A dedicated Wing Chun and martial art student, David of Adelaide, talks below about his experience in the Chu Shong Tin lineage, how he uses his Wing Chun in everyday life and why Kung Fu helps him in more ways than just self defence.
My younger years and Wing Chun
I trained at the academy in my younger years and went through the grades and learnt the effective combat style of it, nonetheless, several of the advanced seniors would display the super human aspect of it, was blown away but not attracted to that side.
I dropped off for 8 years and a mate of mine got into it. He had paired with an instructor that truly understood Chu Shong Tins secret he was trying to release to others. There was only two that I have witnessed who had found it.
Wing Chun, as a spirituality and principle for living life
I glued to them with full passion to understand and master it. Every time I would go to a class I would light up and feel this internal gentleness within myself. It blew me away. All of a sudden, I saw a whole different angle to Wing Chun, as a spirituality and principle for living life. I saw how the most important part of the art had been lost through my commercialized academy. No disrespect to them at all, but I wanted to understand this more. I kept meeting up with them, and it slowly started unfolding to me.
I was trying to understand it with my mind, but experience has taught me, like in Buddhism how they teach about the little mind or monkey mind. The little mind can’t understand that to not push or use any muscle is actually stronger. For once we tense any muscle or show any tension we switch off from being able to tap into the 240 volt electricity that’s all around us.
The secret what unfolded it for me, was through feeling. A concept was shared to me about the rotations. Just as you slowly twist your forearm on the spot, to practice not physically twisting it but feeling you are twisting it. I would feel every movement of the sequence of the first form as a series of different rotations. No tension at all, with my mind I would cast it to a point in front of me like a fishing rod, and empty any point to grab on and become completely gentle, yet focused through my practice of the form.
Chum Kiu has helped me in another sense, in that point of focus starts moving through the sequence. I could talk for ages of this for I have found it has changed my life.
My daily exercise
When I do my forms in the morning and a light train. I stay in the form all day. While I am walking around at work, while I am driving my car. My point is cast on the destination, and I stay empty and work on everything I am touching i.e the steering wheel as being gentle, like fighting a ghost in Chi Sau that you can’t feel.
Even where I am sitting, I imagine like a flower unfolding of energy to break that point of contact where my body is not lazily dumping weight on anything around me. Every foot step, as you touch the ground, that etheric flower unfolds as you make contact. The more you build momentum, you can dissipate tension through the vertebrae up your spine. You run through the sequence of the form just by feeling without moving your arms. The thought force just builds and builds, and the empire you are, the more deeper you enter into bliss.
My Findings
People meditate for hours to try and get that sense of euphoria. I am beginning to see how surreal life is and how life becomes a meditation.
In short, the biggest fight we have in our life is against ourself and Wing Chun has been the tool to help me win the battle.
I hope this makes sense and doesn’t sound too out there. When I watch Chu Shon Tin this feeling amplifies so I have to follow that.
Incredible, incredible experience. Almost supernatural!
David of Adelaide