A Secret for Wing Chun

There are no secrets. Wing Chun is a very simple system. It is the understanding of what you do and why that are the "secrets". What so many make out as secrets or believe are secrets are right there, "Just well hidden in plain sight, right where they have been all along" S.G.

First, you have to connect your body as one unit. In order to do this it is paramount you must understand the wing chun structure. The geometric triangulation of the body and proper breathing. The wing chun structure is such that the whole body is utilized in a manner that not only is strong, but very mobile and any of the weapons of the body can be brought to bear at any time. You should develop it with a partner who tries to interrupt your body unity by pulling, pushing and other types of physical interruptions. If you can manage physical interruption without disrupting your body unit and structure, then you can start separating your unit into individual parts. Then you should train the moving of your body while maintaining the proper structure before the punch or kick arrives. If you can do this, you can then move on to attacking techniques. You can also then train unit attack with the body or individual parts of the body. Every punch or kick must have structure behind it. This ability is something that you either have or don't have.

What is the difference between body unit and individual power? When you punch at your partner during practice, your technique is usually delivered with your individual (arm) power. When you punch to destroy your opponent, the technique is delivered with body connection. Techniques to impress your friends are delivered with speed and timing; techniques to destroy your opponent are delivered with speed, timing and body connection. Using an analogy of a hammer and nail, you have your choice. You can throw a nail and hope it sticks into the board, or hammer the nail forward and drive it into the board. When you throw your punches and kicks, you must utilize proper structure and use your body as a hammer. To me, the wing chun techniques are of secondary importance.

Techniques can be learned from any wing chun teacher. However, without understanding the principles and body connection, the techniques become useless. When you are in a real fight, you will find out what techniques are good for you. Just because the technique may work for one person doesn't guarantee it will work for you. When you test your techniques on someone you don't know, you experience a different feeling than when training with your friends. If you discover through your own experience, it's much better than relying on another's experience. In this way, you won't be in his trap. For this reason, strong tool development is more important than the techniques. The way you apply techniques comes from your courage, confidence, and experience. You gain courage and confidence through your experience. For application, you have to ask yourself, "How much experience do I have? How many ways can I use this technique? In a real fight, you must have three points: attitude, passion, and technique. Technique comes last. These qualities are of personal development; they have nothing to do with styles. Through your fighting experience, you develop your style and test its concepts and theories. Only through application can you prove or disprove the validity of the theories. Techniques without timing are dead techniques. Display timing without power and the results are equally disastrous. Many wing chun people have the same techniques, but how many wing chun people can apply their techniques with body unity at real time having gone through the process of proving them?

The individual must make their art alive. The goal of wing chun is simple, direct and economical movement to intercept and control. Wing chun utilitzes the centerline as the fastest line of entry. In wing chun you bridge the gap by rushing in, intercept the opponent's attack and finish him. In intercepting there are no ranges only intercept and finish off the opponent. Each martial art style or system goes into combat believing it has all the answers. All classical styles deal with the imparting of fixed knowledge that becomes alive once mastered. It is up to the practitioner to use that knowledge to develop themselves to the point of free expression. In wing chun you keep the tools and principles intact. Each individual applies the tools and concepts making wing chun alive in their own way. No one can say they have the original wing chun as it has undergone generations of refinement, but if you apply the principles to create concepts and techniques using the tools in combat, then you are a wing chun man making wing chun alive for yourself. In applying wing chun you have to change to keep up with your opponent's change. Your target is always moving, combat is dynamic not static. Wing chun is a system having no particular style. The individual is the style. We respond to the opponent's style or way to show and then we create style. You simply react naturally to their action. A good example to help understand this "secret" is: "Your technique is my technique". When I am instructing wing chun I don't teach the Danny Terrell style although I do show things as I understand them. Each practitioner has to customize the art based upon their character, size, strengths, weakness, etc., and refine it into their personal style of wing chun. You have to find what fits with your experience and not some one elses.

These are the "Secrets of Wing Chun"