Tag Archives: WingChun Training

Repattern Your WingChun

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The question is not what you look at, but what you see.

— Henry David Thoreau

 

The time is now. Life has its ups and downs, its highs and lows. Things start and end, people come and go. But there is an eternal constant, which is the chance to change.

That means no matter how hard or bad the moment is, there is always a way to keep going, to keep growing. We can dig down into our own inner resources to survive. But to thrive, allies really help.

These can be your family or friends. On the martial path, they are your students, colleagues, and teachers. Without them, we cannot get far. With their support, our path towards mastery can endure with fun, progress, and meaning. They reflect parts of ourselves we need to look at, including our very thoughts. Continue reading →

Reasons to Quit WingChun

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quit“It matters if you just don’t give up.”
— Stephen Hawking

How was your first quarter? Just over a week ago, we passed the vernal equinox to enter another cycle of springtime, which reminds me what WingChun 詠春 means — Praising Spring. This is reason to reflect on a renewed season of growth.

88 days of 2015 have already gone by, leaving us just 75% of the year. Let’s pause a moment to notice where we are right now. How deep are you breathing? Is there peace in your heart? What is your state of health? What is your sense of self? Do you feel purpose in life? Who are you close to?

These are essential questions and, as an ambivert, I often fail to express my answers enough. However, more than anything lately, I hold dear important relationships. These are not always the easy, happy and positive ones. But they help me see new things, challenge my beliefs and force needed change.

Similarly, for all its beauty we can rejoice in, the way of WingChun relates us to pain, loss and discomfort. Besides the occasional aches, bumps and bruises, we also have to face our boredom, doubt and frustration. These inevitably surface if we stay with something long enough.

And then we start wondering: Continue reading →

My WingChun Trip Report

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Sihing Paul at IAW Event 2012.

Since 2008, I’ve travelled to Germany half a dozen times. I’m grateful for these opportunities to do so. Without my students, colleagues or teacher, this would be impossible. They support me physically, emotionally, mentally, spiritually, socially, financially. No one succeeds, though each one must proceed, alone.

Years ago I realized that I wanted to seek a path, to master something, to become extraordinary. None of this is a big deal. I am not the first to dream as such, even among the thousands to have come and gone in this last decade of the IAW. However, the sheer reality of necessary resources invested long-term is another matter. Continue reading →

Music of the Bones

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The following post is a personal essay my student Mariano Wechsler. He shares his sensory experience of “becoming WingChun”:

Root down, branch out.

I drive my legs to the ground rooting myself down in the Earth. Like an old Oak sucking water from deep among the soil, I draw the energy from my feet into my legs and up to my torso to deliver power through my arms.

This pulse of energy passes through my body again and again like waves crashing ashore, one after the next.

I exhale sharply at the end of each movement as every muscle locks in clock-like synchrony. Continue reading →