Practicalities

Practicing confidence in the face of adversity is what enables Wing Chun to bleed into other aspects of our lives. 

Confidence is a practical facet capable of aiding us in difficult circumstances. 

Circumstances which may not be ‘fight’ oriented. 

Confidence helps us to achieve things out of the ordinary. 

It helps us to solve problems, sometimes things that may seem insurmountable. 

Fighting and fight training, is problem solving. 

We should train mindfully to improve speed, power, stability, precision and adaptation.

We must deal in the moment to solve a problem immediately or risk injury, and we must be innately confident and attuned to feeling to succeed. 

The more I practice this, the calmer and more experienced I have become. 

When we are calm and experienced we develop self assurance and the ability to relax. 

The ability to relax enhances the capacity for sensitivity and focused attention. 

Focused attention supplements our intentions. 

Intention (for me) is resolute, clarified, decided, and concentrated to a point. I like to operate within clearly defined goals, once decided; I do my best to 'will' it through.

A focused mind is a powerful weapon all on its own - arguably the most dangerous weapon you possess. When run in conjunction with sharp eyes and a sensitive body we are developing awareness, confidence and adaptation - three very fight specific qualities, three qualities transferable to a variety of situations in life. 

In the conformity of the Kwoon it is easy to forget the reality of violence. 

Fighting is crazy - it’s like water bursting out of a sieve. It can be unpredictable and it can be unforgiving. 

Emotional state is a big deal. Composure in fighting is everything. 

Letting emotion spring from our grip is not advisable, so it is natural then that training to acknowledge and accept a variety of feelings without attaching to them should factor on our list of priorities. 

Undirected/uncontrolled emotion destroys our ability to co-ordinate the limbs to engage in two tasks at once. Pain steals from our focus. Pain steals from our patience, and pain steals from our awareness. Fear makes us tight, shock makes us tight, anger makes us swing, and anger can make us erratic. 

In Wing Chun we are seeking to obtain control of two points. 

A Tan Da is a basic representation of two hands working simultaneously but independently of one another to take charge of two points. 

Now think about one man strangling another with both hands, this is a basic representation of two hands taking hold of one point in a rather desperate assault – a reaction we may ascribe to a painful, fearful, or angry state. 

Although pain may develop into a constant, anger is attachment to the past, and fear to what might come. If you attach to fear and anger, you detach from feeling. To detach from feeling is to detach from the immediate.You are no longer focused on the actual.

Tan Da applied to a moving object requires control and precision. 

Conversely, gripping the throat with both hands is designated to rage and fear, or plain inexperience. 

It is ‘out of control’.

Sigung Wong, Tan Da (Courtesy Sifu Peterson)

For functional deployment of Wing Chun as a dynamic assault system, it is calm that supports the ability to co-ordinate two actions to two targets in a single beat (Tan Da). 

The head quarters (director), is the mind. 

You need a cool head, relaxation, and focus to produce Wing Chun or you will only be capable of doing one thing at a time – one thing at a time is not Wing Chun.

The mind dictates choice, and the mind dictates the movement of the human body. 

Fighting is a battle of minds; the body is only a puppet to the mind in question. 

Will is the common denominator in victory. 

Break a man’s will and the requirement to break his bones becomes obsolete. 

Concerted effort, focus to the target and experience is what wins fights. A degree of contempt is useful too.

The condition of the body is secondary (within reason)

Sifu Gary Lam often says “when it is time to change – you must change” 

Whether we are hitting an obstacle in life or encountering resistance in a fight we can utilise feeling to connect with the immediate and direct change. 

To adjust energy is to adjust circumstance.

Wing Chun is the development of sense. To sense is to be aware – it plugs us into the moment – the now – the only time we have direct control over. 

How often are we told as children to make sensible choices? 

In being ‘sensible’ the implication is that we should know inherently how to conduct behaviour. 

How often are we doing this confidently in the literal sense? 

Violence is behaviour. Training in Wing Chun we are practicing violence. 

How often is it a feeling practice? How often does it become a thinking practice? 

How often do we talk about having or trusting our gut feeling? 

If we learnt to trust that feeling and use it to catalyse action, we might more readily gravitate toward it and allow intuition to feed impulse. 

If we can develop Wing Chun as a blueprint for movement to fortify impulse, the body structure allows us to operate instinctively at close range, with a heightened degree of success.

Intuition from feeling surpasses rationality. Based on language, there was a time when we were much more comfortable with trusting feeling. But most people are conditioned to rationalise, it’s like hitting the pause button every time you do something. 

Sensing and the use of feeling is embedded in our language through the cultural experience of our ancestors to guide future successes and failures, yet today we are distinctly Vulcan in our modern disposition. 

Thought without feeling or experience, is fantasy.   

More often than not we could find ourselves dealing in ‘nonsense’.

There is no time to think in fighting – you are doing it. It is easy to talk about replacing the habit of thought with feeling but easier said than done. However, so much is at stake in real time combat, the practice of fighting is a perfect platform to force the habit of feeling into operation.

Using feeling to solve the problem of staying alive and/or risking serious injury requires split second adaptability. 

Find a different human problem that carries equivalent risk in equivalent time frame. 

Instant death is pretty much a worst case scenario! 

When we develop consciousness to cope in this manner, when dealing with problems of less severity, and with increased time to deal, we can become more competent in coping independently and in helping ourselves instinctively. This is improving the human condition. This is putting people back in touch with themselves. Self assurance and confidence is freedom. This is the merit of Wing Chun. 

It is the mind’s connection to feeling (relationship to energy) that carries the propensity to develop automatic body functions in the context of martial skill. Empathic connection to the actual develops heightened awareness.

Physical creates experience. Experience promotes calm. Calm aids focus and choice. Focus and choice open for strategy and response. Strategy and response supplement the physical. Physical creates new experience. This is cyclic upgrade. This is all inside Siu Nim Tao.

We have to keep a cool head to employ Wing Chun in the way that was intended. 

Without it our practical output will degenerate to that of standard fighting practices. Not the design – not the ‘little idea’. 

Feeling promotes insight, adaptation, control, and calm. There is no feeling in just hitting... except my knuckles on your chin. 

When fighting, you have to be like a president. His actions are not outwardly erratic. 

He (should be) calm, methodical, calculated, and astute in his decision making. 

Wing Chun calls for this character and rewards those with such composure.

This demeanour is essential for a high probability of success when facing a larger opponent, a stronger opponent, and more than one opponent for obvious reasons.

A big man can afford to make mistakes. A small man may not. 

If we are big or small, if we fight one man - or many, to use Wing Chun efficiently, the mind must remain calm and attuned to its environment.

Wing Chun is grounded and direct for a reason. 

Rotational punches and kicks are so committed they can only exist singularly – one punch/kick to one beat. If we fail to connect with a shot powered by rotational force we forfeit facing, stability (hence power), balance and timing. 

We need that for immediate deployment of singular or simultaneous following actions. 

You cannot remain in striking distance and fight effectively without these things.

When we employ rotational force to punch and kick it is virtually impossible to co-ordinate two actions simultaneously. 

Try throwing a Thai kick and simultaneous punch. Try throwing a Hook alongside a functional Tan. When we use rotational force whilst angry/crazy/scared – we degenerate further.

This is why in combination with straight lines and a grounded base, Wing Chun attempts to operate with a calm mind to support dualistic deployment - two hands operating separate tasks so control of the center can be administered to shortcut fighting and engineer rapid destruction.

You cannot be ‘out of your mind’ and use Wing Chun. In collecting the center, you have to be pretty ‘single minded’. And that focused mind must be capable of deploying more than one physical motion at a time in accordance to the pressure received. 

The purpose and process of Siu Nim Tao and Chi Sau in building feeling and calm is invaluable.

To develop calm, you must have confidence. To develop confidence you must carry experience. Therefore, if you wish to embody and exemplify Wing Chun whilst exchanging blows, the syllabus you follow and the instruction you receive is paramount in achieving success.

What we focus and train from our teacher, together with our individual experience of fighting will influence both our Wing Chun intellect (depth), and physicality (output/choice of tool/mode of deployment). 

The relationship between heart and brain will (we hope) contribute to an upgrade in instinctive ability via feeling.

There is no ‘right’ and ‘wrong’ in Wing Chun. The forms (should) form the basis of our choices and movement. We all pretty much learn and practice the same forms. 

We definitely do not share the same interpretation and understanding of what we are training to embody, and we definitely do not share the same power and output, or potential in combat. 

The transmission from one generation to the next, from school to school in Wing Chun can be like the difference between night and day.
In the pursuit of proficiency in fighting, the Gary Lam Wing Chun system produces concrete results and is something you should explore at least once

As martial advocates we should typify respect for the value of life in being capable of neutralising life threatening behaviour. 

Wing Chun comes from Shaolin. Indirectly – as a Wing Chun practitioner, you still represent temple teachings – respect Wing Chun, do your best to understand and explore it, and try to replace an empty mind with an open one to the benefit of your fighting and the life that you lead.

If you are in receipt of a little idea – better to do something with it than do nothing at all!

When assessing a school of Martial Arts, it is important to deduce: 

Which method resembles combat? 

Which is geared to cope with violent barrage? 

Which method has a gage on the ferociousness of real time fighting? 

Which teacher is producing confidence and skill? 

Sifu Gary Lam

Sigung Wong Shun Leung is often quoted as saying “You can always replace money, but you cannot replace time”

Sifu Gary, Sisuk Gung Hawkins, Me

Training should be fun, interesting and worthwhile. Wing Chun Kung Fu is packed full of fun interesting practical methods for self improvement. 

You should train for yourself, for the improvement and enhancement of you. Don't sell yourself short.

You owe it to yourself to accomplish something great!

Make every effort to cultivate yourself and maximise your potential. 

If you are not entirely satisfied with the answers you are provided, don't be afraid to seek a little deeper in finding them out. You're running out of time!

Good luck

Sifu John Lobb.



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'Punch Starts From The Heart'

One of the Wing Chun maxims reads ‘Punch starts from the heart’ 

The heart is a focal point in eastern practices like yoga and meditation. 

Because it is said that Kung Fu was born out of Yoga, I was interested in this maxim over and above the practicality (on a physical basis) of the fist covering the center line.

Some Chinese believe the mind to reside in the heart, drawing distinction between conscious choice and the brain’s thought process. I like this dualism. Brain thinking, Mind leading (possibly from a separate location), after all it is expressed in our language. 

We don’t say follow your brain – we are inclined to say use your brain. We don’t say make up your brain, we say make up your mind. When deciding on action, some say use your heart, and some say follow your heart....

There is additional correlation in Western tradition with Richard the ‘LionHeart’ and ‘Braveheart’ in the depiction of individuals seen to embody courage. 

Courage is an event. A decision or assertion must take place for courage to be displayed. 

Courageous individuals are tagged with having ‘heart’. Most importantly for a time these individuals held success. 

So what was different in their decision making process for them to make choices that generally others would not?

If I imagine that my brain is for thinking, and my mind is the portion of me that decides on which thoughts to pursue or externalise through action, then it is not ridiculous to start thinking about where my mind truly resides, it may well be in the head, but it may well be elsewhere. 

How big is it, what shape it is, what colour - I’m still undecided?  

I am interested in examining decisiveness because it is essential for fighting. 

Every decision and change in combat leads to either victory or defeat.

If you have been fighting or sparring with heavy contact, you might recognise that when placed in circumstances which can result in concussion or injury, out of necessity, you will have been studying your opponent’s behavioural and situational changes (or hopefully so). 

If I envisage that the brain is thinking but the mind is in charge of selecting or directing change, I want to know how best to develop my mind in becoming better at selecting the best course of action. The mind after all is director of the body.

Whilst examining ‘Punch starts from the heart’ I looked up some research on heart intelligence.

Recently, research conducted by neurophysiologists discovered there is a neural pathway and mechanism whereby input from the heart to the brain could inhibit or facilitate the brain’s electrical activity. 

It has been discovered that the heart is capable of detaching from the autonomic nervous system to send meaningful messages to the brain that the brain not only understands – but obeys. 

The heart operates its own nervous system and is capable of operating and processing information independently of the brain. 

The Heart then, just like the brain has the capacity to learn, remember feel and sense. 

Research has shown that the heart’s neurological signals directly affect activity in the amygdala which is an important emotional processing centre in the brain. The amygdala is the key brain centre that coordinates behavioural, immunological, and neuroendocrine responses to environmental threats. It compares incoming emotional signals with stored emotional memories, and accordingly makes instantaneous decisions about the level of perceived threat. Due to its extensive connections to the limbic system, it is able to take over the neural pathways, activating the autonomic nervous system and emotional response before the higher brain centres receive the sensory information (Rein, McCraty and Atkinson, 1995 & McCraty et al, 1995).

We use a bridge to pick up directional pressure with greater and lesser degrees of threat time and time again. We can also quantify base emotion through touch i.e. what angry feels like, or scared, or crazy, or excited, or relaxed. It would seem then, that the heart is reading, processing and remembering this experience to trigger impulse on a comparative basis.

It may be fair to conclude then, that if the heart is capable of activating physiological change by influencing the brain, that the heart plays a primary role in intuitive behaviour. The efficiency of signal from the heart to brain and its ability to cue physiological response to external stimuli, provides us with an innate ability to supplement our fighting with (it would seem), an intuitive heart intelligence (we would be doing this unconsciously). 

From this we could conclude that conscious decisiveness cannot be solely ascribed to brain function and that there is a high probability that mind and mind function is the sum of heart and brain intelligences operating in cohesion. 

There is no doubt then that when dealing through touch sensitivity, and fighting at close range, if addressing the minds role in combat - the heart has a part to play in our output and effectiveness. 

As the heart is directly assisting in the making up of minds, it would seem that ‘punch starts from the heart’ may be a little deeper than envisaged. 

When assessing confident (courageous) decision making, we could suppose that a good relationship between the heart and the brain may contribute to an increase in confident decisiveness, with quicker, more favourable results.

When considering the maxim – ‘punch starts from the heart’, it is appropriate then to think about more than the physical positioning of the fist. 

The mind acts as the body’s conductor. 

Without the minds power to choose, there would be no punch to begin with. 

We have to – ‘make up our mind’- choosing purposefully between do or do not, between ‘a’ and ‘b’ or ‘a’ and ‘b’ simultaneously. 

When we talk about making up our mind figuratively, this term might be developed from a subconscious appreciation of conversation between brain and heart?   

I think it’s no coincidence that people are naturally swayed toward ‘following’ their hearts rather than being ‘ruled’ by their heads – trusting a ‘gut’ feeling. 

When people talk about sincerity things are ‘heartfelt’. 

Maybe subconsciously, we realise the aptitude of intuitive function, or appreciate that using logic alone indicates that we lack synchronicity of heart and brain intelligence that affects efficient or effective behaviour? And violence as a behaviour must be included.

The mind elects and directs intention - volition. 

This is not concentrated thought, it is conscious choice. Concentrated thought is brain function and dwells on memory and experience (past). 

Conscious choice is spontaneous and operating purposefully in the moment (present) it is the creator of change, and in Wing Chun we should be changing willfully in the moment until the task at hand is complete - changing shape, angle, line, position, torsion, as efficiently as possible in our endeavour to control or destroy our opponent. 

Looking at activity or technology that can enhance the health of the heart and the development of the connection between heart and brain may have potential in upgrading fighting ability, the heavy cardio work and free sparring I indulge in Chinese Kickboxing, and Thai Boxing, whilst improving my fitness and endurance, may have been developing something entirely different at the same time. Many Wing Chun guys like to rationalise their lack of cardio in the economy of motion excuse, looking at the research they could be missing out on much more than just a healthy heart.

 

Wing Chun Masters are not alone in the assertion that the heart is more than a pump. 

Many Yogic traditions use methods dedicated to opening up the heart chakra. 

A lot of people still rubbish the chakra system as ‘hocus pocus’ but fail to realise that on a scientific basis, the heart communicates information to the brain via an electromagnetic field and that the heart generates the body’s most powerful and extensive field – (500 times stronger than that of the brain in-fact). It also has links via things called baroreceptors in the major blood vessels which respond to changes in blood pressure and send chemical messages to the brain. There is a huge soup of chemical messengers that transmit information between brain, heart, and muscle. 

Every cell becomes bathed in them. 

The heart is an active seat of intelligence, capable of assessment and persuasion.

Siu Nim Tao in regulating emotion and breathing is regulating heart rate – this affects the body in its entirety. 

This affects the signals sent from heart to brain whilst we move, our ability to remain calm, and the ability of the heart to communicate to the brain a stored memory of emotional state during practice, to fortify composure and ability when we need it for real. 

Maybe in ‘attacking’ our Wing Chun scientifically we should be identifying practice that improves connection between the brain and the heart. 

This is important because for fight sport or for those who dwell outside of striking range between strikes, the brain has more time to call on memory to employ an attack sequence/combination.  

If instead you are working to maintain strike range, pressure should be triggering an impulsive response in you for adaptation of shape to allow you to continue fighting effectively without loosing control or being struck. 

Understanding heart/brain dialogue operating to support decision and change can only make us more earnest. 

Obviously, with or without our understanding - this process takes place all the time. But if we are aware of it, perhaps it can help us develop it further.

Focus on breath brings us into the moment, and remaining calm allows us to operate two coordinated physical actions in a single beat.

Thinking with the brain is important in deducing chance/probability. It operates consideration. 

When we can factor odds we are reassured in our betting albeit hypothetical. 

Post calculation, and after successful repetition, calmness may pervade via confidence, reducing consideration time and allowing the mind to take charge to exact choice (function), and initiate change via an enhanced relationship to feeling rather than recall. 

This is not behaviour based on assumption and thought -feeling is locked in the ‘now’ – feeling is a firm grip on the immediate – the heart can amplify this, and we are training it all the time.  

Feeling awareness can accelerate perception to aid in mindful spontaneous change. 

This enhances our fighting ability with the production of competence – ahead in maintaining position, structure, and change inside striking distance. Not guessing – knowing! 

Feeling is the quickest messenger, quicker than sight in assisting choice. 

With the benefit of trained reflex response, it produces greater efficiency and lessens gamble. 

Being confident, calm and relaxed, our muscles remain soft and primed for change. 

A relaxed shot is primed for maximum power transfer into the target and ease of transition. 

A limb without unnecessary torsion travels faster and is aided by acceleration to produce more powerful impact. 

Being relaxed we can unite with gravity to aid our stability and thus precision.

  

I believe the masters who created Wing Chun were well aware of the hearts role in decisiveness and its interpretation of feeling. 

They were actively pulling it into play through close range combat to perfect reaction to stimuli. 

The punch emanates from the heart....Starts from the decisiveness to strike. 

Logic and intuition merge as a balanced protective mechanism to aid timing and choice. 

When we talk about the hearts and minds of people, maybe we talk about the same thing?



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