WingTsun
WingTsun
and comprehension of the principles of Wing Chun were much deeper and highly refined. Far beyond of those his younger Kung Fu brother, Chan Wa Shun, had.
Although Yip Man learned as much from Chan Wa Shun as from Leung Bik, and although he stated that Leung Bik ' s lineage was much broader, deeper and impressive, Yip Man never said his Sifu was Leung Bik. Yip Man understood the respect that a pupil should have for his teacher! More than one of us should look in depth this lesson of RESPECT and Kung Fu... But today ' s topic takes us there, at that historical moment: when Yip Man returns to
Fatshan and when he shows the knowledge he had learned from Leung Bik( Leung Jan ' s direct lineage) his fellow practitioners, elder school brothers and the rest of the WingTsun community of Fatshan are alarmed and say without blush: THAT ' S NOT WING TSUN!
I want to imagine the profound disappointment that the great master must have felt when, trying to improve their system and display the finest flavors of this exciting style, was repressed by his peers for having a different " aesthetics " in his practice than the one he had years before. Today things are exactly the same. Let ' s see: despite he surpassed all and every one of his fellow practitioners at both technical and combative level, the vast majority of them kept regarding GM Yip Man as a " traitor " to the style. Because he trained and did things in a different way from what they had been taught by their sifu. What is more, because he had practiced with a master of THEIR OWN SCHOOL, THEIR OWN STYLE. Incredible! Does it sound to you? Well... today is exactly the same. Those things of the pendulum...
Years later, when asked about what was or was not WingTsun, Yip Man used some wise words that in my opinion summarize the system and we solve any doubt we might have. He said: " If it meets the principles, is WingTsun..." The principles of WingTsun are often recited aloud by the practitioners of this style, but rarely are they studied in depth for them to be put into practice:
1.- If the way is clear, advance. 2.- If you crash with something, stick to it 3.- If the strength is greater than yours, yield... 4.- If he withdraws... pursue him.
Today I would like to invite Wing Tsun practitioners to look with deeper eyes at what they do and to avoid judging personal style of others. I firmly believe that this system has created( and keeps creating) exceptional martial artists and the simple fact that the aesthetics of what others do is different from ours does not give us the " patent ". Furthermore, if you look and reflect, you will realize that, in many cases, there are people who perform movements with a real WingTsun aesthetics, but behind that there is no principle whatever. Only choreography. They say that he who forgets his past, buries his future. Let ' s look at the history of this style and many of the problems we face today will disappear when we come to understand that the only way for the martial artist is the daily practice. What others do, or others ' personal style, shouldn ' t matter much in an art that is INDIVIDUALISTIC by definition.
The great richness of this art allows us to observe personal styles as different as those of my Sigung K. Kernspecht, my Sifu Victor, Sifu Saly Avcy, Sifu Emin, Sifu Tasos, and so many others that despite being very different in appearance, they are nothing less than superb at martial level. So we shouldn ' t judge anyone by the aesthetics of what he does, instead we should try to see the good in every one of them so that we can improve our individual practice.
I hope this serves to better understand this system.
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