There’s a great story about Ayoob creating his stress-fire combat shooting programs. Traditional shooting approaches required a complex 9-point body alignment that didn’t hold up under the stress conditions typically faced in lethal encounters. i.e. trained shooters would miss even at incredibly short range because their arms would shake, adrenalin would dump, and they couldn’t produce consistent, reliable application.

Ayoob simplified things down to a 3-point alignment, using alignment mechanics that were far more reliable under stress. The results looked very impressive.

Flashback - Kano, when vying for the position as instructor to the police forces, had to ready his team to compete against many other jujitsu coaches in Japan. Instead of teaching them “deadly” techniques they could never practice on each other with any degree of realistic resistance, he simplified. He removed anything that couldn’t be trained safely, yet repeatedly and applied against an unwilling, skilled, resistive opponent.

Rather than making the art “less deadly” due to missing so-called death techniques (or whatever), they attained similarly impressive results.

Flashback - Did the red junk boat actors, having to use their art to survive, attain a similar realization about simplicity and realistic, progressive, systematic training? Is that why WCK geometry is what it is? If we remove the mystic mumbo marketing jumbo and try to sweep away the return-to-complexity succeeding generations of humans often find necessary to re-impose on martial arts as they become further removed, is it possible? I think so.

Fundamentals aren’t martial arts specific, nor are they specific to martial arts. Stepping back, there seems to be readily discernible patterns to those who “discovered” how to teach functional skill to large groups of people (individuals don’t count — natural ability is too easy a distraction).

When I look for a coach, I seldom if ever care what story they have or even how good they are. I look to how efficiently they can make me good. The best coaches I’ve found make improvement almost immediate, and can get you doing what they can do very quickly. And they all tend to use the same or at least very similar methods to do it.

Short range is the range that is most associated with Wing Chun, even with those who are only remotely familiar with the style. This close range infighting is very advanced and can only be properly learned, practiced, and understood after the longer range concepts are fully grasped. This distance is also commonly known as trapping range. In Wing Chun we practice sticky hands, or chi sau for this.

My teacher has a specific and unique method for teaching sticky hands.

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Celebrating the New Year, we took a few minutes out of our Los Angeles Chinatown Wing Chun class to discuss the new Ip Man movie, starring Boston’s own Donnie Yen.

As a second generation student of Ip Man (also romanized as “Yip Man”), my students asked me about the authenticity of the movie and historical facts. Recently released on DVD in Chinese, I watched it and enjoyed it. Donnie plays my Sigung, Ip Man, in Foshan, China during the Japanese occupation in 1938. In my opinion, much of the movie is completely fictionalized, but lots of fun and entertaining.

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Combat Journal Interview with Robert Chu by Salim Badat, first published at Combat Journal Website June 2008

1. How did you get to train in wing chun?

I started training in WCK when I was 14, after starting other systems of martial arts since age 7. I also studied Okinawan Shorin Ryu and Judo since age 10 and had some hard core training in that, so when I learned WCK, it was rather easy. A friend from the Chinese restaurant I worked in had some basic training and taught me the Siu Nim Tao set and the basic exercises Pak Sao, Lop Sao, Dan Chi Sao and Cern Chi Sao, as well as shifting from the 2nd form. I also learned basic fighting tactics with WCK. Afterwards, I decided the system was good and sought out more competent instruction.

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The more boxing became a focal point of kung-fu, the more pole sets were ignored or dismissed entirely.

First published in Inside Kung Fu July 2007 Issue

By Robert Chu

Robert Chu is a well-respected Chinese martial artist, wing chun instructor and licensed acupuncturist/Chinese Medicine practitioner in Pasadena, Calif. He can be reached at chusaulei.com.
“Gwong’s pole set movements were as ‘graceful as a flying dragon, and as powerful as a tiger.’ ”

“With the fist, fear the young adept; with the staff, fear the old master.”

I first wrote about and published an article in the Spring of 1999 in Exotic Martial Arts of South East Asia Magazine on the Flying Dragon/Tiger Gate system, also known as the Fei Lung Fu Mun. This system was brought from China to the United States by my master, the late Lui Yon Sang (Lei Ren Sheng) of Guang Zhou, China. Lui was a native of Toishan and had lived in New York City as a Traditional Chinese Medical doctor and herbalist.

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I would like to share with you, a few stories from our Kulo Research projects in China!

Kulo eBook 2 contains English translations, for the first time ever, of the 13 Historical Posters that are hanging in Leung Jan’s Family Estate in Kulo village, Hoksan!  Below is a couple of “sneak peaks” from a very famous “challenge match” and more!  And, there are many more “challenge” stories and much more info - Get the whole picture and all the stories in eBook 2: “Leung Jan; The Kungfu King”. “Coming Soon”

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Trapping is a core training method of Wing Chun Kuen, but it has been complicated to teach.

Over the years, I’ve searched for ways to teach the skills to my students.  I would explain, “After striking with the Tan Da, the right fist changes into a Lop Sao and traps the opponent, where you strike him with a Lop Da, then you can continue on to Jut Da!” 

I’d get puzzled looks - then the opportunity was lost…and it became a mess and a jammed up tangle and struggle for the students.

Recently, I’ve turned to core objectives when teaching and every training method has its skill set, tools and theme.

Perhaps its my having to read aloud to my two young ones, but a few pirate stories have inspired me.  In a good pirate story, theres always a map, then a big “X” on it to denote where the treasure is!

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Since I have written about WCK power and body structure for may years now, the term “body structure” has become a bit of a buzzword. Since I am now semi-retired and not often teaching WCK, I decided to part with some of the secrets that I have been holding close to the vest…

Many people think, “Because I have a body, and it is a structure, I must have body structure!”

Or they think, “Well sifu, put me in this pose, so this must be what Robert Chu and others are talking about…!”

But what is real body structure is not a form. It’s not even a body, or a structure!

What is it?

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I demonstrate a movement for the group to work on. They break up into pairs to try it out. And they end up doing anything but.

Sure, they may go through the motions once or twice, but inevitably, they want to immediately know how to counter the move they just learned, and how to counter the counter, and “what-if” this and “yeah-but” that. They want to do everything but train the move.

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What’s the bio mechanics involved with using the Yee Ji kim Yeung Ma as moving horse (yee ma)?

Yee ma, like all other horses, is derived from and extends YJKYM, so the body mechanics are the same, only used for propulsion rather than stabilization.

When doing yee ma, you propel your body by pushing off the rear foot? Or do you step with the front foot then drag the rear foot up?

My understanding is that the Kim in Kim Yeung Ma represents clamping or compression, so if we imagine two equal stabilizers being drawn together, the moment stability is changed in one, it is equalized again by the other.

Likewise, I lift one leg, the released compression propels me, and then the other leg is drawn after (though it would admittedly be funnier if the first leg merely snapped back, rubber band style, like it would in some cartoon world!)

How does the YJKYM best generate/ delivers power for the hit?

“Best” depends on the individual, I use it as a way to hold the hammer of my body before I drive the nail of my fist.