I’m in a different training groove at the moment. Previously, I had been trying to balance mornings and lunchtimes between my Wing Chun training and working on my websites. What I had been doing was alternating mornings (when I have a full hour and a half to work with) between “doing Wing Chun” and “doing websites”, and whichever activity I did in the morning, I would do the other one at lunch.

So I had something like this:

This was good for Wing Chun, as I got 3 mornings devoted to training, and I could spend an hour and a half (less travelling/changing time) doing it. The problem was that I have a sedentary job that involves me being stuck in front of a computer from 9 to 5:30. Lunchtimes are ideal for getting a real break from sitting down staring at a computer monitor. Having a break halfway through the day where you do some physical exercise is a great way to relieve stress and stop you from going mad.

On the other hand, sitting in front of a computer at lunchtime doing more computer work, when I’ve already done half a day of the same, is a great way to build up stress levels and go stir crazy.

So, I’ve decided to sacrifice my huge morning Wing Chun sessions for working on my websites and I’m now doing my Wing Chun training every lunchtime. In real terms, this reduces my WC training time from one hour to half an hour. That might sound like a big cut, but one of the benefits is that I keep my sanity. Doing an extra hour and a half of computer work before I start my real job and having a physical break at lunchtime feels much better than having the physical break in the morning and then working all the way through.

As for Wing Chun training, 30 minutes every day is not as much as I’d like but it’s more than nothing, and more than a lot of people put in. And it’s consistent, regular training time.

This is turning into a pep talk.

I also work on my dummy on Monday nights, Tuesday nights, alternate Thursday nights and Fridays nights too. These little sessions are maybe 20 minutes to 30 minutes long. Add on to that my Saturday class and I’m looking a little less lazy.

I think “little and often” summarises my training plan at the moment. But there’s a lot to be said for doing a little bit of Wing Chun every day. I think also that the way you train makes a big difference. I’m focusing more than I used too (take, for example, my new method of training Tsum Kiu). I’ve got 5 half hour slots every week. If I decide to practice one different thing in each session, that’s half an hour for each one. I don’t know about you, but 30 minutes of punching practise is enough for me. 30 minutes of leg training is also adequate. So you can actually get a lot done in those 5 slots.

As always, it’s all about structuring your training to get the best use of time. Train smart etc.

I think Donnie Yen is a magnificent martial artist, and I think he did a good job of cramming his Wing Chun studies to the point where it looks like that’s his chosen art. And he looks good in the films. He looks good doing Wing Chun in the clip below, too.

But I’m not sure about the bong sau he throws at 3 seconds:

It’s a nice looking bong sau, but I’m not sure it’s the best response to his attacker’s punch. He’s got his right leg forward and he uses his right bong sau to block across himself. It’s obvious that he’d already decided to use a bong sau because his left hand is actually up and forward when his attacker punches. He could quite easily have used a tan da (left tan sau, right punch simultaneously) with better results. His right side is exposed and vulnerable. I’d love to have a go laaping that bong sau!

You might say that it’s understandable for DY to prepare his move beforehand, given that he’s under the pressure of being on stage under those intense lights and with no time to think. However, this is what chi sau trains us for. Cultivating unconscious reaction at lightning speed baby.

Told you leather jackets and martial arts were “in”.

I like Fridays. Not only is it the end of the week, but I get to do some chi sau in my lunch hour with one of my friends.

Today’s chi sau was encouraging as there was no pain in my shoulder. This may be due to the self massage I’ve been doing on it every couple of days or so. It’s quite sore and tender when I do massage it, so I know that something’s not quite right. I get quite deep with the massage and use tiger balm on it, which smells realy good too. It’s not made with real tigers.

Anyway, today there was no pain when I was doing chi sau. We resolved to try and do an extra day during the week too, so I hope we manage that. Two lunch hours of chi sau + practice on my own on the remaining lunch hours + Saturday class = more improvement.

Before we started chi sauing, I asked my friend to run through the Xing Shou form in Chun Yuen, which he did. He was the one who sold me on Chun Yuen in the first place, so it was the least he could do! I was amazed. He was very precise in his movements and had an obvious sense of purpose. I’d seen him do the form a couple of weeks ago, but I was looking with stranger’s eyes and didn’t really appreciate the skill. Now that I’ve done a couple of lessons, and practised the form (or what little I know of it) nearly every day, I had a reference point and could look for certain things.

It’s always the same. If you are unfamiliar with a particular skill and see someone else doing it, you might be mildly impressed. If after studying and training that skill for a few years yourself, you become more critical of – and more impressed with – good skill. You recognise the expertise. That’s how it is with the Wing Chun, anyway, and I know that that’s how it will be with the Chun Yuen. The more I learn, the more I will recognise skill when I see it. Already I’m seeing more in my friend’s form than two weeks ago. And of coutse, the more I train, the more I’ll spot the subtle nuances I can’t spot now in sifu’s form when he does it.

So, a very positive day today:

• good chi sau session
• no pain in my shoulder
• promise of more chi sau in the week
• it’s the day before my next Chun Yuen lesson

I’ve only had two Chun Yuen classes so far, but already they’ve had an impact. Out of 5 potential lunchtime training sessions, I’m now doing Chun Yuen in 3 of them: Monday, Wednesday and Friday. The thing is, at this stage I don’t know too many moves. Because of this, I spend most of each session doing our level 2 warm up (“warm up” – ha!) followed by leg stretches. After the leg stretches I repeat what little I know of the Chun Yuen form (Xing Shou) over and over again.

I was talking to one of the more junior students at my Wing Chun class on Saturday and I was simply stating the obvious: practise more to make the hand positions feel familiar. But this concept is beyond most students I’ve talked to. Or, if not beyond them, they are at least unwilling to invest the time to practise “enough”.

When I have a spare 20 minutes, for example when I’m round at my girlfriend’s and she’s putting her make up on (OK, make that an hour), I’ll practise my bong sau. Just the bong sau. Over and over again. Turn to the left with an accompanying right bong sau, turn to the right with an accompanying left bong sau. I’ll do 30 bong saus in a row like this and then walk round the room, then do 30 more bong saus and keep repeating that cycle. I do that for 20 minutes or so.

It’s so simple, I feel a little embarrassed when I encourage junior students to practise what they know over and over again. The ones that do improve quicker.

And so it is with the Xing Shou form. The portion of Xing Shou I know lasts around 40 seconds. I just repeat it over and over again. Come Saturday, I’ll be familiar with this section so I’ll be able to hook new sections onto existing ones. If I don’t learn what I’ve already been shown, then I’ll struggle to take in the new stuff and retain the old stuff.

I’ve carved out a nice time to train on Sundays now, which I’m pleased about. A change in my weekly routine gives me a few hours extra on Sunday. Fab! Last Sunday I managed to train for nearly 90 minutes – it was a Wing Chun/Chun Yuen bonanza! I did leg stretching, leg training (standing on one leg with the other outstretched, then alternating which leg I’m standing on), practised my punching, did a few repetitions of Xing Shou and even had time for a 20 minute Siu Lim Tau.

I think my legs have been aching every day since that first Chun Yuen class, but only because I’ve been hammering the stretching. I wouldn’t mind being able to get into the splits by the end of the year, but I don’t know how feasible that is.

I think I’m still in the honeymoon period with Chun Yuen: that exciting stage at the beginning where you have a voracious appetite for learning the next bit of the form and perfecting the bits you already know. I can’t wait for next Saturday to learn the next bit. It’s interesting to contrast that with the slow and steady approach I’ve developed to Wing Chun. The initial superficial excitement has gone from Wing Chun, but I still look forward to training and enjoy it while I’m doing it. Even if it is hard.There’s a steady drive forwards with Wing Chun as opposed to the sudden rush with Chun Yuen. That will sort itself out after a while.

I know that it’s not your typical wing chun training method, but I’ve recently been introduced to skipping. After a year of injury I’m trying to get in shape again. Actually, I’m still injured, but I’m fed up with abstaining from any kind of physical exercise. And I want to get in shape again.

Here are my requirements for my physical training programme:

• it must include a fair bit of cardio vascular exercise. I’m after endurance and a lean, mean physique (girlfriend’s orders). Gone are the days of pushing the weight training past silly points as I don’t think my body can take it now!
• it must include a large wing chun element.

To address the cardio element of training, I’ve started skipping. I know, get him! There are never any decent skipping ropes lying about in my gym, but fortunately I rememmbered I’d received a rope as a gift last Christmas so I dug that out. Sehr gut! The skipping is used only on my leg training days – Monday, Wednesday and Friday and I combine it with my wing chun training. It goes a little something like this:

1. Do 5 minutes on the stair machine (not the chair machine as I keep calling it – I get up, I sit down, I get up, I sit down!). That serves as a gentle warm up. I increase the speed on the stair machine every minute and at the end I’ve got a light sweat and I’m breathing fast.
2. Skip for 30 seconds
3. Stand on one leg for an ever increasing duration (see below)
4. Horse stance for the same period of time as above
5. Stretch legs in box splits and then in forward splits
6. Repeat from 2 again

This “ever increasing duration” – whassat? Over cautious as ever, and wishing to avoid any further injury, I gradually build up the time I stand on each leg. For example, I stand on my left leg with right leg raised (thigh parallel to the ground) for a count of 10 and then repeat standing on my right leg. In the next cycle it’s for a count of 20, and I keep increasing by 10 each time. So far, I go up to a count of 60 but I intend to increase that.

And the time that I stand on one leg is matched by the time I’m in horse stance so if I count to 40 on one leg, I also count to 40 in horse stance.

The only downside of this cycle (if it is a downside) is that I’m out of breath, shaking, and my pulse is racing when I’m standing on one leg and trying to keep my balance. It’s the polar opposite of bringing body and mind to stillness and sometimes it’s hard to balance. Is that a bad thing? I don’t know. Maybe improving your ability to balance when out of breath and stressed is a good thing. Maybe if I can balance on one leg after a “sprint” session then I can more easily balance on one leg when at rest.

Skipping Games

Not having an impressive repertoire of “skipping games” is an understatement. I think it’s good to mix up and vary anything you do repetitively – unless you’re practising a technique – so I’m going to have to work on the skipping and do a bit of research. I have two skipping modes: jumping with both feet off the floor at the same time and also just alternating the feet on the floor (like running) with the rope passing beneath the feet each time.

Being a skipping newb, I’m quite impressed with my running whilst skipping efforts. I can get quite a speed up so it looks like I almost know what I’m doing. But I need more variety! I know boxers tend to do a lot of skipping and I’ve seen the odd one doing some intricate things with their rope (matron!) so I’m sure a little youtube time will yield something I can use.

Motivation

I’m feeling motivated about building up my endurance and stamina because of a small conversation I had with one of my fellow wing chunners last week. He’s from the old school days of our class, way before my time, and he recently came back after a 5 year hiatus. He was telling me that in the old days, the training was much more intense. Much more rigorous.  They would do chi sau with their legs (we don’t do that these days) and more often than not he would go home with bruised shins. Siu lim tau on one leg for 2 hours at a time, that sort of thing. He would also chi sau with a friend for an hour before class started and then go off and chi sau for a few more hours after class finished. They were certainly more serious about it back then.

I find this kind of talk inspiring. It makes me want to push it a bit harder. So that is what I shall do.

Just How Popular Is Wing Chun?

Most articles I’ve read that question which martial art is the most widely practised have answered that it’s Wing Chun. I’m not sure that this is the case though, and I don’t know where they get their statistics from. I know that if online resources are anything to go by then Wing Chun is one of the less popular martial arts. There is only a small provision for WC practitioners in the form of forums, blogs, general information on the internet etc. Invariably, if you do find a generic martial arts forum, there is very little on offer for Wing Chunners.

Just out of interest, I thought I’d do a bit of ‘keyword research’ in the area of martial arts, using some keyword tools. They give you counts of how many times a particular phrase has been searched for by the general public in Google. Here are my findings:

Although “Wing Chun” doesn’t attract as few searches as Tae Kwon Do and ninjutsu, I’m disappointed all the same.  I thought Wing Chun would be more popular. What do we make of these statistics? Personally, I think that the number of times something is searched for in search engines is a good indication of that subject’s popularity. If you look at sex, for example, (hey, I have to do my research ), we are talking 37 million searches for the same period! And that subject is pretty popular. So you can see that there is a rough correlation between the volume of searches for a topic and how popular it is.

Of course, some subjects just don’t lend themselves to being searched for on the internet, and I understand that. It could be that the martial arts is not something that people generally search for in Google. Perhaps they are busy outside actually doing it instead of reading information about it on websites. These statistics do, however, give us a useful comparison between different martial arts.

Wing Chun Popularity Predictor

I predict an increase in interest in Wing Chun. Why? The new Ip Man movie is sure to be a big motivator for people to find out more about the martial art that Donnie Yen showcases so well. Here’s a clip:

How can you watch that and not feel all fired up about Wing Chun? Whaddya mean it’s not real, it’s only a movie?! Check out more Ip Man fight scenes.

I’m grateful for what he and the film producers are doing for Wing Chun. Remind me to do similar keyword research one year from now to see what changes are evident in the rankings table.

Part of the reason for me starting this site was to bolster my enthusiasm for Wing Chun. I used to suffer a lack of motivation to go to class. Once I got there, I would have a ball – the problem was in getting myself to leave the house. It’s not because I’m lazy: quite the contrary. I probably have far too many interests and they are all vying for my time. It wasn’t uncommon for me to have arguments in my head on my drive home from work, one side putting forward the pros and the other side putting forward the cons of going to class that night.

The Wing Chun Demons In My Head

Check out the schizo banter in my head:

• “My Wing Chun is improving, I should ride the wave and go to class and get even better”
• “My Wing Chun is improving, so it’s not that important if I miss tonight’s class”
• “I went on Saturday, so I don’t need to go tonight (Monday)”
• “The house is a mess, I really need to clean it – and it has to be tonight”
• “I’m knackered after a gruelling weekend of booze, so I’ll stay in tonight”
• “I’m really motivated about making origami paper ducks so I should stay in and make the most of that motivation”

Sadly, the demons in my head were mostly on the side of missing Wing Chun classes. This is why I had to use different methods to boost my Wing Chun motivation.

Top Tips To Improve Wing Chun Motivation

The following tips are not specific to Wing Chun, but are universal. You can apply them to other areas of your life.

• Do more. Yes, I know that sounds odd, but the more I do, the more I like it. I’m sure you will be the same. Also, the better you get, the more encouraged you will feel.
• Look back and see the progress you’ve made. Credit where credit’s due, you’ve made progress. You’re further down the path than you were even mere months ago.
• Watch inspiring videos, with talented practitioners in them. Youtube hosts a smorgasbord of Wing Chun idiots – but there are also some geniuses too. Watch them and feel inspired.
• Project forward and imagine how good you will be in 2 years time. In 5 years time. If your future self could travel back in time, your present self would get its ass kicked big style. It might get dirty. Better your future bad ass self stay the hell where it is because it’s so damn dangerous.
• Be healthier. Drink less alcohol (I don’t mean become a monk), eat better foods, get enough sleep, do regular exercise. All these things conspire to make you feel better and the better you feel, the more you will want to engage with the world.
• Find other interests that complement your Wing Chun habit. For example, this website serves that purpose for me – and helps keep me interested. Interestingly, my classes often provide food for thought on this blog.
• Make contact with other people who have similar interests. I’ve emailed a couple of Wing Chun martial artists on youtube already. I’m not saying you should go and stalk these people too, but other ideas are to get together with classmates and practise outside of class. Our club has a regular class meal every month and its good to maintain regular contact with other members of our kung fu family.
• Vary your practice. I, for one, probably don’t change my routine as often as I should. There are so many things to practise; one model I might follow is to focus on just a few techniques for maybe a week and then choose different techniques for next week. This way my routine doesn’t become stale. Also, think about different ways to employ the same technique i.e. different applications. For example, take footwork.  I can practise the dummy form I know, but I can also improvise moving around a fictitious opponent and really concentrate on my steps. As a further variation I can then introduce some hand movements (gaan sau, kwan sau etc) to spice it up. Variety being the key not just to maintain interest, but to improve skill too.
• Make use of any friendly (or not so friendly!) rivalry that exists between you and your partner. For example there are two colleagues that come to my mind. One uses too much strength, and is sometimes quite reckless with his flailing fists. I use this  to spur me on to become better so that I can withstand and deflect his brute force attacks more subtley – in the Wing Chun way. So he motivates me to train more and work harder. The other guy has been learning Wing Chun for only a year but he has improved (and still improves) tremendously. I like this guy and think he has a good attitude. He really gives me a run for my money. I don’t mind as much if he gets the better of me, because he is using good technique and not brute force. Nevertheless, I still use the experience to motivate me to improve my skill. He is improving so fast that I really have to train regularly and be on my toes.
• Go to seminars/workshops and use them to spur you on. You don’t want to show yourself up in front of all those people you don’t know, do you? Get training!
• Prepare. You can do this on two levels:

1. You can prepare what you will train the day before you actually train. This means that you don’t run out of stuff to do halfway through. A few times I’ve been scratching my head thinking about what I should do next and instead of continuing, I’ve just left it at that and stopped training that day. Don’t give yourself time to think. Plan every minute of your training. Now I arrive at the gym and I know I’m going to spend 15 minutes on a warm up, 15 minutes doing Tsum Kiu, 20 minutes doing Siu Lim Tau and then 25 minutes on turning exercises.
2. The other level involves planning your training that week. Plan to go to class Monday and Wednesday and also to train one hour before work Monday to Friday. If you do this, you won’t give yourself the chance to choose the Inaction Due To Uncertainty option.

Motivational Success

The above tips have really worked for me, so I hope they’ll be of use to you. The thing I’ve done that has helped me most is restructure my training timetable. I used to squeeze 15 minutes in before work started, and think that that was enough. Now, I schedule in an hour before work and stick to it religiously. Because it’s consistent and substantial practice, I can actually feel myself improving and that makes me feel like I want to do more.

I’ve also started chi sauing with people outside of class and that helps with the training you can’t practise on your own.

Another big motivator is the upcoming Wing Chun residential. I don’t want to get destroyed by the daily 90 minute siu lim taus that are on the cards, so I’m putting the hours in now.

Let me know if you use different ways to motivate yourself and I’ll steal your ideas, publish them here and take the credit

Surprisingly, I returned from the Wing Chun instructors’ course feeling deflated and disappointed.

There were tests of my knowledge and I failed some that I thought I would pass easily. Ha ha, a dented ego! Of course, this jolt is good for me. It’s made me look again at the things I thought I knew. The problem with practising things over and over again on your own is that sometimes you become blind to your mistakes. You stop seeing what you are actually doing and there grows a distance between how you perform a technique/form and how you imagine you perform it. At least, that’s how it was in my case.

So the course was good in that it has destroyed my complacency. It was good for other things too, like forcing me to look more closely at what I’m doing, even if what I’m doing has been practised to death. To examine it meticulously.

Although not billed as a chi sau day, I couldn’t just stand around and not chi sau with all those available seniors I’d not practised with before! Club members from all over the country were present, so there were a lot to choose from. Any spare moment I got, I asked someone to chi sau, and mostly with chi sau strangers. It’s much better to touch new hands than familiar hands when you get the chance. Of course I got beaten up by everyone I chi saued with! Interestingly, though, I found myself learning while chi sauing. After getting slapped a couple of times whilst using ‘wrong hands’ I had to adapt on the fly to avoid getting more slaps.

Wing Chun Instructors’ Course Learnings

It would be quicker for me to say that I need to work on everything! But here is a breakdown of the detail that I need to brush up on:

• Siu lim tau. It’s ‘basic’ I know, but there is so much detail in it that it blows my mind, like precisely what are the important points when performing a jam sau. You can do it, but can you define it?
• Tsum kiu. I didn’t expect it to be perfect as it was only a short while ago that I started learning it. Good job, because it wasn’t perfect.
• Theory. By theory I mean things like lineage etc.

My experience here highlights the importance of going to class regularly so that technique can be corrected. Though necessary, it’s not enough to only practise for countless hours on your own. You need to regularly attend class so that any problems are identified and any mistakes you make are corrected. You might think you are doing everything right, but you need an objective opinion, or as objective as you are going to get, from your sifu to verify that that’s the case.

So that’s 3 classes a week for me forever then!

Chi Sau With Seniors

On a lighter note, the chi sau with the seniors was excellent. I practised with one guy who was built like the proverbial but whose footwork was excellent. He moved really well. He was pretty strong with his strikes too, but had quite light hands. It turned out that he was a sifu himself and had had his own class for around 4 years. Knowing that, I wasn’t too disappointed in my (relatively) crappy performance.

Warrior number 2 had a very slight build and looked like he was only 20! But wow, he was all over me, dishing out 3 or 4 strikes whenever there was an opening. Excellent technique. He had very soft hands and proceeded to take me apart at his leisure.

Executioner number 3 was quite tall, same as me and was built well, but again he had very soft hands that applied no pressure when we rolled. Like the others, his footwork was so much better than mine that he was able to attack me from all sides while I clumsily turned to fend him off.

The footwork and softness of hands of those seniors was admirable. It’s good to meet up and roll with

I’ve heard people call Wing Chun Lazy Man’s Kung Fu. I know, shocking isn’t it? They haven’t experienced the pain of doing siu lim tau on one leg for half an hour and can’t appreciate the inner strength involved in maintaing a posture for a length of time. Usually the classes I go to involve just this kind of strength – gong lik.

Last night though, sifu had other ideas. Last night was Wing Chun Cardio Workout Night, and it was designed to improve our footwork.

Footwork Exercise 1

The first exercise saw us pairing up with one being the leader and the other being the follower. The follower had to hold out a tan sau and the leader had to hold the other’s elbow and lead them in random directions and at random speed (direction + speed is velocity, but that’s a subject for my maths blog ). The follower had to …yes, follow, but also maintain the tand sau and not show any inertia. That is, as soon as the leader goes, the follower is right there following the movement. Whilst moving, the follower had to use correct footwork. As well as footwork, this exercise used the follower’s sensitivity too, so that the leader never had to push the follower too hard in the right direction.

Five minutes of running round the room in stance and using correct footwork left everyone close with heart rates clearly in the fat burning zone.

Footwork Exercise 2

In this exercise, the follower is at the centre of an imaginary circle using his/her bong sau and the leader is on the circumference with a hand (wrist contact) on the bong sau. The leader follows the circumference at different speeds and as the follower rotates/turns, they have to use correct footwork and remain in stance.

Footwork Exercise 3

Similar to the last exercise but this time each person is on the circle’s circumference with the centre between them. Outstretched wu saus meet in the middle and the follower follows the leader as they make their random way around that circle. At this point, those whose hearts hadn’t packed in did the last exercise:

Footwork Exercise 4

Two chairs facing each other.  The leader can go anywhere in relation to the chairs but the follower can only go round the outside of them. This means that the leader can go in between the chairs but the follower can’t. Leader chases follower. Proper stance, correct footwork, both must be used.

Eggbox Shite O’Reilly

I had an exceptionally good training class last night. The practice was good, but it was another event that triggered my euphoria. We did siu lim tau and then sifu split us up into two groups: one practising siu lim tau, and the other practising chum kiu. Towards the end of the chum kiu practice, sifu said very quietly that he wanted to see me and two others at the instructor’s course at the end of January! Eggbox shite O’Reilly! I had to ask the other two whether I’d heard right because sifu was speaking quietly. But I’d heard right.

The Instructor’s Course

Now, this news has an impact. I’m going to speak for myself now, as there is no way I can know what the other two feel. I can only assume they feel a little like I do. Firstly, it is a real vote of confidence by sifu in my abilities and I’m over the moon. It’s a way of saying “you’re doing well”. Secondly, it’s a good motivator too, because now I feela responsibility to the art, my sifu and his sifu to live up to the high standards. I was geared up before, but now I feel like training even more. I’m sure the others think the same. Maybe I should get some guest posts from them!

To be honest I’m thrilled that sifu thinks we’re all good enough to move forwards in this way.

To Be A Wing Chun Teacher

I don’t know what this course entails, but I wouldn’t feel confident enough to teach other people Wing Chun until I have a lot more experience. I would like to teach at some point though, and this is one more step on the journey. The thought of someone calling me ‘sifu’ makes me cringe! But that’s only because my skill is nowhere neear good enough. Yet!