Issue 54 - Tse Qigong Centre

quickly. So in Wing Chun, your punches and kicks follow thesame principle. When you attack with a punch, you start fromwhere ever your fist is and go straight to the “important” areaof your opponent, the target. Simple and direct, do not wasteyour time and energy – this is the main principle of Wing Chun.Many times people ask, “Can we use hookpunches in Wing Chun?” I always say, of course whenyou are fighting your can use it, but it does not belongto the principle of Wing Chun, because it does notfollow a straight line. It goes in a curve and so it isnot as fast as a straight line. Therefore, if you studyWing Chun, you should not use hook punches becausethey do not follow the principle of Wing Chun. Themore you use techniques from other styles, theneventually your level of Wing Chun will not be sogood. To learn the principles and develop the skill inWing Chun takes time. You need to develop the WingChun fighting attitude, not just the skills. This onlyhappens after many years of training. This you needto do without the influence of other styles of training.Then your fighting style will be Wing Chun andevery technique you use will follow theprinciple of Wing Chun –simple and direct.For this reasonbeginners should notlearn other styles of martial artsas it will affect their developmentand how they improve with theWing Chun training. If you mixthings up, eventually you willhave bits and pieces of otherstyles of martial art togetherwith the Wing Chun attitude.This is “Chop Suey”.So you must make upyour mind and decide whichstyle of martial art you wantto learn and which one fitsyou. Don’t study a “ChopSuey” style. It does not matterwhich you decide to follow,but you need to develop theattitude of the style. Theattitude is a result of the stylesprinciples.I have a student whohas studied Taijiquan for manyyears. Each time he practisesChi Sau (Sticking Hands) he isable to follow the correctmethod in the beginning, but assoon as things get tricky thenhis Taiji Pushing Hands attitudecomes out. He has found it verydifficult to stop doing this andso his Wing Chun level of skilldoes not improve so fast.People always want todo many things at the sametime. They are often scaredthey might miss some thingor think the more styles you study, then the better your martialarts will be. Actually, you don’t need so many knives. One sharpknife is enough. If you can spend the same amount of energydeveloping one style as you would trying to learn many differentones, then you will become very good in that one style. ThenMichael Tse and his teacher Grandmaster Ip Chunyou will have one sharp knife, which is better than having manydull knives. So become an expert in one style.However, many people will ask me, “Sifu, you have alsolearnt many styles?” They are right, as well as Wing Chun Ihave learnt Taijiquan, Shaolin and Qigong. First of all theQigong and Shaolin I practise is for my health. I only reallytreat Wing Chun and Taijiquan as martial arts, though of coursethey are also good for your health.To be honest, my Wing Chun is better than my Taijiquan.I have been studying Wing Chun for twenty-six years andTaijiquan for only eighteen years, so of course my Wing Chunis better than my Taiji. In the past I was like many people, Iwanted to learn more. Also I think it was my fate to learn Taiji.How I met my Taiji teacher is another interesting story, which Imight write about one day.Of course you might still ask me, why did I start to learnTaijiquan? I had been studying Wing Chun for eight years beforeI started. Now I think that Wing Chun and Taijiquan are enoughfor me to learn. These two styles tell me so much about martialarts and how to reach a high level, how to develop myself andwhat is a real martial art.I don’t mean you should not learn another style, onlyyou should reach a good enough standard and understandenough, and then it will not affect your development in thestyle you chose first.I suggest you spend five years without stopping, on onestyle first. Then you can see about learning another style ofmartial art. This way you will not just touch the surface, youwill go deep inside and experience the other styles you seeand the real quality of martial arts. Afterwards it will actuallyhelp your understanding of your original style and answer themany questions you might have. Eventually you will reach ahigh level in your own style and you will see the similarity anddifference between different styles, not the techniques, but intheir principles and how they train the body and mindby Michael TseQi Magazine 25