HAWAII  WING CHUN KUNG-FU  IN  KAILUA  -  KANEOHE  -  EWA  BEACH

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Article I.

Having entered my fourth decade of Wing Chun practice, I decided to pen the following short reflective  paper to help people  interest in learning Wing Chun Kung-Fu.   For those that already have years of martial arts experience,  you will see some parallel experiences in your learning.    Others will be passing collectors of thought but cannot demonstrate the skills that only real experience can instill into the person.     

The Wing Chun system was developed  in old China.   It was a time of revolution and  turmoil, an era in which common people and revolutionaries needed personal fighting method to survive.  During this early period,  firearms were only found in the ranks of the military, and the common  Chinese people only had short utility knives and bladed  tools.  Bladed weapons practice for personal and family protection was a necessary part life.  This was especially  true in the vast rural and mountainous areas,  where active groups of bandits operated without concern of any law enforcement.  Hence, the early Wing Chun system was formed around the use of  double shot swords and unarmed (open hand) short hitting methods.  Over several centuries, the system has been  refined and regenerated by many teachers.  However, what has not changed much is a  core of  useful strategies and tactics that really  work.  In contemporary times, the unarmed portion of the Wing Chun system is emphasized, while the double knives and the spearing long staff  have almost completely faded into obscurity. 

Though centuries have passed, the universal mindset to survive an attack from other people is still  deeply rooted.   First and foremost the purpose of Wing Chun is to build strong personal character to survive predatory people.  Wing Chun teachers vow never  to teach bad people or give potential evil doers.  With this in mind, it is best to find a highly qualified teacher and start training your mind and body.  Kung-Fu means achievement/development of skill through years of hard and structured work.  Though combat skill can be learned quickly, refined ability comes slowly.  A good sifu (Si = teacher / Fu= father) knows well that the best skills and abilities ripen late.  There is no universal time table of learning that fits everybody in the same way.  But, one thing is for sure.  While you should not rush when learning, you cannot wait long if there is a clear and present danger nearby.  Talk to your teacher to find the best balance between skill and duration of practice.
      
Every person must evaluate  his/her own personal needs and  reasons to learn a martial art.  Some people will find martial arts practice to be a great benefit to character building and personal confidence.   Others will benefit to discover the  connection between psychological mind and physical body.  Sadly though, a great many will not have either the patience, or self-discipline to stay with their teacher long enough to reap the benefits.

Wing Chun is a martial art with certain hard principles followed by many malleable patterns of applied skills.  The hard principles are taken from the worst case (non firearm) survival scenario.   In the worse case scenario, the unarmed Wing Chun practitioner might have  to face not only multiple opponents but opponents who carry bladed weapons.  In this situation, even with the odds of survival greatly reduced, the Wing Chun practitioner still chooses to do his/her best to fight off the attacker(s).

Remember, any fist or kick that can not be pulled back quickly will get chopped off.   Hence, a great  majority of the Wing Chun techniques are kept close to the body.  Wrestling techniques, far- reaching punches, and extended ranged kicks can be fatal when confronted by blade carrying oponent(s).  The best chance for survival can be found in effective use quick footwork combined with fast, short ranged techniques.  It is important to know that the Wing Chun system is a breakout system in which the person must engage and  break through containment by one or more attackers. Wing Chun is not a bounce and shuffle tournament (ring) system.

The Wing Chun system is composed of a series of quick, short hitting techniques called "ideas".   The unarmed aspect of the Wing Chun system's  ideas (applied techniques & methods) are grouped  into five progressively-learned parts.  All the parts must be carefully guided by a competent teacher and practiced with live  partners.  Read about  the five parts of  the Wing Chun system in  the next article.

Article II.

Part one is the Siu Nim Tau or "small ideas" practice.  Here, new students are taught simple ideas of proper body alignment/structure.   Proper postures in standing, pivoting, and  short stepping are combined with short-ranged hitting and  reflex building counter drills.  Simply put, this part is like learning the alphabet  and forming simple words in language.

Part two is the Chun Kiu or "bridge searching"practice.  Here the practitioner searches for the most efficient ways to apply various  techniques.  The correct mix of applied angle, force, range, and timing are continuously rehearsed .  Timing is the most crucial aspect, which will  require the continual use of nurturing classmate/partners.  Having at least one, and preferably two or three practice partners to provide close-in as well as more distal-ranging physical contact (bridging) will produce the best outcome.  Simply put, part two is like forming meaningful sentences and paragraphs which then produce free thought  and  self-reflecting imagery in language.

At this point, part two becomes the centerpiece or the central hub of the entire Wing Chun system.  Part one must be firmly established and ingrained into the practitioner before  part two can become truly useful and understandable.  The final three parts will enhance and complement, but not replace, part two.

Part three is the fabric that glues together the many aspect  of timing and dexterity in the Wing Chun system.   This part is known as Chi Sau or "sticky hands" practice.  It requires a partner two practitioners to engage in a  in a  semi-rhythmic touching (rubbing, pushing, pulling, slapping, grabbing, etc.) of  arms  to promote  increased abilities in timing, dexterity, speed, ranging, and hand/arm reshaping.   Again, the many aspects of short timing are developed and maintained in routine practice.  Without a solid foundation (floor) of short timing, the practitioner cannot build combination techniques which require connecting two, three, or more timed techniques.

Part four is the   Biu Jee  or "darting fingers" practice.  This part contains a number of extreme and advanced applications within the Wing Chun system.   Extreme are  the focus of this portion of practice.   Here, the mature practitioner is introduced to a number of techniques that are applied at extremely close ranges.  Other techniques are  at distal in ranges or use at extreme angles.  This practice will greatly enhance the practitioner's body mechanics.  Increasing awareness of springing, whipping, and elastic powers can be projected throughout the human body.  

Part five is the Mook Yan Jong or "wooden man hitting" practice.  The wooden man is, in fact, practiced against a wooden dummy that has three arms and a forward facing leg.  The practitioner first learns the many stepping, hitting, and turning techniques against a stationary wooden man.   Wooden man practice further refines the applied angles and ranges of a Wing Chun practitioner.   Furthermore, it allows the practitioner to use hitting forces that cannot be applied to practice partners without causing injury.  Open play of the techniques with a live partner will further increase the practitioner's awareness of returning/marrying/riding the attacker's momentum. 

If you are still reading this,  you have demonstrated sufficient interest and now need  to find an instructor.   You should read no further and begin searching for  a competent and experienced teacher.  Your teacher will tell you the rest of the story.  If you are already a truly accomplished martial artist and not just a mean and destructive fighter/person, then you already know the rest of the story.  Beware,  reading beyond this point will be a bit  poisonous for inexperienced mind. 

Article III.

All martial artists, no matter what style or method practiced, there comes a time of confusion and frustration. I am not speaking of plateaus and sticking points found in a person’s early and mid-years of practice, but something much more monumental. It is a type of a great reckoning the will require a selecting a lifelong path. This will happen despite the many years of experience that a person has invested into the martial arts. Even those that have attained high levels of un-shakable poise and can free play his/her combination techniques with seemingly little effort. Some will come understand this period as a reality reversal, while others will find that father time has already chosen the correct path for them to follow.

Here again, having an experienced teacher or perhaps your teacher’s teacher to guide you will be most helpful. Your teacher will smile at this period of time, for it is means the birth of a new master of something new, that maybe or maybe not in the martial arts. One thing for sure, if your teacher is there with you, it will be a rebirth for both you and your old teacher.

With some advice from your old teacher, the now mature free form stylist can now see that the path forward is divided three ways. It is this, a three-fold path that comes face-to-face with all mature martial artists. You must choose one of the paths, knowing that once chosen the path that it will very difficult to abandon without some personal loss. The dynamics of each path make it next to impossible to give any of them a clear description. With a good amount of needed vagueness, my advice for the free form stylist is to choose either path one or two.

In path one, you will greatly reduce your martial arts practice time. Turn your attention toward building a family, developing a successful business, and creating a good community. The martial arts have given you the needed leadership skills, balanced character, and a firm understanding/sensitivity to the situational dynamics (strategies and tactics) to become a very productive citizen. In path two, you return to your teacher to learn teaching skills. Here you rediscover the many traditions and methods of becoming a successful teacher. It is here, as a teacher, that you come full circle with your own experiences. By returning to your roots, you can see your accomplishment from the ground floor and not from floating aimlessly near the skylight (ceiling). You see parts of yourself in your students as they evolve and mature. It is a shared experience in which the teacher also relearns the same lessons. Hence, the old adage, teach once and learn twice becomes self-evident.

This path is best known to myself because it is the path that I have chosen. In this path, your actions and teachings will live on for generations as examples of successful teaching of the whole person (not hurtful brawlers). At this point in your life, your teaching methods are best served with small portions of Buddhist, Taoist, and Confucian philosophies (not religions). These philosophies will help your students see things with differing perspectives, which in turn will enable students to find the needed balance in their thoughts and actions. Having respect and the right mindfulness are the first steps in learning any vocation, profession, or hobby. Lastly, people who choose path one or two know with great certainty, when enough-is-enough and that pursuing the martial arts to the extreme without a great cause (as needed in war) will be ultimately be destructive to themselves and society.

Despite my words above, there will be many who choose path three. Almost everyone that chooses this path have been/will be young males below the age of 30. They choose to chase the last 10-20% of skill at a terrible cost. This skill chase quickly transforms into a single minded, self-serving, compulsive obsession. They must be the best and will test themselves to the point of recklessness and folly. Few will survive the ugly and harmful effects found along this path. Hence, the old adage, “the most dangerous thing in the world is a young man looking for fame and a name,” rings true to this very day.

Furthermore, this arena of combative skill can only come from regular combat at the cost hurting many people (including themselves). It is a cold-hearted, lonely, and painful path with only a minuscule chance that one’s name will become truly legendary. A vast majority of people in path three will instead suffer terrible injuries to their bodies and minds. Here, frustration for the unsuccessful is the most poisonous. Nearly all will find it impossible to completely rejoin everyday community life as productive citizen. The incurred emotional and physical scares will haunt them throughout life. But the one in a million chance to reach the status of Achilles of Greece and Musashi of Japan is a lasting temptation.

In my opinion, despite their unmatched skill and heroic names, both Achilles and Musashi were nothing more than self-centered and cold blooded murderers. To no fault of their own, both men lived in a militaristic society surrounded by warfare, Neither man developed any notable students, or built a loving family.