Who Is Right And Who Is Wrong?

Try not to be blinkered

Image by Alex Blajan

‘Who is right and who is wrong?’

Quick answer:

No one is

You both are

Everyone has something to offer and everyone has something to learn, fact.

I think it was Confucius who said:

“The man who claims to know everything is a fool, for his learning has ceased”

And if I got that wrong, then surely I’ve just proved my point. 🙂

Of course there are those who teach complete b*** s*** and go around calling themselves Grandmasters (mainly because they are the only ones who know what the hell they are talking about) and there are also those who believe that their way his the only way.

Well in the second case, if you are referring to your personal training and your personal preferences then I totally agree with you, but when it comes to teaching, we must always allow our students to work out the best way of training for them, NOT you.

We are all built differently and what works for one does not always work for another.

I recently wrote a couple of article called ‘Is it ok to not sit back? (Parts 1&2)’ where I tried to explain that if you are not built for sitting back, do not sit back, although you will need more power in your arms to support this.

Please note: I did say ‘sit’ back and not ‘lean’ back, and even then this sitting back can be only 60/40 weight distribution and not necessarily the 70/30 extreme which we usually train.

In short, if you are slight of build, move yourself out of the way! (You wouldn’t stand in the way of a moving train would you?)

If you are stocky or strong, why not just move them out of the way? (Especially if you are not as fast on your feet)

I will say this though, if a bug tries to fly into your eye, you will quickly move your head, so why not at least try to do the same for a punch?

I have been training for forty years and teaching for over thirty, and I have seen some crap in my time, but I will always try to see the positives in what that person may be trying to achieve, either through teaching or training.

It is important to try and see a different perspective to our studies, and, hopefully for the purpose of this blog, you will allow yourself to do the same, after all, isn’t this what Bruce Lee did?

He didn’t want to lean Karate because he wanted to learn Karate, Judo to do Judo or Western boxing to do Western boxing, he wanted to learn them in order to see things from their perspective (and ultimately then, how to defeat them), but agin, this was HIS training for HIS needs.

There is a MASSIVE difference between training for yourself, and teaching others, there will always be things that you can do that your students cannot, so teach EVERYTHING, let them see both sides and use what works best for them.

Of course you will try teaching your own way first, why wouldn’t you, that’s the path you were taught and believe in, but if your student cannot do this so well, allow them to have their Wing Chun mould to them, not the other way around.

As I always tell my students:

‘If it’s not comfortable, it’s not right’

Here is the first of two videos to help explain my point, thank you for watching.

Continued:

I often find myself comparing day to day life with Wing Chun, (and vice versa) and this also goes for when watching movies, TV shows, etc.

As a younger man I loved TV adverts, I loved the idea that you only had thirty seconds to tell your story, (getting to the point, just like teaching Wing Chun) these days adverts seem so boring, certainly when trying to sell a car by showing twenty five seconds of a dog performing Swan Lake, ok it may have been very beautiful but it there any chance of seeing what you’re actually selling?

In the 70’s and 80’s adverts had some originality about them (obviously, being that long ago) but some also had real impact, one of which was for the Guardian newspaper, an advert that was so Wing Chun it was untrue, an advert I joyfully stumble across the other day while looking at something on Youtube.

This second video also proves the point that we need to be open minded, that neither person is right or wrong, it is not until we allow ourselves to see the bigger picture that we can take onboard the view form both sides.

Thank you for watching.

WingChun.Online