitioners claiming to have special Martial Qi or the ability to move it within the body by thought alone. Understanding Qi is far simpler than many make it out to be. Essentially, there are only two types. Qi, which is acquired and congenital Qi. Out of these two types, there is only one type we can influence, which is acquired Qi. To understand Qi, we need to look at the earliest writings on it and understand what the Chinese Characters mean. The characters relate to Vapour (Air) and Rice (Food). The Song Dynasty (960-1127 AD) This was called Songti. By the time of the Song Dynasty, Traditional Chinese Medicine was well developed. The importance of food energy for the body was understood. This perhaps accounts for the fact that during the Song Dynasty, the way of writing qi changed: the qi character in Songti is composed of the symbol for ‘vapour’ and the symbol for ‘rice’. Throughout the ages, there have been many different characters used for the meaning of Qi, but there has been one constant, which is the character for vapour. Now we can see the relationship between the meaning in ancient times and modern western medicine. The connection is Food and Air, producing energy. In Western Medicine, this is known as cellular respiration. Your body cells use the oxygen you breathe to get energy from the food you eat. This for me is a much more plausible explanation of Qi. Better than some sort of mystical energy that only a certain few high level masters can obtain. So to enhance our energy production or to cultivate our Qi, we need to use breathing exercises and eat healthy foods, this can of course be done through our Wing Chun training by using breathing techniques when doing our forms. The Shen (Mind & Spirit) The word Shen can be translated into many different meanings which include Spirit, Mind, consciousness, vitality, expression,
The Importance of Elbow Position
by Sifu Brian Hester. My martial arts journey began in 1981. I have studied numerous styles such as Philippino Modern Arnis, JKD, Uechi-Ryu Karate, Small Circle Jujitsu, and finally Wing Chun under the direction of world renown Gary Lam. I have been teaching Wing Chun for approximately 8 years and always wanted to bring attention to the importance of elbow position. The concept of elbow position starts from the very beginning, where one learns the first form called Siu Lim Tao, and continues throughout all the basic sections of Wing Chun. If you understand the first form and all of its applications, then you will clearly see the significance that elbow position has in making Wing Chun an efficient, direct, and powerful fighting system. In the first form, the most efficient elbow position is achieved when a practitioner’s elbow is between his/her own centerline and shoulder. This allows the practitioner to react quicker to an attack from either the outside or inside by having his/her arm travel an equal distance to meet the oncoming attack. I have seen many practitioners with their elbow positioned directly on their centerline. I feel this is inefficient because of the time that it takes for the arm to move from the center to where the attack takes place. The same holds true if the practitioner’s elbow is too far to the outside of the body. This leaves the centerline vulnerable and the practitioner cannot react as quickly because his/her arm has to travel now a longer distance to defend against an attack. The Wing Chun fighting system uses direct attacks to achieve maximum results. When we strike, we have to think of leading our strike with our elbows and not our hands, because emphasis on the hands creates stiffness and stiffness slows reactionary time. We don’t want to lead with our fist and pull the elbow along with it – we would much rather lead with our elbow, which pushes our fist to the desired target. This will give you more speed and remove any stiffness that you have in your arms as you strike. In Wing Chun the elbow always leads the way. As an example, in the Chum Kiu and Biu Gee forms, as the practitioner executes a cover action after the Fung Hao, if an attack is directed towards the practitioner’s centerline, the practitioner’s elbow needs to lead the way. This is because the elbow is closer to the centerline than the hand. Once this happens, the hand will automatically be placed in the proper position to defend against an attack. If we react with our hand first to protect the center, one will have a higher chance of getting hit because it takes the hand a longer time to reach the center. In addition, without proper elbow position, structure will also be lost and the opponent can utilize this to his/her advantage. Delay in reaction time and loss of structure are counter intuitive to Wing Chun’s direct action. The elbow position is also directly related to the practitioner’s power. If we look at the first form, we can see how the elbow transfers our energy most directly from the ground to the hip and up the arm by being correctly placed one fist length in front of the body and between the shoulder and the centerline. The elbow, in actuality, ties our lower and upper body together, transferring the energy needed to either push or strike an opponent with maximum efficiency and power. When the elbow moves away from the body, the energy path changes from our hips to our shoulders, instead of keeping the energy directly from the hips to the elbow. Improper elbow position results in loss of power, structure, speed, efficiency, and ultimately leads to undesired results. In closing just remember to fight with your elbows and not your hands. This is a very general statement, but if you understand how much the elbow position plays in your movements, you will understand the statement. Sifu Brian Hester Gary Lam Wing Chun of Orange County Wong Shun Leung | Gary Lam Lineage 0 Facebook 0 Twitter 0 Linkedin 0 Pinterest 0 Viber 0 Whatsapp 0 Telegram 0 Email
Interview with Sifu Victor Leow.
Odyssey of a Wandering WingChun Aspirant. [divider] Sifu Victor Leow has turned down many interview requests over the years, because he believed that his experiences and perspectives weren’t worth people’s precious time. He now sees that you don’t have to be perfect to contribute in a forum such as social media. We have the first ever published interview with Sifu Victor Leow, and he shares with us some highlights in his decades-long quest to learn WingChun Kungfu. When did you start learning WingChun and how did you get started on this journey? If my memory serves me correctly, it was way back in the early 80s that I seriously embarked on this odyssey. I came to know the late Grandmaster Jim Fung who was, at that time, based only out of Adelaide. Soon after that, I agreed to help kick off the Sydney branch of his schools, which eventually snowballed into the exposure of this wonderful system to so many people throughout the Sydney metropolitan region. At that time, I realised that to succeed in running this branch well, I needed to be deadly serious in my own cultivation. I would regard that as the turning point in my WingChun destiny! What was the training like, and how have things changed now? Understandably, it was still pretty virgin territory in those years. It was an exciting phase in WingChun history in Australia. There was no internet then. Few people in Sydney had any idea what WingChun was all about. Now we do, and the maturation of the WingChun market has resulted in the proliferation of many WingChun schools throughout Australia. Lately, with the Covid19 pandemic situation, people can even practise remotely under online supervision to gain the necessary skills and prowess in WingChun, and other martial arts. So, I would say, the single most significant element in propagating WingChun would be the development of the online world. Content wise, the impact is no less. People can literally “see” the differences of the various WingChun styles, schools, teachers etc. Aficionados of WingChun can very easily share and become friends with each other in this environment. The great thing about this transparency and connectivity, is the diminution of unhealthy rivalry and tension between egos. We witnessed much of this in the eighties and nineties. What has made progress possible on that front? The transparency I mentioned holds the key to more openness of exchange between online savvy WingChun enthusiasts. This can only be beneficial for all of us, as people can learn from each other very conveniently and at practically no cost. Consequently, there is a great reduction of blind faith in following a teacher as people can quickly find out answers for themselves. As a result, we see vast improvements in the presentation of WingChun to the whole world. Promoters must come across as credible, practical in their approach, and cost effective in the adoption of their WingChun systems. Thus, the WingChun community has collectively evolved drastically with this technology utilisation. This will allow WingChun to penetrate deeper into the martial arts market. How has your WingChun training continued all these years? It is still continuing, I must say. In the eighties, I met Grandmasters Tsui Sheungtin and Wong Shunleung, and learnt from them. TST was an awe-inspiring and formidable WingChun exponent. He had so much to offer. As for Wong, he was a legend in his own right! By the early nineties, I also came to know Sifu Derek Fung who was introduced to me by my friend Norman Ma. Sifu Derek was very generous with his teachings and taught out the whole system to a handful of us, out of his home in Sydney. It was quite remarkable that even though they all learnt from Yip Man, they were so different from each other. It was very challenging for me to dissect their teachings and make sense of it all. By the early 2000s, I started following my Goo-Lo WingChun teacher Leung One-qi. I also met with my SiHing Grandmaster Wan Kamleung, who was Wong Shunleung’s number one disciple. Right from the start, I was blown away by Wan Sifu’s skills and power. We hit it off very well, and he showed me a number of eye-opening aspects of WingChun. However, once again, life’s commitments took precedence and I couldn’t spend more time with him. What about your Goo-Lo WingChun teacher Master Leung? Master Leung sadly passed away early this year. I meant to visit him towards March, but Covid19 took over and I had to reset all my plans. Master Leung distinguished his Goo-Lo WingChun, referring to it as the Three Infinity Goo-Lo WingChun Kungfu. In my FB page, I named it as Triunifiniti Goo-Lo WingChun. A bit of a mouthful, so I decided I will also refer to it as Three Infinity or 3Infinity or Infini3 Kungfu. Easier I think. From my experience, I3k is very effective and the concepts and principles are scientific and street sensible. Please talk about this lesser known cousin of mainstream WingChun known as Goo-Lo. Infini3 Kungfu (I3k), has an array of 22 solo techniques, and more than 12 partner practice drills called Tui Jark – meaning mutual deconstruction. Most other Goo-Lo systems have 12 solo techniques and a similar number of Tui Jark drills. It also has a system of noigung or internal power training built into it which practitioners can use to power up their applications. How can folks learn more about this system? Master Leung published a Chinese book introducing I3k a few years back. I now use it as a text for my students to refer to. This year, my Kungfu brother, Dr. John Fung, also published a specialised text on his Tensiometrics power principles. In it, he details for the first time, some of I3k’s internal power methods. Dr. John Fung is also one of only 3 licensed teachers outside Mainland China qualified to teach I3k. In the mid-90s, you taught a system called VIKOGA. What
SIFU WONG HONG CHUNG – THE GUARDIAN OF LEGACY
By Daniel Palau – English Translation by David Robinson. I first met Sifu Wong Hong Chung (John Wong) in 2011, during a trip that my Sifu Santiago Pascual organized to explore the roots of Ving Tsun in Hong Kong and Mainland China. From the offset, I was able to see the friendly nature that characterizes this Sifu. For those who do not know who Sifu Wong Hong Chung is, but practice Ving Tsun, I need to say little more than that he is the son of Grandmaster Wong Shun Leung (1936-1997), one of only 5 students who were privileged to learn the full Ving Tsun system directly from the famous GGM Ip Man. Master Wong Shun Leung spent his time constantly refining his Ving Tsun thanks to the experience he gained through 15 years in bare-knuckle fights, without protective gear or weight categories, otherwise known as Beimo, where he was never defeated and was thus dubbed Gong Sao Wong “The King of talking with his hands”. It is estimated that there were between 60 and 100 of these illegal meetings, which used to take place on rooftops, away from prying eyes, or ocasionally in hotel rooms reserved specifically for the occasion. The martial atmosphere of that time could be described loosely as quite brutal… …however, accounts of these fights have already been written about some time ago and is very easy to find information about them.GM Wong Shun Leung, even though he possessed a bold and determined character, never boasted or bragged about his reputation as an undefeated fighter. Whenever he was asked about these encounters, he was very frank and realistic, admitting that even in the best of victories, he would often walk away with some type of injury. His son, Master John Wong, is modest and extremely polite in character, inheriting from his father a pragmatic and analytical mind which gives him the ability to assimilate and clearly transmit the legacy left by his father. Currently, he’s devoting much of his efforts to create a community that brings together students from his father and his Ving Tsun lineage. This allows a framework for followers of the WSL lineage to get to know one another at gatherings, with the aim of conserving the teachings of his father. Undoubtedly, Master John Wong is the best ambassador for this task. I had previously contacted Wong Hong Chung by email and then by phone, so I travelled to Hong Kong to visit him in the VTAA. When I arrived, he was about to start the class. After a brief greeting and an invitation to take a seat, the class began. There were beginners practicing basic techniques and Siu Nin Tao (the first form of Ving Tsun), while others worked at Chi Sao and the wooden dummy. The Chi Sao I witnessed was honestly of a very high technical quality. Good structure and movement with very precise hands that shot forward at high speed at the slightest mistake, without losing the alignment of the elbow or leaving any opening. Sifu Wong walked among his students correcting the details, fully concentrating on the task at hand. When the class ended, I spoke with him to organise a date for the interview. Shortly afterwards, he called to tell me he was going to make a trip to Foshan and that we could do the interview there, which would give us the opportunity to visit some important sites in Ving Tsun’s history. It was an unexpected surprise and I jumped at that chance. The product of that encounter in Foshan is the following interview, which took place in different locations such as the kwoon of Sifu Yip Chi Chu, or the Hoi Tin Restaurant, an establishment that is more than 100 years old and was a favorite of GGM Ip Man. Even now, it still opens daily, serving delicious and traditional Cantonese dishes. When did you start your journey in Kung Fu and Wing Chun? Can you explain a little to us about this period of your study? When I was little, whilst we were having a two month holiday. My father spoke to me and my brother and sister, and began to teach me and my sister a little Siu Nin Tao. I forget whether we then learned Chi Sao or not. We were also taught by some of the SiHings who helped my father to give lessons, but I was very young and had to go to school, so didn’t have much time and also nobody could take me to my father’s kwoon. Then I stopped studying for years and at 13 or 14 years old, with my brother and my cousin, I began to study Ving Tsun again. At that time, my sister was no longer studing Ving Tsun and later, my brother stopped practicing, but my cousin still practiced sometimes. By then, my father had moved the school to its final site and I was already older and could go to Mou Kwoon on my own. So you were the only son who continued to practice, finishing the style to later start teaching it? Yes, that’s right. I consider it my duty – as well as maintaining contact between all my father’s students. My duty, rather than teach, is to keep everyone together. But before my father died, I never thought I would teach Wing Chun. I wanted to train and practice, but I did not think about teaching. They are two different things, it’s much more fun to just train. Due to my character, I did not like fighting too, though for some people maybe fighting is exhilarating. You can learn without fighting too. In fact, Wing Chun offers you that possibility. Training …. that process is fun, but training and real fighting is different. I know the difference, but when you start teaching, it makes you think more – not focus only on one thing. When you teach, you have to think about what’s correct and what isn’t all
