I did a surprising amount of training today, considering I hadn’t planned to do any at all. I found myself with a whole day to myself, with nothing much to do, so while my partner sat outside in the sun reading her book, I thought I would do a little Tsum Kiu. The patio we were on is a strip of paving stones that is just wide enough for Tsum Kiu – in fact it could have been designed for just this form.

I must have looked a sight because I had to borrow one of her straw hats with a ribbon on it to keep the sun off my head. But when you’re focused, you don’t care what you look like. I did feel pretty focused and my techniques felt crisp and accurate. My trainers had just the right kind of grip on the stone floor – i.e. not much grip at all. This was ideal for the jun ma (turning) in Tsum Kiu. It made it a pleasure. In contrast, the floor in the gym I go to is usually highly polished and a certain pair of trainers I wear just sticks like glue to the surface, making it nigh on impossible to turn. There is no point whatsoever trying to do Tsum Kiu on that surface with those trainers.

Not here in the garden though. I managed to knock out maybe half an hour of high quality (for me) Tsum Kiu.

Next I thought I’d tackle the Xing Shou form I’m learning in Chun Yuen. The patio isn’t nearly large enough for this form but the garden is. The only trouble is that the grassy surface is on a slope. And has dog turds here, there and everywhere. And the surface is uneven and irregular. I thought the best bet was to find a place to start that was furthest away from any dog turds and face uphill.

It was harder than I thought because not only was the grass sloping, but it was uneven too. It made balancing on one leg particularly tricky. Before I stretched out a leg to get into a low stance I’d have to check first to make sure there were no surprises I would step on. In the 30 minutes I was practising Xing Shou, I managed to avoid the turds most of the time. I only stepped on one once and my leg shot off in the direction I was stepping in as my trainer skidded on the slippery stuff. Nice.

I’m looking forward to more Sundays like this. I think I should be able to build up to a couple of hours easily. I could do what I did today – Tsum Kiu, Xing Shou – but also add in some leg training and finish off with a long Siu Lim Tau. I like to put Siu Lim Tau at the end of any training session, because the stance is static for so long that I prefer my muscles to be very warm and loose when I do it.

This is good news for me: my lunchtime chi sau partner can make Mondays as well as Fridays. That’s great. That’s 3 times as much chi sau as if I was just restricting it to the Saturday class. Combine that with my (now) regular Wing Chun practice on the remaining days, and I’ve got a recipe for improvement.

The remaining days, Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday work out quite well too. I figure I need some cardio vascular exercise in there somewhere so Tuesday and Thursday will be the physical Chun Yuen training (plus jumping) and Wednesday will be Tsum Kiu and leg training.

Where’s the Siu Lim Tau, you ask? Well, in the name of dedication, I’ve decided that I can spare half an hour when I get home from work in the evening. I did that last night and it actually sets up the evening quite nicely. You get a sense of accomplishment if you do Siu Lim Tau as soon as you get in that just polishes your evening. I do things some evenings, but I can manage Siu Lim Tau on Monday, Tuesday and Friday.

Wing Chun Training Timetable

That timetable can work as a foundation and I can vary what I do on Wing Chun Wednesdays. Tsum Kiu and leg training is a perfect base, and every now and then I can swap that for some technique training, like practising bong saus/kwaan saus/punching/chopping. The Chun Yuen on Tuesday and Thursday I’d like to keep fairly permanent, just so I actually do some exercise that gets me out of breath. Need aerobic exercise!

I’ve not put anything down for Sunday as I’m counting it as a “rest day”. I’m not doing so much training that I deserve a rest day, but I’d prefer to err on the side of conservative estimates when it comes to training. Better to estimate that you’re doing less than you really are than the other way around. If the urge takes me and I have the time I can do a bit of extra training on Sunday as a bonus. At my intensity of training, I can train every day.

Now I’m motivated!

I got my fix of Chun Yuen in my third lesson yesterday. One more little piece in the puzzle is mine. But, boy does the first form – Xing Shou – work your body! I did an hour’s lesson, repeating what I knew of the form over and over again, and I was exhausted by the time the Wing Chun lesson started.

I now know enough of Xing Shou to get a decent workout in my lunchtime gym sessions, which was one of the things I was hoping would happen.

The fatigue I experienced as the Wing Chun class was about to start was a bit of a shock. My legs were already knackered when we did Siu Lim Tau, and I was wondering whether I’d have enough energy to do the lesson. I think, though, the more double lessons like this I do, the more I’ll get used to it. If I do Xing Shou in my lunch hours, that’s certainly going to increase my endurance. I could always tone down the energy I use in the form, to conserve it, but I don’t really want to do that. I want to perform the form in the way it’s supposed to be performed, to the best of my abilities, so I won’t be scrimping.

I was surprised by how much I like the long, sweeping, circular movements in Chun Yuen. It reminds me of Tai Chi, and is so very different to the direct, straight line and very minimal Wing Chun that I’m used to. I’m not convinced of Chun Yuen’s use in a self defense situation, but if “all” I get out of training in this style is increased strength, flexibitity and endurance, I’ll be more than happy. I also don’t know very much about Chun Yuen, so my opinion about its practical use might be way off base. We’ll see.

The guy who recommended Chun Yuen to me was right: it makes you hungry like a horse.

I had my first Chun Yuen Quan lesson today and I loved it. The “warm up” was hard work: we’d work our way from one end of the hall to  the other doing one set of kicks and then work our way back doing another set of kicks. I’d done this warm up before so I knew the moves but it was still hard work. I didn’t realise that it was part of the Chun Yuen syllabus though.

Then we did the form Xing Shou. Sifu led it, while we followed, but there was no way I was going to do anything but copy the basic elements in each position. It was pretty long and complicated. After that, sifu went over the very first part with me. Nice. I think I’ve got the basics, and that’s all I want to do between my first lesson and the next one next week – just go over and over the basics.

Sifu then took another section out of Xing Shou and we just practised that in isolation. It had a jumping front kick and a spinning jump kick. Very different from the Wing Chun that I’m used to.

Within maybe 15 minutes I was sweating like a pig and breathing hard. Brilliant. Even so soon I can tell that Chun Yuen is going to be good for my flexibility and endurance.

Can’t wait for next week.

I think I might start doing Chun Yuen. I’ve just been round to a friend’s to do some lunchtime chi sau and his enthusiasm for chun yuen made a convincing argument! He’d just done an hour before I arrived and he was buzzing.

I don’t know much about Chun Yuen but from what I gather, it’s not so much a martial art as one that will make you healthy, flexible and strong. It’s really good exercise. We don’t do much cardio exercise in our Wing Chun class, so this may be just what the doctor ordered. I think Chun Yuen has got something to do with the style that Shaolin monks used to do.

When I was feeling demotivated about my shoulder injury, I was thinking that I could always do Chun Yuen if I had to give up Wing Chun. I’ve thought about doing this style many times, but the biggest deterrent was (is) lack of time. It’s not enough to go to one class a week, you also have to practise in your own time as well. Well, with a bit of reshuffling, I can do my Chun Yuen practice in my lunch hours, alternating with my Wing Chun practice. I could do two days of Chun Yuen and two days of Wing Chun.

The Chun Yuen class is the one immediately before the Wing Chun class so I’d only have to get there an hour before I currently do. I think I might start tomorrow.

I had a good wing chun class on Saturday, not so much for the wing chun training, but for something else. It was a bit of an eye opener really. There were two pieces that fit together like a jigsaw puzzle.

Firstly, when I was doing siu lim tau, sifu came over and corrected my posture and my tan sau as I was extending it. My posture is always getting corrected, so that was to be expected, but I became frustrated with where my elbow should be when extending tan sau and fuk sau. On the one hand you are supposed to get your elbow as close to the centre as possible, and on the other you are supposed to remain relaxed and retain good posture.

I had to ask about this after the form. I think I was losing sight of the overall aim and focusing too much on pulling my elbow in to the centre – actually at the expense of both posture and relaxation. I would usually find my shoulder reaching forwards as my arm extends the tan sau or fuk sau. And the constant pressure on my shoulder of pulling my elbow in would cause an ache. I always thought this was a good ache, from doing “healthy exercise”, but more on that later.

So that was the first lesson: posture comes first, elbow being on the centre comes second. Never sacrifice your posture to pull your elbow in. Well that lesson took a long time learning! A good few years… What I’m going to have to do is go back to basics and just extend my tan sau and fuk sau in a relaxed fashion, and not even worry about straining to get my elbow in.

After siu lim tau, we broke up into two groups: one practising that form and the other practising chum kiu. I practised chum kiu for a while and then it was time to practise applications of techniques. We did that for a while and then when it was time to change partners I found myself being the odd one out and without a partner. Sifu came over and and I thought we were going to chi sau, but instead he asked me how my shoulder was doing. By now I think the world and his dog know about my woes!

He sat me down on a chair and started pulling my arm this way and that and putting it in different positions, I think to test what it did. Then he started massaging my forearm, saying that he thought the shoulder pain might be deferred from somewhere else. I never thought of that before. Anyway, the massage was quite hard and a bit painful – but in a good way. It felt like he was really digging in. I don’t mind pain if it’s going to sort out a problem, though. He then moved onto my shoulder and targeted the precise area that was giving me the problem. That was painful too. My shoulder felt quite loose and relaxed after that.

Sifu gave me two pieces of advice. I’m annoyed at myself because I already knew what he told me. But like lots of people, I can preach to others whilst not taking my own advice. I feel so stupid for not doing this sooner, but I guess sometimes we need to have things spelt out! It’s not enough to simply “know” something, you have to do it. What he said was:

• improve your posture. I work at a computer all day so it’s easy to adopt a bad posture sooner or later. I’d been mindful in the past of keeping my back straight and not slouching, to get rid of back pain, but I’d not thought about what position my shoulders were in.
• do some self massage. Unbelievable. I already know that self massage is a good thing, but I’m not doing it! I feel so stupid. Yes, I’ve massaged my problem shoulder when the pain has been there, but not done it on a structured and regular basis. What I should be doing, and what sifu suggested, is massaging my shoulder several times each day.

The massage consisted of the following:

• get the whole arm into a relaxed position where the shoulder is carrying no weight
• focus on the muscley part of the forearm near the elbow first
• rub the afflicted area vigorously first to warm it up and get the blood circulating
• press into the flesh with the thumb in circular motions
• do this for maybe 5 minutes
• repeat on the shoulder

So, two piece of a jigsaw puzzle. The first was my revelation that I’d been trying too hard on my siu lim tau and that perhaps that’s been causing my shoulder pain. I’m hoping that is the cause. The second was the treatment of the pain that I can do myself. In action that means just forgetting pulling my elbow in while doing siu lim tau, so I can keep the correct form. I’ll also keep an eye on my posture at work (damn these sedentary jobs!) and massage my forearm and shoulder in my breaks.

When it comes to training, you need to be adaptable. The “perfect” time for training doesn’t always present itself. Look at today: I was supposed to be getting the house to myself for the whole day and I was planning on doing one of my siu lim taus in the morning, and the other one later in the evening. What could possibly go wrong with that plan?

Relatives turned up in the morning and stayed a few hours. Kids of 4 and 6 years old running round the house and needing constant attention! When they left I completely forgot about siu lim tau and ate a huge meal for a late lunch, meaning that I was too full to do my form when I remembered it.

By 5pm I’d recovered enough from that meal to do a siu lim tau, meaning that it wouldn’t be long before I had to do the second one.

Life’s a bitch.

On the spur of the moment I decided that it would be a good idea to do some stretching. I can get by doing siu lim tau in the tight jeans I was wearing, but stretching is impossible so I had to borrow some of my girlfriend’s jogging bottoms. She’s 5 feet tall, and I’m 6 feet 2 inches so they came to my knees, but I was desperate. Strictly speaking, I didn’t need to wear the bra, but you may as well be hung for a sheep as a lamb.

All I needed now was more relatives coming round and catching me in my girlfriend’s clothes. Which of course they did do. I didn’t care because I got my stretching in!

As I said before, if you wait for the perfect opportunity to train, you will miss out a great deal of training you could do if you were a little more adaptable. For example, I like to do a few bong saus, kwaan saus, punches and chops while I’m waiting in the bedroom for my girlfriend to get ready for bed. Anyone with a female partner will appreciate what a long training session they can have while waiting for girls to finish in the bathroom! It perturbs the dog a little to see me flailing my arms about, but what the hell – I’m training.

OK, I know this is only the second day of my siu lim tau challenge, but I’m pleased with the way things are going! My siu lim taus take around 15 minutes each and I did two yesterday with 15 minutes of alternating bong saus on top of that. Today I did another two siu lim taus and 10 minutes of leg training while I microwaved a baked potato. The potato wasn’t an integral part of my training, it was just cooking in the background. You could equally boil some vegetables, for a similar effect.

I’m getting a few twinges in my right shoulder, but it’s not got any worse than it was before. I’ve had these twinges for the last year or so, sometimes more painful, sometimes less. Their presence is certainly not conclusive proof that siu lim tau is causing my problems.

I’ve also been pondering the fact that when we chi sau, we have our elbows in as we roll. Holding the elbows in like that over long periods of time will probably have the same effect as the inward pressure we exert as we extend our fuk saus and tan saus in siu lim tau. That’s to be expected as the first section of siu lim tau helps you guard the centre with your fuk sau when you chi sau.

Tomorrow, I’ve got the house to myself, so I should be able to get my two siu lim taus in.

Check out the reason I’m testing my siu lim tau.

My shoulder injury is bugging me because I don’t know what’s causing the pain. Also, I’m doing so little of whatever is causing the pain that it’s restricted to minor niggles here and there when I put my arm in awkward positions. It doesn’t affect everything I do.

My theory is that siu lim tau is causing the pain, specifically the first section where you extend your tan sau and fuk sau whilst forcing your elbow in towards the centre. I’ve been doing siu lim tau infrequently recently – maybe twice a week – so that might be the reason my injury hasn’t got worse. The pain is at such a low level, and it’s only there for such a small duration of time, that I wonder whether it’s “just one of those aches and pains we all get”.

Anyway, to test my theory that siu lim tau is the cause, I’m going to do the form twice a day. Fortunately, I’ve got the next week off work and should be able to fit those in easily. I’ve already done siu lim tau once today and practised alternating my bong saus whilst turning for 15 minutes. That’s a lot of bong saus!

I’m not doing any other exercise that involves my shoulder (like pressups, benchpress etc), and I’m not chi sauing with anyone at the moment, so I can’t think of anything else it could be. It’ll be disappointing, to say the least, if I discover that siu lim tau is damaging my shoulder, but at least I’ll know for sure what the cause is. The thing is, this form is part of the foundations of wing chun. It’ll be a simple adjustment to make, for me to ease off on the inward pressure as I extend my tan sau and fuk sau, just so I can continue doing siu lim tau, but that will have a knock on effect on my chi sau. My elbows won’t be able to come in as far as they used to, leaving me more open along the centre line, and vulnerable to attack. If that’s the case, I’m going to have to tighten up on my footwork and positioning to compensate.

If I establish that siu lim tau hurts my shoulder, then I can resume doing pressups, though, so it’s not all bad.

Unless they both damage my shoulder, and then we may as well slit our own throats!

I’ve just put myself through the hardest siu lim tau I’ve done for a while. I don’t normally do siu lim tau whilst listening to music, but tonight I just felt like it. I know you are supposed to still your mind, reduce your thoughts and relax everything, but the choice was either do siu lim tau to music or don’t do it at all. My theory was that doing it with a “disturbed” mind was better than not doing it at all.

Admittedly, the style of music I was listening to – house – isn’t the kind you normally associate with wing chun, but I like it!

I have a little routine that ensures I do siu lim tau for a long enough period of time: I count 60 whilst extending my tan sau and fuk sau and I count another 60 whilst retracting my wu sau. The music I was listening to had such a strong beat, though, that I couldn’t disregard it and count at my normal tempo, so I decided to count to the beat of the music. Unfortunately for me, the beat turned out to be much slower than my usual tempo.

My legs started trembling by the time I started extending my right tan sau! By the time I had finished my right side in the first section, my legs were shaking like mad. That hurt. But it hurt in a good way.

I remember my sifu saying in the past that you need to face yourself before you can face an enemy. You need to put yourself through pain like this, and keep pushing the limits. If you can’t put up with the pain you feel in your legs for such a relatively short time, how are you going to face a thug who wants to kill you? Who is going to fare better in an “ugly” situation: someone who chickens out at the first sign of pain or someone who continually pushes their barriers?

In addition to the obvious physical pain and discomfort we experience when doing siu lim tau, there is also the emotional distress. I’m not sure emotional distress is the right way to describe it, but if you’ve done siu lim tau for long periods, you’ll know what I’m talking about. It can easily be confused with boredom, but I think it’s something quite different. It takes a disciplined mind to remain still for long periods of time. If you’ve ever meditated seriously, then you’ll be familiar with the yearning to do something – anything – else. To just stop and get some mental relief by doing a different activity. To the untrained, simply standing still (seemingly) for so long is like torture! But pushing through that mental barrier is what we must do. I know when I’m at that mental torture point because I start looking around me. When doing siu lim tau, you should look dead straight ahead, but when I get to that point I start looking down and to the left and right, all over the place, such is the level on mental discomfort. As if looking around is going to curb the pain!

Siu lim tau: such a simple idea, yet so tough an adversary. But it does get easier. It’s just practice.

I suppose that ideally you should be able to do siu lim tau and reduce your thoughts whatever your environment, wherever you are. A bit like meditating. You know you’ve cracked it when you can still your mind in the middles of chaos.

Next stage: siu lim tau in the middle of a dance club!