Why Such Hatred?

 

Why Such Hatred?

 

The reason I fell in love with Wing Chun over 35 years ago was because of its beauty and elegance, such a magical art form, offering so much by way of its skill sets, its internal health benefits and poise (to name but a few).

 

To me, I always believed that Martial Arts should be about finding inner peace, contentment, enlightenment, longevity and so on.

 

Yes of course we can say it is to learn how to fight, to defend ourselves, and our loved ones, but how much time are you actually fighting and how much time are you not?

 

There’s about as bigger difference as you could imagine.

 

Master Ip Chun says,

“We should not learn Wing Chun just to fight as this may take a whole lifetime for a fight which may last just seconds. Or, you may train all of your life and (hopefully) never even have that fight. Although, you may train for six months and it possibly save your life”.

 

For 25 years of teaching, I had kept myself to myself, leaving everyone else to bicker amongst themselves, with my student’s only awareness of ‘Politics’ being something to do with general elections and nothing to do with their training.

 

I remember the stupidity of the ‘Wing Chun Wars’ back in the 1980’s with people trying to say ‘My style is better than your style’, and so on, and you know what?

Maybe it is, maybe it isn’t, So what?  Who Cares?

 

This is not the school playground anymore, this is the real world, where people have families, jobs, mortgages, responsibilities and so on, so how about you grow up and leave ‘Which style is the best?’ for the student to decide.

 

In 1991 I became a disciple of Grandmaster Ip Chun, and I made a promise to him to help him spread his Father’s Wing Chun around the world, and, after some time I realized that I am probably not doing this to the best of my ability by just staying in my school in Armley, Leeds, that’s why five years ago I started wingchun.online

 

The down side of this vehicle is that teaching online means having to reach out via social media such as Facebook groups, and it is here where I find the hardship.

 

Where has the sharing gone?

 

Where is the search for an expansion of knowledge?

 

Why do people find it so easy to just criticize rather than try to see a different perspective?

 

What are you afraid of, that you may learn something or possibly lose students?

 

Remember:

‘The man who claims to know everything is a fool for his learning has ceased’.

 

This ‘Keyboard warrior’ mentality is usually dispensed over forums etc. from students, those with little experience, and the kind of student who thinks their Sifu is a God.

 

Now don’t get me wrong, there’s nothing wrong in a student appreciating the teachings of their Sifu, but a little knowledge is a dangerous thing and boasting they know best, is probably NOT appreciated by their teacher.

 

So for God’s sake, can we all just stop the bitching and bad mouthing, try to share the wealth and maybe try to learn together?

 

Let’s all remember the reasons we started training, the enjoyment we had from the start through learning, there is no reason to want to lose that, and possibly poison the next generation in their thinking too.

 

I truly wish you all the best in your training,

Success in your teaching,

& Peace and wellbeing in your lives.