Official Blog of City WingTsun Kung Fu & Sifu Alex

In Chinese there is a saying that “a half-filled bucket makes the most noise”. This means someone who has a little bit of knowledge (only half a bucket) often makes the most noise by talking a lot and occasionally causing trouble with his ignorance and perhaps later by "teaching". Those who are actually knowledgeable experts in any field generally hold their expertise with dignity and honor. Those in the know understand that there is still so much more to learn, explore and refine within our own understanding. Some of the most incredible experts I have had the privilege to meet have been quiet and humble people. The rest (half-buckets) are more than happy to go on and on about how much (think) they know, how good they (think) are and are more than willing to give their unsolicited and uninformed opinions. These people are generally loud and unrefined as a mechanism to cope with their insecurity, fears, and lack of experience in the real world.

The WingTsun (wing chun, et al.) world (as is the greater martial arts world) is certainly subject to these half-buckets. We certainly encounter it when some interesting folks come in and talk to us about all they know in “wing chung” (sic). This includes them explaining to us about “the blocks” (in WT we don’t “block”), their extensive knowledge of “wing chun iron palm” (WT punch and striking concepts are not based on these older Shaolin ideas) and how they learned this all in the basement of a guy who learned from another guy, whom of course they have no idea how to trace their lineage to someone of note. These individuals are usually quite convinced of what they know despite the fact that their own words clearly reveal their ignorance to the rest of the sane world. While this type of thing is not out of the ordinary for a martial arts school owner to hear on a weekly basis, the unfortunate truth is that many half-buckets go on to become instructors themselves.

The biggest tell in wing chun if your instructor is a half-bucket is if the instructor has you do nothing but dubious conditioning exercises from the start. Mind you, I am all for physical fitness and conditioning in WingTsun (in fact, I find it is often not emphasized enough and a fat sifu is a shameful thing in my book) but right at the beginning a WingTsun (wing chun, et al) student should learn just WingTsun (WC, VT etc.). Afterall, if you get attacked on the street you are not going to make your opponent surrender with your ability to do a horse stance in front of him, although he may surrender from laughter if you try. Basic fighting skills should be learned first accompanied by skill-specific conditioning.  Non-stop steps and punches, wall-bag training and other classical methods are more than enough for the beginner to strengthen the most vital tools.  Of course advanced students are expected to do more intensive modes of training. I have heard stories of some so-called wing chun sifus making their students practice wide horse stances*, swinging heavy hammers, and doing endless knuckle push-ups for the greater part of an hour. If you are paying your sifu to teach you “wing chun” and he wastes your time with this type of conditioning, you are getting ripped off! In Hong Kong this instructor would be publicly mocked as a half-bucket (for not having enough real kung fu to teach) and they would lose all their students in jiffy. Many westerners are taken in by this type of training as being “hardcore” but honestly, this is just pure fraud. My grandmother can stand in front of a class and bark out orders of pushups, horse-stances and holding heavy objects but that does not mean she is an expert in WingTsun.

There is a fantasy that kung fu training is based on these kinds of ideas. Perhaps it is true with the other styles, but WingTsun is about building skill and ability within the student so that the methods (lat sau fighting, chi sau, kuo sau sparring) become your tools and means for conditioning. The best conditioning? Go fight or spar! The best punch training? Go hit a bag or a wall-bag! The best technical training? Use the prescribed WT methods! Everything you train will make you better at that one thing. Holding a wide horse stance with a weight in your hand will only make you better at holding a wide horse stance with a weight in your hand. Doing knuckle push-ups will only make you better at doing knuckle push-ups. Don’t be taken in by this type of training as being “hardcore”! One look at grandmaster Yip Man’s frame and you will understand that it is something else that must be trained for a high level of WingTsun skill.

Don't be a half-bucket!

*Note - Mind you I am discussing WingTsun (wing chun, et al), I am perfectly aware that traditional forms of kung fu do require rigorous horse stance training at first because they use the horse stance in their fighting. In WingTsun, we do not use this stande (except in the advanced long pole training) and this type of training does not follow the logic or the concept of WingTsun. Please no disrespect intended to my many friends in traditional Chinese martial arts! I am just exposing the phonies of my style just as the traditional kung fu styles have their own phonies to contend with.

The great Hong Kong film legend Shek Kin passed away from kidney failure on the morning of June 4th, 2009 at the age of 96. The western world knows the late Shek Kin from his role as Han in the iconic 1973 blockbuster "Enter the Dragon" with Bruce Lee. Who would have thought that Bruce Lee would be the one to die before the Enter the Dragon's release and the "aging" Shek Kin would go on to live another 36 years?

But "Uncle Shek" (as he was know in Hong Kong) had a career that spanned much more than the one role that most westerners know him for. He was most known for playing various villains, usually opposite another great, the late Kwan Tak Hing. Uncle Shek was so known for playing villains that there is even a slang expression in HK that compares peoples bad deeds with that of Shek Kin - even though the deeds can be attributed to his characters and not himself. He is actually well-respected as a kind and honorable man both in and out of the HK movie circle.

Though Uncle Shek certainly lived a nice full life, it's still not completely without sadness to see him leave our world. Certainly he has been part of my own martial arts inspiration. Afterall, would Enter the Dragon have been so great without such a great villain? Uncle Shek's other films have also entertained me for countless hours - The Young Master (with Jackie Chan), Millionaires Express, and Hong Kong 1941 to name a few.

What the western world also doesn't know is that is the Uncle Shek was an accomplished martial artist in his own right. He was a master of eagle claw and choy lay fut under the prestigious Ching Woo academy in Shanghai. He was also the instructor to the late Choy Lay Fut grandmaster Lee Koon Hung. I have included a few clips from YouTube of Uncle Shek performing real kung-fu forms which are not the acrobatic and useless kung-fu now promoted under the banner of "wushu".

Also for WingTsun people, Uncle Shek was a contemporary and friend to great grandmaster Yip Man and also a friend to our grandmaster Leung Ting. Below are some photos of Uncle Shek with great grandmaster Yip Man and another with Shek at the funeral of the late grandmaster in 1972.

May your memory live on and continue to inspire countless others in the real art of kung fu!

"仁者無敵" (the man of virtue is invincible)...

Si-fu

It's hard to believe, but Sifu Carson Lau outdid himself again.  We just hosted the incredible WingTsun master for another seminar and tutorial.  Sifu Lau taught the beginners fighting applications from the first form and taught the senior students his phenomenal kuo sau (chi sau sparring) program.  Sifu Lau is truly gifted at breaking down the mechanics to applying WT techniques at speed and under stress.  In addition to City WingTsun's own students, we had Mr. Eddie Tsang from Hong Kong visit us as well.  Eddie is a student of WingTsun master and former full-contact champion Sifu Leung Kwok Wah.  Here are a couple photos from the seminar:

On the second day, Sifu Lau did a private tutorial with eight of my senior students who are getting ready for their primary level technician (instructor) test in the fall.  Sifu Lau's technician test is a brutal four-part test which tests 1. form (siu nim tau and chum kiu both as complete sets and then at random order), 2. chi sau program (sections, partner form), 3. chi sau sparring (both WT vs. WT and vs. non-WT styles) and finally, 4. a multiple attacker scenario pitting the test taker against two attackers.  The students learned the testing format and then actually did a test run through it.  It was quite a brutal test of technical know-how, endurance and WT skills under stress.

On the final day I had the chance to do my regular private training with Sifu Lau.  I feel truly blessed to be able to learn and improve my WT skills under such a high level master.  Sifu Lau is truly phenomenal!

Si-fu

My students have been bugging me to blog about the Fight Quest episode which I was a part of (sorta, kinda).  It was promising when I brokered the deal with the producers last summer, but they did a complete 180 degree turn when we arrived in Hong Kong...

When I have the energy I will give a full account about how such a potentially incredible episode was turned into the pile of crap that can now be viewed on YouTube and elsewhere.

Sigh... It will be a good post.  Wait for it!

-Si-fu

In an effort to make our humble school more visitor friendly, I have repainted the bathroom and removed all the kung-fu movie posters.  Now our bathroom is very calm and I dare say, more female friendly.  Sorry guys!  I have all the kung-fu movie posters still and I will try to find something to do with them.

It's an end of an era at City WingTsun!