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Sung Wing Chun - Sheffield
  • Home
  • Wing Chun
  • Instructors
  • New Students
  • Where and how much???
  • Chu Shong Tin
  • Private lessons
  • Our Blog
  • Curriculum
  • Sung's Youtube channel
  • Shop
Sung Wing Chun - Sheffield

Feelings, nothing more than feelings...

12/1/2020
 I recently watched a video of CST setting up a senior student to do a pivoting side slash.   CST set up the student several times, gave explanation for why it was difficult for the student, and then demonstrated the movement (effortlessly) himself.  In some ways the video was no different than any other of him, or what happened every night in a typical class.  What was interesting was afterwards I saw and heard explanations from at least 4 very experienced wing chun teachers who each disagreed with the other about what had happened, and essentially how CST did the movement.  You might be surprised to hear that I did not agree with any of them.  I would not be surprised to hear than none of them would agree with me!  Buy why the differences?
 
The teaching methodology of CST was that he would allow a student to do a movement in their own way (they usually did it incorrect), he would show them what they did, show them what it should feel like, then set them up to do it in the way he felt it should be done.  That method was repeated time and again until hopefully the student was re-educated. If all of the students got a similar education why would they not only feel very different, but also explain the methodology they learnt so differently later on?
 
Here is the problem.  When a student first copies a movement they are confident that it is correct,  It feels correct.  CST would then set them up to do it differently and obviously the feeling was very different (it felt wrong).  When they try to recreate the movement they rely of feeling, but if we go to the start of the paragraph then we already have established that their feelings are incorrect.  Their kinaesthetic sense was proven unreliable (like a set of broken scales)
Last year I went on a race track day;  I drove a Ferrari and an Aston Martin for 3 laps each.  As I drove into tight corners the instructor said to me to keep accelerating until I reached the relevant marker on the side of the track.  Although I heard him I found myself braking heavily way too early.  Each time we went around I got a bit braver, but although I wanted to keep accelerating my brain said no and put the brakes on (the exact opposite to what I was told).  I felt that I would crash as my belief (backed up with my feelings) told me it was not possible for a car to move in that way.  Afterwards I was taken around the track as a passenger or a touring car race driver, even in a slower car I was astounded by the speed and control, it was on another level that I thought existed. 
 
Even if I had got a second chance to drive, I would not have been much quicker.  The fact is my sense of feeling needed to be re-educated totally as they were unreliable. I was inspired but really that is only the start. The only way to learn to drive like that would be go around thousands of times with an instructor, follow the instructions of when to turn, break, accelerate etc until I knew what was possible.  After that point, I would be able to start experimenting as to whether a change in my own instruction would make me quicker.  However, my feeling would not be the arbiter of speed, the evidence would have to be the clock.
 
So, to get back to wing chun.  When someone was set up by CST they usually commented that although incredibly powerful, they felt nothing.  However, with more experience a student starts to develop an awareness of the connectivity of the body and the inter-relation of joints and muscles etc.  The process that you are trying to understand is how the various parts of the body inter-relate (and are co-ordinated by thought) and for a long time in the process feeling is really counter-productive to doing this.  I am not entirely sure many people have grasped this difference, but I say now that if you rely on feelings instead of an educated system of habits of use, your wing chun will not be of an internal nature.  You will be trying to use wing chun techniques to make up deficiencies in your body use.
 
Most people interested in CST method wing chun  do not need to learn more wing chun, they need to relearn to use their bodies without using feeling and sensitivity as a guide as what they are currently using is inherently unreliable under pressure.  You need to understand how the body co-operates with gravity, how the release of joint in one direction creates a counter stretch in the next muscle group and that affects the whole.  Wing chun then becomes a method of manipulating your own body structure which is instigated with a thought.  I am going to be honest and say that although everyone needs to relax more, as an instruction it is generally useless in most contexts.  Sometimes you need to relax a muscle, but that is usually to get a counter response from another part of the body so the whole is in balance.  It is the balance of the whole which you are seeking, with no direct thought about relaxing of individual parts.
 
This idea of training is a real challenge for most people, to ask someone who has developed a sensitivity of feeling and alignment to reject that system, to rely on over-aching instructions relating to how the body works optimally; its really tough.  Even when you see and experience the truth it is hard to accept.
The question then is how can you learn something which is specifically about kinaesthetic sense at the same time as rejecting bodily feeling.  Well, in the same way as you would need to sit with an experienced race driver and do as you are told to learn to drive professionally, you need a lot of time with someone who can do it it better than you who can guide you.  Someone who has walked the path and made the same mistakes which you will have to make time and time again until your successes outweigh your failures.  Even if they are not a teacher, they may be able to provide a more subjective view than you have yourself.  The first step for myself was over a decade ago when training with Mark and Jon, we consciously chose not to complete with each other but to assist and provide feedback.  That opened a door to understanding which continues to fascinate me.


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Like Riding a Bike

8/31/2020
A common analogy used in martial arts and any other potentially complex endeavour, is that ‘its like riding a bike’. The inference being that once you physically understand the process it becomes second nature.
There a few important areas where I think there is commonality. The first is the control of the balance required by riding a bike is too difficult for the conscious brain, so we have to use the part which controls our balance. In CST wing chun you hear the term Nim Tao, rear brain or subconscious; for me the part of the brain which controls natural balance is where I want to activate. Most martial artists are not in balance, they hold stances, postures or alignments (all good for static lifting work), but the body is designed for subtle poised movement, so better to think of a dancer or a young child playing if you want to be in better touch with your body.

If you have taught a child to ride a bike you will recognise that the hardest part is not the pedalling, it is the starting off. I am sure that there are lots of parents out there that can remember running behind your child holding onto the back of your kid’s bike with the child yelling ‘don’t let go’. Its back breaking work. Eventually you do let go, they are delighted, but when they try to do it again the fear sets in, they tense up and you have to go through the process again and again until they recognise that they will not fall over. The actual cycling part thereafter is pretty easy and soon they shoot off and leave you running behind looking like an overprotective fool.

This reveals the whole crux of the issue of why CST found it difficult to pass on his ability for so many years. He would put his hands on a student to show them how to let go of tension, how to gain their balance, and they would be able to release into balance just as a child cycling away. However, every student thereafter became obsessed with the releasing away bit and missed the most important part. The part which starts off the whole process. I believe that as children we were all told to try harder, to put more effort into what ever we did, and as a consequence the whole movement pattern of the body for the majority of people has been strangled. There is a choice… you can subtly brace your ankles, lower back and neck and then push, or release into you full length and width before you move. It’s not a conscious choice for most as they have done it as habit their whole life, but it sits on the border of the conscious and subconscious mind and its somewhere you can find if you train in the right way.
If you take the analogy back to being on a bike, think about how you start off, my guess is pushing down hard on a pedal, lock the neck and shoulders and put in some effort. Why not freewheel instead? Have you tried instead of pushing down on the pedal thinking about how the other leg comes up instead?

The way I teach at the moment is that we often get to a red pill/blue pill situation. I will set a student up several times to let them have a feel of what they are looking for, and then I apply pressure and ask them to make a choice, find a way to release into the movement or recognise that they are pushing. Once you see enough times that it is a conscious choice, one which can lead you to either habitual bracing or subconsciously controlled balance, then it becomes easier to realise that the hand shapes and movement of the art are not that important; the body tends to sort itself out. I honestly think that the obsession with forms is really missing the point of them. All movement is fundamentally easy the more we understand the primacy of initial choice we make and the consequences if we make the wrong one. Without that its like trying to ride whilst still holding the brake on.

Standing practice in CST is very important but it can be a bit of a swiss army knife which gets misused. It’s a chance to let go of habitual holding of muscles, to let go of the racing mind and also calm the emotions. But if you approach it in the same habitual manner of the everyday life you might see it as standing statically and waiting for some divine intervention. Standing practice for me is just moving in micro form; am I in process of standing up to full height or about to sit down?… well both. I am being alive. Not practicing being alive, but being alive. Not lost in some part of a meditative state, but in the room ready to interact. Not easy for an introvert like me but something which with practice that becomes easier.

So to get back to the analogy, riding a bike is easy once you are going, but its hard to get going if you have both feet on the floor for stability and are holding the breaks down. So the thing you need to practice is finding that place of decision, to observe the thought in the mind when the point comes, and see if by waiting and following the process then potentially there is something else in you. There is, I know that there is, but trusting a process is difficult when habit is easier to rely on. That is all I really practice at the moment, and mostly what I teach, so it must be working a bit or I would be a very lonely wing chun teacher.


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CAN WE, WILL WE, WHEN WILL WE REOPEN?

6/20/2020
CAN WE, WILL WE, WHEN WILL WE REOPEN?
 
I hope that everyone is well and has been able to continue training over the last few months.  The online classes have been a really pleasant surprise for us, they have allowed to devise a method of group teaching which supplements our usual one-to-one coaching approach.  If you have not been able to join, we have maintained the core group of the club very well with regular classes reaching 20 attendees.
 
In the same way as when we entered the lockdown, government advice is changing quickly and there is potential that we could open the doors to a class in July.  If that becomes possible, the question for us is what will that look like, who will come and what will we do.  I am going to some ideas here for students to think about, and ideally you can text, email or FM message me with what your preferences are so we can get back to training in a way that benefits us all.
 
My thoughts are:

  • The Tuesday venue is the larger place, so I think that at first we could open there one day a week to see how it goes.
  • The venue is large, so I think up to 16 of us could be in and remain 2 metres apart with ease.
  • We can keep the windows open for good ventilation.
  • I will provide proper hand sanitizer which everyone would have to use when entering.  If the government says we need masks, we will wear them
  • If the government changes to 1 metre distancing, we could get close enough to do adjustments etc.  Also, there is potential for chi sau(???)
  • Students would have the option of staying at the back of the class and maintaining distance, which those with a lower risk profile could agree a different approach for themselves at a closer distance.
  • I think that in the past we have let some students train in a ‘none Sung way’ as they adapt to our methods, from now on we will be more strict to ensure training is what we believe.
  • We will take the group work from the online classes and adapt that to the start of the class (group form work for the first half an hour).
  • We will maintain a weekly online class for the wider group.
 
The big question I have to ask students is will they come to class if and when the regulations allow it?  I appreciate that some have health and financial issues and that they may have to wait.  Financially I do not want to pay £30 to rent a room which will be empty, so I need to know who is interested?  If there were only a few students would you pay £10 a session?  My preference is to charge £8 drop in if the group is a good size, but would students be willing to pay say £30 a month instead (some months you would get 5 sessions, others you might miss one).
 
So lots to think about.  I need to hear from you to get an idea of where we are at now.  I have been teaching privately over the last month and I am very encouraged by the development of our senior students who will be able to assist us with teaching as they have a good grounding in Sung methodology.  Exciting times ahead.
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March 27th, 2020

3/27/2020
I get knocked down, but I get up again...

Its very easy to feel sorry for ourselves at this time and let it get us
down. I am already missing seeing and training with two of my best
friends Mark and Jon, something which we done without fail every week
for about 15 years. I miss the club, a group of great students we have
nurtured over the last 5 years. And I miss my Alexander Technique
training; I was meant to start training three times a week from April
but the has been postponed until the crisis is over. But, if we have
our health, and our friends and families, then we will get through this
and come out stronger on the other side.

I've decided that I will not lay down and let this beat me, it is an
opportunity to go deeper into our own training and not be diverted by
the distractions. So my plan it to keep the Sung ethos going by running
online training twice a week just as we have always done. I've bought a
webcam (its not great but it does the job), I've resurrected an old laptop, I've put a big
monitor in the garage; I am ready to get started. You cannot learn CST
wing chun online, but if your are already a wing chun student you can
use an online forum to train with others, to discuss and to delve deeper.

So how will it work?
I am not entirely sure to be honest, it might be rough and ready but so am I and so is Sung. Here my ideas for starters:

1. Instead of standing practice at home, a chance to do it together and
feel part of a group.
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2. Guided form practice.

3. Q&As, a lot of people email asking me questions which I cannot
answer well by typing, this will give the opportunity for people far
away to use our group as a sounding board for ideas. Share our
collective knowledge. In my view there are no secrets.

4. Homework - There are tons of videos online which we can discuss and
disect, Also I have a large archive of unseen footage of CST. I can
share this before class so we can discuss. Maybe Mark can provide
translations?



5. Have you read one of my blogs and thought 'what is he on about'. Here is a chance to ask.


6. Guest teachers - we have friends everywhere, Nima, John Kaufman, Eddie Chan, Ada, perhaps they want to join us and offer some ideas. I am sure I can twist some arms...

I plan to either do this over Skype or Zoom. Skype has the advantage of
not needing to join the platform, I can just provide a link for
participants for each class. I have started a private Facebook group
where I will provide the link to each class, it will be a place where
students can post questions which we can discuss later and I will put
unseen footage. You could even post videos there of your own practice
which we can discuss in the class.

I am hoping it will not just be local Sung students who join us, we have
friends all over England, Wales, Czech, Netherlands, US, HK and Australia.
Imagine what we can share together to develop our wing chun at this time.

I think that it is fair to ask for a voluntary contribution of £3 to those who are able, that is less than half the price of a normal class. However if you cannot afford this because of the virus has affected your income
then it will be free of charge. Payment can be through Paypal or bank
transfer and I will out details in the group.

So, here is a link to the FB group, join it and I will provide the link
for the next class. We will keep the usual times of 8pm on Tuesdays and
Thursdays.

https://www.facebook.com/groups/215495706329262/?epa=SEARCH_BOX&__nodl
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November 19th, 2019

11/19/2019

The first 5 years
If you would have told us 5 years ago when we started Sung that we would be hosting a seminar for Ada, that we would run yearly seminars for 50 people who were training in CST methodology and that we would be taking students to help us run seminars in Prague, we probably would have laughed at you. We are just three highly obsessed guys who trained together (and still do) in garages, kitchen and cellars whenever the opportunity presents itself. We are not a big club, we are not in it to make lots of money and shouting to the world they all do it wrong, we just say it as we see it and teach what we believe. For me that is the first step to running a club under the lineage of CST and it needs to come first in what we do.


It’s a bit concerning to think that each year has been better than the last, because perhaps next year will not live up, but I am as ever a man with plans to move forward and showcase CST method as best as we can. There are lots of highlights during the year, so its worth saying them so we do not take it for granted (in no particular order):
  1. Hosting Ada was a fantastic experience for everyone who came. I selfishly wanted to get time for me, Mark and Jon to learn from her and to give students an experience of something they would otherwise never get, a true window into what it felt like to touch Sigung. We definitely got both. We had three private sessions with Ada and the group seminars covered the pure methodology of what CST taught in the last years of his life and I hope reinforced what we have been teaching. I was scared that such ability might make some students realise what a difficult path we are following, but it was clear after that they were inspired.
  2. The European Gathering was such a chilled out but intense weekend of training, curiosity and friendship. Nearly 50 people many from different schools but everyone had some experience of CST methodology and they all left inspired. It was so good literally everyone signed up to come next year. Soon we will need a bigger venue!
  3. Something I am proud of is the development of our students. There is a real change from the competitive type of chi sau to a more internal understanding of the power of relaxation. There is nothing wrong with competitive chi sau, but with the right methodology it makes it a lot easy to turn on when it is required.
  4. Every time we see our friends from Prague, Mark and I will plan the seeds of ideas with them so they can go back to their club and practice. It was great to see they for the third time this year in October and see how they are developing. A real bonus of our trip to Prague though was to see our students Craig, Gavin and Ziggi really flourish as they realised how much knowledge they had built up in their short period of training with us. I asked if they would help and do a little chi sau and a surprise to us all (including them) they taught with confidence what came natural.
  5. Despite knowing Mark for about 15 years it never ceased to surprise he how fantastic his ability is. I have chi saued with CST and about 12 of his top students so I have an idea of what is good; in my opinion he is one of the best in the world in what he does and what he knows. I talk to him about wing chun all of the time, but I was blown away by an off the cuff talk he did in April in response to a question of a student. Mark is priceless.
  6. Jon is the quiet one in the group, he always underestimates himself but finally his confidence has grown and it must be obvious to him how good he really is. With Mark’s ability and my big mouth it can be hard to shine as a teacher but it is evident the respect students hold for Jon and his high level of relaxed power.
  7. We have made a great friend and training partner in Mark Allanson. On each visit to us he inspires us and our students with the ability he has.
  8. My skill level has improved a lot this year, I can tell as I get a lot more for less effort. This is down to my exploration of the Alexander Technique as a method of understand how I use my body and how others use theirs. I train 8 hours a week (teacher training) with some of the best teachers in the world, but not so I can make a hybrid system, so I can have the tools to understand the CST system better. Nothing in the world is new; things that look like magic powers are usually the result of a lot of work, and understanding your own body is no different. To become more effortless is costing me a lot of time, effort and money but I love it and I see the benefits for students when I teach.
  9. We are getting more interest from sifus from various lineages of wing chun and I am teaching private lessons to several so they can take some of our methodology into their classes.

What Next
  • The plans for the next year are really more of the same, its nice to get more students into class but for me more important to build up the skill of those who attend and train diligently. I say this in a purely selfish way as one of the reasons for starting Sung was to give us access to training partners!
  • Next April’s gathering will be bigger than ever, there will be 50 there and I have turned away maybe another 10 people. I am hoping to do a smaller gathering later next year for the most diligent of students where we can spend a whole weekend doing Hong Kong training with good people.
  • I have been asked to teach seminars by several other clubs in the UK so I will likely take one or two offers up (sunny destinations take priority). I know that Gav, Craig and Ziggi are keen to tag along!
  • We want to take a handful of diligent students to train as assistant instructors; teaching is the best way to learn when you reach 2-3 years of training. Hopefully this will lighten the load for us and in exchange we can spend more time with them on advanced practice.
  • I plan to increase my hours as a trainee Alexander Technique teacher so that one day I can do that and wing chun as my job. Imagine doing what you love and being paid for it!
  • It would be nice to host a seminar for an Hong Kong based student of CST. I’ll be honest I am not interested in organising an event for 50 people who want to dip their toe in CST wing chun as a short seminar like that would not be of enough value to our students. I could have had at least that manty to Ada’s seminar but it was limited to 20 so everyone got a deeper experience. Ada was very kind not to make large financial demands so hopefully someone will see the attraction of a visit to Sheffield and do the same. Or maybe Ada will come back…
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October 11th, 2019

10/11/2019

Structural Wing Chun

A problem with using the term internal wing chun is that you quickly allow yourself to be judged by the language and definitions used by others arts. Those arts may have a lot to teach, but it can be hard to de-clutter the dogma and superstition of methods dating back to before sound scientific objective thinking. What I see as being important is not your words, but how your wing chun is structured. Is it done is such a way that your structure is aligned to support a strong contact point (wrist, fist, leg etc), or is it a structure designed to use the whole body to deal with force. With the first the emphasis is pointing outwards with the other it is inwards. I cannot emphasis enough how different those ideas are and how much they will effect your wing chun. CST is about the latter and if you are not yet ready to understand that then you will get derailed on your journey.


I am sure that Ip Man taught all of his diligent students good quality structural wing chun as you have to do for all new students. He gave them all the building blocks to make wing chun their own as is the job of any teacher. People like Chu Shong Tin and Wong Shun Leung ran with that, they analysed, thought and tested what they learned and made for themselves usable but different systems. Other contemporaries really just did nothing with it, they saw those blocks and thought that was it all. Unfortunately they passed on that shell of a system to their students and what we are left with large pockets of wing chun around the world without any substance. A wing chun which only works on other wing chun students. No wonder people want to supplement their training with additional arts.


This phenomenon is likely to exist in CST lineage as well. Sigung for the majority of his career passed on not just the structural wing chun he learned, but he tried to give the details of his refinements and understanding (people see this as internal alignment). But the truth is it is not just what the teacher has to give, it is the effort and tenacity of the student which will lead to the transition of ability through the generations. No one can quite have what CST had, it was his, the combination of billions of incidents, habits and ideas of a lifetime. Copying Picasso will not make you Picasso. What we are talking about here is art; you start with solid principles but art is alive and subject to reality and outside influences. Angles and weight distribution might give you the bare bones of information for learning a form, but to understand it do not just question angles and measurements but question WHY. What is the common denominator that makes the whole package work? Parroting CST words is not understanding. Words have the annoying habit of existing in context both in the situation and to who they were said at a point in time.


CST wing chun is a precious thing, it does not fit with standardised syllabuses and strict rules because it involves how our concious and subconcious minds interact with our bodies to deal with outside forces. If you start telling me you know all the secrets, that you have nim tao, I will tell you I already know enough about you. Imagination might help, as might meditation, yoga etc but they are different paths and if you follow a different path you will reach a different destination. That is fine, don't confuse yourself and others by saying it is the same place though.


So to move your wing chun on from a structural skeleton to a living organism, you need to make it your own. There are loads of other arts we can look at to help us understand and to think. Looking outside the box can help your understand what is in the box. But there is no substitute for doing the work yourself. If you want to do what CST did try doing what CST did. You need a solid idea of what the art is and how it might work, or it will fail. Failure is good, it is part of the journey. Saying the words relax and nim tao a million times will not change you, understanding what they mean and how they are usable ideas might. There is no good teacher of this who is also not an obsessive student. Humility comes from knowing how little you know but confidence comes from the understanding of what you have learned and it's current limitations. That gives you the ability to grow beyond externally aligned structure.
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September 20th, 2019

9/20/2019
This is a quick blog to carry on from my FB post the other week about the lat muscles and connection to the lower back. Extending away from the other part of your body are the deepest muscles which connect to your spine - the psoas muscles. They connect the spine to the legs and pretty much support us when we stand and move. When people talk about their core they are usually thinking about the superficial abs, but they do not provide much in the way of stability. The poas is where you should look; not to strengthen them but to release them.

The reason I am mentioning this is that you hear a lot about tai gong and people rote saying release your tail bone, but the reality is that if your poas is in a state of continual tension then trying to release your tail bone is only going to set your lower back into oppositional tension with it. The result will be that you grip your pelvis and the tailbone goes nowhere.

The image below is useful to look at as you can see the psoas is in front of the spine and spirals around the hip joints to the femur heads. If you want to let go of your pelvis and stop pulling your legs up into your body, you need let go of the grip in front first. If you do not know how to feel these muscles, ask someone to push you from the front and almost immediately you will feel them tense up. Think about that for a moment, really the reaction makes no sense, how could those muscles stop someone from pushing you backwards? In order to make use of the floor and your directed body mass you need to let them go as much as possible. If you can do that the spine release up from the front and you might have a better chance of letting go of lumber tension.

Tai gong is about unifying your upper and lower body, so of course the psoas has to be involved as it is the key muscle group connecting it together. No muscle works in isolation from the others and we do not need to know how they all function, but just be careful that you are not telling your body to let go of muscles in the wrong direction or in opposition to each other, or you just create more problems.

As ever this is all just words and cannot replace the feeling and sensation that a teacher can give you. But is always worth testing your ideas of how things work.
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August 16th, 2019

8/16/2019
September, just like January, is usually a time when we get new students eager to try out wing chun, or alternately a few old faces reappear with the intention of starting again. Come October most of them have vanished. It is a cycle I have seen for almost 20 years of training in martial arts.

I am not sure how people reasonably expect to learn any martial art if they only want to commit to once a fortnight of training, and even that is usually if there is nothing else comes up that day. Even for some that do train with us for several months and start to grasp the depth of this wing chun, many still think that two hours a fortnight will make them a ninja. You can see the disappointment when after a year or so that things did not work out that way and other people progress much quickly.



There is always an excuse available to us not to train, feeling tired, bad weather, bad day, drinks after work, money; the comfort option is provided by our brain as a ready waiting friend. But just because we talk about relaxation does not mean there is not work to be done. I do understand the dilemma, I’ve had two kids since I started training, a busy job and loads of potential distractions. But you have to ask yourself the question if I am not willing to try now, to put in the work, when will you do it? Really, when? If your daily training routine is an exercise in avoiding discomfort, to pamper yourself after work every night, then it will only get harder for you. In fact ask yourself the question how busy are you really? How much time in front of the telly, computer etc, hanging around with people so not to feel awkward by saying you have something else important to do. Then ask yourself - what if? What if you actually put some time aside and tried standing practice every day, came to classes or even had a private lesson. If you have not really tried and do not intend to, then failure is guaranteed.



I am not writing this blog to have a go at anyone, just holding up a mirror to us all. Plenty of people have come to the club and in a short period seen a big improvement in their wing chun, in their physical, mental and emotional health because they have taken the decision to commit to themselves to a difficult endeavour. I train every day, I give my all for every minute of every class but I know I can be lazy sometimes. But what we do not want is to look back and say that maybe we could have been better, achieved our goals, if we actually put that extra bit of time in. Maybe turn off that telly or put the phone in the other room; don’t be half hearted. You only get a return if you make an investment.



So make a choice, if not coming to every class maybe one extra class a month. If you are one of the many people who have said to me you plan to visit Sheffield for private lesson, then do it. Why would you say it to yourself if you do not beleive it? There is only one person you will be letting down and failing if you not not try.



Motivation comes and goes, it is the drive to improve ourselves which we must cultivate if you want to achieve. There are days that you have drag yourself out, days when it hurts to stand for long period, days when the mind wont stop wandering, but if anything worthwhile was easy everyone would be a master. So stop putting it off, stop watching youtube as if that provides all the answers, and get training. Maybe you will not like it, maybe not see any improvement, but better to try and fail than never know what you are capable of.
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July 12th, 2019

7/12/2019
Having Ada in my garage teaching pole and knife movements was about as surreal for me as coming home and finding Mark Hamill in you house with a light sabre. When I first met Chu Shong Tin in 2008 it felt like meeting a celebrity, I had to stop myself from saying ‘I’ve seen all your films a million times’. Fortunately I have met Ada and chi saued on many occasions over the years and she is a good friend of my friend Kris Collins, so we fell into cheeky banter and good humoured conversation from the moment I met in Manchester. She is so warm and friendly, you would have no idea of what ability she hides.

There is a video on our youtube channel which has a short clip of me rolling with Ada in 2011. At that point she needed either physical or eye contact with CST to consistently sing up her spine and activate nim tao. Whilst on the train to Sheffield I asked her if this was still the case and she replied ‘no, I am doing it right now’. Wow, straight after a long haul flight I can barely stand up.

There was no doubt of Ada’s ability once the seminars started, although she was nervous at first and asked Mark to translate, when she started she was straight in her element and able to demonstrate many of the skills that made CST famous. She explained that there are three levels of skill, the first is copying movement, the second is structural and the third is internal. To obtain the higher level you have to go through the series in sequence and for most people the second level may take a lifetime to get to a good level. In fact for most of us mortals level two is a respectable aim with occasional glimpses of level three (maybe think of it as level 2.5). Those people who trick themselves that they are at ‘level 3’, are not only kidding themselves they are likely to be misleading others as they are attempting to avoid the work needed on the fundamentals. As Mark always says ‘the advanced stuff is just the basics done better’. The great thing about Ada is that like CST she knows your level straight away, there is no hiding, and on contact you can feel your tension as reliable feedback as to where you are going wrong. She is also kind enough to help you back on track.
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I could try to give tips here about all the info she shared and things she showed, but it all comes down to experience. It is just words until you feel it and no amount of blogs or videos let you know what you are doing wrong. This was the whole point of asking Ada to come to us, to let our students feel the ability in its purest form. She is not a fighter, not interested in winning in the abstract art of chi sau, she is a specialist in the one ability which set CST apart from every other living person I have seen. She can release her spine to such an extent that even holding her tight you feel nothing whilst she can move and hit. All done with a smile, ala CST.
The lessons I took from the seminars and three private sessions with Ada are still floating around my brain trying to connect and establish a stronger idea. I really should have known them already, I did know the words, but experiencing the how and why is the most powerful lesson. Stop thinking too much, you drive like you are hungry (relax and be present), don’t use forearm force, let go of your shoulders, soften your knees etc, I know this but she read me like a cheap book, but she also with a smile and a touch let me really know it. Something I will be eternally grateful for.

Hopefully she had a great time, we did our best to lure her back in the future, posh hotel, meals out, ice creams in the country and shopping (she brought 3 empty suitcases) but if that does not work then after I have tried to take on board her advice I will head to Hong Kong at some point to be reminded again. This stuff takes a lot of reminding.

One of our students asked how to improve, Ada said you need to train more with your teachers. That is great advice to start off with.
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June 29th, 2019

6/29/2019
When a new students starts at the club keen to learn 'Sung', we usually get into a discussion about relaxation and 'effortless force'. It does not make any sense to them that by relaxing you can generate power. Part of the explanation is that we need to let go of our overworked phasic muscles which were designed for intricate moving. Instead of using then to hold ourselves up, if they are allowed to release and lengthen, the postural muscles can take up the load. This is what the postural system is designed to do, big muscles working at low intensity. For most people, these muscles systems are virtually shut down and so the fast twitch phasic muscles do the work of keeping then upright instead and this causes fatigue. So when they need their muscles to punch, they are already overworked and being pulled in more than one direction.

If you go to a gym they might tell you to strengthen your core, work on you abs. Unfortunately that is rubbish, your abs do little to support your spine and upright posture, the 6 pack are phasic muscles which look great but if held tight can lock up your pelvis. That is another drain on your overworked muscles as one pulls the other in a constant battle. Your core is probably strong enough, you just need to know how to activate it to do the heavy work in order to feel effortless.

Here lies the problem, postural muscles are involuntary; you cannot directly control them. Here is a simple example of an involuntary system: Do a really big cheesy fake smile in front of the mirror. Now imagine your partner walks in and sees you gurning like an idiot at yourself. Hopefully that thought will bring a proper smile to your face. These are two entirely different muscle systems and the signal for both comes from a different part of your brain.

I see wing chun people do a bong sau and I say to myself that is not is a bong sau. It is fake, like a fake smile. They do not know how to connect to the right system. CST called this the copying stage. The wrong muscles overworking themselves and hence the comment from the majority of wing chun practitioners that in a real fight they would never use a bong sau. I do not blame them if that is what they consider a bong sau to be.

CST was famous for his smile and I believe it was actually was part of his system. Most people are pulled down by their thoughts, caught in the wrong part of the brain. When you can smile you release the jaw muscles, the neck muscles, the soft palate rises, the eyes twinkle and the neck is allowed to float on the spine. It can start a chain of release in the body. Sigung was smiling all the time as he was revelling in the majesty of the human body, not just his but his students when they could allow it to work properly. He was able to do this without ego as he understood he was not copying or doing, he was able to give instructions to his subconscious to allow the body to do what it is supposed to. This is what we call Yi and is the cornerstone of CST's method.

So best advice is to lighten up, think up and do not take relaxing seriously. Standing for an hour incorrectly is no different than holding a fake smile for an hour hoping that it will make you happy. It comes from a different place. Training is not an endurance test, is about finding that connection to an idea. A little idea, or Sil Nim Tao as we call it.

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