When i started WC there were a handful of different schools in town. There was the William Cheung Lineage, two Lo Man Kam schools and a Leung Ting school...meaning there were a handful of teachers available, only I had no idea there were such things as lineage and assumed it was all just like Karate with its different schools of thought, but still essentially the same. What I learned was that in some ways i was right, in some i was wrong. Below is an article by a Karateka, a kiwi in Japan, expressing some of his issues with a similar issue. Karate politics having more to do with tradition vs the McDojo approach, and while the subject matter is somewhat different, the difficulties are the same.
http://andrebertel.blogspot.co.nz/2015/11/budo-karate-true-or-non-budo-karate.html
I chose the school I was going to attend by finding one being attended by friends, this ended up being what I thought was a branch of LMK close to where I lived. I'd later find that this was a mistake, though not because it was an incomplete LMK system mixed with Leung Ting/Ip Ching flavorings, no...it was because the teacher was a lunatic.
The story goes that my original teacher didn't learn the entire LMK system and had a falling out with his teacher. Take this with a grain of salt as none of the original players have ever told this to me directly, its all hearsay at the moment, and any party involved will be biased in one direction or the other.
So my teacher had also started 'learning' from an LT/IC guy (a teacher originally trained in LT but transitioned into IC, a fellow by the name of Ron Heimberger) because of one reason, or another. I could hazard guesses, or make something up based on my olde teachers personality...but when I try typing it out it all ends up reading too ridiculous to be real. Just ridiculous.
So the system I ended up learning over 8 years turned out to be bits and pieces of 3 lineages, with theories from several others.
As if WC wasn't complex enough!
Considering the quality of Wing Chun available, and how few options there were in Auckland at the time, it was merely a choice of different mistakes I could make. To say I chose the lesser of the evils would be inaccurate, unless one was referring about choice by social influence. I chose this particular school because I already had friends learning there...meeting strangers was NOT something I was keen on.
I had no idea what the difference between the different lineages were at the time, nor did I realise that there were so many variations of WC, teaching styles, or emphases.
I supposed the hidden blessing is that without experiencing these events i would unlikely be in the position I am now, a student of the WSL system where knowledge and experience is freely shared and you're encouraged to test theories. Nothing is taken as a given, and belief isn't required.
If I'd taken the time to research a bit, and try a few extra schools, I would probably be in a different situation and learning something completely different.
Regardless, it would probably still put me onto the WSL schools in Melbourne, and maybe I could've planned my life around WC a little bit better. Perhaps now I would be a teacher with my own school.
Regardless, I've learned my lesson and I'm not shedding any tears. I'll acknowledge the hard times I've experienced and use those as inspiration for avoiding it in the future.
An individual's experience traversing through WC should be a highlight in the story of their lives. Some of the smartest and best people I've met have been through WC, certainly some of the most life changing individuals.
I've still got my issues, but now at least these issues are common ailments and not the cultish mind-fuckery I'd been working at eradicating.
Just remember that when YOU go looking for a school, be skeptical and be logical.
Avoid mysticism and woo-woo magic. We learn these martial skills to protect ourselves from threats, we need to KNOW that a particular technique/concept works. The last thing I would want is for any of you to create a belief system around your supposed ability to defend yourself, and those around you, to your detriment. No level of belief will stop someone punching you in the face, so you better know that your tan sao will work, that your fook sao will be effective, and should you need to punch face...that it works and your attacker ceases.
Monday 21 December 2015
Sunday 13 December 2015
Starting Wing Chun for protection vs Self-Esteem and the personal changes required by each
It hasn't even been a year since I started this blog, and I've already written up a bunch of stuff. Most of it can probably just be referred to as waffle, or 'rabbiting-on', but I've found it useful and cathartic. I'm proud of myself and the adjustments I've made this year.
I've gone from a sometimes attender, to an every-classer, and I've seen the results that suggest my time has been well spent.
I began WC under one teacher, and now I learn under another. I've come to understand that sometimes one teacher isn't always the best option, and I've also come to respect the approach of questioning what you're being told and testing it, rather than just accepting it.
When I first started WC I knew nothing of it. I hadn't even heard of it before, and now I know enough to know that I'm not too much concerned with the folk-law surrounding WC. Whether the origin story is true, embellished, or just made up...I care not. It provides a frame for WC's history, however WC's longevity is based purely in its evolving forward.
As such the process by which students are taught needs also to change.
As a child in school we're taught to believe the teacher and trust that something is so-and-so because.
As a high school student we're taught that these are the reasons that something is so-and-so.
However it's in the tertiary education system that I've seen the implication that the answer isn't also so, and that one needs to delve deeper to understand the 'why'.
It is my experience that modern application based WC is at this stage.
I told myself I wanted to learn for self-protection.
During the incident that prompted me to learn some self defense I remember wondering, "Why isn't anyone helping?". And it was a long time before I realised that I'm the only one there to help me.
Take from this what you will. Physically I'm the only one that will ever be with me every moment of my life, so I'm the only one that will always be there.
As such I needed to give myself more consideration and more support.
To do this I needed to change things about myself, or at least how I've operated.
It's a work in progress, and I've got many more changes to make to support my decision to again make WC a priority in my life.
The first step was to give it the time it requires.
We have only two classes a week at this point, so my requirements needed to align with this and concerted effort was required during those classes. I took the lead in arranging additional training outside class, during private time.
Throughout the day I contemplate aspects of things I'm working on in class. Typically this revolves around constant, but not over-zealous, forward energy. This leads into the continual work I'm doing with my bong sao. Which has lead me into better monitoring of controlling the inside line...which again brings me back to forward energy. I think of it as a moderate forward-bias.
Whereas I once wanted to rush through the forms and get to biu jee, mook yan jong, the knives and the pole...I now realise that was more about collecting the forms and saying I 'knew' them. This would prop up my self esteem and give me something to show off. "Look at this lovely new badge, see how it glimmers with knowledge?"
This year I've been happily working through SNT and CK without too much concern about what I was missing out on.
Perhaps this is because I'm now concentrating on purpose and execution though understanding what I'm being taught. Everything I try is associated with the question, "Why?", it then gets run through the Simple-Direct-Efficient filter.
Now I understand the forms are an intense tool-kit and not necessarily a demonstration of execution. ie - we will never use a double jaam sao, such as is found in the first section of CK.
If my motivation had previously been purely Protection-oriented, I'd like to believe that I would've seen through the BS of that olde-school quickly and moved on. I now realise I was there to repair how I looked at myself, and thus I built my structure on a foundation of whimsy and self-aggrandizement.
A paradigm shift was required of me and it took a long time to get there. More so it is required of any individual looking to learn a new skill.
A re-occurring premise amongst n00bs is intermittent attendance to classes and a disappointment at the lack of progress. It could be argued that this lack of progress could be attributed to poor leadership, or poor teaching. However I know this to not always be the case, and is more reasonable to understand that individuals accrue their own level of importance to certain things, which eventuates that WC practice is less important and thus takes up less of their time every day.
The more I come to understand WC, the more I understand that you, I, and we, need to apply more personal time to it's practice. As a skill-set it needs to be exercised, used and maintained.
Attending lessons as you can is fine if your only looking to socialise and seemingly build your self-esteem, however to make forward progress you need to contemplate the skills you're learning.
Give the skills time to embed through regular attendance and contemplation.
It seems like a fairly obvious concept, and yet I see folk come and go without giving the process enough time. It seems like kung fu in NZ still has expectation hanging over its head where if you kowtow for a week you'll learn kung fu in three weeks and you can move on with your life. It isn't like that at all I'm afraid.
All training in Martial Skill takes time and concentration. There's a large quantity of information you have to absorb, often about making your body operate in a fashion it's not used to.
I remember my mother telling me once, "Nothing easy was ever worthwhile", and at the time I didn't fully understand. I believe I have an inkling now. It's just a simple way of telling me that the more time I give to a thing, the more precious it becomes. owever the more time I give to something difficult, the more rewarding will be the outcome.
WC has proven this to me.
I've processed more in this last year than I had in the first 5 years at my previous school.
WC has been the most difficult and influential undertaking I've encountered in my life. It's also been the most rewarding.
I no longer 'play' at learning WC, I learn while playing WC.
WC is a wonder to me. What is it to you?
I've gone from a sometimes attender, to an every-classer, and I've seen the results that suggest my time has been well spent.
I began WC under one teacher, and now I learn under another. I've come to understand that sometimes one teacher isn't always the best option, and I've also come to respect the approach of questioning what you're being told and testing it, rather than just accepting it.
When I first started WC I knew nothing of it. I hadn't even heard of it before, and now I know enough to know that I'm not too much concerned with the folk-law surrounding WC. Whether the origin story is true, embellished, or just made up...I care not. It provides a frame for WC's history, however WC's longevity is based purely in its evolving forward.
As such the process by which students are taught needs also to change.
As a child in school we're taught to believe the teacher and trust that something is so-and-so because.
As a high school student we're taught that these are the reasons that something is so-and-so.
However it's in the tertiary education system that I've seen the implication that the answer isn't also so, and that one needs to delve deeper to understand the 'why'.
It is my experience that modern application based WC is at this stage.
I told myself I wanted to learn for self-protection.
During the incident that prompted me to learn some self defense I remember wondering, "Why isn't anyone helping?". And it was a long time before I realised that I'm the only one there to help me.
Take from this what you will. Physically I'm the only one that will ever be with me every moment of my life, so I'm the only one that will always be there.
As such I needed to give myself more consideration and more support.
To do this I needed to change things about myself, or at least how I've operated.
It's a work in progress, and I've got many more changes to make to support my decision to again make WC a priority in my life.
The first step was to give it the time it requires.
We have only two classes a week at this point, so my requirements needed to align with this and concerted effort was required during those classes. I took the lead in arranging additional training outside class, during private time.
Throughout the day I contemplate aspects of things I'm working on in class. Typically this revolves around constant, but not over-zealous, forward energy. This leads into the continual work I'm doing with my bong sao. Which has lead me into better monitoring of controlling the inside line...which again brings me back to forward energy. I think of it as a moderate forward-bias.
Whereas I once wanted to rush through the forms and get to biu jee, mook yan jong, the knives and the pole...I now realise that was more about collecting the forms and saying I 'knew' them. This would prop up my self esteem and give me something to show off. "Look at this lovely new badge, see how it glimmers with knowledge?"
This year I've been happily working through SNT and CK without too much concern about what I was missing out on.
Perhaps this is because I'm now concentrating on purpose and execution though understanding what I'm being taught. Everything I try is associated with the question, "Why?", it then gets run through the Simple-Direct-Efficient filter.
Now I understand the forms are an intense tool-kit and not necessarily a demonstration of execution. ie - we will never use a double jaam sao, such as is found in the first section of CK.
If my motivation had previously been purely Protection-oriented, I'd like to believe that I would've seen through the BS of that olde-school quickly and moved on. I now realise I was there to repair how I looked at myself, and thus I built my structure on a foundation of whimsy and self-aggrandizement.
A paradigm shift was required of me and it took a long time to get there. More so it is required of any individual looking to learn a new skill.
A re-occurring premise amongst n00bs is intermittent attendance to classes and a disappointment at the lack of progress. It could be argued that this lack of progress could be attributed to poor leadership, or poor teaching. However I know this to not always be the case, and is more reasonable to understand that individuals accrue their own level of importance to certain things, which eventuates that WC practice is less important and thus takes up less of their time every day.
The more I come to understand WC, the more I understand that you, I, and we, need to apply more personal time to it's practice. As a skill-set it needs to be exercised, used and maintained.
Attending lessons as you can is fine if your only looking to socialise and seemingly build your self-esteem, however to make forward progress you need to contemplate the skills you're learning.
Give the skills time to embed through regular attendance and contemplation.
It seems like a fairly obvious concept, and yet I see folk come and go without giving the process enough time. It seems like kung fu in NZ still has expectation hanging over its head where if you kowtow for a week you'll learn kung fu in three weeks and you can move on with your life. It isn't like that at all I'm afraid.
All training in Martial Skill takes time and concentration. There's a large quantity of information you have to absorb, often about making your body operate in a fashion it's not used to.
I remember my mother telling me once, "Nothing easy was ever worthwhile", and at the time I didn't fully understand. I believe I have an inkling now. It's just a simple way of telling me that the more time I give to a thing, the more precious it becomes. owever the more time I give to something difficult, the more rewarding will be the outcome.
WC has proven this to me.
I've processed more in this last year than I had in the first 5 years at my previous school.
WC has been the most difficult and influential undertaking I've encountered in my life. It's also been the most rewarding.
I no longer 'play' at learning WC, I learn while playing WC.
WC is a wonder to me. What is it to you?
Monday 7 December 2015
Block by block...I'm tearing this wall down.
I still get amazed by WC even though I've been in its thrall for somewhere around the 15 year mark.
I've met some amazing people whom, without WC, I wouldn't have met. Certain connections wouldn't have happened, certain adventures wouldn't have been had, and certain self-realizations wouldn't have been achieved. I'd almost suggest it was fate or kismet...if I didn't take greater responsibility for my own life.
Without all of these positives, and yup...even the negatives...I may not have found the Wong Shun Leung system. It didn't exist in Auckland when I first began my journey and, to my best knowledge, the two WSL schools now in residence are a first. I know a number of Kiwi's in Australia who train our system, but they've all stayed on that side of the ditch.
Now we have a WSL school descended from Gary Lam, and another (ours) from David Peterson. The thing that is more important to me is that we get along. This is fantastic! We can share each others resources, and build the potential for a social environment. The GL's have some lads in competition, and we're happy to go support them, and we concentrate on application for the 'street'.
I like that we get along and it gives me hope that more WC schools might open themselves up to the potential of friendship.
I recently reacquainted myself with a chap I met in one of Bruce Cheng's LMK classes. We had mutual facebook friends so when we'd lost contact it was only going to be a matter of time before we caught up again. And while we're of different lineage, we're definitely of the same mind in regards to the foolishness that constitutes Auckland's current WC bullshit.
We were tentative at first, its easy to give offense when talking WC if you're not entirely sure where the other person is coming from. It'd been a few years and there was just as much likelihood that either of us and devolved into a douche, and it didn't take long for us both to realise we hadn't.
While we talked we watched some Tai Chi off to the left, and what looked to be a family style kung fu off to the right...and it was all topped off by a blue sky and a warm, floral breeze. In other words...what a fucking choice way to start the day!
Since then my cousin has returned to our ranks after participating in several cultural exchanges around the world. Typically, this is the part of the tale where everything falls apart and I have a good'ole man-blubber.
Sorry...no.
Since then training has been going even better.
That gawddamn-dreaded Bong Sao has continued to improve. Bit by bit it has proceeded to be sent in the right direction, as opposed to the chicken wing flapping I used to perform. As a result I've been able to use the Bong Sao to be the central hatstand upon which I can hang other ideas.
Whereas 3 months ago I was struggling with Chi Sao and only marginally understanding Dan Chi Sao, I'm now rolling with confidence and feeling the defensive holes, both in my side of the transaction, and my opponents.
I've even been able to slip a few past my senior brothers!
In 'Ye Olde School', seniors would typically get their knickers in a twist if a junior had the audacity to improve. Now its a concern if you Can't see an individual's improvements. We each, selfishly, want the n00bs to excel. We want them to get good asap, so they can challenge us and push us to improve. What's more is that we all provide for different strengths and approaches. The benefits available to each person are huge.
Just the other night we had a small class, three seniors and three juniors, and all of the juniors had been having trouble with jaam sao, bong sao, and certainly chi sao. However this night everybody kicked-off.
After a bit of Dan Chi Sao and a few adjustments their lines were better, and there wasn't too much force being used. So we step it up to chi sao and wow...they really pulled it together. I'd struggled with chi sao, mainly due to my attendance, or lack thereof. Regardless of this, chi sao is a difficult practice when you're first introduced to it. And yet our little team were pulling through, and only one of them having almost been with us for a year.
It's silly...but damn I was proud of them! They've all put in a lot of effort and now they're starting to see the payoff, which means this is a special time. If we keep them moving forward they're going to start picking things up left, right and centre...and soon they'll be able to explain why these things are working.
It's really gratifying seeing someone who struggled with our Young Idea, and was able to push on through to partial recognition. Soon I'll be having to compete with them...what an exciting time!
And none of them have even ASKED about Biu Jee! (A subtle reference to the myth that Biu Jee is where the secret magic of WC resides, and a less-than-subtle reference to how students research WC and want to know all about it before learning chum kiu...Look on youtube kids! there's heaps to choose from!)
I've met some amazing people whom, without WC, I wouldn't have met. Certain connections wouldn't have happened, certain adventures wouldn't have been had, and certain self-realizations wouldn't have been achieved. I'd almost suggest it was fate or kismet...if I didn't take greater responsibility for my own life.
Without all of these positives, and yup...even the negatives...I may not have found the Wong Shun Leung system. It didn't exist in Auckland when I first began my journey and, to my best knowledge, the two WSL schools now in residence are a first. I know a number of Kiwi's in Australia who train our system, but they've all stayed on that side of the ditch.
Now we have a WSL school descended from Gary Lam, and another (ours) from David Peterson. The thing that is more important to me is that we get along. This is fantastic! We can share each others resources, and build the potential for a social environment. The GL's have some lads in competition, and we're happy to go support them, and we concentrate on application for the 'street'.
I like that we get along and it gives me hope that more WC schools might open themselves up to the potential of friendship.
I recently reacquainted myself with a chap I met in one of Bruce Cheng's LMK classes. We had mutual facebook friends so when we'd lost contact it was only going to be a matter of time before we caught up again. And while we're of different lineage, we're definitely of the same mind in regards to the foolishness that constitutes Auckland's current WC bullshit.
We were tentative at first, its easy to give offense when talking WC if you're not entirely sure where the other person is coming from. It'd been a few years and there was just as much likelihood that either of us and devolved into a douche, and it didn't take long for us both to realise we hadn't.
While we talked we watched some Tai Chi off to the left, and what looked to be a family style kung fu off to the right...and it was all topped off by a blue sky and a warm, floral breeze. In other words...what a fucking choice way to start the day!
Since then my cousin has returned to our ranks after participating in several cultural exchanges around the world. Typically, this is the part of the tale where everything falls apart and I have a good'ole man-blubber.
Sorry...no.
Since then training has been going even better.
That gawddamn-dreaded Bong Sao has continued to improve. Bit by bit it has proceeded to be sent in the right direction, as opposed to the chicken wing flapping I used to perform. As a result I've been able to use the Bong Sao to be the central hatstand upon which I can hang other ideas.
Whereas 3 months ago I was struggling with Chi Sao and only marginally understanding Dan Chi Sao, I'm now rolling with confidence and feeling the defensive holes, both in my side of the transaction, and my opponents.
I've even been able to slip a few past my senior brothers!
In 'Ye Olde School', seniors would typically get their knickers in a twist if a junior had the audacity to improve. Now its a concern if you Can't see an individual's improvements. We each, selfishly, want the n00bs to excel. We want them to get good asap, so they can challenge us and push us to improve. What's more is that we all provide for different strengths and approaches. The benefits available to each person are huge.
Just the other night we had a small class, three seniors and three juniors, and all of the juniors had been having trouble with jaam sao, bong sao, and certainly chi sao. However this night everybody kicked-off.
After a bit of Dan Chi Sao and a few adjustments their lines were better, and there wasn't too much force being used. So we step it up to chi sao and wow...they really pulled it together. I'd struggled with chi sao, mainly due to my attendance, or lack thereof. Regardless of this, chi sao is a difficult practice when you're first introduced to it. And yet our little team were pulling through, and only one of them having almost been with us for a year.
It's silly...but damn I was proud of them! They've all put in a lot of effort and now they're starting to see the payoff, which means this is a special time. If we keep them moving forward they're going to start picking things up left, right and centre...and soon they'll be able to explain why these things are working.
It's really gratifying seeing someone who struggled with our Young Idea, and was able to push on through to partial recognition. Soon I'll be having to compete with them...what an exciting time!
And none of them have even ASKED about Biu Jee! (A subtle reference to the myth that Biu Jee is where the secret magic of WC resides, and a less-than-subtle reference to how students research WC and want to know all about it before learning chum kiu...Look on youtube kids! there's heaps to choose from!)
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