Improve Your Basic

 In a class with Sifu we spend a lot of time Standing to help open our 'little idea.' I've mentioned this before and I said clearly that it is not just standing we are improving our basic. These are things that never change regardless of what we are doing. In Chi Sau, fighting, completing the form we should always keep our basic the same, and ignore any external forces.

So what is the basic?

1. No 'Big Idea': It is important not to think about what you are doing with the big idea, don't concentrate to hard, don't think about training or improving, don't feel, don't doubt yourself, don't want to do anything. This is probably the most important one as thinking like this will block you using your little idea.
2. Balance: Not just side to side, but vertical. Imagine a pencil balancing on its point; it can fall any direction just like us.
3. Rotate your joints: any adjustments to your body should come from your little idea including rotating your shoulder joints back and down.
4. Lift the anus: imagine you are making a straight light with your spine and you are lifting it from the bottom, and it is being pulled from the top
5. Naturally relaxed: when you are relaxed it should be natural, don't force it. As long as it isn't tense it is relaxed, it shouldn't be floppy. Separate the muscles from the spine to open up the chest.
6. Finally you must improve it all with your little idea, Don't be scared of it. Subtle gentle movements with the little idea. If you are scared of moving for fear of using the big idea, you will be using that big idea!

Ip Man, Yes man

Sifu told a story the other day.

It was after saying 'No shape, no form, Tan Sao is Tan Sao only when you use your little idea.' He said, 'Ip mans nickname was yes man' because whenever his students asked if their Tan Sao, or Lap Sao was correct he would just say 'Yes' regardless of what it looked like.

Now without being there, knowing what Ip Man meant by that is just what has been passed down by Chu Shong Tin. Sifu says that this is just further proof that there is no specific way to to a Tan Sao etc, except to use your little idea.

My own conjecture is that saying yes to any shape will boost the students confidence in themselves. Sifu has often said that you need to believe you are doing the move right so that you are not thinking 'is this right?' all the time. It is also to remind the students that structure is such a small part of the movement.

In later lessons Sifu has said that having good structure is good for people at a very beginner level, as it makes it harder for you to give up the little idea. He did explain that this does depend on the individual though.

Three stages.

Standing. Moving. Maintaining

When standing still it is hard enough to maintain the state. To keep your frontal lobe away and feel nothing so that you can balance and relax enough to use your cerebral cortex (little idea). 

There are constant moments were you 'feel' that you are doing something wrong which can bring you right out of the state. You use your frontal lobe to correct and this only exacerbates the problems.
So you have to 'stand' and balance to open your little idea, then you have to try (but not try) to maintain it. You have to use your little idea to become more relaxed, more balanced the whole time not thinking or caring how can I improve whilst still improving. A tall order and it is all just your Basic.

Once you have got somewhere with this you have to start moving. This is where you do all of the above whilst also completing movements. A Tan Sao using your joints not your muscles, using your little idea, not thinking about it. Never wondering if the movement is right and the whole time maintaining the Basic.

Then once you are somewhere with this you need to start maintaining all of this when there is an opposing force present. When someone is physically trying to stop you competing a Tan Sao. And what do you have to do? The same as before, except you have to ignore the opposing force. You have to relax, and balance, and open the little idea. You use that to move your arm. You cant care whether you are doing it correctly, or you wont do it correctly, you cant feel or resist or oppose the incoming force, you simply have to complete the movement.



Three stages, not all, and maybe not even the first three however I certainly feel like I am going through each. Each has its own intricacies though they are all essentially the same. The kicker is you can never be sure that you are doing it right and at least to start, at least what I have to do at the moment, you have to not care if you are doing it right...

Absence of feeling

The majority of Wing Chun is to not let outside forces affect you. You should maintain the little idea state and ignore external forces. To put this another way, if you are doing it right, you shouldn't feel anything...

For example, during Chi Sao when you roll up Bong Sao you do not need to feel anything. The opponents force should simply roll off you.

When you first experience it it is a very spooky feeling. This in itself can be enough to stop you doing it. You expect to feel something where as you should just complete the movement with your 'little idea.'

A highly addictive feeling or lack there of...

The Meaning of Kung Fu

One lesson I arrived before other students so it was just Sifu and I for the first 10 minutes.

Again he reiterates the standard important points that he addresses every lesson however he paused and asked me, 'What is the meaning of KungFu?'

I actually tried to answer with what I had read somewhere before maybe wikipedia, that it relates to any skill that some one has gained over time through effort and persistence. It doesn't even have to refer to fighting or combat skills.

After a few moments of confusion whilst I try and explain this, he simply says, 'Kung-Fu means Ha-bit.'

He went on to describe again that we are training to make the movements habitual and controlled by our subconscious, our 'little idea' we're not trying to think, 'he's punched with a right hook, what should I counter with?'

The wikipedia entry isn't wrong, sifu just had a simpler way of summing it up...

Linking the top to the bottom

In the standard stance (which we adopt every lesson to practice the little idea) sifu is always telling me to 'lift my anus'...

It certainly sounds like a translation problem at first but the more he explained it, it started to make a little sense.

The teachings of this lineage of Wing Chun have to start with a solid foundation. You must start with the little idea or 'open your little idea, close your big idea,' as sifu often puts it.
If you can use your little idea to perform the moves then it will inherently carry the weight of your entire body behind it.

Naturally however the body is split into legs and torso even if it doesn't feel like it. When you are walking around it makes sense to try and be 'light' on your feet so it takes less effort to move your legs under the majority of your torso. With Wing Chun sifu is explaining that you need a good structure. By 'lifting the anus' you can connect the two.

Lift the anus??

So to lift the anus it is exactly like you are trying to stop eager bowel movements whilst you are hunting for a toilet in a busy shopping mall. Though again, this cant be tense like you would be if you were squeezing your fist shut of you will focus too much on that and let the rest of the muscles in the area go. It needs to be lightly clenched and relaxed.

The result is that everything is relaxed and controlled by the little idea.  You will be balanced and should feel nothing. Now the structure is sound and any weight or force added to it will be directed into the ground.

Sounds simple? It makes sense in its simple form here but in practice it is hard.