December 19, 2003
Kung Fu Connections: Follow up
I met with the Dean today to hand in an application and discuss my future plans. He's a busy guy - it took more than a half hour before we met. He was so enthusiastic, encouraging, and helpful. He said we need to start meeting more regularly to stay on top of the many academic opportunities I have. I had no idea I had so many options. But I could tell the whole time we talked that he was just waiting to bring up kung fu.
He has been training a Northern style for many years and had his own club at Harvard during gradschool. He said his club has continued to grow through the years and that he still keeps in touch with some of the members. "I've been waiting for someone to start a gung fu club here. I just want you to know that I strongly support what you are doing. You can't even comprehend how good this club will be for you." We talked about what kung fu means to us. I kept thinking: am I really having this conversation with one of the most important administrative Deans in the school.
Finally, he handed me his business card: "Put me on your email list. I want to be a part of this. I'm incredibly busy next semester, but I'm teaching a class Tuesday and Thursday evenings and perhaps we could work out one of those nights. I'll be exhausted after a 12 hour work day... But I'm excited. My wife will probably be angry with me when I come home after being gone all day. Maybe I'll just have to bust out the gung fu. ha ha." I couldn't believe it. I've been thinking what it would be like to have not only students participate in my club, but also professors. I never imagined a Dean would join.
December 11, 2003
The Yip Man Wing Chun Family Tree
http://www.wingchun.com/yipline.html
The people at Planet Wing Chun are developing a lineage tree for the Yip Man branch. Very Cool! :D
December 10, 2003
December 09, 2003
Leung Ting's Answer to the Photoshop incident
http://www.leungting.com/headchange.htm
MARKUS SENFT’S INTERVIEW WITH GREAT GRANDMASTER LEUNG TING
Mr Markus Senft is a free-lance martial arts journalist in Germany. Below is the special interview given by the Great Grandmaster Leung Ting while he was in Germany.
For many years there is a “Head-changing Photo” circulated on a number of web sites. It is so said that “in the mid 70s, Leung Ting used a photograph in one of his books, which was originally a photo taken by a reporter during an interview of the late Great Grandmaster Yip Man showing the chief editor of the New Martial Heroes standing beside the seated Grandmaster in his own house. Employing some cut and past technique, Leung Ting substituted the head of the chief editor with his own and made people believe that it was him who was standing beside the late Grandmaster.”
The story and the photo have spread far and wide for years. Despite that, however, it seemed that the Great Grandmaster Leung Ting was never concerned about such an accusation. He did not even respond formally!
This had made more people believe that it might not be a rumor at all. Nevertheless, each time he was asked, the Great Grandmaster only smiled and said: “Look at the head in each photo and see which one looks much bigger and which one looks more vague. Ha, Ha….”. That was all the response.
If we look back over the last 30 years of the history of WingTsun (Wing Chun) since Prof Leung started it all the late 60s, we can surely find certain similarity in his character and that of the late Great Grandmaster Yip Man. The late Great Grandmaster Yip Man was never concerned about any ulterior accusations made against him. So was Prof Leung Ting.
Again if we look back to the mid 70s at an incident in which a number of senior students of the late Great Grandmaster Yip Man were misled to attack Prof Leung in Hong Kong concerning a report in a newspaper headlined “Leader of the WingTsun Style Became the Planner of the Real Kung Fu TV Program”. Though Prof Leung knew that this was actually a plot set-up by four evil guys who intended to take over the control of the ”Real Kung Fu” TV series, his only response was made on a press conference held by the RTV station, in which he simply said “I had never told the reporters that I was the Leader of the Whole WC family”. He won the war easily, and the result was that the Real Kung Fu TV program became the hottest TV series of the RTV at that time.
Then for a number of years in the early 80s, Prof Leung was continuously attacked by a Wing Chun instructor in many martial-art magazines. If we check those magazines, we can certainly find that there was not even one article or one interview given by Prof Leung in response to these non-stop attacks. It was not until this WC instructor was himself beaten up in a fight that the whole event became history.
As a reporter, I had more than once mentioned to Grandmaster Keith Kernspecht seeking an arrangement to interview the GGM about answering the rumors spread on the internet by his enemies, so that the readers could have a chance to learn “the story from the other-side”. Unfortunately, each time the answer was that GGM Leung Ting was not so much interested in responding to these kinds of “stupid and ridiculous rumors spread by idiots”!
(Once he even said: “My time is very valuable. If I waste so much time to answer all these kinds of nonsensical rumors, I would become one of these idiots”.)
Anyhow, I finally got a chance to sit down with the GGM over dinner in a restaurant. When GM Kernspecht told me that he would see me in that restaurant and the GGM would also be there, I was more than happy to grasp the opportunity to ask the GGM questions which I had longed to ask him for years. Below were our main conversations:
M:(as the reporter)
L: (as GGM Leung)
M: Dear GGM, I know you don’t care about what others think of you. However, I think all your followers and fans all-over-the-world would be very happy if you can clear up some of the rumors spread by your enemies.
L: (Smiling) First of all, let me clarify one thing. In my mind, no one is my enemy. That’s why I am always so happy and relaxed. I do feel deep sympathy on those people who always make enemies with the others. I wonder how can they sleep well and live long?
M: How about those people who treat you as their enemies?
L: Don’t you know why they treat me as their “enemy”? It’s because they are so jealous of my success. They feel my existence is all the time in their way of their monkey business. You would not treat a beggar your enemy, wouldn’t you? Since they “think” they are my “enemies”. Have you ever heard of any enemies of yours saying good things for you?
M: Yes, you’re right. However, I don’t know if you have read any article on the internet attacking you about a so-called “head-doctored photo” of yours?
L: It’s not any news at all. This photo incident had happened since the early 90s. But what is the big deal? Have you ever seen my students leaving me just because of this photo spread by the idiots?
M: Absolutely not. As what I’ve known, your association is even 10 times bigger than in the late 80s.
L: You see, this is the strongest proof that one photo cannot ruin my big WT business. People learn my WT techniques; they don’t learn my “photos”. By the way, I have over 60 more photos with the late Great Grandmaster Yip Man together. Most of them were taken in public. Most of the senior martial artists, both from the WC family or from the other styles in Hong Kong, can still tell you that I was with the late Grandmaster Yip Man all the time in many open functions. This is history. No one can deny it. That’s why I took no care of what the idiots say.
Just think that all they could attack me is by using such a vague photo again, again and again for over 10 years trying to prove that I had never learnt from Grandmaster Yip Man; let me emphasize, “with ONE PHOTO ONLY” and that’s all they want to prove! What a stupid action!
Let me teach those idiots how to attack me on some better causes; say, why not attack me by calling me the “only phony who can cheat lots of great fighters from the other styles and made them become his students”? How about saying that “Leung Ting does not even know Wing Chun, all the fighting techniques he taught were founded by him. Unfortunately even the special police, armed forces and world-champions believe in him but not our Original Wing Chun techniques”?
Even much better, I would like to see any idiot stand out and prove that all the photos I have taken with the late Great Grandmaster Yip Man together are “fakes”!
M: You are totally right. I’d also read the book “Roots of WingTsun” written by you. It is a great book. I’ve seen so many photos that you took with the late Great Grandmaster together, most of them were even in public functions. You were even sitting beside him with your beautiful bride in your wedding party. These photos are very strong proof. But…
L: (Cutting in) I know what you want to ask. It was true that the late Great Grandmaster Yip Man did not like to take photos together with his students. If you check all the books and magazines about Wing Chun carefully, you will find that even his own sons, the Yip Brothers, did not have too many chances to sit together and take so many photos with their own father.
According to what I know, it was only some of his senior and his favorite students, such as Leung Sheung, Lok Yiu, Tsui Shang Tin, Lee Wing, Wong Shun Leung, William Cheung, Bruce Lee, Siu Yuk Men, Ho Luen and Yip Ching could have chances to take photos with him alone or in some open events. That was probably why some of his other students were so jealous of the ones who had the luck to take a photo together with the late Great Grandmaster alone.
My situation at that time was quite different. Before I was accepted by him, I was already quite famous in Hong Kong. It was in the late 60s. Then I became his “closed-door student”. I was the first one who ever started a big WT class in a university in HK. At that time, the Chinese community generally saw Chinese kungfu as “the fighting skills of the Tong-people”. I was the first one to promote Chinese kungfu to the higher-class society and made people believe that that was merely their wrong idea on Chinese kungfu people.
By the way, don’t you know who told the reporters “I was his closed-door student”? It was the late Great Grandmaster he himself!
You can check this out from the “Roots of Wing Tsun”. Inside you can see the original page copied from the New Martial Heroes about the first interview of GGM Yip Man that he himself had mentioned to the reporter Mok Pui On about “Leung Ting was the closed-door student of his”. Please do not forget that this interview was published when the GGM was still alive. Don’t you think that I could be so powerful as to force the reporter to add in his interview that “I was a closed-door student of Yip” and at the same time to cheat the late GGM Yip Man by NOT letting him read the magazine?
As a matter of fact, the so-called “Head-changing photo” was taken at that time.
A few months later, when the chief editor learnt that the issue with the interview on GGM Yip Man became the best seller, he soon asked Mok Pui On to ask me if I could arrange another interview for the late GGM. This would be a front-cover story, said by the chief editor. So I convinced the GGM to give the second interview. These were the only two interviews given by the late GGM. Both were arranged by me. No one else could ask the GGM to do that.
In fact, you are welcome to check the original articles with photos in both of these two interviews. You would not see any photo published by the New Martial Heroes with the chief editor standing beside the late Great Grandmaster Yip Man. If this photo were already taken at that time, why not he published it but waited until the death of the GGM?
L: (After a pause) The funny thing is: it was Mok Pui On who gave all the negatives back to me after the articles were published. This made me believe that it was him who took the photos as well.
Then in the 90s, two extremely jealous idiots of the WC family, one in New York and one in England, spread the so-called “Head-changing photo” rumor. The reason I did not answer was that I firmly believe that “rumors only run good amongst idiots”. And this kind of rumors is “buzzing flies” to me only. They could not hurt me too much either. If I did care about this, I would have published all the photos that I had with the late Great Grandmaster at the very beginning. Why didn’t I do so? It is because I believe a photo with the GGM Yip Man does not mean you are the best!
M: However, I think you should say something to clarify the whole matter. As a fan of yours, you may not know how painful we felt every time we see this kind of rumors and how much we hated those people, as what you said, those “idiots”, who tried their best to ruin your reputation, though no one really believed what they put on the internet.
L: (Laughing) Ha, Ha, thanks a lot for your advice. I really have no idea that my silence would cause my fans and my followers upset!
If so, let say sorry to all my fans and my pugilists. By the way, it has just reminded me of something that happened just a few months ago… What a coincidence!
L: (Having a mouthful of tea, continued) Remember I have just told you that all the time I thought the one who took the photos for the late Great Grandmaster and for me during the interviews was Mok Pui On who was dead since the 90s? It happened just a little while longer I came back to Hong Kong from Italy this early summer. One day, I was chatting at lunch with Sifu Siu Yuk Men, a middle-period student of the late Great Grandmaster Yip Man. All of a sudden, a guy came to us and sat down. He was Master Chu Siu Kai.
Chu Siu Kai had been a martial-arts reporter for many years, nearly every senior kungfu master knows him. He had also been a Choi Lee Fat instructor in the late 70s, as well as a kungfu technical director in the early 80s. Then he practiced hard in Feng Shui Metaphysics. He is now a Feng Shui master.
Just after Chu had sat down, he started talking about his latest experience in Canada. He said that when he was in Toronto, a kungfu man of the Ching Wu Athletic Association told him that someone on the internet attacked Grandmaster Leung Ting about changing his head into a photo of someone. Chu argued: “This is bullshit. It was ME who took these photos during the interviews. Who else could be more clearer than me?”
When we heard what he said, not just Siu Yuk Men was surprised; I was even more surprised than any body else!
Soon I remembered that he was a photographer for the New Martial Heroes in the early 70s, and the whole picture came back to me.
M: So it was not Mok Pui On who took the photos but this Chu Siu Kai… Is this Master Chu still in Hong Kong?
L: Sure. You can contact him any minute if you want to.
M: Thank you very much.
L: You are welcome. Oh, by the way, I would like you to emphasize that this would be the first and the last time I respond to this kind of silly matter. No more next time, okay? Goodbye.
M: Yes, I will. Goodbye and thank you once more.
December 08, 2003
How to play good Siu Nim Tao, By Moy Yat
http://www.moyyat.com/snt.html
This material has been removed due to copyright issues. You can view the original following the link.
Sorry if I have disturbed anyone by posting it
Yin, Yang and the Invisible Spine.
Wing Chun is a system of pleasant paradoxes and challenging contradictions, complimentary opposites and Taoist notions of harmony. To be hard, we have to be soft. To be effectively mobile, first we have to learn how to stand still. To move fast, we have to slow down. Every new challenge met results in several new ones to contemplate, when we are at the end of our tether we realise we are at the beginning of it, to see the point we must walk the circumference, and when you come full circle, you are back where you started. One thing that I would like to share with you is the concept of searching for your opponent's spine, and hiding your own spine. It is a simple concept, yet application and proficiency take a lot of training, as with most of wing chun. If this idea is unfamiliar to you, let me explain.
'Searching for the spine' is a way of saying controlling bodyweight, 'pointing' effectively at your opponent, and not getting caught up with arm chasing. 'Hiding the spine' is preventing somebody from doing these things to you.
When we make contact with our opponent or partner (for the purposes of this article, the two are interchangeable), this idea of searching for the spine will help us greatly. It is a way of forming a connection with our partner and using our sensitivity to direct our intention at them. We should use the point of contact, often the wrist, as a means of connecting to the spine or the bodyweight, rather than seeing the wrist as something we have to fight off, control or deflect. Any point of contact gives us the ability to control our partner's balance, which is half way towards defeating them.
In order to actually pick up the spine, we need to be relaxed. This allows us to be sensitive and adaptable, and relaxed muscles are the best conduit for your focus or intention. With relaxed muscles, we can transfer our mass into our opponent, without actually giving it away, and then increase our force by focusing. It is easier to describe when somebody is picking up your spine when you are on the receiving end of it from an experienced instructor. You will feel a strong but soft force in your body, which is attacking your spine/bodyweight directly. Because they are focused on you, internally, and not your arms or the point of contact, you will find it very difficult to offer resistance. In effect, they are pointing their entire mass into your body, and its softness means you cannot locate the point of origin to fight it back. You will simply be on the defensive straight away, and the body naturally assigns all of its functions to simply trying to not fall over, leaving your defences weak and useless. This refers to the practice when it is done softly and slowly during chi sau. However the combat applications are myriad, as any strike you make is highly focused and very hard to stop. Even if your strike is intercepted, your focus will carry the force through the arm and into their bodyweight, sending them backwards and causing discomfort. Of course, this only works if you are relaxed, as otherwise you will find yourself bouncing off and unable to follow through with your handwork.
Hiding the spine means that you can do all these things to your partner, yet they cannot do them back to you. Tense muscles are the easiest way to find somebody's spine. Simply follow the tenseness mentally to their spine and aim your intention there. However, once somebody relaxes but still maintains that focus at you, you find that you cannot sense where their force is coming from, and so cannot resist it. Relaxation enables you to apply a lot of force at somebody, which they cannot resist. Applying force without relaxation gives the opponent the opportunity to take advantage of that rigidity and manipulate your mass.
I hope this has been insightful and helpful to your training. Thanks again to my instructors.
December 07, 2003
The Ving Tsun Files. The way of Wong Shun Leung
I found this great book from the wong shun leung family at the http://www.wongvingtsun.co.uk/ homepage
to download it click here
The mechanics of wing chun punching
The Mechanics of Wing Chun Punching.
An equation which gets thrown around rather a lot in my experience of wing chun is that Force = Mass x Acceleration. While I believe it is not as simple as that, with regards to fighting, the basic idea still holds true. For more power, you need more speed, and more ‘mass’, or substance. As the speed of an object increases, so, relatively, does its mass. So to put it simply, to punch effectively we need speed and bodyweight. However, correct punching can generate power that surpasses what you would expect from your own bodyweight.
To achieve acceleration, we need to relax.
Unnecessarily tensed muscles really cramp your speed; as I once heard it “Driving with the handbrake on.” In fact, the less muscle you use, the better. Some may disagree with this point, but I find it helps in my training. The less we use muscle, the more we can focus and accelerate, and allow our bodies intrinsic energy to permeate our every movement.
To increase the substance in our punching, we need, as well as speed, coordination and focus. Coordination allows us to effectively utilise the whole of our mass or bodyweight in each punch and in order to do that, we need to focus. Stepping and punching is the perfect example of this. When performed correctly, our punching power is greatly increased, feeling natural and powerful. But when we do it incorrectly, which happens all the time in training, the punch feels uncoordinated and jerky. We must focus to achieve the feeling of natural and easy power in every strike. A higher level of this is achieving the same power when stationary and punching as when stepping and punching. This is a kind of mental projection, where we focus and coordinate our whole body into the strike without actually moving anything but the arm. This is a very high level of focus however.
I don’t pretend to be a physics expert, so my interpretation of some of these theories may well be incorrect, but the message behind it is more important. Another rule which is relevant to wing chun and combat in general is that for every action, there is an equal and opposite reaction. This explains why, when you lean on a wall, you don’t fall into the wall. You push on the wall, the wall pushes back. Just as when we walk, we don’t sink into the floor. The mass your foot projects into the floor is reflected back onto your foot, and we stay upright. Now lets slowly move the analogy closer to punching. If you took a pole and placed one end on a wall and one in your hands and pushed, you would push yourself backwards. Unless you are very strong, the wall will always reflect your own force back onto you. Now, in this illustration, the pole you are using to push yourself off the wall represents you punching with a very tense arm. Of course this is greatly exaggerated, but the point is this: as soon as your arm meets a force it cannot overcome, if you are tense, you will push yourself off, or bounce off. You must have noticed in training whilst doing chi sau with somebody much more experienced than yourself that if you try a particular technique which is unsuccessful, you will have the feeling of bouncing off, rebounding, while they stay grounded and stable. This is because their body is more relaxed, coordinated and experienced at absorbing force than yours. The key here is relaxation… only through relaxed muscles can force be effectively neutralised. Again, the basic point here is that you must stay relaxed whilst punching.
The human body is more sensitive in a relaxed state. In punching, if you stay relaxed, and your punch is intercepted, you will find it much easier to roll into something else and continue to the target. From the other perspective, in a defensive mode, if your arms are tense, it will be easy for your opponent to slide up them to a target on your centre line. Imagine when you are training on the dummy, how easy it is to make contact on the rigid arms and slide up to the target. A relaxed arm however will follow yours and make it much harder to get to the target.
The biceps, the pectorals and the shoulder are all muscles that you should really avoid using in punching. The biceps’ function is to close the angle of the arm at the elbow, whereas in punching, we are extending the angle. Using the bicep, you are fighting yourself. The pectorals are also quite unnecessary in punching. Again, many may disagree, but try it. Hold your left hand on your right pectoral, about where it joins your shoulder. Now punch slowly with the right hand. You will feel it become rigid. Try a few times, but each time, concentrate on relaxing that muscle more and more. You will realise that it slows you down and also does not really perform any useful function in punching and is thus a waste of energy. The shoulder has to be especially relaxed, otherwise your arm will not be free to rotate and change should resistance be met. You will also feel the ‘equal and opposite’ reaction much more when the shoulder is tense. Here is another analogy: imagine a man made out of metal, with a simple structure. His body is one upright metal pole, stuck in the ground. His arms are two poles, joined to the body by two ball bearing joints (the shoulders). Let’s say we want to push him over. We take his arm and push it. If the ball bearing joint, representing the shoulder, is well oiled (relaxed), then we will not be able to affect the body. Any force we apply to the arm will be instantly released at the shoulder before it can affect the body. Now, imagine the ball bearing joint is rusty and glued together, representing a tense shoulder area. As soon as we push on the arm, the force gets caught up at the shoulder, is transferred into the body, and if the body is not well rooted on the ground, we can easily push it over.
My final point is that when we punch, we should be aiming to hit with the knuckles in the best alignment with the elbow. There are something like 26 small bones in the human hand, and at every join we are losing force as it dissipates and transfers between bones. This is why palm strikes are often considered more powerful. The best knuckles I find to use however are the bottom three, as these are in a line with your elbow. Hope you found this helpful!
End note : all of this information really comes from my instructors, my master, and his master, so thank you to them, who shall all remain nameless and thus avoid any unwanted publicity!
December 05, 2003
Lots of Siu Nim Tao
I am learning how to program graphics in c++/opengl. My objective is to be able to program a 3D videogame. For it I first intend to be able to make a simple supermario style 2D game.
I have this book I'm learning from and I am going through it step by step, trying to understand every bit before I move on to the next.
I was here thinking about how hard it was and how I'd never make it when a thought entered my mind. Something Sifu always says: "Play more siu nim tao"
Achieving this task has a parallelism with the way we learn Ving Tsun. You have to start with the "little idea" and play it a lot, even if you don't get it or don't understand the details, just play it once and again and then one day, without knowing how, you will see that you understand it, and then you can start playing chum kiu, and then biu jee, and then the dummy... and eventually you will be able to make a 3D videogame without even knowing how you got there..
you just need to "play more Siu Nim Tao"!!
Ving Tsun Motivation
http://www.sunnytang.com/readingroom/VingTsunMotivation.html
by Bob McIsaac
December 04, 2003
Ving Tsun Q & A
http://www.sunnytang.com/readingroom/QandA.html
by Wayne Belonoha
December 03, 2003
Kung Fu Mario
I don't want to abuse my posting privileges, but if you were ever into Super Mario Bros 3, you must check this out. Japanese Time Attack: http://content.collegehumor.com/media/movies/mosmb3.wmv
I only share with you because it reminded me a lot of kung fu.
Watch how Mario kills the bosses -- so VT.
Enjoy.
December 02, 2003
Kung Fu Connections
Today I recieved an email from the Dean of Arts and Sciences at my school in response to my application for a scholarship. Earlier this year I was interviewed by our school newspaper for being part of the tennis team. The interviewer was a friend of mine and asked me about kung fu. I talked a lot about how kung fu has affected my tennis game and way of life. Everyone enjoyed the article, but I had thought the references to my club would bring people to train. Most people commented on how they loved the article, but few mentioned my club. At most, people would say: "I never knew you were so into karate." Weird how the brain seems to translate all martial arts into "karate." More people read the article than I realize and it was very interesting to read my Dean's letter:
"P.S. I saw the article in Student Life, and I'd like to talk with you about the Kungfu club."
I replied jokingly: "I'd love to talk to you about the Kung Fu Club. I'm not in trouble, am I?"
"Not at all. I'm a kungfu practitioner also."
It's interesting that it takes a couple weeks in advance to schedule a meeting with him about academics, but that it only took a short email to plan to get together to discuss my club and training. Kung fu shows up in places you'd least expect to find it. It shows up everywhere. It will be interesting to see what he has to say. Perhaps our conversation will open some doors for me.
December 01, 2003
Foshan Wing Chun
I wasn't going to post anything else today, but I have come across this great article that really deserves being posted.
the original article can be found here:
http://www.wingchunkuen.com/why/articles/historical/yip_frearson01.html
Foshan Wing Chun
From Where the Water Flows
by Derek Frearson