Give 100%
Nothing is THAT easy
Yesterday I had my first escape into the free world and had a taste of how things used to be, by going for a game of golf
.
I had not played in years anyway so didn’t expect much (for further reference to this train of thought, type, ‘8 Ball of Wing Chun’ into our search engine).
As it happens I didn’t play too badly, only losing the one (dozen) ball/s, but the thing the hit me was the putting, the greens were very dry and very fast, and it took me three shots every time to put the darn thing in the hole, even the ones I thought were unmissable (and if that’s not a word then it should be).
The fresh air and the long walk was wonderful, and as usual I could not get Wing Chun out of my mind, all the time while playing golf I was thinking of this,
Rule of three.
Everything has three;
Learning Wing Chun:
Learn the shapes
Learn to defend using those shapes
Learn to defend and counter attack
Playing golf:
Driving
Chipping
Putting
Playing snooker:
Potting
Snookers
Safety
And so on…
Always give 100%
While mentioning snooker (and my umissable putt), I am reminded of the great snooker coach, Jack Karnehm, for our younger readers, his contributions were responsible for the development of many world champions, such as:
Ray Reardon,
Terry Griffiths,
John Spencer,
Steve Davis,
Dennis Taylor and more.
If you’ve not heard of them either, let’s just say they were good players.
Anyway, one of the things I remember him saying was that you should always give every shot 100%, sounds obvious I know but there’s more to it than that.
To give an example (he’d say) if you have a long and difficult pot, put 90% on the pot and only 10% on position, but if you have a pot where the ball is sitting over the bag and cannot be missed (unmissable), then only put 10% on the pot but 90% on position.
Something I was not doing with my golf, and, something many do not do in their Wing Chun.
If you play Chi Sau and all you have to do is roll, only 10% needed.
If you are playing Dan Chi, only 10% needed.
If you are playing your Forms, only 10% needed.
So what do we do with the other 90%?
Focus on the rest, use it wisely, but DO use it.
If playing Chi Sau use the remaining 90% to be ready for anything, to check you are relaxed where possible and have the necessary stance/footwork.
If playing Dan Chi, use the remaining 90% to focus on the elbow being the driving force, how it connects to the ground and how your stance remains static.
If playing your Forms use the remaining 90% to feel the applications, to use the actions with their intentions and to have exactly the right amount of energy at exactly the right time.
So in short, whatever you are doing,
Give it 100% and you will never go far wrong.
