Why do we learn martial arts? Depending on who you ask, you.ll probably get all different kinds of answers. The most common of these being: for self defense, for health purpose, for the art and culture, etc. For me, honestly speaking; I think if anyone is in it for the long haul, ultimately that person wants to be a proficient fighter. After all, if you.re only doing it for health (which I do think is a legitimate reason), why take the time and physical punishment when there are so many other less harsh methods of exercise.

I have to be honest with myself; I like martial arts because of the martial aspect of it. Most of all I'm not a good fighter which is why I train. So, if like me, you.re in it because of the fighting aspect, you need to be realistic and look at the training methods in depth to see if what you.re doing is helping you to reach that goal. Similar to many people in our training group, I have some martial arts experience before studying Ving Tsun. Some of us are continuing to practice different systems at the same time, perhaps enriching their knowledge by their fusion of the different methods. While I was learning Tai Chi Chuan, I gradually realized that it wasn.t a system that would fit me. As much as I enjoyed it, I didn.t think the training method I was shown would help me to reach my goal. Don't misunderstand; I.m not at all implying that Tai Chi practitioners can.t fight. In fact I.ve met many that are great fighters. It was the training methods that did not appeal to me. To further clarify, I will briefly talk about my study in Tai Chi before moving onto the subject of Ving Tsun.

The typical way of learning Tai Chi is to learn the form first, which was how I started. Yang style Tai Chi essentially only had 1 form, typically known as the long form or the 108 form. In the Cheng Man Ching method, a short form is taught first. At the completion of the short form, which took about 3 to 4 months for me, we moved on to Push Hands. Push Hands, similar to Chi Sao in Ving Tsun, is practiced to train sensitivity, balance, finding and disturbing the opponent.s center, etc. As good as that sounds, I think too often people lose sight of that fact that you.re not .pushing hands. but trying to attack the body behind the arms, so that many practiced it as a sensitivity exercise . essentially chasing hands. Of course it was taught that each push or press was actually a strike and how to neutralize these strikes by deflecting them off their course then to counterattack. Unfortunately most times, the push hands sessions became a game of trying to unbalancing and uprooting the other person. Or even worse, most people in class were just going through the motions and just chit-chat with each other. For me the push hands classes more like a social gathering. Training without the correct intent I feel, is ineffectual training.

The fighting classes were separated into 3 distinct classes: Fighting I, II, and III. The first was just solo techniques, the second was applying these techniques on a partner similar to Karate.s one step sparring, the third was free sparring. All these classes had valid training methods; the sparring was good in learning timing, positioning, how to get in and out, etc. But because standard boxing gloves were used at that time (prior to the MMA era, so yes, I'm that old), we all ended up doing kickboxing. There's nothing wrong with kickboxing, I liked it as such but why train something and not be able to utilize it. Perhaps when you come down to it, all fighting looks alike, perhaps not. I felt that if I wasn.t improving and learning, I was basically stagnant. As I continue in my study, I was fortunate to have met many great people and had the chance to delve into other systems.

What I found out along the way is that to really grow, you need to find a system with good training methods and dedicated practitioners to work out with; this is also what George has been telling us all along. On paper, most systems look good. Like wise, Ving Tsun is such a system, but then if you really look, not all Ving Tsun are taught the same way. Some are of course better than others. Obviously I like what we emphasize in our group. From the very beginning we.re taught the importance of having the correct body mechanics as well as the correct mind intent. Indeed, power comes from having sound body mechanics. Without power, you can have the flashiest techniques and in the end that.s all you.ll have. Solo exercises (including the forms) are taught but only take up a small portion of the class time, which is good as solo exercises should be practiced and drilled on at home. Practice makes perfect, and so we as students should practice as much as we can when we.re not in class, think about the materials, research the materials, practice some more, and meticulously take in the details and corrections in each class.

Ving Tsun is a striking art and all our drills emphasize this. Take the Pak Sao drill for example; even in the most basic static drill where one person punches and the partner does the Pak Sao, the importance is place on the attack / forward intention. Some other Ving Tsun school does the Pak Sao to the side, some Pak to cover the centerline; we Pak forward so that the Pak Sao is essentially a palm strike. And if the opponent.s arm drops, ideally our Pak hand should shoots forward automatically into a palm strike instead of chasing hands. This concept of Lat Sao Jik Chung (go straight forward when the hand is free) is a central concept of Ving Tsun, but it.s not stressed in non WSL Ving Tsun. Understanding and being able to apply this concept can make a big difference in fighting. It teaches you the correct mindset, in that you.re always looking to and ready to attack. I know this is one of many areas that I need to improve on as I tend to be more passive in nature. Being on the defensive side is playing catch up and it.s only a matter of time before the opponent.s attacks get in. With LSJC, even in defense you.re looking to attack. To finish a fight, either in a self-defense or sparring situation, you have to overcome your opponent; and to do that you have to get in on him. It.s a simple concept, everybody knows it. If you watch MMA fights and listen to the coaches or corner men, you.ll always hear them tell their fighters, "Be first. Be first." Be first because it makes a difference. The Pak Sao drill is only one such example as all our drills emphasize this. We learn systematically, building up to free sparring. What's more important, we learn to understand and be able to apply the concepts instead of accumulating techniques after techniques. Understanding what you do and why you do it; that will make us better. Our group is very diverse; we all come from different background, some have extensive previous martial arts experience and some don.t. Some of us are large and some of us are smaller in stature. But we're all learning the same drills. We need to make what we learn work for our individual body. We can all grow together as long as we look at how and why we train. Be open-minded, understand and internalize what we do. Make Ving Tsun your Ving Tsun. Or as Wong Shun Leung said, "Don't be a slave to Ving Tsun,"