Last Monday night, I had the pleasure of working with my Si-Fu one-on-one for a good 35-45 minutes (I really don't know how long it lasted, to tell you the truth). It was a mix of lat-sao, chi-sao, stress, physical endurance, punch training, and resistance training..all in one. You tell me of any other training that does all that at once? It is probably the most efficient hybrid form of training in the world!This type of training is, in my opinion, a rarity. Generally, when it comes to training regardless of lineage, many of the chi-sao sections or drills are done in a manner where it's done slow, done fast, soft, or fast, detailed, or focussed on memorization of the movements.
But Monday night highlights a specific way of training wing chun that beats any workout that any weight, machine or combination of the two that exists on the planet.
Essentially, my Si-Fu provides pressure, resistance and opposing force in such a way that makes it feel like my arms, legs and entire structure are working against giant springs, where each spring is independent of the other (think of that bowling ball mattress!). Imagine performing a tan sao, a punch, a fook sao against a constant spring-like force, that's constant throughout each move and during the transition of the movements.
It's common practice to provide a force at the beginning of the move, and at the end of the move. but in between there's nothing. Just imagine the arm position in between the tan sao and bong sao. Usually the partner generally lets you complete the movement. But in this spring-like resistance training, if that "in between" movement isn't performed with proper forward pressure and muscular endurance, that "in between" movement is essentially dead and is an opportunity to get hit.
The more I write, the more difficult I realize it is to describe with words.
Anyway, it was a fun night. About 40 minutes after, it was painful. My arms were all bruised, my chest was bruised. Blood vessels popped and I'm getting funny looks from co-workers all day. Of course, this type of "physical abuse" isn't for everyone and is generally not performed on a regular basis (in case the picture ispotentially scaring new students to wing chun).
Until then.
2 comments:
On your observation "The more I write, the more difficult I realize it is to describe with words"...
You are right Grasshopper, for many people this can be difficult to envision. Especially for chunners who have trained chi-sau primarily with a focus on getting a sequence of movements done in the correct order. But for those who have had regular exposure to chi-sau focused more on "energy dynamics" - we understand you perfectly!
'Energy dynamics' is a term I use loosely to describe the amount of force and exact direction of this force at every micro-second during chi-sau. Come to think of it, this is one of the applications of Differential Calculus. Ouch, where's the Tylenol?
hmmm, seriously, do people forget that wing chun kuen is a martial art? in essence you're learning how to defend yourself against someone that will not go easy on you... so part of that is learning to take hits, lots of them... you're not doing meditation or yoga, you're learning to fight and via that trying to understand the philosophy that is behind WCK (because the likelihood of you actually getting into fights nowadays is far lower than say in Yip Man’s time)... I've been training WCK for 6 months now, first 1 on 1 with my master for 2 months and the rest with a regular class (notice out of respect for our teacher we are NOT allowed to call him “sifu” as that concept cannot be applied in the west, due to the western misunderstanding of the word). Anyway, my point is I've not had a single lesson where I'm not bruised... the upside is that after a month or so you realize that the psychological element of pain is far greater than the actual physical stress felt by the body, after about 5 months you don't really feel the pain any more... so being black and blue becomes part of who you are… just remember to wear long sleeved shirts and you’re fine at work. Also your bones do get tougher, or looking at my legs encased in more cartilage I think, essentially increasing your "metal element" :-) so in my opinion pain IS part of the true WCK, and if some don’t like that, it’s better not to practice… if you can’t take the pain, please do not get into a fight thinking you can use your WCK… try practicing sprinting instead, much better for the average person… from what I read on your blog I guess it may be different to what you train because our teacher DOES NOT leave the kuen (fist) out of the name... but still not going through the pain, means you also don't get to understand the philosophy behind the art... as a zen saying goes, “if you understand and feel my pain, you can truly understand me”… Yip Man was no wuss and to understand WCK, you must go through and understand the pain as well… plus you have our western idea of "no pain no gain” again highlighting that the sentence is NOT just a saying… hope my comments give you another perspective on your training ;-) enjoy the journey! The path to true WCK is endless
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