Certain people are beating me up when I chi sau with them! So obviously I need to improve. The question is, "how?". Well, I could just take the non-specific approach and trust that my consistent - and generic -  training will help me improve so much that I 'lose' less. And this will probably work.

But let's take the scientific approach! For example, one guy is really quick. He's so quick that I just don't have enough time to react to his attacks. Let's break it down. What are the components of my reaction to his attack? I need to do these two things:

1. sense the attack
2. process the stimulus
3. respond to the attack

I said "two things", didn't I? You could argue that 1 and 2 are so similar that they are actually the same thing. You could even lump them both into the sensitivity category. So obviously I need to improve my sensitivity. I need to be able to sense more quickly that an attack is taking place and how it's taking place.

Improving Sensitivity

Your sensitivity will improve as a matter of course if you keep practising chi sau properly. But surely there must be a way to fast track this enhancement of sensitivity? Well, there is. Often, when chi sauing, I will adopt the role of responder and let my partner do all the attacking. If you do this, you don't need to worry about executing your own attacks well, because all you're doing is defending. This means that all you have to do is block and move your feet. Yes, I'm oversimplifying when I say that, but the point is that it's easier to focus on feeling if you only have to defend, as opposed to defending and attacking simultaneously. With this extra focus on the contact between you and your partner, you can really heighten your sense of awarenesss.

Additionally, you can focus on yielding. If your mission is to offer no resistance and avoid meeting force with force, you have to listen very carefully to your partner's hands. There are no two ways about it. If you don't sense what your partner is doing, sooner or later you will end up 'fighting' their energy with yours and meeting force with force. Bad.

The above two exercises are very good for improving sensitivity. Of course, being relaxed all the time makes it easier for your hands to sense what your opponent's hands are doing, so being relaxed is an integral part of those exercises.

Responding More Quickly

This is the easy one in that you can speed up your responses simply by drilling them over and over again. Pick an attack and response combination and repeat it over and over again. Pick another combination and drill that to death too. Mix them up and randomise. Drill, drill, drill!

You can also practise set responses on your own too, speeding up the transition between the different hands. For example, I like to do a kwan sau with the left hand in a tan sau and the right hand in a low bong sau. I then reverse the kwan sau as quick as I can so the right hand is now in a tan sau. I then keep repeating that transition - left, right, left, right - as quick as I can. If you practise this yourself, you will find not only that your kwan sau becomes lightning fast, but it becomes an instinctive response too.

As we're already one third of the way into this year, I thought I'd do a progress report on my training. Well, I've not reached the lofty heights of a consistent 10 hours a week that I was aiming for, but I'm averaging more hours than my lazy alter ego managed last year. It seems I'm doing on average around 6 hours a week, which is roughly one hour a day. There's two ways I can look at this. Being a perfectionist I can berate myself and say it's nowhere near enough, and certainly not as much as I could easily do. But also being a postive person, I can see the value of setting targets that you don't hit. If setting a target of 10 hours means that although I don't reach it, I'm still doing 3 times as much as I was before, how can I complain?

The Cardio Connection

One way I am changing my training routine is by adding some cardio exercise. My wing chun training doesn't give me enough aerobic exercise and I know I need it. I've found a way to integrate some into my training so that it actually helps the Wing Chun aspect. I thought I would start doing two long siu lim tau sessions per week (maybe 30 minute ones). The problem is, I really need to be warmed up for them or injuries prevail. So, in order to both warm up and get my aerobic exercise I'm going to precede my long siu lim taus with maybe 20 - 25 minutes of cardio work. Win win.

Also, I like having the muscle tone I used to have when I weight trained so I've started doing a mere 5 minutes of pressups and situps at the end of my Wing Chun training. Just as a compromise. Without breaks in between I do 5 pressups, 5 situps, 10 pressups, 10 situps, 15 pressups, 15 situps. I then have a little break to avoid passing out before doing 20 pressups and 20 situps. It's not much for now (certainly not much compared to what I used to do), but I'll aim to keep increasing that last pressup/situp cycle.

Searching For Ip Man

No, I didn't manage to get an interview with Ip Man. It would take more than snappy interview technique to achieve that! I did a little survey this morning of all the phrases that people searched for in Google to find my site. There were masses of phrases relating to the great Bruce Lee that people searched for but twice as many people found my site after searching for the even greater (in my opinion) Ip Man. With that little revelation in mind, I thought I would write some words about Ip Man. But, I need to do some research before I can really do the man justice, as my knowledge is limited to the following lonely facts.

I know that in the early days, the Chinese were very reluctant to teach Wing Chun to westerners. Although there were other rebels who opened their doors to western students, Ip Man was the one who became famous for doing so. Maybe his fame was due to him having taught Bruce Lee.

I get the impression that Ip Man was very hot on his students learning the basics very thoroughly before letting them loose on the more advanced stuff. Hence the long hours of siu lim tau.

From listening to interviews with Donnie Yen, it appears that Ip Chun tried to impress upon him the fcat that Ip Man was a true gentleman. I take that to mean that he was very well mannered and had a good appreciation of social etiquette. He was quite well off too, by all accounts.

Ip Man's Sons

Ip Man had two sons: Ip Chun and Ip Ching. Perhaps the most well known is Ip chun. My sifu says that "Chun" and "Ching" mean "correct" and "accurate" - if I remember correctly - so with those names, how could they not become skilled Wing Chun practitioners? But hold on. Rumour (of the forum variety) says that Ip Chun only started learning Wing Chun in earnest at the age of 38. I think he had a dabble when he was younger but nothing serious. The power of his surname obviously didn't have that much influence on him in respect of Wing Chun if he left it until 38 to train properly. Given that Ip Man must have been knocking on a bit, just how much of Ip Man's teaching did Ip Chun receive I wonder... I'm just thinking aloud now, because I don't know the facts.

I know that Ip Ching is also a (perhaps lesser known) skilled practitioner of Wing Chun, having taught Samuel Kwok (as Ip Chun has done also). Wow, I didn't realise how scrappy my knowledge was!

Ip Man Fight Scenes

I just couldn't help myself. I've gone and compiled a series of fight scenes from the Ip Man movie on Youtube.

With the recent release of Ip Man the movie, interest in Ip Man has rocketed. Stay tuned for more (better informed!) stuff about Ip Man. I have some old and dusty martial arts magazines that I know have articles about Ip Man in them, so I'll shake the dust off them over the weekend. Ip Man also gets quite a mention in the Bruce Lee biography I'm reading so I'll revisit that one too.

The sequel to Wilson Yip's Ip Man biopic, tentatively titled Ip Man 2 (originality: null points) focuses on Ip Man's move to Hong Kong in 1949 and subsequent attempts to spread the word about Wing Chun.

As expected, Donnie Yen takes on the title role as Ip Man again. I think he did a tremendous job in the first film and hope he does us proud again in the next one.

Ip Man And Bruce Lee

Although the sequel starts in 1949, rumour has it that a young Bruce Lee will not appear in Ip Man 2. To put the story in context, in 1953 Bruce Lee started Wing Chun lessons with Ip Man at the age of 13. Originally, the film was set to show the relationship between Bruce Lee and Ip Man, but as negotiations with Bruce's family are still underway, it is anticipated that the kung fu legend (Bruce Lee, that is) will appear only in Ip Man 3. I have not a clue who could play the role of the great Bruce Lee. But for a bit of fun, I'll now have a guess at... Tony Jaa for his extreme athleticism or Jet Li simply for his kung fu prowess. Tony Jaa seems more of a gymnast than a martial artist though...

Tony Jaa In Ip Man 2?

Jet Li In Ip Man 2?

For my money, I'd prefer to see Jet Li. I just couldn't resist this excuse to show some excellent Jet Li high octane bludgeoning  from Unleashed!

Owing to the negotiations with the Lee family, the original plan to shoot movies 2 and 3 concurrently has been shelved. Work on Ip Man 2, however, will start in August 2009. That's only 4 months away.

Unlike the first Ip Man movie, the second will feature appearances by Sammo Hung, who plays a Hung Gar master pitted against Yen.  In 1949 Hong Kong there was a tradition of rivalry between "girly" Wing Chun and "manly" Hung Gar.  With Sammo Hung being the Hung Gar exponent in Ip Man 2, you can predict where this one is going. This film sees Ip Man trying to establish Wing Chun as the deadly art it is. The last time Sammo and Donnie fought one another was in Wilson Yip's Kill Zone (SPL) in 2005.

The official line is that the HK$100 million sequel will be released some time towards the end of 2010. Unbelievably, imdb already have an entry for Ip Man 2!