Why Basics Do Not Work

 

There is a time to let go

 

Now before we get going here, it is worth noting that there is no substitute for basics, basics are essential, and often, if ever there is a problem with an advanced technique, the answer is to be found in your basics, but you must know when to let these basics go.

 

However, too many people study the basics, drilling them to perfection (and well done you by the way), but then keep them the same throughout their advanced training, while at the same time wondering why they do not seem to be progressing.

My Sifu, Grandmaster Ip Chun, would often refer to the forms of Siu Lim Tau, Chum Kiu and Muk Yan Jong Fat, as being junior schools, high school and university, then asking, “Which one is the most important?”, the answer being, ‘Whichever one you are training at that time’.

 

This thinking should be applied for drills too, in so far that what they offer you at the time of your introduction to these drills (as the beginner), is what you need at that stage of your training, but these drills should grow and change as you do.

 

We may all agree that to rush ahead too early is foolish, but so is staying at one level for too long, often just because the instructor cannot be bothered or usually, knows no different (or maybe they’re just trying to keep you down to make them look good!).

 

Rigid Chi Sau is an obvious example, yes ok, it may well be that when you were first taught a Tan Sau, it was a certain distance away from you, and when you learned Bong Sau you were told that the rotation from the wrist meant that the Bong was the same distance away from you as the Tan, but this is not necessarily the case, and for sure not in Chi Sau, especially if someone pushes on your Bong!

If there is pressure on your Bong, and you refuse to allow this to draw in, ‘Because I was told where a Bong Sau should be!’, then you will be giving a forward resistance, which will then be pulled down, trapping your Bong and Tan resulting in you getting hit.

So, do people learn to relax their Bong and utilise this pressure, no, they decide to roll arms on two different lines, avoiding the potential for being trapped but leaving their centre open.  So, practise rolling in Poon Sau, playing lots of changes, and encouraging the Bong to respond to forward pressure by drawing in.  Through doing this, when you go into Gor Sau (normal Chi Sau), any pressure applied to the Bong has now given you the choice to better understand Lapping that pressure.

 

Lap Sau exercise and Dan Chi Sau, should also be played closer, practising the idea of forward thinking, if your palm strike is not stopped, don’t stop!  Training closer will also encourage the Bong to be used, more by thinking of the elbow lifting, rather than previously mentioned, of the hand pushing forward.

 

Pak Sau drills are the biggest area where we can have free reign and great fun, once we discard the basics that is.

As a beginner, we can start by stepping in, training our Biu Mar and trying to give no awareness or indication through our front hand of our intensions.  After gaining comfort with the step in, we then add the Pak, and when the path is cleared, we punch, simple.

When this is understood, we can encourage the thing to flow as one, even though it does not, not yet at least, and likely not for most people reading this right now.

Why I say this is because, okay, for the beginner it is expected that as they step and Pak as one, they telegraph the intention before they even begin the step, so what do we do, we go back to stage one, the sensitivity, but let’s say you are beyond the obvious ‘front-hand push’ and can flow as one, so where is your mistake?

It is fair to say that your legs will never be as fast as your hands, therefore, if you are following this drill to the letter, PAK and punch, and you have the standard basic GUARD, then before you even get to use your Pak, your step will have indicated before you moved.

Usually people think that to improve, you need speed, not necessarily so, you need technique.

 

‘Never sacrifice technique for speed or power’

 

It is true that technique alone will not beat speed and power, I am saying you need all three, because the way to gain more speed and more power, is through technique.

Changing the way you Pak will make you faster, without trying to go faster.

When people only try to go faster, all they are doing is speeding up the telegraphing.

So how do we do this?

 

Firstly, we focussed on stepping and sensitivity, then we addressed the Pak itself, then we tried to Pak and punch together, telegraphing our intention through the shifting of the body weight, and this is where most people stop, or to put this another way, this is where the basics stop you.

If you were to use your phone and video yourself executing a Pak, it is most likely that your front foot will land with the Pak, so try taking this to another level by having the front foot land with the punch instead!

It will be the same Pak and delivered at the same speed but, because you have altered the technique slightly it will appear twice as fast, and give you double the success.

Let’s now go to yet another level, the delivery of the Pak…

 

To give this a touch more interest, as well as realism and usefulness, change the instigator.  By this I mean, when you execute a Pak, YOU decide when to step, YOU decide at what pace you step, and YOU decide when to execute the Pak, but when we flip this over, the fun starts.  How about if the person who is going to Pak stays in their stance, and the defender is the one to step in, so I step in using Biu Mar (and at what speed I choose), and when I am in a range that youfeel is applicable, you Pak and punch, continuing of course with the required follow-ups should this punch be defended.

 

Going to another level still, let’s look at the guard…

If you were going to defend by using a Pak Sau, you would not use your back hand, nor would you use a back hand to try to attack, Wing Chun would have you use the lead hand as much as possible before the need for the back hand at all.

Now before I get into the idea of this Pak, there’s something I need to address, the idea of a guard, with a backhand, why do you have a backhand?

This may look good in the movies, but as we’ve all seen in practice, whenever someone uses the traditional (or basic) guard, they get their ass kicked!

 

In Chi Sau we have two front hands, in sparring we have two front hands, the idea of a Wu Sau is simple, if a hand is not being used, it’s a guard, but if you are going to be using your hands, you do not know yet, which one will be used, so why take one of them out of the equation?!

Previously I mentioned not telegraphing by showing the body stepping in before the Pak, with that same thinking, why begin with your Paking hand so far back, AND already in centre?!

 

‘We do not get into a position to do a technique,

We do the technique from the position we are in.’

 

To enable you to Pak Sau a strike coming down centre, with the palm of your hand, you would need to be in an outside position, NOT in centre, therefore, change your guard for the drill too, by having two front hands.

Combining the practical positioning of two front hands, meaning you are ready for what may occur, then adding into the mix having your partner stepping in to you (rather than you to them), this gives the whole thing fun, and makes it extremely practical.

NOW, your Pak drills have a reason, they are exciting and rewarding, AND twice as fast.  After getting to this stage, revisit the idea of the basic Pak Sau drill, and the difference is astonishing.

 

This principle can then be taken further still, by using all of the same building blocks mentioned, but not from an initial contact, but from a strike/grab/push, this oncoming force (with a step toward you), can then be defended with the Pak/punch, now working the follow-ups which were trained in the earlier stages of this drill.

To take this further again, this now closed-down positioning (created from Pak Sau training), could also be used as the link into Chi Sau could it not?  My point is just this, if we had stayed with the basics, as they were shown to us when we first needed them, I mean, these would just be baby steps compared to what we could create from them, should we allow ourselves to grow.

 

Now for all instructors, it is worth noting that although this thinking is a breakthrough to many, it should not be shared to all, not until they are ready.  To give an absolute beginner licence to train this way, would clearly see later repercussions, though overcommitment and lack of control.

Imagine a literary giant, the world’s best novelist deciding to teach English literature but deciding to avoid the alphabet because he\she, felt that this was beneath them.

That may well be the case, but drills and forms are needed, at a particular time, with a particular approach, with a particular attitude, depending on what you need at that time.

 

So, what I am saying is that basics are essential, of this there is no doubt, but there is a time to relax them, allowing for growth.

We are not dis-guarding the basics, simply outgrowing them, like a snake sheading its skin or a hermit crab finding a bigger shell, or, like a child outgrowing their favourite shoes.

 

We still need shoes, but as your feet grow, so should your shoes.

 

Thank you for reading.