Tag Archives: Function

5 Techniques to Improve Your Technique

Posted on by
2

High-Tech Arm.

Technique is your basis in WingChun. By technique I mean the accuracy, efficacy and quality of your movements. It displays as being clear in your intention and clean in your action. This depends on right knowledge and ample practice.

If you are swimming, precise technique allows you to glide faster and longer through the water. Swinging a high-tech titanium bat lets you hit harder and farther than a wooden one. In Self-Defense, poor technique decreases the likelihood and increases the difficulty of successful application, which is dangerous in a survival context. Such sloppiness is often due to forcing and rushing. You can amplify, rather than substitute, technique with power and speed.

There are consequential visual, tactile and, especially, functional differences between merely good and extremely great technical performance. How do you hone the latter? Here are several suggestions I’d like to share with you: Continue reading →

Is Authentic Best?

Posted on by
Reply

Do not seek to follow in the footsteps of the wise.
Seek what they sought.
— Matsuo Basho

In any field of human knowledge with at least a generation or two of transmitted history a common question arises. It starts as a discussion and often ends as a debate about authenticity. Are the follower’s interpretations true to the founder’s intention? Does modern expression accurately represent traditional practice? What exactly constitutes fidelity to the original?

For those who are past-oriented, authenticity is the preservation of ritual forms and norms. We can describe their ideal as traditional. They are like archaeologists researching artifacts to formulate coherence from partial records.

For those who are present-oriented, authenticity is the prioritization of direct relevance and application. We can label their process as progressive. They are like engineers finding ways to create practical tools with useful functions. Neither the traditional or progressive view is more or less authentic than the other, nor are they mutually exclusive objectives. The primary meaning of authenticity and its source merely differs. Continue reading →