The Greatest Discovery You’ve Never Heard Of: health physical education

The important thing to remember here is that learning and memory are not just cognitive functions that take place in the brain; they are intimately involved in everything that we do with our bodies, from philosophy to strength training, from poetry to cardio. Just as LTP helps us remember the lyrics to a song or the password to a website, it also help us to remember the physical experience of being strong, fast or endurant. Indeed, more than one aging athlete has remarked that it’s not so much that his tissue is weak but rather that he has forgotten the sensation of physical competence and vigor. Just as getting in shape is a process of learning new sensations and strengthening neural pathways, getting out of shape is a process of forgetting.

How do we separate fact from speculation or story? How do we know what is really true? By looking for independently verifiable evidence of lineage. That’s the only way.

By lineage I mean showing that person A actually existed, knew Wing Chun Kuen, and taught person B, who actually existed, who in turn learned Wing Chun Kue, taught person C who really eixsted, etc. We do that in reverse — starting with the here and now and working our way backward. And you need to be able to do that with independently verifiable info.

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No, Extreme Wing Chun is not a new MMA league. It’s not new at all, though the internet has no-doubt breathed new life into it. Extreme Wing Chun, or more properly Wing Chun Extremists, like rabid politicos or tech fanboys or celebrity gawkers are simply so devoid of their opinion, they latch onto whatever fringe group they can find and adopt as radical an opinion as they can with as much passion and as little logical consideration as possible.

The article (and quotes) below cover some general points on extremism in the internet age.

The Polarization of Extremes

A key consequence of this kind of self-sorting is what we might call enclave extremism. When people end up in enclaves of like-minded people, they usually move toward a more extreme point in the direction to which the group’s members were originally inclined. Enclave extremism is a special case of the broader phenomenon of group polarization, which extends well beyond politics and occurs as groups adopt a more extreme version of whatever view is antecedently favored by their members.

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“Wing Chun is a system, not a style. A system is a training method; a style is personal expression.” - Robert Chu.

When you ask someone, “what’s the first thing you will need to build a house?” they’ll typically reply with “a foundation.” And many martial artists, including Wing Chun Kuen practitioners and instructors, apply that analogy in their training. However, in my opinion, that by-passes two vital steps. Before starting work on a foundation, we first must have an idea of what we want — the final product we desire — and second, we need a plan to actualize that goal. This overall plan determines exactly what foundation we will need to support the house. Wing Chun Kuen , like a house, is engineered from the ground up so that all the “parts” best fit. Our ancestors were the architects of Wing Chun Kuen, and they’ve provided us a blueprint.

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Not such a very long time ago, many of us in the West thought that all Wing Chun descended from the sole, late Grandmaster of wing chun, Yip Man. However, in recent years, through the research efforts of people like Rene Ritchie and Robert Chu, the opening of Mainland China, and developments in new forms of communication, many different systems, branches, or lineages of wing chun have come to light. Some of these lineages appear very similar to the familiar Yip Man branch; other wing chun systems, however, look completely alien to the casual observer. Yet, all call themselves wing chun. Which lineage is right? What is the correct way to do wing chun? Which branch or lineage truly represents the original, traditional, or true line of wing chun? In my opinion, all the different branches of wing chun are right, true, and original — and yet none is “the” correct way. Lineage is superficial.

Wing chun is a southern chinese martial art that descended from the Red Junk Opera (Hung Suen Hei Ban). And, while there is no conclusive evidence of Wing Chun’s earlier history - before Wong Wah Bo, Leung Yee Tai, Dai Fa Min Kam, Go Lo Chung - there is plenty of speculation and myths. We do know, however, that in the last half of the 19th century wing chun moved off the boats and settled in Foshan. From there it grew, spread, and gave birth to a myriad number of modern branches, including - but not limited to - lineages descending from Yip Man, the Cho family, Chan Wah Shun, Ng Chung So, Pan Nam, Sum Nung, Pao Fa Lien, and Gu Lao village. Some of these lineages, like Sum Nung’s, Pan Nam’s, and Yip Man’s that descend from Wong Wah Bo, have variations of the three forms which are normally associated with wing chun. Other lineages, like Gu Lao, have no forms at all. And others, like Cho Ga and Pao Fa Lien have a differing number of forms. Most have only two weapons in their curriculum, the double knives and pole. Some others, like Pao Fa Lien, have numerous weapons.

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Wing chun kuen is not known for its power. If you ask most non-wing chun kuen practitioners (and even a great many wing chun kuen practitioners) what stereotypes they have about wing chun kuen you’ll hear about its trapping, fast hands, etc. but not about it being known for its tremendous power. And that’s because the overwhelming majority of its practitioners simply rely on the localized muscles of their arms and shoulders to power their techniques. These practitioners often will make the excuse that their sifu has great power but that just they haven’t learned it yet! As such, these practitioners have from necessity developed the strategies in applying their wing chun kuen of “overwhelming their opponent with technique” or using the “straight blast” of numerous, quick lien wan chuie’s — hoping speed will overcome their lack of power. And this might be fine if the practitioner is larger or stronger than his opponent, but if he is smaller and weaker relying on localized muscle is simply a recipe for defeat. Yet if we look at how wing chun kuen has been historically applied, we find that our ancestors talked about “ending the encounter with one or two moves.” That can’t be achieved without having a great deal of power to both control the opponent from the outset and to end the encounter with a decisive strike. So how did our ancestors, and how can we, develop the power necessary to realize this approach?

Some wing chun kuen practitioners recognize that their wing chun kuen training does not develop significant power and so look outside wing chun kuen, either to other arts or to more modern training methods, to “tweak” their power development. However, everything that we need to develop tremendous power is already present in our system and there is no need to look outside it for guidance. In fact, looking outside the system, either to other martial art systems, to “science” (like physics), or to other training methods, will most likely lead us away from wing chun kuen’s approach. That’s because much of what we do in wing chun kuen is different in kind (i.e., of a different category altogether) than what we ordinarily do; so wing chun kuen is not just a matter of doing our ordinary things better. When we look at wing chun kuen with a typical, ordinary mindset, we’ll miss what is really going on. We must look at it from a wing chun kuen perspective.

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One who forms judgment on any point but cannot explain it clearly might as well never thought on the subject at all. Pericles (c. 495-429 B.C.E.)

The most fundamental aspect of wing chun kuen is its body-structure. This is clearly demonstrated in the wing chun kuen forms — the opening movement of each and every form is the hoi ma, the opening of the horse; and they all begin with the same horse, the yee jee kim yeung ma. This repetition underscores that the yee jee kim yeung ma is the core body-structure for everything we do. Yet, some wing chun kuen practitioners maintain that the yee jee kim yeung ma is simply a “throw-away” training stance; others that it is a type of “neutral stance” that is meant to break upon receipt of force into another, more practical stance. In my view, the yee jee kim yeung ma teaches us some things, including the four body or torso methods, that are vitally significant as they are the foundation on which everything else in our method depend. They are part of what I call “the wing chun process” — the inner workings of our art. These are the cogs of wing chun kuen, which like the cogs of Swiss watch, interact to drive our method. If we lack these cogs, our method (watch) won’t run as designed; if the cogs don’t work well, our method (watch) won’t run as well as it could. When our ancestors chose the term ‘ma’ (horse) they were telling us something profound: that these were the things, like the horse in their culture, that was the engine the made everything run.

It may be that the modern term “body-structure” is problematic; it carries with it connotations of a certain fixed way of standing. In my view, the yee jee kim yeung ma is perhaps best described as body-mechanics, i.e., a certain, specific way of using the body to receive and generate force. The body-structure illustrated by the yee jee kim yeung ma involves, in a nutshell, the mechanics of using the entire body from the feet to the fingers — its bones, muscles, tendons and joints — as a living, dynamic spring, with one end of the spring rooted to the earth and the other in contact with our opponent. This spring stores and releases any force exerted on it. This is in accord with how traditionally the wing chun kuen body-structure has been likened to either a stalk of bamboo (where the rings in the bamboo are able to collect and disperse pressure) or as a bow (as in bow and arrow). Our body, like the stalk of bamboo or the bow, when flexed, can store a great amount of energy, and then when it is suddenly released, it instantly turns that stored energy into kinetic energy (motion). One of the essential points of the yee jee kim yeung ma is to introduce, develop, and train ourselves to use this body-mechanic in everything we do. The kuen kuit advises us that “Siu Nim Tao Lien Yiu Sen Ma” (the siu nim tao trains the waist, torso and horse — it doesn’t say that it trains us to stand a certain way. If we view the yee jee kim yeung ma as body-mechanics then it becomes formless.). Once trained, the mechanic becomes automatic and is always operating. Yet, you would not necesarily see it if you did not know what to look for.

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One of my favorite classes when I was an undergraduate was entitled “Patterns of Problem Solving.” It was offered jointly by the philosophy and design (engineering) departments. The class focused on how problems of all kinds are solved including what barriers, both psychological and methodological, there are to finding solutions. An essential idea of the course was that there are numerous methods, ways, or approaches to solving various problems. These approaches include mathematics, verbal reasoning, logical analysis, graphical representation, intuitive insight, etc. However, not all methods solve all problems. Some problems are, in fact, insoluble using a particular method. And, even when one or more methods may be used to solve a particular problem, there is usually one method that is more elegant and simple in its solution than the rest.

Fortunately, one doesn’t need to “reinvent the wheel” with each attempt at solving a problem. Most problems can be broadly categorized or grouped based on certain similar characteristics. A solution method that works well for a specific problem will likewise do so for others within that category of problems. Thus, once these patterns or categories are known and understood, it makes the solution of a specific problem much easier. One needs to just identify a specific problem’s category, select the most efficient solution method for that type of problem, and then simply “plug in” the specific parameters of that particular problem into the solution method to generate an answer. But, of course, this assumes that one is proficient in the various methods or ways of problem solving.

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