The Journey of a Wing Chun Practitioner
John Crescione, October 24th, 2007
Sweating, breathless, pain in the shoulders and legs, bruises on the chest, arms and legs, general confusion, not understanding the language if your instructor doesn’t speak English, trying to go through an interpreter, attending seminars and meeting other Wing Chun people, eventually comparing yourself to them, talking about them later, buying the magazines and videos, wishing you had more time to train , wishing you would get better faster, feeling in our hearts that “close enough is good enough” so we can learn the next thing. -Sound familiar?
Did you ever realize that we come to Wing Chun with “A Little Idea”. Even if it’s the wrong one, we start to train it and hopefully get corrected along the way. The little idea is to train our mentality and patience, our courage and perseverance in the face of difficulty (and our own personal spastic-ness). Have you ever played Siu Lim Tao for an hour? This not only trains your neurology, strength in your ma (stance), elbow, wrist and shoulder position, chi gung directing skill, BUT ALSO your patience! The journey has begun ! Do you constantly check your wrist and elbow position, is it in the center? Do your hand’s hit the center repeatedly when you roll? The beginner worries about the next new thing, the sifu worries about the details. Are you using your sifu as your role model? Can you make your positions better then your sifu’s. (Hey, it’s a goal !) Can you explain the qualities of tan, bong and fook forwards, backwards and sideways. Have you developed the right quality of ging (educated explode energy) in your hands for that level of training? Can you punch equally hard with both hands? Have you developed a stickiness and forward energy in your hands for that level of training? The destination at Sil Lim Tao level is in finding the details, as well as learning and integrating physical and mental skills. At this point you have come to a crossroad. Chi Sao. This is where you get to test a lot of the things you have been training in a laboratory that will let you know immediately if your training has been correct and or fruitful. This is also where you will find out a lot about yourself. Do you get angered easily, can you take getting hit? Can you stay “centered” in the eye of a physical hurricane? If you make a wrong turn here, or have the wrong directions, you may not find your way back or stay lost forever!
If you have gotten this far in your journey, your next location is Chum Kiu land. You will spend most of your time from here on end “searching for the bridge” (or researching the bridge). How can I use my horse? Defensively or offensively? How do I get my hands and horse to work together? Is my horse leading or following my hands? Do I shift or step into a position that will let me both attack and defend at the same time? Is the energy in my hands flexible enough so I can concentrate on my horse? Is my horse as fast as my hands? Do I sit on my horse, do I ride the horse or steer the horse? As you can see, this is the longest part of your journey. And most of us either never leave this road or always come back to it. Due to it’s length and potential to go into many different directions, you never really reach the end of Chum Kiu. Unfortunately, this road is also the worst paved, potholes, no road signs or street lights and most of the time you are moving slower then the rest of the traffic-sometimes even standing still while you get the feeling everyone is passing you! Body mechanics and learning how to use your hands , feet and waist as one piece tests your heart-physically and emotionally. Why? Because while you are trying to integrate hands, feet and waist, you’re getting punched in the chest by your training partner! Zigging when you should be zagging may have actually originated within this style !!
It is at this point you will reach another cross road. Here, due to your success or failure will usually determine your Wing Chun future. If you have made some headway with Chum Kiu, then you will take the fork in the road that leads to Biu Jee. But if the pot holes, bumps and wrong turns have frustrated you to the point of tears, you will most likely chose the off ramp on the Wing Chun highway, never to return because of the difficulty. It was just too hard of a road for you and you have chosen a different road, something easier-like nuclear physics. You have also had to face yourself, and having found out how much patience and faith you truly have in yourself, found it easier not to deal with those emotions-hiding behind the 100’s of excuses that people have for leaving the system.
If you have chosen to continue your journey, congratulations! The path to Biu Jee is exciting and deserving of praise. Few get there. Because of your horse, your ability to chi sao with and without footwork, your ability to generate ging at the right time and in the right place, you have entered into Biu Jee territory.
Biu Jee teaches you how to get out of bad situations, and with what type of energy to use to do so. Your travels in this area are about doing the most with the shortest, fastest route possible. Did you ever find yourself too close to an opponent when chi sao-ing? Biu Jee range is from elbow to shoulder, either on the inside or the outside. That’s why your punches/techniques/traps don’t work so well-you’re too close to use straight lines and must use circles to go outside the line so you can cut back in ! Here the road actually goes into a poorly lit tunnel and you could swear the minimum speed limit is 200 mph. You will also feel that you are traveling in the dark-literally. For here you will do most of your work blindfolded. At that range of elbow/shoulder, your feeling is more important then your eyes, and more accurate. Therefore blindfolded chi sao and/or chi gerk becomes invaluable. Not only does it heighten your contact reflexes, but also makes your gates smaller (areas of defense on you and attack on your opponent) and reaction time quicker.
It is also at this level that the Wing Chun practitioner gets sloppy and conceited. Why? Usually Biu Jee is “unofficially” like the Blackbelt form. Combine a hard to get to level and form with human ego and heads start to swell. Also, the
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