Siu Nim Tau - "The Little Idea"

Little did I know that my first lesson with Sifu was exactly what I was looking for.

I did not practice fighting, I did not practice forms, I did not practice punching. I simply stood whilst Sifu explained to me the concept of the "little idea" in broken English.

To be clear, there was no language barrier, if anything me trying to convert the simple terms that he was saying in my head probably helped me to understand better. He wanted me to understand from the very beginning that Wing Chun is not performed with conscious thought but rather with the powerful subconscious.

An example he used is that he doesn't want us to consciously think to perform a Tan Sau he wants us to reflexively do it. Not reflexively like breathing or your heart beating. He wants us to perform the moves like we perform walking or running.

"You do not use the big idea to decide to run," he said reaching up and tapping my forehead.
"You use the little idea," He finished whilst tapping the back of my head.

But how do we use this?
"You cannot use the big idea to think I'm relax now I go to sleep. You have to make relax to go to sleep. Use your little idea." Again with the tapping.

He then proceeded to explain that relaxing is so important to Wing Chun and very hard to sustain. He quickly shutdown any ideas I had of "surely to punch with power I need to tense my muscles" with a simple demonstration.

Stood simply with his arm in front of him he invited me to try and stop him from raising his hand.  I was using all of my power and he was completely relaxed when he slowly raised his hand no matter how much I resisted.

Now with me stood, arms by my sides he said, "Use your big idea to try and stop me from lifting your arm." Again, try as I might, my arm collapsed under his weight.

Next by simply telling me to focus on balancing and ignoring him he proved that I could use my little idea to great effect. With the same if not more force from him he couldn't lift my arm. I was relaxed and focused on balance. This seemed to connect my arm to my entire body. He didn't simply have to over power the muscles that I was focusing on he had to resist all of them and essentially my entire weight.

From then on I was hooked.