A Way of Being

I saw an interesting interview on John Kaufman about wing chun and his method of generating power through relaxation. He said something that stuck with me.

“…it’s not about what to do, it’s about how to be.”

John Kaufman

The internal methods that I am learning in Lightening Hand Academy is counter to a lot of the violence and competitiveness that I am seeing in the world today. It has been a very good experience for me to have something in my life that helps provide an antidote to feelings of competition and the violence that it brings.

I have been having conversations with a friend, who likes boxing, about traditional kung fu and MMA. If you don’t know, there are a lot of MMA opinions that wing chun doesn’t work in the ring and that there are a lot of fake martial arts coming from kung fu. There are also a lot of “experts” who hype combative sports as a means of self defense. Then there is the debate of wrestling on the streets for self defense. My conversations with him about stuff like that have been lively, but I do understand where he is coming from. It is hard to understand the internal arts if you don’t experience it, because you can’t see it, and to watch internal training is like watching someone knit a sweater.

Since I don’t see myself competing in a cage, I could go my whole life without ever using kung fu to defend myself. I really like the idea that wing chun is a way of being. Perhaps relaxation leads to the first line of defense: staying clear of trouble.

Notes From Last Class

I lucked out and had Wesley (Sigung’s son) teach me a lot of things:

• gave me technical insights on the siu lim tao
  • opening the elbow to uproot your partner
  • different hand positions
• went over the whole chum kiu form
  • taught me how to correctly turn
  • opening the elbow to uproot your partner
• dan chi sau
  • fook sau adherence to your partner’s arm by opening the wrist joint on the side closest to the pinky
  • opening the elbow to uproot your partner
  • the jut sau:
    • heavy elbow locks the shoulder down and slightly opens
    • the wrist open up as you point up
• moving and concealing your center