HOW I BECOME BEGINNER AGAIN!!!
By Prosper Vienne
I’ve been practicing martial arts since 11 years old; I did practice Karate, judo, jujitsu, Brazilian jujitsu, I’m also instructor of jeet kune do. 6 years ago, I started Wing Chun with famous masters in the USA and Hong Kong. With this long curriculum, I can consider myself without pretension an experienced and knowledgeable martial arts practitioner.
Well, how it turns to be myself a beginner…..
It’s all about choices: I can limit myself on what I learnt or empty my cup, then put what I learnt in a drawer and re-start from zero. Someone comes up with Wing Chun skills that are beyond my knowledge, in a style that I have some expertise. I can react very narrow minded and resist to learn from this person because I consider I know something too after 6 years of Wing Chun practice. I finally swallow my pride and remain opened to the Wing Chun concepts taught by this new teacher. I realize there are a lot of things I don’t know about this style.
I CANNOT IMPROVE WITHOUT AN EXCEPTIONAL INSTRUCTIONAL
Early 6 years of Wing Chun
I believe that if I want to progress properly, I need to start from the basics. During my 6 first years of Wing Chun, I found out that I did not a solid structure, I was easily uprooted. I knew that keeping the lower back flat and the spine straight are very important to get a strong base on ground. Each time I do Chisao or sticky hands with someone, I was totally unstable. Each time, it was happening, I was very frustrated. The only thing to overcome this weakness is to do hands with very tense strong hands or with very fast hands. Being strong helps when I can resist my opponent and push him away, then I don’t need to be technically good. The second option is to be very fast; I don’t let the other person to target my face or my stomach, the condition is that he should react poorly by being more hesitant and doubtful than me. Either way, it leads me to be out of control and I easily made some mistakes on my basic positioning. However, overcoming that weakness didn’t help me to be better; I was a sort of hiding what is the most essential: a correct structure. I did work hard on it, I rechecked my first form (Sil Lum Tao) and figured out how I can keep my core stable. The point is that I did not get a proper explanation of the How, I had been told “keep straight” or “keep lower position” or “be relax”..., that’s it. I may get it at the moment and then lost the skill. Then I felt frustrated and still remained at the end weak again and again.
Re-start from Zero at Shanghai Leung Sheung School
Being stubborn on my Wing Chun stance
At the beginning of the class, we all started with the fundamental technique which is the Wing Chun stance “goat clamping stance”. It’s not about set of hands techniques or even the complete first form (Sil Nim Tao) like other schools. Firstly, the purpose is to remain stable on the stance, completely static, in same time I keep myself aware about what’s happening in my body; at the beginning I feel my legs and my upper body were shaking. New students may quit after this first session, they might think it’s boring (I did feel a bit bored too) and they may not get the point of why they should stand that way or they just don’t want to work on it because they are not patient and think it’s waste of time. They would prefer to learn multiple hands and legs techniques where they can find in taekwondo, karate, boxing… I totally understand those beginners, I’ve been through a lot of set of hands and legs techniques in Jeet kune Do, karate, jujitsu, even in other Wing Chun schools. It makes me feel I sweat and work completely on my body. Plus, it satisfies my ego to know a lot of techniques. But it didn’t really lead me to be technically efficient in my fighting skills. Fortunately, the teacher reminds us all the time the purpose of the structure correctness and demonstrates how it is efficient. He raises our training standard in a higher level by giving us a blueprint or a set of tools. In this way, I don’t feel lost, so I can autocorrect myself. Even if I cannot settle myself properly after the demonstration, I work on my structure with this blueprint in mind until I achieve it.
The difference with other schools is how much they would like to spend to learn how to control punches or kicks from the inside attitude; it’s being aware about what’s happened in my body, being aware about my surrounding, the people around, the little unperceptive movement of the opponent before I throw any hits. That’s why in the class, we first insist a lot on positioning that include 5 principles (squeeze knees, goat clamping stance, flat lower back, head straight, bury the elbows). For example, in my case, when someone pushing me, I feel completely uprooted. I’m wondering why? Am I aware that my elbows are not in right place? Am I aware that my lower back is not straight enough? My checklist is normally much longer. Even after 6 months of practice, Instead of asking which hands technique can work in that kind of situation, I still ask how I can correct my posture through the 5 principles. Working on hands techniques is secondary. To give an idea, working on additional hands or legs techniques improve 5 to 10% on my skills, whereas working on my structure increase 100% my skills level. No matter which strikes I will learn in the future, I’m always wondering of how my posture is connected to that strike. A day of that thought saves me a week or maybe a month of personal non-achievement.
Why I’m practicing slowly?
Next step, I learned how I can punch to the centerline by remaining stable on my stance. We were working first on the right hand, and then separately on the left hand. Once we knew how a punch looks like, we were trying to coordinate two hands while punching. We kept our motion very slow. Some schools would prefer to punch as many as possible like 100 or 500 punches and as fast as possible. In our school, we would prefer to throw 3 good and solid punches. More the execution is slow; more I’m refining my physical attributes by feeling the tendons of my arms, the stretch, the extension and the accuracy. Each details of a single punch count, every inch of a single punch count. People may think that training so slow cannot improve my fighting skills because we can only be quicker than my opponent by catching his timing. My answer is; it’s somehow true that it’s important to be fast enough to catch the opponent timing, but as the teacher recalled; people have different point of view on what fast concept means. Some people have quick hands but have an inappropriate positioning. I would prefer to settle quickly the alignment of my structure, even if my hands are too slow. Why I want to train so slowly? Because I don’t want to be out of control, greedy to hit and exposed to an inappropriate positioning. So how I can improve my fighting skills if I don’t consider my own attitude and the correctness of my body?
I take my time to refine my Wing Chun attributes
Once we work sufficiently on the stance and punch, we can start to practice the first form of Wing Chun (Sil Nim Tao). It’s divided in 3 sections and we spend some amount of time to accomplish each of them. I surprise myself that I maintain the Wing Chun stance without shaking too much on my legs for 15 minutes while completing the entire set. Before I only spent 3 minutes and did the set 10 to 15 times. I realize now that working first on the stance is very important to maintain the posture longer, especially when we execute the movements slowly, plus the teacher takes time to correct our structure, and gives us the opportunity to feel how different parts of our body are connected. Sometimes, it happened that I can only hold 5 minutes instead of 15 minutes; I perceived it as a regression. In fact, it’s a pure positive progression because I’m adjusting properly my structure by adding naturally some pressure around the right spot, the knees. It’s a normal pain because I never felt that before. Besides it’s not a competition to hold longer the position until being tired; if I feel there is too much pressure on the legs that I cannot take, I would prefer to stand up for few seconds rest, and then go back to the stance when ready. There is really no time limit on how long I should stay in my position. If I try to hold longer, I tend to cheat and somewhere in my posture will go wrong. I would prefer to keep my stance for 1 minute by exploring correct alignment of the 5 principles instead of holding it 10 minutes.
Doing hands is not a boxing match
It’s only after 3 to 4 months that I started experimenting what I learned by doing hands with other students. It’s a very good test to know if Wing Chun principles are well assimilated. When I visited other Wing Chun schools, they were asking me if I can do Chisao or rolling hands, I said yes, and then on the first day, I can play hands with people. We didn’t care much about how correct is my positioning. What we tried to do is to hit on the face and touch the opponent as many as possible. It’s like a competition; we tried to get a higher score. Some other schools promote Wing Chun competitions; it turns out to be a boxing match. In this case, I would prefer to learn boxing, why wasting my time to learn Wing Chun. I don’t think that I can learn something from this “light sparring”, even though I never practice it that way. In my 6 months level, I don’t try to hit my training partner; I don’t take it as an absolute goal. Doing hands with someone is checking if my legs, my core, my head, my elbows are positioned in according to the 5 principles before I hit. I’m listening to myself first before I listen to what the opponent is able to throw at me.
I CANNOT IMPROVE MYSELF WITHOUT A GOOD TEACHER
I found different qualities on David Davila who learnt from Kenneth Chung coming from Leung Sheung Lineage.
Integrity: He does what he talks. Some teachers advance some theories about techniques and philosophy which are good to be listened. But more than that, David is able to demonstrate on stage the technique.
Deep understanding: more than just understanding the technique. He is able to add value on technique with Chinese culture and philosophy. It’s not enough to limit Wing Chun on biomechanical movements. It’s also important to know where the techniques come from and how & why the first the previous generation thinks about Wing Chun. Plus He has some deep understanding on other Chinese martial arts.
Logical way: he doesn’t go through esoteric and mystery explanation. He does go through simple, logical and practical explanations. He explains the HOW of technique instead of just telling me to be soft and to be relaxed.
Helpful: if I don’t know how to apply a technique, he gives me a lot of indications for improving, plus he raises my technical standard to understand much more. So I can depend on myself if technically I’m going wrong, I can naturally adjust my posture. If I really don’t know, I just simply ask a question and he simply answers.
Creative: the challenge is to make sure that each student gets the knowledge. He must find different ways to make us understanding what he is talking about. For example, when he explains how to drop the edge of hand (Gansao), he took a knife and a wood board to demonstrate the movement. It’s like a funny cooking class. But the most important is that we assimilate the principle.
By Prosper Vienne
I’ve been practicing martial arts since 11 years old; I did practice Karate, judo, jujitsu, Brazilian jujitsu, I’m also instructor of jeet kune do. 6 years ago, I started Wing Chun with famous masters in the USA and Hong Kong. With this long curriculum, I can consider myself without pretension an experienced and knowledgeable martial arts practitioner.
Well, how it turns to be myself a beginner…..
It’s all about choices: I can limit myself on what I learnt or empty my cup, then put what I learnt in a drawer and re-start from zero. Someone comes up with Wing Chun skills that are beyond my knowledge, in a style that I have some expertise. I can react very narrow minded and resist to learn from this person because I consider I know something too after 6 years of Wing Chun practice. I finally swallow my pride and remain opened to the Wing Chun concepts taught by this new teacher. I realize there are a lot of things I don’t know about this style.
I CANNOT IMPROVE WITHOUT AN EXCEPTIONAL INSTRUCTIONAL
Early 6 years of Wing Chun
I believe that if I want to progress properly, I need to start from the basics. During my 6 first years of Wing Chun, I found out that I did not a solid structure, I was easily uprooted. I knew that keeping the lower back flat and the spine straight are very important to get a strong base on ground. Each time I do Chisao or sticky hands with someone, I was totally unstable. Each time, it was happening, I was very frustrated. The only thing to overcome this weakness is to do hands with very tense strong hands or with very fast hands. Being strong helps when I can resist my opponent and push him away, then I don’t need to be technically good. The second option is to be very fast; I don’t let the other person to target my face or my stomach, the condition is that he should react poorly by being more hesitant and doubtful than me. Either way, it leads me to be out of control and I easily made some mistakes on my basic positioning. However, overcoming that weakness didn’t help me to be better; I was a sort of hiding what is the most essential: a correct structure. I did work hard on it, I rechecked my first form (Sil Lum Tao) and figured out how I can keep my core stable. The point is that I did not get a proper explanation of the How, I had been told “keep straight” or “keep lower position” or “be relax”..., that’s it. I may get it at the moment and then lost the skill. Then I felt frustrated and still remained at the end weak again and again.
Re-start from Zero at Shanghai Leung Sheung School
Being stubborn on my Wing Chun stance
At the beginning of the class, we all started with the fundamental technique which is the Wing Chun stance “goat clamping stance”. It’s not about set of hands techniques or even the complete first form (Sil Nim Tao) like other schools. Firstly, the purpose is to remain stable on the stance, completely static, in same time I keep myself aware about what’s happening in my body; at the beginning I feel my legs and my upper body were shaking. New students may quit after this first session, they might think it’s boring (I did feel a bit bored too) and they may not get the point of why they should stand that way or they just don’t want to work on it because they are not patient and think it’s waste of time. They would prefer to learn multiple hands and legs techniques where they can find in taekwondo, karate, boxing… I totally understand those beginners, I’ve been through a lot of set of hands and legs techniques in Jeet kune Do, karate, jujitsu, even in other Wing Chun schools. It makes me feel I sweat and work completely on my body. Plus, it satisfies my ego to know a lot of techniques. But it didn’t really lead me to be technically efficient in my fighting skills. Fortunately, the teacher reminds us all the time the purpose of the structure correctness and demonstrates how it is efficient. He raises our training standard in a higher level by giving us a blueprint or a set of tools. In this way, I don’t feel lost, so I can autocorrect myself. Even if I cannot settle myself properly after the demonstration, I work on my structure with this blueprint in mind until I achieve it.
The difference with other schools is how much they would like to spend to learn how to control punches or kicks from the inside attitude; it’s being aware about what’s happened in my body, being aware about my surrounding, the people around, the little unperceptive movement of the opponent before I throw any hits. That’s why in the class, we first insist a lot on positioning that include 5 principles (squeeze knees, goat clamping stance, flat lower back, head straight, bury the elbows). For example, in my case, when someone pushing me, I feel completely uprooted. I’m wondering why? Am I aware that my elbows are not in right place? Am I aware that my lower back is not straight enough? My checklist is normally much longer. Even after 6 months of practice, Instead of asking which hands technique can work in that kind of situation, I still ask how I can correct my posture through the 5 principles. Working on hands techniques is secondary. To give an idea, working on additional hands or legs techniques improve 5 to 10% on my skills, whereas working on my structure increase 100% my skills level. No matter which strikes I will learn in the future, I’m always wondering of how my posture is connected to that strike. A day of that thought saves me a week or maybe a month of personal non-achievement.
Why I’m practicing slowly?
Next step, I learned how I can punch to the centerline by remaining stable on my stance. We were working first on the right hand, and then separately on the left hand. Once we knew how a punch looks like, we were trying to coordinate two hands while punching. We kept our motion very slow. Some schools would prefer to punch as many as possible like 100 or 500 punches and as fast as possible. In our school, we would prefer to throw 3 good and solid punches. More the execution is slow; more I’m refining my physical attributes by feeling the tendons of my arms, the stretch, the extension and the accuracy. Each details of a single punch count, every inch of a single punch count. People may think that training so slow cannot improve my fighting skills because we can only be quicker than my opponent by catching his timing. My answer is; it’s somehow true that it’s important to be fast enough to catch the opponent timing, but as the teacher recalled; people have different point of view on what fast concept means. Some people have quick hands but have an inappropriate positioning. I would prefer to settle quickly the alignment of my structure, even if my hands are too slow. Why I want to train so slowly? Because I don’t want to be out of control, greedy to hit and exposed to an inappropriate positioning. So how I can improve my fighting skills if I don’t consider my own attitude and the correctness of my body?
I take my time to refine my Wing Chun attributes
Once we work sufficiently on the stance and punch, we can start to practice the first form of Wing Chun (Sil Nim Tao). It’s divided in 3 sections and we spend some amount of time to accomplish each of them. I surprise myself that I maintain the Wing Chun stance without shaking too much on my legs for 15 minutes while completing the entire set. Before I only spent 3 minutes and did the set 10 to 15 times. I realize now that working first on the stance is very important to maintain the posture longer, especially when we execute the movements slowly, plus the teacher takes time to correct our structure, and gives us the opportunity to feel how different parts of our body are connected. Sometimes, it happened that I can only hold 5 minutes instead of 15 minutes; I perceived it as a regression. In fact, it’s a pure positive progression because I’m adjusting properly my structure by adding naturally some pressure around the right spot, the knees. It’s a normal pain because I never felt that before. Besides it’s not a competition to hold longer the position until being tired; if I feel there is too much pressure on the legs that I cannot take, I would prefer to stand up for few seconds rest, and then go back to the stance when ready. There is really no time limit on how long I should stay in my position. If I try to hold longer, I tend to cheat and somewhere in my posture will go wrong. I would prefer to keep my stance for 1 minute by exploring correct alignment of the 5 principles instead of holding it 10 minutes.
Doing hands is not a boxing match
It’s only after 3 to 4 months that I started experimenting what I learned by doing hands with other students. It’s a very good test to know if Wing Chun principles are well assimilated. When I visited other Wing Chun schools, they were asking me if I can do Chisao or rolling hands, I said yes, and then on the first day, I can play hands with people. We didn’t care much about how correct is my positioning. What we tried to do is to hit on the face and touch the opponent as many as possible. It’s like a competition; we tried to get a higher score. Some other schools promote Wing Chun competitions; it turns out to be a boxing match. In this case, I would prefer to learn boxing, why wasting my time to learn Wing Chun. I don’t think that I can learn something from this “light sparring”, even though I never practice it that way. In my 6 months level, I don’t try to hit my training partner; I don’t take it as an absolute goal. Doing hands with someone is checking if my legs, my core, my head, my elbows are positioned in according to the 5 principles before I hit. I’m listening to myself first before I listen to what the opponent is able to throw at me.
I CANNOT IMPROVE MYSELF WITHOUT A GOOD TEACHER
I found different qualities on David Davila who learnt from Kenneth Chung coming from Leung Sheung Lineage.
Integrity: He does what he talks. Some teachers advance some theories about techniques and philosophy which are good to be listened. But more than that, David is able to demonstrate on stage the technique.
Deep understanding: more than just understanding the technique. He is able to add value on technique with Chinese culture and philosophy. It’s not enough to limit Wing Chun on biomechanical movements. It’s also important to know where the techniques come from and how & why the first the previous generation thinks about Wing Chun. Plus He has some deep understanding on other Chinese martial arts.
Logical way: he doesn’t go through esoteric and mystery explanation. He does go through simple, logical and practical explanations. He explains the HOW of technique instead of just telling me to be soft and to be relaxed.
Helpful: if I don’t know how to apply a technique, he gives me a lot of indications for improving, plus he raises my technical standard to understand much more. So I can depend on myself if technically I’m going wrong, I can naturally adjust my posture. If I really don’t know, I just simply ask a question and he simply answers.
Creative: the challenge is to make sure that each student gets the knowledge. He must find different ways to make us understanding what he is talking about. For example, when he explains how to drop the edge of hand (Gansao), he took a knife and a wood board to demonstrate the movement. It’s like a funny cooking class. But the most important is that we assimilate the principle.
