My name is Miguel. I am a martial arts practitioner, enthusiast and teacher. I run my own small martial arts school in Germany, Mano a Mano Martial Arts.
The beauty of unraveling a newly introduced concept is a treasure of its own
More to read on this topic in the testimonials section of Mindful Wing Chun Online.
In this blog I like to begin at the point when I actually started with the Mindful Wing Chun Online program. It involves my steps, doubts, victories and my process for this first 16 months (Week 72 MWC online).
The program was launched on Christmas day 2018. So I had to treat myself with an annual membership to start of with. I immediately watched the first videos, but…
… oh, yes. It was Christmas and family was waiting for church and so on.
Ok, break, next day :-).
At that point I knew Nima from my Hongkong visits and I knew that himself and his crew are excellent in their knowledge and teachings. But coming to Hongkong for three years, I had doubts I would be able to learn the CST way of Wing Chun via an online program.
But progress knows no doubts. I started.
Monday became my favourite day, because the new MWC online weeks starts with new topics and new things to train. The depth of each video is just great and the way Nima sets everything up is like if you would chat with him directly over the theme.
Looking for a Taigong and Seng feeling
In order to keep good record of everything I started a new note book, which I have for every martial art I started.
The first weeks were on standing and balancing the body and of course Siu Nim Tao.
At that time I usually trained for an hour 4-5 times a week. I used my lunch break to do standing meditations, training straight punches with the heavy bag and doing Siu Nim Tao.
I do work at a gym, so my colleagues started to make fun because of my training in stillness (I usually do calisthenics, running, etc.). Sometimes I was just standing there for 30 minutes not visibly moving.
Redefining a new way of Siu Nim Tao versus the way I used to do the SNT of my external lineage cost me some time. I did record from front, side and an angle. While doing the form, the movements and shapes felt quite correct, but mostly I notice it was not so by watching. Also the community work on facebook was very helpful from seniors and Nima giving always feedback on what to focus.
I had no taigong, seng or any feeling at that point.
Also an important thing. I did not urge to feel something. Meaning my goal is not to achieve a signpost forcing it to happen. I do follow the practice and from time to time some new feeling reveals itself.
So one of my first feelings was on punching the heavy bag. It felt that I was somehow connecting to the bag on impact.
I was on week 13 for my next Hongkong visit.
With a new understanding and knowledge I could test the things learned online. The topic at that time was on Elbow Force and Knee Force. Although I had no feeling of my knees, Knee Force was still sealed to me, I could produce a little bit of Elbow Force and my tailbone was sunk already a little bit. Nima and Lawrence could see the change in comparison to my last visits.
I was very happy.
At the end of my stay I could generate more powerful movements when somebody set me up, and for the first time I could produce more power in some of my own movements.
I did feel the difference in states. For me this was a major step because I knew what to look for and how to focus on that.
Concept after concept followed and at some time I was overwhelmed by the amount of it.
I was in doubt if I can follow the pace but I was faithful. Some weeks I just watched the new videos but kept training stuff from weeks before.
I still did about 5-10 hours a week of just MWC training + regular training.
Sometimes I just did one movement or one set of movement for an hour.
At that time I had about 3 other persons gathered around who started the online program or joined me on a Hongkong trip.
I initiated our first regular partner training in April 2019. It was fun and very interesting to explore and train the partner exercises as part of the curriculum. We met once a month for about 3-4 hours.
Beginning of July 2019. Still no feeling of taigong and seng.
Sifu Nima King World Tour – Germany.
What a great event. And the first time I noticed a major step in my training. I could apply taigong and seng doing the pressure test Nr.1 and 2 by myself. Also my bong sao and tan sao was generating relaxed/mindful power. This was about 6 months after starting my training with the online program. Sifu Nima always stated that after 6 months there should be something tangible, which I doubted for my case, but here it was.
Another thing I have to mention. To of my sihing at my Sifu’s school just signed up at the seminar because they were feeling my different way an amount of force in my chi sao.
Now there was no doubt for me anymore. I could do it (so everybody else as well).
Just give it some time.
I did my training watched all videos, increase my partner training, but still. No taigong no seng feeling. It must be there to a small degree, but I could not feel it. At that time I remember the topic holistic awareness. It gave me the idea to not focus on a local concept but instead use the body as one unit and let it operate the “concepts” by itself.
Next I like to skip to autumn. At work we opened a new gym (4500 sqm) so alot of work an also carrying involved.
There I had a new feeling while carrying heavy stuff around.
When I separated my lower half from my upper body meaning letting the hip joint rotate in its socket it felt like less weight bearing on my feet. At he time I experimented with walking by lifting the knees not the feet.
By autumn I could organize a regular training group with 4-8 people. We usually met once a month. In addition to that I had a few training partners which whom I could practice once a week.
So all together I could manage to have like 5-7 hours of solo training and 2-4 hours of partner training per week, more or less on a regular basis.
My persistent training gave me once a while new achievements and mostly a new challenge which came straight with it. Thats the way I uncover each layer by going deeper into the system.
The beauty of unraveling a newly introduced concept is a treasure of its own.
Having trained for so long time external martial arts styles it now feels like my shell gets filled with fullness. I think this describes best how I implement the internal with the external martial arts.
If you would ask me how can you mix the two things together. Don’t worry, it becomes one automatically.
The last topic I want to address for now is resilience.
Resilience in positions, movements and thinking.
The transfer of learning happens either way. From the body to the mind or from the mind to the body.
As soon as you learn to calm the body the mind will follow.
In this case the training method of Sifu Nima King enabled me to find a deep spot of calmness within me, which helped me enhance my psychological resilience.
Tomorrow I start week 75. Until this day my week starts with Monday, but not because it is Monday, but because the new videos are released on Monday. A little crazy, but good.
My martial arts school code of conduct:
You are good, become better
Become you
Be helpful
Don’t judge anybody
Unite dont seperate
Be relaxed and calm
Unleash your force
Be in flow
Don’t stop
Miguel Munoz-Bauer
Mano a Mano Wing Tsun
Mano a Mano Mindful Wing Chun
Mano a Mano Kali
MIGUEL MUNOZ-BAUERS RUNNER UP
A truly valiant effort from one of our most dedicated and long standing international students and Wing Chun brother. How the weekly videos have begun to start your week with such positivity is nothing short of amazing to hear! Since the beginning of the online school back in 2018 we could only of wished for comments like this!
As a worthy runner up you have won yourself the suprise gift of a private session with one of our senior Sifu’s. We will be in touch to arrange soon! Well done Miguel and keep up the hard work!